Setup Incoming Mail

activeCollab Incoming Mail functionality allows you to:

  1. reply to activeCollab's email notifications directly from your email software, with the reply automatically added as a new comment in the correct place in activeCollab;
  2. create a new Ticket or Discussion directly by email.

If you are setting Incoming Mail for the first time, you will need to install the appropriate module first. It is available in both versions of activeCollab (Corporate and Small Biz) and you will find it under Admin > Modules > list of Available Modules. Just click its Install button and the new module will be automatically added to your system.

Before we continue, there is a few important things that you should prepared:

  1. Your PHP setup needs to support the IMAP extension,
  2. Since the mailboxes that we are going to use will need to be checked frequently, you will need to configure activeCollab's Scheduled Tasks. (If you are testing activeCollab on our Hosted Demo platform, then you will need to start Scheduled Tasks manually because they are not supported in the Hosted Demo setup);
  3. Create a new mailbox that will be used only for activeCollab. Please note that all emails from the mailbox will be deleted right after activeCollab makes the import, so the best practice is to use a separate mailbox for this purpose, instead of your business or private email. We will be using projects@myCompany.com email address in the following example.

Now, go to Admin > Incoming Mail and click the New Mailbox button in the top right corner. A form will appear where you need to fill out:

  • Information about Account - In the account email address field input the newly created email address - projects@myCompany.com, and in the account name filed type the name that will be displayed here, as a personal reminder.
Important Note

Please note that the address you create for a New Mailbox must also be set as a From address (that System uses when sending email notifications) in the Admin > Mailing section. In this way activeCollab will be able to send and receive email messages from the same email address. If you set a different email address in the Mailing section to the Incoming Mail setup, then activeCollab will not be able to import replies to email notifications from that user.

  • Server Information - the Incoming mail server, username, password, server type (POP3 or IMAP), server security (non, SSL, TSL), server port (it’s usually 110) and mailbox name (it’s INBOX by default, because of the name of the mailbox on your server) fields should all be filled out here. You can then click the Test Connection button to see if everything is working correctly.
  • Automated Acton - this is the place where you can set the default action that activeCollab should carry out if it finds an email in a mailbox that it is checking that is not a reply to a notification. In this case, you can choose whether you wish to have a new Discussion or new Ticket created and also the project where it should be placed.
Note

If you wish to allow users to create discussions or ticket in another project as well, you will need to define a New Mailbox for this purpose, because currently one one automated action per mailbox is allowed in activeCollab.

We hope these tips helped you to set-up your Incoming Mail mailboxes without much trouble. Should you have any difficulties or need assistance feel free to contact us. We're here to help.