Welcome To ThinkAutomation

ThinkAutomation is a business process automation solution designed to automate on-premises and cloud-based business processes that are triggered from incoming messages. Messages can be received by email, database records, webhooks, web forms, SMS messages, Twitter, Teams messages, documents, local files and other messages sources. ThinkAutomation can run on-premises or in the cloud, reducing overall costs compared to hosted Automation solutions.

When a message is received ThinkAutomation can execute one or more Automations. Automations are created using an easy to use drag-and-drop interface to automate simple or complex tasks. Automations can perform many Actions, including updating company databases, CRM systems and cloud services, sending outgoing emails, Teams & SMS messages, document processing, custom scripting, integration and much more. Over 100 built-in actions are included, plus ThinkAutomation is extensible with Custom Actions. Download Custom Actions from our on-line library or create your own.

ThinkAutomation stores each processed message in the Message Store. The Message Store contains a copy of each message processed along with a log of Automation actions. You can view the Message Store using the ThinkAutomation Studio.

The ThinkAutomation Studio is used to setup your Message Sources and design your Automations. Multiple Message Sources and Automations can be grouped into a Solution. Any number of Solutions can be created. Solutions can contain any number of Message Sources and Automations. Once you have configured your Message Sources and Automations the ThinkAutomation Studio can be closed. Messages are processed in the background by the ThinkAutomation Services.

Visit: www.ThinkAutomation.com for more information.

Editions

ThinkAutomation is available in the following editions:

1. Standard Edition
2. Professional Edition: Includes all features of the Standard Edition, plus the Custom Action Designer and the Execute Script Action. Branding can also be removed from Web Forms. The Professional Edition also supports distributed setup.
3. Developer Edition: Includes all features of the Professional Edition but with a limit of 200 processed messages per day. The Developer Edition is a free edition aimed at developers & ISV's who want to create ThinkAutomation Solutions for their own customers. Customers using Solutions developed using the Developer Edition must purchase their own license.
4. Evaluation Edition: Includes all features of the Professional Edition. The Evaluation Edition is free and will operate for 30 days. You can register an existing Evaluation Edition with a purchased serial number and retain all your configuration settings.

Professional Services

Parker Software provides professional services to assist with configuring your Automations, creating Custom Actions and for product training. Please see: www.ThinkAutomation.com/Automation-Consultation/ for more information.

Product Support

All ThinkAutomation subscriptions include access to support resources, free product updates and access to the Custom Action Library for the life of your subscription.

Support is available via our online forum at https://community.thinkautomation.com. We offer extended support with 24 hour/7 day coverage at additional cost. Please contact us for details.

Partners

Parker Software offers reseller pricing, training & support for partners who want to provide ThinkAutomation based solutions to their customers. Please contact us for details.

Installation

ThinkAutomation requires Windows 10 (64bit) or Windows Server (2016 or higher) with 1GB of free disk space and 8GB or higher recommended ram. It can run on on-premise or cloud hosted virtual machines.

Run the ThinkAutomation.exe setup to install. Once installed, use the ThinkAutomation Studio to complete the setup.

Message Store Type

ThinkAutomation stores each processed message in the Message Store. The Message Store contains a copy of each message processed along with a log of Automation actions. You can view the Message Store using the ThinkAutomation Studio. The Message Store Database must be created when ThinkAutomation is run for the first time.

You can use the built-in SQLite database for the Message Store, or you can use an external Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL or MongoDB database.

The built-in SQLite database provides the simplest configuration and will work on any computer without any additional software. Using an external database may provide better performance.

Message Store Database Types

Architecture

ThinkAutomation consists of three Windows services along with the ThinkAutomation Studio.

Each ThinkAutomation Service can run on the same computer, or separate computers in a distributed configuration (Professional Edition). All communication between the services are secure.

ThinkAutomation Studio

The ThinkAutomation Studio is used to configure your Message Sources and Automations. It can also be used to view the Message Store of processed messages and to configure Custom Actions. The ThinkAutomation Studio can be run on the same computer running the ThinkAutomation Server or on any remote computer that can connect to it.

