Email2DB

What's New in Email2DB 2?

Performance Enhancements
Email2DB Accounts and Trigger settings are now stored in a database file called 'Metadata.vdb'. This enables the Administrator and Server to load and update individual triggers as needed and makes editing faster. Previously all settings were stored in a single XML file.

The Email2DB Parsing Services, Outgoing Email Sending,POP3 & IMAP Services now run as separate Windows services allowing for better performance and scalability. Previously all these services ran within the same process.

Message Store
Messages received by Email2DB can now be assigned to folders within the Message Store (previously called the 'Checked Messages Database'). Any number of folders and sub-folders can be created. You can define which folder to store messages in for each trigger.

Administrator
The Email2DB Administrator user interface has been completely re-written and now uses Office 2007 style menus and dialogs for better productivity.

Users must now login to the Email2DB Administrator with a user name & password for added security.

Viewing the message store has been improved. The grid can be grouped by any of the headers (the default is the message date). You can now select the folder to view and drag & drop messages between folders. When viewing HTML emails then HTML will be rendered instead of just showing the HTML text as before.

You can now import individual Accounts & Triggers from other Email2DB installations. The Account Import option lets you open a settings file and select which Accounts/Triggers to import into your current Email2DB instance.

Message Retrieval Options
In addition to IMAP and POP3 servers, Email2DB can now pull messages from databases (Database Pull), web pages (HTTP Pull) and RSS feeds for processing. This adds a whole new dimension to how Email2DB can be used.

Outbox Processing
You can now create a special Account that will receive any emails sent by Email2DB. Triggers within this Account can be defined to perform actions on emails sent.

Trigger Options
Repeating block processing. You can now define a extracted field as a 'repeating block'. Email2DB will loop through the message extracting each block in turn. The extracted section can be passed to another Trigger for subsequent processing.

Pass-To triggers. Any extracted field can now be passed to another Trigger for further processing. This allows you to break up complex messages into multiple triggers.

When updating CSV files Email2DB can now email you the CSV file on a daily, weekly or monthly basis (or as each record is added). The CSV file can then optionally be deleted ready for the next batch.

GEO-IP data is now available as built-in fields or script properties. When an email is processed, Email2DB will lookup the senders IP address from the Received header (or the senders IP address when emails are received via the built-in mail server). It will use this IP address to read the GEO-IP data. The City, Country and Organization for the senders IP address will then be assigned to the message. This is useful when creating Triggers that make use of the geographical location of the sender.

Mail Server
The built-in mail server has been enhanced with multiple security options added. Including: Black, White & Grey listing, Bayesian spam filtering, MX and RDNS lookup tests, RBLS lookups and more.

Folders within the Message Store can be assigned any number of email addresses. Incoming emails for these addresses will be saved in the message store in the relevant folder without the need to create a Trigger in Email2DB.

Users can be created and assigned multiple email addresses. Incoming emails for these addresses will be saved in the Message Store for the user. The user can view their messages via the Email2DB Administrator or by using a regular email client.

Outbound emails sent by Email2DB triggers or relayed via the mail server will be queued by Email2DB for sending. Email2DB will retry several times if outgoing emails fail. Support for sending to secure mail servers (STARTTLS) added.

Remote users can now access the Email2DB message store via both POP3 or IMAP protocols.

Inbound emails are Geo-IP tagged.

General
Web Access option now enables you to monitor the Email2DB Server remotely using any web browser.

Improved support for Windows Vista. The Email2DB Service no longer interacts with the desktop. Popup messages are displayed via the Administrator.

Support for Windows 2008 added.

Email2DB is a message parser and message automation solution. Use it to parse and extract data from email and other messages to integrate with your business data and send auto-responses. If you receive ecommerce orders, support enquiries, Web response and feedback forms, or any sort of form based messages, Email2DB will save you time and money.

Email2DB can read and process messages from POP3, IMAP and Exchange Servers - plus directly from Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007 folders. You can also use Email2DB as a mail server and send emails directly to it for processing. The Enterprise Edition can also read messages from HTTP and RSS sources and from external databases.

