Sugar Community Edition User Guide Version 5.0

Emails Module

The Emails module is an email client that enables you to manage your emails.

You can take the following actions in the Emails module:

Access emails. You can view and process emails on external mail servers without downloading them into the Sugar database.

Import emails. You can import emails into Sugar from external mail servers. The Emails module provides a folder named My Email for this purpose. You can associate an imported email with a Sugar record such as a bug or an account. This creates a thread of email communication related to that record for future reference.

Archive emails. You can copy emails that you sent to external accounts into Sugar. For example, emails sent from Microsoft Outlook using the Sugar Plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. Archiving emails creates an email record in Sugar using Sugar’s email form.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the Emails module:

•	Search for emails based on parameters, such as keyword and subject.

•	Create a related record, such as a bug or a lead, from an email.

•	Create an address book consisting of users, contacts, and leads with whom you frequently communicate.

The default layout of the Emails module divides the page into three panels: the left panel displays the email folders tab, address book tab, and search tab; the top of the middle panel lists email messages in the Sugar inbox, and the bottom of the middle panel displays the contents of the email selected from the list above. You can select a different layout by clicking the desired Views icon.

Options to check for incoming emails, compose emails, configure email settings also display at the top of the page.

Supported Email Protocols

Sugar supports POP3 and IMAP protocols to access your external mail accounts. You can also send the emails that you compose in Sugar through any of your external mail accounts. The IMAP protocol retains the folder structure on the email server when you view emails in Sugar. The POP3 protocol does not support folders and therefore, emails from all folders are displayed in the Sugar inbox.

Configuring Email Settings

The email settings in Sugar are designed to help you automate many of your email management actions, such as responding to emails, importing emails, and deleting emails. Some settings have been pre-configured with default values. Other settings are optional. You can customize email settings to suit your requirements.

Email settings in Sugar comprise of the following categories:

•

General

•	Mail Accounts

•

Folders

General Settings

General settings include options such as the page layout and automatic importing of emails. Some of these settings have default values, which you can change. General settings apply to all your mail accounts in Sugar.

To specify general settings

1.	Click Settings at the top of the page.

The Settings window displays the default configuration

2.	Enter values for any of the following fields:

Check for new mail. If you want the system to automatically check your mail accounts for new emails, select the time intervals from the drop-down list. The default setting is for the user to manually check for emails.

Send email as plain text. Check this box to send emails in plain text format instead of the default HTML format.

Layout Style. Select an option to view the contents of the Emails page, namely the Sugar inbox, the message body, and the email folders. You can view them in a two column format or a three column format.

Number of emails per page. From the drop-down list, select how many emails you want to view per page in the Sugar inbox.

Import email on view. Select this box to import emails from the external mail server into the Sugar database when you view them.

Copy to sent email. Select this box to store a copy of your outbound email messages in the Sugar database.

Signatures. From the drop-down list, select a signature for your outbound emails. To create a signature, click Create, enter your full name and format your signature as HTML or plain text.

Signature above reply. Select this box to place your signature above your response to an email.

Place tabs at bottom. Select this box to display the tabs for Folders, Search, and Address Book at the bottom of the page.

Full Screen. Select this box for a full-screen display of the Emails page.

3.	To save your preferences, click Save; To exit the Settings window, click Close.

Mail Accounts

You will need to set up an mail account in Sugar for every external mail account that you want to access through Sugar. You must set up at least one mail account in Sugar to be able to send and receive emails.

You must also specify a mail server for outbound emails to be able to send emails.

A mail account can be an individual mail account or a group mail account. Users can set up individual mail accounts for themselves. Administrators can set up group mail accounts to store emails for distribution amongst users. As a user, you can subscribe to a group mail account that your administrator has created.You can synchronize your accounts to ensure that Sugar displays the most recent emails from your external accounts. You can import these emails into Sugar if needed.

To retain within Sugar the folder structure that exists on the external email server, you will need to use IMAP. For more information on using folders, see “Email Folders” on page 71.

Note:

Settings such as the Email Server address and protocol specified in the Emails module override the company-wide email settings configured by the administrator.

To create a mail account

1.	Click Settings at the top of the page.

The Settings window displays on the page

2.	Select the Accounts tab.

3.	Enter the following information to create a new mail account:

Name. Enter a name for the account.

From Name. Enter the name of the sender.

From Address. Enter the sender’s address.

User Name. Enter your user name.

Password. Enter your user password.

Mail Server Address. Enter the address of the email server from which your emails will be routed to Sugar.

Mail Server Protocol. From the drop-down list, select either IMAP or POP3.

When you create an account for an external mail account such as Yahoo or Google, you must ensure that you are using their mail server protocol.