The ThinkAutomation Studio connects to the ThinkAutomation Server via a secure websocket connection. It does not need to be left running for messages to be processed.

When you run the ThinkAutomation Studio for the first time you will be asked to register your license (or start an Evaluation), setup your System Administrator login password and configure the Message Store database.

A default user with username 'Admin' will be created with your specified password. Use the 'Admin' user to login. You can create additional users if required using the Server Settings.

A default Solution will be created using the company name used during registration. You can create a new Solution using the New Solution button.

The Standard Edition of ThinkAutomation allows 2 Studio users to be connected at any one time. The Professional Edition allows up to 10 - with the option of adding more users if required.

Note: The ThinkAutomation Studio connects to the ThinkAutomation Server using a secure WebSocket connection on port 9110. This port will need to be open on any firewall on the ThinkAutomation Server computer if you want to use the Studio remotely.

Message Sources

A Message Source defines how ThinkAutomation will receive messages to process. You can create any number of Message Sources to read messages from various sources. Each Message Source is connected to an Automation. When a message is received the message content is passed to the assigned Automation for processing. Individual Message Sources can be enabled/disabled or paused.

To create a Message Source click the New Message Source button on the ThinkAutomation Studio ribbon. A Solution must have at least one Message Source.

Message Source Types

ThinkAutomation can receive messages from the following Message Source Types:

Email - Office 365 or Outlook

Reads emails from an Office 365 or an online Outlook mailbox folder. Click the Sign In button to sign in to an Office 365 or Outlook account.

Select the Folder to read emails from.

Enable the Delete Processed Messages option to remove emails from the Office 365 folder once they have been processed by ThinkAutomation (optional).

You can also select the Move To Folder option to move processed items to a different folder (optional). You can conditionally move processed messages to a different folder inside an Automation. See: Move Incoming Message action.

The Only Messages Since date entry allows you to specify a date. Any messages with a received date prior to this date will be ignored. The Only Messages From Address entry allows you to specify one or more from addresses. Leave this entry blank to include emails from all senders. You can specify multiple addresses separated by semi-colons. You can also use wildcards (eg: *@somedomain.com).

Access Shared Mailbox

You can optionally read messages from a shared mailbox. Enter the shared mailbox username in the Access Shared Mailbox entry. Click the Get Folders button to read the folders for the shared mailbox. If the Shared Mailbox entry is blank then folders will be displayed for the signed-in user.

Re-Sign In

Depending on your security configuration you may need to re-sign in periodically. In these cases ThinkAutomation will pause the Message Source and send a notification to the ThinkAutomation Studio informing you to sign in again. Open the Message Source using the ThinkAutomation Studio and click the Sign In button again and then Resume the Message Source.

Email - Exchange

Reads emails using Microsoft Exchange Server Web Services (EWS). This works with any on-premises or hosted Exchange Server. Enter your Exchange User Name and Password and the URL and click Connect. If you do not know your Exchange URL, enter the User Name & Password and click Discover. This will attempt to find the URL from the user credentials.

Select the Folder to read emails from. Enable the Delete Processed Messages option to remove emails from the Office 365 folder once they have been processed by ThinkAutomation (optional).

You can also select the Move To Folder option to move processed items to a different folder (optional).

The Only Messages Since date entry allows you to specify a date. Any messages with a received date prior to this date will be ignored. The Only Messages From Address entry allows you to specify one or more from addresses. Leave this entry blank to include emails from all senders. You can specify multiple addresses separated by semi-colons. You can also use wildcards (eg: *@somedomain.com).

Email - Gmail

Reads emails from any Gmail mailbox. Click the Sign In button to sign in to Gmail. Select the Folder to download messages from.

Select the Move Processed Messages To Folder option if you want to move downloaded items to a different Gmail folder (optional). You can conditionally move processed messages to a different folder inside an Automation. See: Move Incoming Message action.

