Connecting Forms to an Email Server

In the Email Settings tab of the Forms Configuration page, you can specify the SMTP server that Forms will use to send email notifications and the IMAP server it will use when processing email approvals. Laserfiche Forms sends email notifications in business processes as part of user tasks and email service tasks, when a user saves a form submission draft, and when a user cannot remember the password they specified to access their form submission.

Configuring Basic Authentication email notification settings

  1. Open the Laserfiche Forms Configuration page to the Email Settings tab.
  2. Select the authentication type to be used. For Microsoft 365 OAuth 2.0 or Google OAuth 2.0, see below.
  3. In the SMTP server field, enter the machine where your SMTP email server is located.
  4. In the Port field, enter the port number the Forms Server will use to communicate with your email server.
  5. Optional: If necessary, enter the credentials the Forms Server will use to access the email server.
  6. In the Sender's email account field, enter the email address that emails sent by Forms will appear to come from.

    7. Tip: Verify your settings work by entering an email in the Test field and clicking Test.

  7. When you have finished configuring the options in the Email Settings tab, click Save.

The email messages associated with these notifications are saved as templates, which can be modified on the Email Templates tab of the Forms Configuration page.

Microsoft 365 OAuth 2.0 Authentication

With an active Azure subscription, you can use Microsoft 365 OAuth 2.0 for connecting to email servers for notification and approval.

Prerequisites:

Microsoft Entra Application Registration:

Register a new application in Microsoft Entra with access to web APIs. Quickstart: Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform | Microsoft Docs

  • Provide a name for the application, and set application security appropriate for your use.
  • Configure the application for web API access. Quickstart: Configure a client application to access a web API | Microsoft Docs
    • Configure the Redirect URI url to be the same as the Forms Config page such as "http://localhost/FormsConfig" or "https://{FormsServer}/FormsConfig"

      Note: the URL is case sensitive.

  • Add credentials to the application.
    • Create a New client secret.

      Note: We recommend setting the expiration to Never so that you won't need to create a new one and update the related Email server configuration used in Forms when the secret expires.

      Important: Record the Client secret for use in the Forms Config page.

Forms Configuration:

  1. Open the Forms Configuration page, select Email Settings, and either Email Notification or Email Approval Settings, and then select the Authentication type of Microsoft 365 OAuth 2.0 from the drop-down.
  2. For the Sender's or Approval email account, enter the address created for this purpose. If this is a shared mailbox, check the shared mailbox checkbox.
  3. Input the Application (client) ID from Azure.
  4. Input the Client secret created in the Azure setup.
  5. Optional: Input the Directory (tenant) ID.

    Note: The Directory (tenant) ID is required if your application account type is Accounts in this organizational directory only (Single-tenant).

  6. Click Authorize and sign in using the Entra ID account to be used for authentication of the application.

    Note: The Entra ID account used must have access rights to the email account used.

  7. Email Approval Only:After specifying the email account and inbox folder to monitor on the Forms Configuration page, you'll need to ensure that the reference copy of the approval email is automatically routed to the inbox folder you specify.
  8. Email Approval Only:Set the Polling interval to a positive integer to activate the feature.
  9. Click Save.

Google OAuth 2.0 Authentication

With an active Google Cloud subscription, you can use Google OAuth 2.0 for connecting to Gmail email servers for notification and approval.

Prerequisites:

  • Have a Google Gmail account .

Configuring Google OAuth Access

Register a new project in Google Cloud console with access to the Gmail APIs.

  • Provide a name for the project, and enable the Gmail API.
  • Configure the OAuth consent screen.
    • Set User Type to External.
    • Enter an Application Name.
    • Enter your Forms server's domain name for the Authorized domains.
    • Skip setting of Scopes.
    • Add your gmail to the Test users.
  • Create the Credentials.
    • Select OAuth client ID from the CREATE CREDENTIALS dropdown.
    • Set the application type to Web application.
    • Configure the Authorized JavaScript origins url to be the same as the Forms server's domain name, such as "http://localhost" or "https://{FormsServer}"
    • Configure the Authorized redirect URIs url to be the same as the Forms Configuration page, such as "http://localhost/FormsConfig" or "https://{FormsServer}/FormsConfig"

      Note: the URLs are case sensitive.

    • Click CREATE. A dialog with your client ID and client secret will be displayed. Copy and record them in a file or download a JSON file containing the credential for later reference.

Forms Configuration

  1. Open the Forms Configuration page, select Email Settings, and either Email Notification or Email Approval Settings, and then select the Authentication type of Google OAuth 2.0 from the drop-down.
  2. For the Sender's or Approval email account, enter the address created for this purpose.
  3. Input the client ID from Google.
  4. Input the Client secret from Google.
  5. Click Authorize and sign in using the Gmail account to be used for authentication of the application.

    Note:You may see a warning about an unverified app because the app you have registered in the Google API Console is not verified. You don't need to go through the verification process as only system administrators will be configuring the email settings and providing credentials to authenticate with Google.

  6. Email Approval Only: Input the Inbox folder for cross-referencing received email approvals with copies of the originating approval task emails.
  7. Email Approval Only: After specifying the email account and inbox folder to monitor on the Forms Configuration page, you'll need to ensure that the reference copy of the approval email is automatically routed to the inbox folder you specify.
  8. Email Approval Only: Set the Polling interval to a positive integer to activate the feature.
  9. Click Save.

Configuring email approval settings

  1. Open the Laserfiche Forms Configuration page to the Email Settings tab.
  2. Click the Email Approval tab.
  3. Select one of the following options:
    1. Click an action button in an email to complete tasks - this option adds buttons to emails for performing tasks.

    2. Reply to an email with the action button text to complete tasks - This option allows a user to reply to an email to perform tasks.

To use the direct approval feature that allows users to reply to email notifications to perform tasks, you must configure an email account that Forms will monitor for these replies.

You'll need to ensure that the reference copy of the approval email is automatically routed to the inbox folder you specified.

In Microsoft Outlook, for example, you can create a rule to automatically move emails to a specific folder. For example, you can create a rule that routes the reference copy to the specified inbox folder based on the sender email account you configured in the Email Notification Server tab.

Learn more about creating rules in Microsoft Outlook