Mail Server Port. The system automatically populates this field with the port number for the selected protocol.

Use SSL. Select this box if you are using POP3 and your external mail account requires SSL.

Outgoing Mail Server. From the drop-down list, select a mail server for outbound emails. You can use Sugar’s default mail server, SendMail, or you can add a new mail server as described in “To add a mail server for outbound emails”.

4.	Click Test Settings to ensure that the settings are correctly configured.

5.	Click Save to create the mail account.

6.	To create another mail account, click Add Account.

7.	To close the Settings window, click Close.

To add a mail server for outbound emails

1.	Click the Add button located next to the Outgoing Mail Server drop-down list.

The Outbound Mail Server page displays on the screen.

2.	Enter information for the following fields:

Name. Enter a name for the account.

SMTP Server. Enter the SMTP mail server’s address.

SMTP Port. Enter the mail server’s port number.

To add Google’s Gmail server, click Set Gmail Defaults.The system fills in the SMTP Server and SMTP Port fields with the Gmail server address and port number respectively.

Use SSL when connecting. Select this option if you are using the POP3 protocol and the mail server requires SSL.

Use SMTP Authentication. Select this option if the mail server requires authentication to send out the email.

SMTP Username. Enter your username for the mail account.

SMTP Password. Enter your password for the mail account.

3.	Click Save to add the mail server; click Cancel if you do not want to add the mail server.

Email Folders

A folder can be a inbox, a local folder, or a group folder. The system creates inboxes, users create local folders, and the administrator creates group folders.

Sugar automatically creates a folder for every mail account that you configure. Emails in this folder reside on the mail server of the associated mail account.

Sugar also provides a local folder named My Email. Emails that are assigned to you by the administrator or by other users reside in My Email. My Email contains two sub-folders for your use named My Drafts and Sent Mail. All emails in these three folders are stored in the Sugar database.

You can import emails from your external mail accounts into Sugar. To group and store these emails, you can create additional folders. All emails in your local folders reside in the Sugar database.

Group folders are not always associated with a mail account, but they can be associated with group mail accounts. Administrators use these folders to distribute emails amongst users for necessary action. Typically, these are emails for product bugs and cases that are addressed to your organization and not to any particular user.

For information on creating Group folders, see the Sugar Community Edition Installation and Administration Guide.

You can view all folders in the Folders tab of the Email Settings page. In order to view a folder in the Folders tab of the Emails home page, you must select it in the Folders tab of the Email Settings window.

To create a local folder

1.	In the Folders tab in the Emails home page, right-click My Email and select Create Folder.

The Add New Folder dialog box displays on the page.

2.	Enter a name for the folder and click OK.

The new local folder is now listed under Folders in the left-hand panel. This folder is not associated with any of your mail accounts. You can import emails into this folder from any of your mail accounts.

3.	To create a new folder for a mail account, select the account from the list on the Folders tab on the Emails home page, right-click, and select Create Folder; click OK.

To create a sub-folder, select an existing folder from the account, right-click, and select Create Folder; click OK.

Composing Emails

From the Emails module, you can send out emails to users, contacts, leads, and other external individuals and organizations. When you compose an email, you can choose the mail account from which to send the email. By default, the system uses the email settings specified in the General tab. These include the signature and email import options. However, when you compose an email, you can change some of these options for it. You can also specify additional options such as an email template and a different character set.

To compose an email

1.	Click Compose Email.

2.	On the Compose Email page, enter information for the following fields:

3.	From. To route the email through a specific mail account, click the down arrow to select the account from the drop-down list.

To. Enter the names of one or more individuals. You can also drag and drop names from the address book.

CC. Enter the names of one or more individuals who will receive a copy of the email.You can also drag and drop the names from the address book.

BCC. Enter the names of one or more individuals who will receive a blind copy of the email.

Subject. Enter the subject of the email.

Enter the email text in the body field. Highlight the text and click buttons on the toolbar to apply standard formatting options such as font face, size, bold, italics, indentation and color. Additional buttons insert rules, hyperlinks, pictures, table and display the HTML source code. To send an email in HTML format, click the HTML link on the toolbar and type the contents in HTML format in the HTML Source Editor window.

4.	To attach a file to the email click Attach Files.

5.	The Attach options display in the right panel.To select a file from your local machine, click Add File from File System; To attach a file located in the Sugar repository, click Add Documents from Sugar Documents. To remove the document, click Remove.

Alternatively, click Options and, from the Attach tab, browse to the location of the file and attach it to the email.

6.	To populate the email with the contents of an email template, click Options and select the template from the Templates drop-down list in the Options panel.