The Only Messages Since date entry allows you to specify a date. Any messages with a received date prior to this date will be ignored. The Only Messages From Address entry allows you to specify one or more from addresses. Leave this entry blank to include emails from all senders. You can specify multiple addresses separated by semi-colons. You can also use wildcards (eg: *@somedomain.com).

Email - IMAP

Reads emails from a mail server using the IMAP protocol. Enter the IMAP Server address, port, user name & password. Click the Connect button to connect and then select the Folder to read messages from.

You can select to Move or Delete processed messages (optional). You can conditionally move processed messages to a different folder inside an Automation. See: Move Incoming Message action.

The Only Messages Since date entry allows you to specify a date. Any messages with a received date prior to this date will be ignored. The Only Messages From Address entry allows you to specify one or more from addresses. Leave this entry blank to include emails from all senders. You can specify multiple addresses separated by semi-colons. You can also use wildcards (eg: *@somedomain.com).

Email - POP3

Reads emails from a mail server using the POP3 protocol. Enter the POP3 Server address, port, user name & password. Click the Test Connection button to verify the connection. You should only use POP3 if IMAP is not available.

POP3 is an older and slower protocol than IMAP and does not provide an option to only download new messages since the last download. To ensure fast access you should enable the Delete Processed Messages option so that messages are removed from the POP3 account once they have been processed by ThinkAutomation.

Email - SendGrid

The SendGrid message source type receives email messages sent to any of your SendGrid domains.

SendGrid is a cloud based message delivery platform. When used with ThinkAutomation it enables ThinkAutomation to receive email messages sent to any recipients for any of your SendGrid email domains. SendGrid is a worldwide platform and the cost is based on usage. See: https://www.sendgrid.com

You need to create a SendGrid Account if you want to be able to process SendGrid received email messages using ThinkAutomation.

You then need to login to your SendGrid account and setup the Inbound Parse feature. See: https://sendgrid.com/docs/for-developers/parsing-email/setting-up-the-inbound-parse-webhook/

Set the Inbound Parse Webhook URL in your SendGrid account to the SendGrid Inbound Parse URL shown in the ThinkAutomation Message Source. As emails are received by SendGrid they will then be forwarded to ThinkAutomation for processing. This does not affect your regular SendGrid email flow - it simply sends a copy to ThinkAutomation as emails are received.

Email - SMTP

The SMTP message source type receives email messages via the built-in SMTP mail server. The ThinkAutomation server can be configured as a mail server to receive email directly.

In the Accept Incoming SMTP Emails For Addresses entry, enter one or more email addresses for this message source. Any incoming SMTP emails with a To address matching one of these emails will be received and processed.

You can add multiple email addresses separated by semi-colons (;). Wild cards can be used (eg: sales*).

Multiple message sources can be configured to process different Automations depending on the To address. If no Message Source is found for an incoming email then the email will be ignored.

Any email client, script or PowerShell can then be used to send email to ThinkAutomation for processing.

Note: The SMTP Server option must be enabled in the Server settings. See: Server Settings - SMTP Server API

Web Form

The Web Form message source type enables you to create a publicly accessible web form with multiple input fields. Each web form has a unique secure URL hosted on Azure as part of the ThinkAutomation Web API. You can embed the web form inside your own website or send a link to the form in outgoing emails. When a web user completes the form, the results are sent to your ThinkAutomation Server for immediate processing. The Web Form can optionally display the Automation return value after the form is submitted.

Form Text

Enter the form Title and Header. This is the text that is displayed above the form itself. You can use Markdown if required. The Markdown will be converted to HTML when the form is rendered. The Title & Header are optional. You can also adjust the text for the Submit Button.

Footer Text

The footer text defaults to 'Processed By ThinkAutomation'. If you have the ThinkAutomation Professional Edition you can change the Footer text. Markdown can be used. Set this to blank to remove the footer.