Email2DB will do more than just update your databases. You can print custom reports, update Outlook contacts, save attachments to specific folders, send multiple outgoing emails, send SMS text messages, send faxes, control Windows processes, backup emails to your favorite database, run scripts and macros - all from received emails.

• Email To Database - Use Email2DB to automatically parse messages and convert to database records. Supports Access, SQL Server, MySQL, and many other database types. Also update CSV files and Outlook Contacts
• Send Automated Responses - Use Email2DB to send multiple customized email messages. You can also forward the original email on to multiple recipients. You can control who you send new emails to, based on the content of the incoming email. You can even send automatic follow up emails at scheduled dates in the future
• Email To SMS, Email To Fax - Use Email2DB to send multiple custom SMS text messages and faxes in response to incoming emails
• Run Reports, Process Attachments, Run Scripts, Backup Email - Run custom reports and export reports to PDF files. Save attachments to specific folders and create advanced business processes using the built-in Visual Basic compatible scripting language
• Save Time & Money By Automating Email Processing - Use Email2DB to parse data from any form based emails, such as web site feedback forms, ecommerce providers, eBay orders, Google Checkout, Paypal, Amazon Marketplace confirmations etc... Use the data to update your database, print a report then send a customized email confirmation

The Email2DB server runs as a system service and does not interfere with the normal e-mail flow.

Available in three Editions: Standard, Professional and Enterprise.
All editions include the same features for parsing and extracting data from emails to update databases.  All editions allow any number of Accounts and Triggers to be processed. All editions allow emails to be retrieved and processed from POP3, IMAP and Outlook 2003/2007 sources.

Professional Edition
The Professional Edition adds some additional trigger actions and includes a powerful scripting language for complex trigger conditions and field extraction. The following additional trigger actions are included in the Professional Edition:

• Scheduled Auto Responses - send custom follow up emails at preset dates in the future
• Conditional Auto Responses - send outgoing emails only if specific criteria are met
• SMS Text Messaging - send SMS text messages to any mobile device
• Custom reports - design and print custom reports in response to emails. Save reports as PDF or HTML to be attached to outgoing emails
• Attachment Processing - save attachments to folders on your PC
• Send outgoing faxes - send fax messages
• Web Page Post - post data to any web page form
• Run Processes - execute any Windows program
• Control Services - start/stop or restart any Windows service
• Run A Email2DB Script - create custom scripts to be executed in response to emails

Enterprise Edition
The Enterprise Edition includes all the features of the Professional Edition, plus:

• Read and process messages from RSS feeds, Web Pages and external database records
• Built-in Mail Server - Enables emails to be sent directly to Email2DB to be processed immediately (in addition to being retrieved from other servers). This provides better performance and faster trigger responses. The mail server will accept email for multiple domains and multiple aliases within each domain. An IMAP and POP3 Server is included allowing any email client to view emails that have been processed by Email2DB
• Remote Administration - Enables Email2DB Servers to be configured and monitored from Remote PC's (even over the Internet)
• Web Data Viewer

Email2DB Features:

All Editions

• Read and process messages from POP3, IMAP & Microsoft Exchange Servers
• Read and process messages directly from your Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007 Client folders
• Supports SSL POP3 and IMAP connections
• Create Triggers based on from address, subject & message content and headers
• Easy extraction of any number of fields from the subject, message and headers
• Update any data source including, Access, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Access, ODBC
• Insert new records and Update existing records using Key Fields
• Update Outlook 2003/2007 Contacts
• Update CSV files

All Editions Actions

• Send multiple follow-up email auto responses to any addresses parsed from the original
• Forward original email to another addresses
• Delete original email from mail server
• Print a report of trigger results and fields extracted to a printer of your choice
• Play a sound file
• Display a popup message

Professional Edition Actions

• Create custom reports that can include extracted data and external data sources
• Send multiple custom SMS text messages
• Send multiple custom faxes
• Save reports as PDF, HTML, TIF, RTF, TXT and Excel files that can be attached to outgoing emails
• Send scheduled follow up auto-responses on pre-defined dates in the future
• Attach conditions to outgoing emails
• Save attachments to specific folders
• Rename the attachments based on field data
• Post data to a web page via HTTP
• Run any Windows EXE and set parameters or environment variables to extracted field values
• Run an Email2DB basic script to perform custom processes
• Complete Basic scripting language for manual field extraction
• Control any Windows Service

