How to send a mail from SAP Cloud Platform Integration

[andreas_quenstedt]

Update 23-Mar-2021:

The option (3) described in this blog is not supported by SAP anymore. The service "SAP Live Link 365 for E-mail" has been deprecated, existing customers have been informed.

------------------------

Many of our customers would like to send mails from their Integration Flows, especially in the context of error handling.

As of today there are 3 options to achieve this.

1. Connect via the mail receiver adapter to a cloud based mail server. Please check our documentation for detailed configuration options.


2. Connect via the mail receiver adapter and the SAP Cloud Connector to your OnPrem mail server. I described this option in my previous blog "How to connect via SAP Cloud Platform Integration to my On-Premise mail server".


3. Send mails via the SAP Cloud Platform service "SAP Live Link 365 for E-mail".

I will elaborate on option (3) in this blog as it seems not well known yet. SAP Live Link 365 for E-mail is a commercial mail gateway service on SAP Cloud Platform. It exposes a REST API's which are documented here.

If you would like to get more information or commercial details please don't hesitate to mail sapdigitalinterconnect@sap.com.

Once you subscribed to the service you will get

• the API endpoint information


• your credentials


• your mail sender ID / customer domain

For my test example I got

• URL = https://multichannel-pp.sapmobileservices.com/email/caas_email15327/notifications


• User & password for basic authentication


• Sender ID = HCI01@test.sapmobileservices.com

Now all I have to do is to

• deploy a credential for basic authentication with the user and password I got


• create a JSON payload according to the API specification


• send it via the http adapter with basic authentication to the endpoint

In my simplistic Integration Flow I use the content modifier to create the JSON payload.





My complete JSON sample looks as follows:

{

    "SAPnotification":

        {

            "channelPreferences":"EMAIL",

            "recipients": ["email:andreas.quenstedt@sap.com"],

            "contentTextType": "text/plain",

            "contentText":"Greetings from SAP Cloud Platform Integration",

            "contentTextEncoding": "NONE",

            "sender":"HCI01@test.sapmobileservices.com",

            "configuration":

                {

                    "email":

                        {

                            "replyTo":"DoNotReply@sap.com",

                            "senderName":"IFlowForMailTest",

                            "subject":"This is a mail from SAP Cloud Platform Integration"

                        }

                }

        }

}

Also the http adapter settings are straightforward:



Once I deploy my Integration Flow I receive the following mail:



So the usage of the SAP Cloud Platform service "SAP Live Link 365 for E-mail" is simple. I hope you may consider this option in future where appropriate.

[engswee]

Hi Andreas

 

Thank you for sharing this. However, here are my two cents:

- CPI should have a centralised email notification functionality that is configured once and applies across all integration flows. Having to reinvent the wheel each time we develop an integration flow doesn't make sense at all.

- While it's nice that this service is available on SAP CP, having to pay commercial fee for it makes it feel like a budget airline experience, where the customer is squeezed to pay for any additional wants. In this day and age, email notification is such a basic functionality/need, customers would expect it to be part on the CPI package. Instead, IMHO SAP should focus it's licensing on functionality that provides a distinctive competitive edge.

 

Regards

Eng Swee

[andreas_quenstedt]

Hi Eng Swee,

(1) You may standardize and reuse your mail send configuration already today in a dedicated Integration Flow which is called by your processing flows. Integration Flow to Integration Flow communication may be configured e.g. using the HTTP adapter, i.e. it involves remote communication overhead. With our 1713 release, which is scheduled to reach customer systems on 18-Feb, we plan to deliver a Process Direct Adapter which makes remote communication obsolete.

However, independent of our current capabilities developer productivity is an investment topic for us in 2018. Not sure if tenant wide mail configuration is the most urgent topic. Likely we will start in the mapping development and test area first.

(2) There seems to be a misunderstanding. All SAP Cloud Platform Integration license editions include mail sender and receiver adapter which enables our customers to send / receive mails, i.e. there is no additional license needed given you re-use your existing mail server provider.

Only if you either don't have a mail server provider or want to switch to SAP Cloud Platform for the same the option above may be considered.

Hope this clarifies.

Thanks & regards, Andreas

[engswee]

Hi Andreas

 

Thanks for your response.

 

1) Having a dedicated Integration Flow for mail configuration (and configuring Flow to Flow communication, or even with a direct adapter) does not solve the "need to reinvent the wheel" problem. For each integration flow, we still need to have an exception subprocess and route it to a receiver channel. Imagine is an organization is considering migration hundreds of their interfaces based on PI into CPI. Such setting for error notification should be done as a configuration instead of being developed into each and every integration flow.

I'm aware of the many things SAP need to put in place into CPI to bring it up to par, and there will be prioritization. Regardless of that, what I'm stating is the reality "on the ground".

2) I'm not talking about licensing for the mail adapter in CPI. I'm refering to the specific IN365 email service that you are talking about. What I'm saying is why is SAP intent on licensing a feature like a mail provider when there are tonnes of such providers in the market? For goodness sake, just give such feature away for free if you want customers to embrace SAP Cloud Platform.

 

Regards

Eng Swee

[andreas_quenstedt]

Hi Eng Swee,

as already stated - your proposal is valid to improve developer productivity and will be ranked against others.

SAP is a corporation, not a nonprofit association. Nobody forces you to subscribe to IN365 email.