Confirmation Message

Enter the Confirmation Message. This is the text that is displayed after the form is submitted.

Automation Results

Enable the Wait For & Include Automation Results In The Confirmation Message option if you want the Automation Return Value included in the confirmation message. If this option is enabled then the form response will wait for the Automation to complete. You should then configure your Automation to return the text or html you want displayed in the form confirmation. The max wait time is 30 seconds, so if your Automation may be long running then the Wait For option may not be applicable.

Form Fields

You can now create any number of Form Fields. Click Add to add a field.

Enter a Name and Label Text. You can also optionally specify Help Text that will display in a smaller font below the input field.

The Field Type can be Text, Email, Password, Number, Date, Time or Boolean. For text field types you can specify the Max Length. The Max Lines option allows you to define the maximum lines.

The Attributes tab allows you to specify a default value, change case & validation rules. Enable the Validate option. When the web user completes the form they will not be able to submit it until all of the fields pass validation.

If you want the user to select possible values from a list, select the Must Be In List option and then enter the Choices separated by |. For example to show a combo box showing 'Yes', 'No' & 'Not Sure', set the Field Type to 'Text', enable the Validate option, select the Must Be In List option and set the Choices to 'Yes|No|Not Sure'.

You can arrange the order of fields on the form using the Up & Down buttons.

Scheme

The web form uses Bootstrap 4 for its responsive layout. Select the Bordered option to show the form inside a bordered card. Use the Scheme list to select a color scheme for the card. You can also change the Background & Foreground colors. The Foreground color can only be changed if not using a bordered card. Specify a Header Image URL to display an image above the title.

You can also specify a Custom Style Sheet Link URL. You can use this to override the default Bootstrap styles. If a custom style sheet is used then the Background/Foreground colors are ignored.

Click the Preview button to display a local preview of how the form will look.

Redirect

You can optionally specify a Redirect URL. This is a URL the web user will be redirected to on completion of the form. If a redirect URL is specified then the Confirmation Message will not be displayed to the user.

WhosOn Live Chat

WhosOn is Parker Software's live chat and visitor tracking solution. See: https://www.whoson.com. If you are a WhosOn user you can add the WhosOn page tag to your form so that visitors to the form show in real time in your WhosOn Client. You can optionally Show Chat Button on your form. Your WhosOn Server & Domain details are specified in the ThinkAutomation Server Settings.

Captcha

You can add a Google reCAPTCHA box to your forms to ensure human only responses. Go to reCAPTCHA (google.com). Use the Admin Console to create a reCAPTCHA. Set the type to reCAPTCHA v2. In the domain enter api.thinkautomation.com. Select the reCAPTCHA keys section and enter your Site Key and Secret Key.

Public Form URL

This entry shows the unique public URL for the web form. You can link to this from your website, send it in outgoing emails or embed it into your web site pages using an iframe tag. Whenever a web visitor completes the form the Automation assigned to the Message Source will be executed with the form contents.

How it Works

When you save the Message Source the ThinkAutomation Server uploads the form details to the ThinkAutomation Web API server. The form can then be used immediately. Any changes you make will be updated.

When a web user completes the form, the ThinkAutomation Web API sends the results to your ThinkAutomation Server. The message body will be Json containing the form fields. For example:

{
    "fname": "Alice",
    "lname": "Bamber"
}

You can then use Extract Field actions to extract the data from the message and perform any other Automation actions. If your ThinkAutomation Server is not active when a web form is submitted it will be queued by the ThinkAutomation Web API for up to 48 hours.

Additional Headers

The following headers will be added to the ThinkAutomation message headers:

You can access these values in your Automations. For example, you could use the GeoIP Lookup action to lookup the country for the user's IP address, or use the Get Browser Info action to get the browser name.

