External Mail
This page outlines the steps you need to follow to configure Standard ERP so that you can send and receive external mail (email).
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Outlined below are the steps needed to configure Standard ERP to allow it to send and receive external mail (email). Please follow the links in each step for more detail.
In addition to the steps below, you may need to activate SMTP and POP3 in your email account.
Sending External Mail
- Log in to your Standard ERP server as a user with access to the Email and Conferences and Technics modules.
- In the Person and/or Global User registers, make sure each user likely to send external mail has a return Email Address, as described here.
- If your written language contains special characters, you may need to specify a Default Mail Encoding in the Company Info setting, as described here.
- Change to the Email and Conferences module and configure the Email SMTP Server setting. Do not tick the Start Gateway Automatically option or enter the Gateway's log-in details.
- When you are ready to send external mail, ensure that the Database Status is "Live" using the Database Status setting in the Technics module. If the Database Status is not "Live", external mail will not be sent, to prevent test mails being sent by accident.
- Close all clients and restart the server. It will connect to your SMTP server and you will be able to send external mail.
Receiving External Mail
The receiving of external mail is handled by Standard ERP's Gateway. This will periodically check your POP3 accounts for incoming mail and will distribute this incoming mail to the appropriate Mailboxes and/or Conferences.
Gateway duties are carried out by a "slave" version of the Standard ERP application. The slave version of the application is a client that does not have an interface. It is included in the Standard ERP server installer package.
Two options are available:
- The slave application is on the same machine as the server application, and it will be launched automatically when you start the server application. This is termed an "Automatic Gateway" in this documentation. One advantage of the Automatic Gateway is that the Gateway user does not occupy a licensed Named User slot in the server i.e. the number of Named Users that you subscribe to does not need to include the Gateway user.
- The slave application can be on a different machine to the server application. You will need to launch it separately after launching the server. This is termed an "External Gateway" in this documentation.
A third option is to not use the slave application and instead to have gateway duties carried out by the main server. This is termed an "Internal Gateway" in this documentation. Using an Internal Gateway is usually not recommended because server performance may be affected, especially in installations where there is both heavy use of the Gateway and frequent production of large reports (e.g. the
Sales and
Nominal Ledger reports).
For both Automatic and External Gateways, log in to the main server from a normal client as a user with access to the Email and Conferences and Technics modules, and follow these steps:
- In the Configuration setting in the System module, ensure the External Email option on the 'CRM' card is ticked. If you are using the Automatic Gateway, the Wide Area Network option on the 'Technical' card must be ticked as well. If you are using the External Gateway, the need to tick the Wide Area Network option will depend on the location of the External Gateway machine.
- Also in the System module, select the Use External Gateway option in the Optional Features setting.
For the Internal Gateway, log in to the main server from a normal client as a user with access to the Email and Conferences and Technics modules, and follow these steps:
- In the Configuration setting in the System module, ensure the External Email option on the 'CRM' card is ticked.
- Also in the System module, select the Internal Gateway option on the 'Unsupported' card in the Optional Features setting but do not select the Use External Gateway option on the 'Options' card.
In all cases, continue as follows:
- Open the POP3 Server register in the Email and Conferences module and create separate records for each of your POP3 Accounts.
- In the Mail and Conference Settings setting, specify the Mailbox or Conference that is to be used as the Postmaster, to receive mail that has been incorrectly addressed.
- In each Mailbox and Conference that is likely to receive external mail, enter the email addresses to which that mail will be sent (in the Ext. email Addr. field). If necessary, use the Email Addresses setting to connect additional email addresses to each Mailbox and Conference.
Automatic Gateway only
If you will be using an Automatic Gateway, log in to the main server from a normal client as a user with access to the Email and Conferences and Technics modules, and follow these steps (in addition to steps 1-5 listed above):
- If you need the Gateway to be restarted periodically and automatically, change to "Admin Client" mode and use the Automatically Restart Gateway options in the Gateway Settings setting to configure this option. Do not select the Activate option or use the Automatic Login fields.
- Ensure that the folder containing the Standard ERP server application also contains the "slave" version of the application. The slave version of the application is a client that does not have an interface. It is included in the Standard ERP server installer package.
The slave must have the same name as the server application, with "-Slave" or " Slave" as a suffix. If you change the name of the server application, you must change the name of the slave as well.
- When you are ready to receive external mail, ensure that the Database Status is "Live" using the Database Status setting in the Technics module. When the Gateway receives incoming mail from your POP3 account(s), it will empty those accounts to ensure that mail is only received once. If the Database Status is not "Live", the Automatic Gateway will not take incoming mail from your POP3 accounts, to prevent test databases taking this mail by accident.
- Close all clients and restart the server application. It will instruct the slave application to start up and to log in to the server as the user *GATE*. The first time the slave application starts, it will create a folder named "EmailGateway" inside the server folder. The "EmailGateway" folder will contain the slave's HDB file.
The Gateway will connect to your POP3 server(s) and you will be able to receive external mail.
External Gateway only
If you will not be using an Automatic Gateway, it will usually be because your Gateway is on a different machine to the server. This can give performance benefits in large installations.
