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Conferences

This page describes Conferences (public mailboxes).

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A Conference is a public Mailbox: every user with a Mailbox can send Mail to a Conference and can open a Conference to read the Mails that it contains (although you can restrict access to Conferences using Conference Access Groups. Unlike Mailboxes, Conferences cannot send Mail. They can only receive Mail. You can set up a hierarchical system of Conferences within Conferences similar to the nested structure of folders and directories on your hard disk.

You can create Conferences using one of the following methods:

  1. Click (Windows/Mac OS X) or tap (iOS/Android) the [Conferences] button in the Navigation Centre. The 'Conferences' window opens, displaying the Conferences that already exist in a graphical format. To create a new Conference, click or tap [New] in the Button Bar.

    To use this method, you must have logged in to your Standard ERP system as a Person with a Mailbox. You do not have to be working in the Email and Conferences module to do this, but you must have been granted access to the Email and Conferences module (in the Configuration setting and in Access Groups) otherwise the [New] button will be disabled.

  2. In the Email and Conferences module, click or tap the [Settings] button in the Navigation Centre and select 'Mailbox Browse' in the subsequent list. This will open a list of the Conferences and Mailboxes that already exist (in a standard browse window). Select 'New' from the Create menu (Windows/Mac OS X) or from the + menu (iOS/Android).
In both cases, the 'Conference/Mailbox: New' window (also referred to as the Conference properties window in this documentation) will be opened. This is the same window that was used to create Mailboxes as described here. Except as described under the illustration, the fields are used in the same way as for Mailboxes.

Header

Name
Enter the unique name by which the Conference is to be identified from elsewhere in Standard ERP.

When you send Mail to this Conference, you will use this Name as the destination address of the Mail. This Name will therefore be shown in the 'Paste Special' list of possible addresses.

Make sure you type the name correctly because you can't change it once the Conference has received Mail for the first time. If you need to change the Name of a Conference after it has received Mail, create a new Conference with the new Name and then use the 'Change Mailbox Name' Maintenance function to move the Mail out of the old one into the new one.

Class
Paste Special    Choices of possible entries
This field should contain one of the following entries:
Conference, News, Billboard, Library
Use one of these options if you want the Conference to be able to receive Mail. The only differences between the options are that they have different icons (shown in the illustration below) and you can set different global attributes for each option in the Mail and Conference Settings setting (Maximum Number of Mails and Lifespan).

Archive
Create an Archive if you need a central depository of files. The Archive will appear in the Conferences window, but can be used in the same way as Archives in the Personal Desktop and in the Document Manager of individual records. You cannot send Mail to an Archive.

Folder
Use this option if you want to establish a nested or hierarchical structure. A Folder can contain Conferences or more Folders. You cannot send Mail to a Folder.

Mailbox
You should not use this option with Conferences.
User
This field should be left blank: it is only used for Mailboxes.

Access Card

Conference Access Group
Paste Special    Conference Access Groups setting, Email and Conferences module
Use the grid to list the Access Groups that are to be allowed access to the Conference. A user will only be able to open the Conference or edit its properties if there is at least one Access Group common to the Conference and their Mailbox. If everybody is to have access to the Conference, leave the list empty.

For example, the Conference in the illustration above can be opened by any user whose Mailbox has the "Sales" Mail Access Group in its list of Conference Access Groups.The level of access to the Conference will be as specified in the relevant Conference Access Group.

You should use the Access Group grid as described above for Folders as well as for the Conferences they contain. All the Access Groups listed for a particular Conference should also be listed for its Mother Folder. Otherwise, a user might be given access to a Conference but will not be able to open the Folder to get to it.

If you need to see a list of the Mailboxes that will have access to the Conference, save it and then choose 'Access to this Conference' from the Operations menu (with 'cog' icon, Windows/Mac OS X) or Tools menu (with 'wrench' icon, iOS/Android). This will open a new window containing a report listing this information.

Identifiers Card

Mother
If the Conference is to be contained inside a Folder (known as the "Mother" Folder), enter the Ser No of the Mother Folder here. This ensures the Conference will appear in the correct place in the nested or hierarchical structure.

Before creating the Conference, open the Mother Folder from the 'Conferences' window. When you then create the Conference, the Ser No of the Mother Folder will appear here automatically.

If the Conference is not to be contained in a Mother Folder but instead is to be on the top level of the nested or hierarchical structure, you must enter "0" (zero) in this field. Do not leave it blank.

Ext. email Addr.
Specify here the email address of the Conference. This will be used when determining which Conference should receive an incoming email. You can enter more than one email address, separated by commas.