Security

The web form URL is unique to your ThinkAutomation instance and Message Source and has a secure hash. The web form is hosted on Microsoft Azure and is delivered via https only - meaning all form submissions are encrypted. The ThinkAutomation Web API sends completed forms to your ThinkAutomation Server over a secure websocket connection. The Web API server does not keep copies of submitted forms. If your ThinkAutomation Server is not active then any form data is stored in a queue for up to 48 hours and sent when your ThinkAutomation Server becomes active. This storage queue is encrypted.

Embedding The Form In Your Website

You can add the form to any of your web pages using an iframe tag. For example:

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<iframe src="https://api.thinkautomation.com/form?taid=5f7b421a6e1f408c384863256fbe68b36edf4097704f7743eSiEZ0XtRpq8GeF5WEZGhDpzbhNH007%2f" style="width:300px; height: 570px; border: none;" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Once the form is embedded any changes you make to Message Source Web Form properties will be updated on the form on your site. If you delete the Message Source from your ThinkAutomation settings you will need to remove the embedded link from your site.

Note: You can also post your own existing web forms to ThinkAutomation for processing. See: Web Forms- Custom.

Microsoft Teams

The Teams message source type receives outgoing webhook requests from Microsoft Teams. Users of Teams can use @mentions to trigger a request. Your Automation return value is then sent back to the conversation as a response.

For each Teams Message source you supply a Name. This is the text that users will type in Teams (preceded by an @ sign). For example: You could have a Teams Message Source with the name 'FindCustomer'. In Teams users would type @FindCustomer followed by some more text. When the user hits enter the text will be sent to ThinkAutomation and your Automation will execute. The Return value of the Automation will then be sent back to Teams and show as a response in the conversation.

You can create any number of Teams Message Sources with different 'names' and then attach these to any of your Teams.

To Setup In Microsoft Teams

In Microsoft Teams select the appropriate team and choose Manage team from the (•••) drop-down menu.

Select Manage Team

Choose the Apps tab from the navigation bar.

Select Create an outgoing webhook.

Specify the Name - users can then enter @{name} to send to ThinkAutomation.

Paste the Microsoft Teams Outgoing Webhook Callback URL into the Callback URL entry.

Paste the Security Token shown after the Teams webhook is created into the Security Token entry in ThinkAutomation.

See: Add custom bots to Microsoft Teams with outgoing webhooks - Teams | Microsoft Docs for more information.

When you create a new Teams message source, ThinkAutomation will automatically add Extract Field actions to the Automation to extract the message text.

Use the Return action type to send back the text you want to respond with. The response text can be plain text, HTML or Markdown.

An Example: You could create a Teams outgoing webhook with the name "GetAccount". Whenever a Teams user types '@GetAccount Test Customer' - your Automation will execute. The %MessagePlainText% Extracted field will be set to 'GetAccount Test Customer'. The %MessageTextAfterName% Extracted Field will be set to 'Test Customer'. You could then lookup customer details from a database or perform other actions and return a response - which will be returned back to the Teams conversation.

The Microsoft Teams message source type uses the ThinkAutomation Web API to forward messages from Teams to your ThinkAutomation Server. The ThinkAutomation Web API sends messages to your ThinkAutomation Server over a secure websocket connection. The Web API server does not keep copies of forwarded messages.

Note: The Automation you execute should not be long running. Microsoft Teams will wait for up to 5 seconds for a response.

Database

The Database message source type monitors a database for new or updated records. New rows returned from a database query will be passed to an Automation for processing. Select the Database Type (Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, SQLite, Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB2, Firebird or OLDBC/OLEDB). Enter the Connection String or click the ... button to build and test the connection. See: Database Connection Notes for more details about supported databases.

Enter the SQL Statement to execute against the database to retrieve new records. For example:

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SELECT * FROM Person WHERE PersonId > @Id ORDER BY PersonId

The SQL Statement can contain Parameters. You should then complete the Parameters table to provide each parameter type and value.

The query should include at least 1 column that provides a unique value. Enter this column name in the Unique Id Column box. ThinkAutomation will ensure that the same record is not processed more than once based on the Unique Id Column value. If no Unique Id Column is used then the same records could be processed multiple times if they are not filtered out using the WHERE clause (or deleted).