EnterpriseEdition Additional Features

• Built-in mail server allowing emails to be sent directly to the Email2DB server from any email client
• Read and process messages from web pages, RSS feeds and database records
• Instant processing of direct send emails for highest performance
• Access processed messages from any POP3/IMAP email client
• Remote Administration - administrator Email2DB servers from any PC on your network or over the Internet

Benefits:

Save Time
Email2DB will save hours of re-keying time.. extracting field data from emails and saving them direct to your database. Email2DB can process emails of any age. So if you have thousands of form-based emails sitting in a folder, Email2DB can create a useful database from them in minutes

Improve Business Processes
Email2DB can take several actions when an email is received. For instance, when an order comes in you can not only update your accounting system, you can also print a packing slip, send an email to the order processing department and a confirmation to the customer

Improve Customer Relations
Email2DB can send custom follow up emails or SMS text messages at preset dates in the future. For example, a customer fills in your web site information request form.. Email2DB reads the email and adds the customer record to your database. Then after 1 week it sends a follow-up email to to the customer asking if the information was received. After one month it sends another email asking the customer if they want to order! All fully automatically

Improve Security
Most web forms use ASP, PHP or CGI to update the database or perform some other action. This is inherently insecure because the database needs to be accessible from the web server. Using Email via Email2DB has a number of advantages:

• The email can be sent to a completely separate and secure PC
• Email2DB can process the email without ever needing access to the web server or be accessible from the Internet
• If a PC or network connection is down the emails will sit waiting. Email2DB will 'catch up' when the PC or network is back up

More Redundancy
When using web forms to update back-end databases, the problem always arises about what to do if the database is down. Using Email2DB resolves this problem, because the email will always get sent.. and if the database cannot be updated Email2DB will wait and process the email later

Application Linking
Simple And Efficient Way Of Linking Separate Applications Or Separate Sites Email2DB can be used as a simple but effective way to link separate applications. Instead of setting up complex VPN links between business sites to exchange data - use email! Remote sites will almost always have facilities already in place to send and receive email

Sample Uses:

Processing E-Commerce orders
When you sell on-line, most payment gateways will send you payment notifications via email. Email2DB can take these emails, extract your customer and order information, update your back-end systems and send a confirmation email or PDF receipt to the customer.

Website forms
Most websites have forms that visitors can complete, such as, Information Request forms, subscription opt-in forms (and opt out), feedback forms, call back request forms etc. These forms can send an email to Email2DB for processing. The advantage of this is that your back-end databases can be on completely separate network/server than your actual website and email provides an inherent fail-over mechanism.

Updating databases via email
Email2DB can update any sort of database using fields parsed from the incoming email.

Sending auto responses
Email2DB is a very efficient 'auto responder'. It can take an incoming email and automatically respond to it, using rules that you create. Multiple, custom auto-responses can be sent, and you can create conditions on each auto-response (eg, If customer is from USA send email 1, else send email 2). Email2DB can also schedule auto-responses for future dates, allowing you to automatically send follow-up emails.

Linking separate systems
Email2DB can be used as a simple and efficient way of linking separate systems.

Sending SMS messages via email
Email2DB can be used to send SMS messages in response to incoming emails. For example, you could have an out-of-hours response form on your website. Email2DB could take the email from this form and send an SMS text message during certain hours.

Monitoring Web pages for changes
Email2DB can monitor any web page and execute Triggers when the content of the page changes or if the site is down. You could have Email2DB send you an email or SMS text message whenever a specific web site changes it's content. You could also get Email2DB to email or text you if your own web site is down.

Monitoring databases for changes
You can use Email2DB to monitor your customer database. Whenever a new customer record is added, Email2DB could read the new record, extract the customers email address and send the customer a welcome email.

Backing up emails
Email2DB can be used to backup incoming emails. You can save a full copy of each email into any sort of database.

Acting as a mail server itself
The Enterprise Edition of Email2DB can act as a mail server in its own right