If you are using an External Gateway on a separate machine to your main server, the Gateway machine should be connected to the internet and it should be also be able to connect to the main data server. It is not necessary for the Gateway machine to have an interface.
If you are using an External Gateway on the same machine as your main server, the Gateway folder should be separate to the server folder.
Follow these steps (in addition to steps 1-5 listed above):
- Ensure that the folder containing the Standard ERP server application does not contain the slave version of the application. If the server folder does contain the slave version of the application, the Automatic Gateway will start up and so the External Gateway will be superfluous.
- Log in to the main server and add a record for the Gateway user to the Person register (perhaps with a Signature such as "GATE"), as described here. This Person should be a Named User with a Mailbox and should only have access to the External Gateway module. The Person does not need to have a StandardID.
- If the Gateway machine has a graphical interface and is accessible, install the GUI and slave versions of Standard ERP on this machine in the same folder. Launch the GUI application.
If the Gateway machine does not have a graphical interface and/or is not accessible (e.g. it is in a different building), you should work on a normal client machine to create the Gateway database, which you will then copy to the Gateway machine when the configuration work is complete. Remove the existing database (named "HANSA.HDB") from the folder containing the Standard ERP client application, and then launch the application. Because there is now no database in the folder containing the application, a new database will be created.
- When the 'Welcome to Standard ERP' window appears, click or tap the [Connect to Server] button as described on the Creating a New Database - Client page. The purpose of this database is to allow the Gateway to connect to the server, so log in using the ID created for this purpose (e.g. "GATE"), as described in step 11.
- On logging in, you will be in the External Gateway module. The 'Server Status' window will be open, behind the Navigation Centre. If necessary, bring the Navigation Centre to the front by selecting 'Navigation Centre' from the File menu or using the Ctrl-M or ⌘-M keyboard shortcut.
- Use the Gateways register to activate the Gateway. Fill in the Automatic Login fields.
- Close the Standard ERP client application.
- If you have been carrying out the configuration work from step 11 onwards on the Gateway machine itself, start the slave application as described here. It will connect to the server automatically.
If you were not working on the Gateway machine, copy the database (named "HANSA.HDB") to the folder on the Gateway containing the slave application. Then, remove the database from the local machine or at least move it out of the folder containing the GUI application. Finally, start the slave application on the Gateway machine remotely.
The Gateway will connect to your POP3 server(s) and you will be able to receive external mail.
Internal Gateway only
If you will be using an Internal Gateway, log in to the main server from a normal client as a user with access to the Email and Conferences and Technics modules, and follow these steps (in addition to steps 1-5 listed above):
- If you will send external mail, ensure that the Database Status is "Live" using the Database Status setting in the Technics module. The Database Status does not need to be "Live" for the Internal Gateway to receive incoming mail from your POP3 account(s). Note that it will empty these accounts to ensure that mail is only received once, so you should only activate the Internal Gateway once you are ready for the database to start receiving mail.
- Close all clients and restart the server application. The Internal Gateway will connect to your POP3 account(s) and you will be able to receive external mail.
External Mail - Possible Issues
- If you are unable to send external mail, one reason might be that your email account does not accept non-8-bit MIME emails. If so, place an empty file named EnNo8BMIME in the folder containing the Gateway application (i.e. the "EmailGateway" folder in the case of an Automatic Gateway or the folder containing the slave application in the case of an External Gateway) and restart.
- If your email account is a Gmail account, Gmail may block the Gateway's first attempt to log in. If so, Google will send a mail to the Gmail account entitled "Review blocked sign-in attempt". This mail will contain a link that you should use to "allow access to less secure apps". After allowing this, the mail senders and fetchers will be able to log in. You may need to do this twice, once for SMTP and once for POP3.
- If normal clients are unable to log in to the server and are given a "One unlicensed user is logged in. You may not log in until the unlicensed user has logged off" message, a probable reason is that you are using an External Gateway and the Gateway user does not have a Mailbox.
- If normal clients are unable to log in to the server and are given a "Internet User Limit on Server reached" message, a probable reason is that the Wide Area Network option in the Configuration setting has not been selected. This option must be selected if you are using an Automatic Gateway. It must also be selected if you are using an External Gateway when the Gateway machine is in a different subnet to the server.
- Some settings (including many in the System module) can only be changed when only one user is logged in. The Gateway user will prevent you from editing these settings, so you will need to disconnect that user first. To do this, open the Active Users setting in the System module, highlight the Gateway user in the list and select 'Log Off' from the Operations menu (Windows/macOS, with 'cog' icon) or Tools menu (iOS/Android, with 'wrench' icon). The Gateway user will have the Signature *GATE* in the case of an Automatic Gateway, or the Signature that you added in step 11 in the case of an External Gateway. You can also close the slave application on the Gateway machine in the case of the Extermal Gateway. The Automatic Gateway will restart automatically providing you have configured the Automatically Restart Gateway options in the Gateway Settings setting as mentioned in step 6. You will need to restart the External Gateway yourself as mentioned in step 17.
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Configuring Mail in Standard ERP:
Go back to:
Setting up the Standard ERP Mail System