ThinkAutomation automatically caches the last Unique Id Column value each time it requests data from the database. You can use this cached value as a Parameter value by setting a parameter value to %LastDatabaseId%.

In the above example the Unique Column Name is PersonId. We set the @Id parameter value to %LastDatabaseId%. This means that each time ThinkAutomation requests data from the database it only requests records with a higher PersonId since the last request (making the query much faster).

Test & Create Automation

You should test your query before saving the Message Source. Click the Test button. When you use the Test option on a new Message Source, ThinkAutomation will ask if you want to create a new Automation to process the records. It will then create a new Automation and create Extracted Fields on the Automation that match the columns returned by the query.

Creating The ThinkAutomation Message

Each new record returned from the database will be passed to the Automation for processing. You can choose to pass all columns to the Automation or a single column. Set the Assign All Columns To Message Body to send all columns returned by the query.

The database record will be passed to the Automation in the following format:

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{
  "PersonId": 1,
  "PersonType": "EM",
  "NameStyle": false,
  "Title": "",
  "FirstName": "Ken",
  "MiddleName": "J",
  "LastName": "Sánchez",
  "Suffix": "",
  "EmailPromotion": 0,
  "AdditionalContactInfo": "",
  "ModifiedDate": "2009-01-07 09:00:00"
}

If you used the Test option then Extracted Fields will have been created automatically to extract each column value.

You can optionally set the message Subject, From Address and Date. The Subject will default to '%TableName% (%LastDatabaseId%)' - where %TableName% will be the table name extracted from the SQL statement used for the query. You can change this and include text and column values for the current row. To use column values, use %ColumnName% replacements. For example:

Record Id %LastDatabaseId% For %FirstName% %LastName% would set the subject to 'Record Id 1 For Ken Sánchez'.

The Message Date will default to the current date & time. You can optionally set it to a column value. For example, %ModifiedDate%.

MongoDB

The MongoDB message source type monitors a MongoDB database collection for new or updated documents. Each document found will then be passed to an Automation for processing.

Enter the MongoDB Connection String, Database Name and Collection Name. Enter the Query json and optionally the Projection and Sort json. Click the Test button to test the connection and query.

ThinkAutomation automatically caches the Document _id value between requests. This can be used in the Query json. For example:

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{ "_id": { "$gt": "%LastDatabaseId%" } }

This Query will retrieve all documents where the _id value is greater than then last requested _id.

Each document returned from the query will be passed to the Automation for processing in its Json format. You can then create Extracted Fields on your Automation to extract each value that you need in your Automation. Extracted Fields have an Extract Json option for easy extraction of Json data.

File Pickup

The File Pickup message source type will monitor a local folder on the ThinkAutomation computer. Each new or updated file found in the folder will be passed to the Automation for processing. The Subject of the message will be set to the file path.

Select the From Folder and File Name or Mask.

Add File Contents

Enable the Add File Contents option if you want ThinkAutomation to add the file contents to the message passed to ThinkAutomation for processing. Text based files will be added as the plain text body. HTML files will be added as the HTML body. Any other files will be passed as an Attachment - which you can then process in the Automation.

Add File Contents - Email Messages

Files with extensions .eml and .msg (Outlook Messages) will be added as regular email messages (with Body, Subject, From, To, Headers etc set.).

No File Contents

If Add File Contents is not enabled then only the file details will be passed to the Automation. The file details are passed as Json in the Message Body, in the following format:

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{
  "Path": "D:\\Setup Files\\ThinkAutomation.exe",
  "Name": "ThinkAutomation.exe",
  "Extension": "exe",
  "Size": 167815264,
  "Created": "2020-11-20 14:58:02",
  "Modified": "2020-11-20 14:58:05",
  "Description": "ThinkAutomation Installer",
  "CompanyName": "Parker Software",
  "Version": "5.0.261.2",
  "Product": "ThinkAutomation"
}

The Subject will be set to the file path.