Thanks & regards, Andreas

[former_member386188]

Hi Eng,

SAP IN 365 email can support this centralized email functionality. All that is needed is a standard email domain for all CP users. Every CP tenant can then use their own sender : for e.g. CPtenant1@senderdomain, CPtenant2@senderdomain etc.

Kind Regards,

Gokul

 

[narendar_gaddam]

Hi All,

 

How can i get access to  SAP cloud platform integration,already i have account.

 

Regards,

Narendar

[andreas_quenstedt]

Hi Narendar,

you may want to consider our onboarding guide.

Thanks & regards, Andreas

[former_member538589]

Hello Andreas,

 

Do attachments work with this API. I am unable to trigger emails using xml attachments that i have stored in my i-flow as header strings.

I see in the documentation for SAP mobile service that attachments are not yet part of the functionality as per release 1. Any info on this?

 

Thanks ,

Sumit

[Guy_Zoghby]

I appreciate this blog article and the code example as I think error handling is important subject for high quality solutions.

My perspective comes working at SAP Gold partner that is focused on SAP SuccessFactors systems integration work.

I understand “SAP Intelligent Notification 365” is a commercial mail gateway service on SAP Cloud Platform.  I imagine there might be a few customers who need the service and would pay the upsell cost – but I am not optimistic about that market.

In the past, most of our solutions were developed on the Dell Boomi integration platform and executed on cloud atoms that were provisioned by SAP SuccessFactors.  In this environment, SAP SuccessFactors provided access to a mail server that could be used by the Boomi integration flows.

• https://apps.support.sap.com/sap/support/knowledge/public/en/2412624


• https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002257038

Today, most of our solutions are developed using SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) and integrate with SuccessFactors.  However, we do not have access to the SuccessFactors mail servers.  In this respect, CPI is a step backward compared to Boomi.

I too vote that SAP CPI needs a mail server as part of base functionality.  At the least, when customers have licensed both CPI and SuccessFactors, SAP’s integration platform should be able to access SAP’s own SuccessFactors mail servers.

Regards,

[former_member386188]

Hi Sumit,

 

We will be releasing attachment capabilities shortly. Please await a release communication on this .

 

regards,

Gokul

 

[former_member386188]

Sumit,

 

Please connect with marut.gaonkar@sap.com to learn about the attachment functionality for email. He has now taken over my role.

 

Gokul

[Former Member]

Hi andreas.quenstedt

I was wondering if you could point me to any guides for configuring the scenario of connecting via the mail receiver adapter to office 365 exchange server (SMTP)? I am trying to work out how to get this to work but am running into issues so was hoping SAP might have some helpful documentation on this scenario.

Many thanks,
Simon

[andreas_quenstedt]

 

Hi Simon,

thanks for your question. Our existing example refers to Gmail only. Please don't hesitate to report your issue as a support ticket.

Thanks & regards, Andreas

[yatanveersingh]

Hi Andreas,

 

Can we send mail via MS Office 365 ?

 

Thanks

Yatan

 

[Bais]

Hi Yatanveer,

I found this guide to configure Thunderbird, could be usefull for configure CPI to use office365 mail system too.

 

https://oit.colorado.edu/tutorial/office-365-thunderbird-exchange-configuration

 

regards,

Federico

[harkesh_deshwal]

Hi Federico,

 

Link is not working.

 

Can share some other link for office 365 Mail Receiver Adapter.

 

What will be the Address & port for Office 365 and other details.

 

 

Regards,

Harkesh Deshwal

[Bais]

Link is working on my network.

Office 365 - Thunderbird Exchange Configuration

[former_member57286]

Hi Andrea -

I am working to define the integration Roadmap - considering CPI as first option - however, I would like the idea to have a central place where we define or configure the notification for all the integration iflows.

I am agree with Mr. engswee.yeoh -  a CPI's brother (CPI-DS) has this functionality - where you can send a email's notification of any Job/Task status for Error, Cancel, Successful, etc to  distribution list.

Can you point me to the latest regarding this?

Best Regards

Jose J Lopez  - NEE/FPL

[andreas_quenstedt]

Hi Jose,

no status change, i.e. we have the ambition to improve but work on higher ranked items in 1HY 2020. Once pulled and scheduled for execution we will add it to our external roadmap.

Thanks & regards, Andreas

[former_member487691]

Hi Andreas,

I have a setup with the scenario specified. CPI -> On-premise SMTP using Cloud Connector. We are receiving the notifications. However, the notifications are received with email expired flag ie., email expired on 1st Jan 1970 00:00 GMT. Is there a way to find out if the expire date is set by CPI process or by receiving SMTP process. Thanks.

[Suchita92]

Hi skumar1030 ,

Do you have any documentation for using CPI with On-Premise SMTP with Cloud Connector ?

Thanks,

Suchita

[ceolin]

I am also having the same issue Siva.

Were you able to fix that?

Best,

[ceolin]

Hi Suchita,

The blog mention that: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/07/20/how-to-connect-via-sap-cloud-platform-integration-to-my-on-premise-...

Best

[ceolin]

Hi Siva,

I just found the source of the issue. As I am using others HTTP adapter calls i the same iFlow, there is a Header property "Expires" that is making the email message showing as expired. I just added a content modifier before sent the email with the Expires in the header as a constant blank (no value).

Hope that helps.

Best.

[AlanWaters]

Hi Bruno,

I had the same issue, and the Expires header was the cause too. I simply deleted the header (instead of setting it to blank) before sending the email.

 

Thanks for the tip - very helpful.

Cheers,
Alan