7.	To change the signature, in the Options panel, select the signature from the Signatures drop-down list.

8.	To change the default character set, select from the Character Set drop-down list.

9.	To save the email as a draft, click Save Draft.

10.	To send the email, click Send.

If you created more than one mail account in Sugar, from the drop-down list in the To field, select the account from which you want to sent the email.

11.	To save a copy of the email in the Sent folder in Sugar, select the Copy to Sent email box in the General tab in the Settings window.

After an email has been dispatched, it is listed in the Sent Emails folder.

Viewing and Managing Emails

When you view an email in the Sugar inbox, you can take actions such as importing it or creating a record such as a bug or lead.

To view and manage emails in the Sugar inbox

1.	To check for new emails, select a mail account and click Check Mail.

The system lists new messages in your Sugar inbox.

2.	Select an email to view its contents in the panel below; double-click the email to view its contents in a separate panel.

3.	To mark the email as unread, read, flagged, or unflagged, select the email from the inbox, right-click, select Mark, and choose the option of your choice.

4.	To create a record from the email, click Quick Create. For more information, see “To create a record from an email” on page 78.

5.	To import the email, click Import to Sugar. For more information, see “To import an email into Sugar” on page 78.

6.	To respond to the person who sent the email, click Reply to view the Compose Email page.

7.	To send your response to all the email recipients, click Reply All.

8.	To forward the email to another individual, click Forward.

9.	To delete the email, click Delete.

10.	To view the email header information, the raw email text, or the printable version, click View and select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu.

To view and manage emails in a group folder

1.	On the Emails home page, select the group folder from the Folders list.

Emails in the Group folder display in the right panel.

2.	To assign an email to yourself or to another team member, do the following:

a.	Select the email from the list, right-click, and click Assign To.

The Assignment dialog box displays on the screen.

b.	Click the Users icon to view a list of existing teams and team members.

c.	Select a team to select all its members or select specific users from the list.

d.	Close the Select Users window.

e.	From the Rules drop-down list, select one of the following assignment rules:

Direct Assign: Use this option to assign the email to a specific user.

Round Robin: Use this option to assign emails evenly between two or more selected users.

Least Busy: Use this option to assign emails to the user who has the shortest queue of assigned emails.

f.	Click Assign.

The email no longer displays in the Group folder but displays in the My Emails folder of the assigned user.

3.	To associate the email with a record such as a bug or an account, do the following:

a.	Select the email from the list, right-click, and select Relate.

The Relate Email dialog box displays on the screen.

b.	Select the record type from Relate To drop-down list, and click Select to view the list of records to choose from.

c.	Click Relate to create the association.

The email is now associated with the selected records and is listed in the History panel of the record’s detail page.

To create a record from an email

1.	To create a record such as a bug or a case, open the email, click Quick Create, and select the record type from the drop-down list.

The appropriate Quick Create form displays on the screen. The screen illustrated below displays the Quick Create form to create a lead.

2.	Enter the necessary information and click Save to create the record.

To import an email into Sugar

1.	Select the email in the Sugar inbox, right-click, and select Import to Sugar.

The Import Settings dialog box displays on the screen.

2.	Specify the following information.

Team. Click Select to select the team that will be assigned to take action on the email.

Assigned to. Click Select to select a specific user within the team.

Relate To. Optionally, select a module and then click Select to choose a record within the module with which to associate the email.

Delete message from server. Select this box to delete the email from the external email server.

3.	Click Import to import the email into the Sugar database; click Cancel to return to the Sugar inbox without importing the email.

Creating an Email Address Book

You can populate the email address book with the email addresses of individuals with whom you frequently correspond. You can select individuals from your list of contacts, leads, targets, and users. If your address book contains a long list of entries, you can use a filter to view only entries that meet the specified criteria as described in “To manage address book entries” on page 80.

To add entries to the address book

1.	In the left panel of the Emails home page, select the Address Book tab.

2.	Click Add Entries to add entries to the address book.

The Select Address Book Entries window displays on the page.

3.	To search for individuals by their first name, last name, or email address, enter the information in the appropriate field and click Search. To view the first 25 names of users, contacts, leads, and targets on the list, click Search without entering a name or an email address.

4.	Select the email addresses and then click Add to add a name to your address book and close the window after you complete adding the names.

The selected entries are now listed in your address book.

To manage address book entries

1.	To search through your address book, you can set a filter. The filter can be a single alphabet or multiple alphabets. For example, to find all names that start with or contain the alphabet A, you can enter either “a” or “A”.

2.	To view an individual’s email address, click the name in your address book.

3.	To delete an entry from the address book, right-click the name and select Remove.

4.	To send an email to one or more individuals in your address book, right-click the names and select Compose to.

Searching for Emails

You can search for emails by subject line or with additional filters such as a keyword in the email body to narrow down search results.