In an Automation you can then access the file path using %Msg.Subject% and extract other file information using Extract Field actions. The default Automation created when you create the Message Source will automatically contain Extract Field actions to extract the above fields. You can then use the %Path% variable on Automation actions (such as Convert Document, Print etc).

Enable the Delete Files After Pickup option if you want ThinkAutomation to delete files once they have been processed.

CSV & Excel Files

When using the File Pickup message source type, CSV & Excel files can be treated differently. Instead of the complete file, ThinkAutomation can select any new Rows added to the CSV or Excel file and send these as single messages to the Automation for processing.

For Example, consider the following CSV file:

When ThinkAutomation reads this CSV file (or Excel file) it will create 2 messages in the following format:

Message 1:

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{
  "xName": "items.csv",
  "xRow": 1,
  "Product": "Item 1",
  "Name": "Item 1 description",
  "Quantity": 100,
  "Value": 1.20
}

Message 2:

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{
  "xName": "items.csv",
  "xRow": 2,
  "Product": "Item 2",
  "Name": "Item 2 description",
  "Quantity": 200,
  "Value": 1.30
}

The subject of the message will be: [filename] Row x

The message body will be set to each column on a line of its own in the format 'header row text: column value'.

Enable the For CSV & Excel Files Create Single Messages For Each New Row option to enable single row message processing. For Excel files you can also optionally specify the Worksheet name to use and the Headers Row number containing header values.

For CSV files, if the CSV file has now header row, enable the CSV Has No Header Row option.

By default all columns in the CSV or Excel file will be passed to the Automation. If you only need certain column values enable the Read Values From Specific Columns option and then specify a list of Column Headers or Column Numbers.

Creating Extracted Fields For CSV & Excel Files

When using single row processing ThinkAutomation can create the Extract Field actions for you. Click the Create Extracted Fields button. ThinkAutomation will then read the CSV or Excel file specified in the File Name entry and create an Extract Field action for each column.

Resetting The Last Row Pointer

Each time ThinkAutomation reads the CSV or Excel file for new rows, it stores the last row number in the Message Store database, so only new rows since the last scan are processed. During testing you may need to reset this to allow a new full scan. To reset the pointer, click the Reset Last Rows button.

Monitor Web Resource

The HTTP Get message source type reads the response from any web URL. If the response content has changed the content will be passed to an Automation for processing.

Specify the Get URL

If the web page requires a login specify the credentials in the Authentication section.

If the URL returns HTML the HTML content can be converted to PlainText or XML. The converted text will then become the message body of the message passed to the Automation. Json responses will be passed unchanged.

Any other content-types will be passed as an Attachment.

If the HTTP Get fails you have the option to:

1. No Action.
2. Set the Message content passed to the Automation to the HTTP status (eg: 404 File Not Found).
3. Pause the Message Source

Each time the HTTP content is read ThinkAutomation will compare the response to the last received response. If the response has changed a new message will be added for processing.

Note: Many websites prevent automated tools from reading web content, so this Message Source type may not work in all cases. Its primary use is for monitoring HTTP API's or web resources that allow automated access.

Monitor Azure Queue

The Azure Queue message source type monitors a Microsoft Azure queue for new messages.

Enter your Azure Queue Account Name & Access Key.

Enter the Queue Name.

Click the Verify button to verify that ThinkAutomation can read from the queue.

ThinkAutomation will read each message from the queue and use the message contents as the message body. You can then parse the contents and perform Automation actions. The Message will be removed from the queue once read.

Twilio

The Twilio message source type receives SMS text messages sent from any mobile phone to any of your Twilio phone numbers.