When an incoming email is received from your POP3 account into your Standard ERP system, it will then be directed to the relevant Mailbox or Conference. This is done by looking in this field in Mailboxes and Conferences for the email address to which the email has been sent. If the email address is not found in any Mailbox or Conference, then the Email Addresses setting will be checked.

You can specify the same email address in more than one Mailbox and/or Conference. Email sent to a particular address will be placed in each Mailbox and/or Conference with that address.

Reply from Conference
A Conference will be able to receive external mail (email) if you have specified an email address in the Ext. email Addr. field above or if you have created a record for the Conference in the Email Addresses setting. If a user replies to an email (by opening it from the Conference and selecting one of the 'Reply' options from the Operations menu (with 'cog' icon, Windows/Mac OS X) or Tools menu (with 'wrench' icon, iOS/Android)), the sending address in the reply will usually be the user's email address (taken from their Person or Global User record). Select this option if you would like the sending address in the reply to be the email address of the Conference, from the Ext. email Addr. field above. If the Ext. email Addr. field contains more than one email address separated by commas, the first address in the string will be used as the sending address.

User Level
These options are not used in Conferences.

Formatting Card

The options on the 'Formatting' card will be applied to Mails added to the Conference from the Conference browse window (i.e. when you open the Conference and create a new Mail). They will not be applied when a user sends a Mail to a Conference from their own Mailbox (the formatting options set in their Mailbox properties will be applied in this case).
Default Mail Format
Use these options to specify whether Mails that will be sent to the Conference should be in plain text or HTML by default. If you need to use the HTML option, you must first tick the Use HTML Formatting in Mail option in the Mail and Conference Settings setting.

If you need to change the Default Mail Format in several Conferences (or in every Conference) at once, use the 'Change Default Mailbox Mail Format' Maintenance function.

Default Template
Paste Special    HTML Template register, Email and Conferences module
If you are using HTML formatting in Mails, you can use the HTML Template register in the Email and Conferences module to design formatting templates to be used in Mails. You can then use 'Paste Special' from this field to choose the HTML Template that is to be used by default in new Mails sent to the Conference. You should also tick the Force Default Template option below.

Force Mail Format
Tick this box if every Mail that will be sent to the Conference must be in plain text or HTML as specified using the Default Mail Format options above.

Force Default Template
Tick this option if every Mail that will be sent to the Conference must use the Default HTML Template specified above. It is not recommended that you use this option if you are using more than one Default HTML Template in your Mailboxes and Conferences, because they will clash.

Force Template Selection when Creating Formatted Mails
Tick this option if you need it to be mandatory that an HTML Template is specified in every Mail that will be sent to the Conference.
Save the Conference by clicking the [Save] button or tapping √ in the Button Bar. Depending on how you created the Conference, you will be returned to the 'Conferences' or the 'Conferences/Mailboxes: Browse' window, which will now show the Conference that you have just created.

If the new Conference has a Mother Number, you may need to open the Mother Folder by double-clicking or tapping to see it. To get back to the top level, double-click or tap the [Up] button that appears in the top left-hand corner.

If you need to change the properties of a Conference, the following methods are available:
  1. Open the 'Conferences' window from the Navigation Centre as described in point 1 at the beginning of this section. If you are using Windows or Mac OS X, click once on the Conference to be changed and then click the [Properties] button in the top left-hand corner of the window. If you are using iOS or Android, long tap on the Conference and select 'Properties' from the resulting menu. You must have logged in as a Person with access to the Email and Conferences module to be able to use this method.

  2. Open the Mailbox Browse setting as described in point 2 at the beginning of this section, and then open the Conference to be changed from the list.
In both cases, the Conference properties window illustrated at the beginning of this page will open (in the first case the Conference properties window will only open if your Mailbox and the Conference share a ConferenceConference Access Group with a suitable level of access). Make the changes as necessary and save in the usual way.

An automatic reply can be sent in response to every piece of external mail that is received into the Conference. This will most often be useful if you want to send automated responses to acknowledge receipt of emails. To create an automatic reply for a particular Conference, open its Properties window as described in points (i) or (ii) above and select the 'Open Auto Reply' function from the Operations menu (with 'cog' icon, Windows/Mac OS X) or Tools menu (with 'wrench' icon, iOS/Android). Please refer to the 'Automatic Replies to External Mails' section on this page for details.

If you need to delete a Conference, open its Properties window as described in points (i) or (ii) above and select 'Delete' from the Record menu (which has a 'cog' icon if you are using iOS or Android). You can only delete a Conference if it doesn't contain any Mail, and you can only delete Folders if they are empty. You can check the contents of a Conference by double-clicking or tapping it in the 'Conferences' window. To empty a Conference, use the 'Empty Mailbox' Maintenance function in the Email and Conferences module.

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Configuring Mail in Standard ERP:

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