To search for emails

1.	Click the Search tab in the left panel.

2.	Select the mail account that you want to search.

3.	To search for emails by subject line, enter the word in the Subject field and click Search.

4.	To search by keyword, enter the word in the Body Text field and click Search.

5.	To search for emails sent or received by a specific individual, enter the name in the From field or the To field respectively and click Search.

6.	To search for emails within a certain date range, click the calendar icon and select the start date of the time range in the Date From field and the end date of the time range in the Date Until field and click Search.

7.	To remove the values that you entered in these fields, click Clear.

Archiving Emails

If you are using Sugar Plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, you can copy emails from Outlook into Sugar and archive them for your records.

You can associate an archived email with any record such as an account, opportunity, bug, or case. For example, when you associate an email with an account, the email displays in the History sub-panel of that account. You can click on the email link in the History sub-panel to view the details of the email.

You can also manually archive your inbound and outbound emails in Sugar. When you archive an email, you can also attach documents located in the Sugar repository or on your local machine.

To manually archive emails

1.	In the Shortcuts menu of the Emails module, click Create Archived Email.

The Create Archived Emails page displays on the screen.

2.	In the Create Archived Emails form, enter information for the following fields:

Date & Time Sent. Click the Calendar icon and select the date the email was sent; enter the time in the adjoining field.

Account. From this drop-down list, select a related module such as Accounts or Opportunity and click Select to specify the record.

Assigned to. Click Select to select the individual who is assigned to the email. By default, it is assigned to you.

To. Enter the name of the email recipient.

Cc. Enter the name of individuals copied on the email.

Bcc. Enter the names of individuals who received a blind copy of the email.

From. Enter the name of the individual who sent out the email.

Subject. Enter the subject of the email.

Body. Copy and paste the contents of the email.

Edit Plain Text. Select this box to display the email in text format if an email client cannot render HTML code.

Add File From File System. Click this button to attach a file that is located on your machine. You can enter the path to the file or click Browse to navigate to the file.

Add Document From Sugar Documents. Click this button to attach a file that is located in the Sugar database.

3.	Click Save to archive the email; click Cancel to exit the page without archiving the email.

Creating Email Templates

You can use email templates to create form letters for automated email responses to inbound emails and for mass email campaigns. For example, when you receive an inbound email regarding a bug or a case, you can send out automatic reply stating that the matter will be addressed.

For email campaigns, enter the message in the template and then specify the variables such as the target names and addresses from the campaign target list. The system inserts these variables into the template to create a personalized email for each target. When you create an email template, you can embed images and attach files from the Sugar repository or from your local file system.

When you create a template for an email campaign, you can insert tracker URLs into the template to track campaign activity. For more information on email campaigns, see “Executing an Email Campaign” on page 90.

You can use email templates to create automated responses when you receive inbound emails regarding a specific topic such as a bug or a case.

To create an email template

1.	In the Shortcuts menu, click Create Email Template.

2.	Enter information for the following fields:

Name. Enter a name for the template.

Description. Enter a brief description about the template.

Insert Variable. From the drop-down list, select a record such as contact and select a field such as Full Name and click Insert.

The system displays the variable in the Body field.

3.	Insert Tracker URL. This field displays only when you create the template from the email marketing record of an Email campaign. From the drop-down list, select the tracker URL to insert and click Insert URL Reference.

The Body field displays a link named Default link text. The adjoining field displays the tracker name for plain text format. Use this if you want to display the email in plain text format.

4.	Subject. Enter the title of the message.

5.	Body. Enter the email message. You can also embed images and add URL links.

To view and use the HTML editor, click HTML in the Body field.

6.	To apply standard formatting options such as font face, size, bold, italics, indentation and color, highlight the text and select the appropriate option in the Body field.

7.	Send Text only. Select this box to display the email in plain text format. You can choose this option if an email client cannot render HTML code.

8.	Attachments:

To attach a file, including images, click Browse to navigate to its location on your local machine.

The attached files displays below the Browse button.

Sugar Document. Click this button to attach a document from the Sugar repository; when you select the file from the Documents List, the system attaches it to the email template.

9.	Click Save to create the template; click Cancel to exit the page without saving your changes.

To manage email templates

•	To search for a template, enter the name or description in the Search sub-panel on the Email Templates page, and click Search.

•	To view the details of a template, click the template name from the list on the Email Templates page.

•	To edit the template, on the detail page, click Edit, make the changes, and click Save.

•	To duplicate the template, on the detail page, click Duplicate and click Save.

•	To delete the template, on the detail page, click Delete; to delete some or all the templates, select them from the list on the Email Templates Home page, and click Delete.

•	To export one or more templates, select the templates from the list on the Email Templates Home page, and click Export.

•	To deselect templates that you selected in the list, click Clear All.