Twilio is a cloud communications platform. It enables developers to programmatically make phone calls and to send & receive text messages using its web service API's. When used with ThinkAutomation, it enables ThinkAutomation to receive SMS messages. Twilio is a worldwide platform and the cost is based on usage. See: https://www.twilio.com

You need to create a Twilio Account if you want to be able to process received SMS text messages using ThinkAutomation. In Twilio, create a Twilio Phone Number to receive messages. In the Twilio Phone Number Properties set the Messaging - A Message Comes In - Webhook URL to the Set Your Twilio Messaging 'A Message Comes In' Webhook URL To shown in the ThinkAutomation Message Source properties.

Once assigned, any SMS messages sent to your Twilio number will be sent to ThinkAutomation for processing. You can create different ThinkAutomation Message Sources and assign each Webhook URL to each of your Twilio Phone numbers, or you can use a single ThinkAutomation Message Source and assign the same URL to all of your Twilio Phone Numbers and then parse the 'To' number out of the received message.

When a SMS message is received ThinkAutomation will create a new message that can be processed by your Automations. The message will be in the following format:

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{ 
  "from": "+447799123456",
  "fromCountry": "GB",
  "fromCity": "",
  "fromState": "",
  "fromZip": "",
  "to": "+447779678901",
  "toCountry": "GB",
  "toCity": "",
  "toState": "",
  "toZip": "",
  "smsStatus": "received",
  "body": "Test SMS Message Received",
  "numMedia": "0",
  "numSegments": "1",
  "messageSid": "SMe0000000000000000000000000000000",
  "accountSid": "AC00000000000000000000000000000000",
  "apiVersion": "2010-04-01"
}

You can then parse this message and perform Automation Actions, such as sending an outgoing SMS replies or recording the message details in a database.

When you create a Twilio Message Source using the New Message Source Wizard an Automation will be automatically created with Extract Field Actions setup to extract the above data.

You can reply to the incoming SMS using the Twilio Send SMS Message action and setting the To value to the %from% extracted field value. The %body% extracted field value will contain the incoming message text.

Twitter

The Twitter message source type reads tweets from a Timeline, @mentions feed or for any search term. This Message Source is useful for monitoring your own (or another business) Twitter feed and performing actions if certain words appear in Tweets.

From the Read Tweets For list select one of:

For each option you can select to Exclude Replies and/or Retweets.

When a new Tweet message is received ThinkAutomation will create a new message that can be processed by your Automations. The message will be in the following format:

xxxxxxxxxx
{
  "author_id": "1629799226",
  "created_at": "2021-11-24T09:21:05+00:00",
  "id": "1463437507513798656",
  "text": "Test tweet",
  "lang": "en",
  "name": "Parker Software",
  "username": "ParkerSoftware"
}

You can then parse this message and perform Automation Actions.

When you create a Twitter Message Source using the New Message Source Wizard an Automation will be automatically created with Extract Field Actions setup to extract the above data.

When a new Twitter Message Source is created, ThinkAutomation will read the most recent 200 Tweets. From then on it will read new Tweets as they are added. You can reset the Sync status by clicking the Reset Sync State button. The most recent 200 tweets will then be processed again (provided they have been removed from the Message Store).

API

Local API

Messages can be posted to ThinkAutomation via a local HTTP API. Each Message Source has a unique local API URL. You can view/copy the local URL on the Message Source properties page.

See: Using The Local API

Web API

Messages can also be posted to ThinkAutomation via the Web API. The Web API provides a secure web public endpoint allowing messages to be posted to ThinkAutomation from your own or 3rd party webhooks. Each Message Source has a unique Web API URL. You can view/copy the URL on the Message Source properties page.

For the Web API you have the option of specifying Allowed Origins. Specify a comma separated list of allowed URL's that can post to the Web API endpoint. If this entry is blank then the endpoint can be posted to from anywhere. Full URL's should be specified, eg: https://www.mysite.com - without any path or page name.

See: Using The Web API

Web Forms - Custom

The ThinkAutomation Web API can accept HTTP POST requests from your own web forms. Simply set the form action to the Web API URL. For example:

xxxxxxxxxx
<html>
  <body>
   <form action="https://api.thinkautomation.com/addmessage?taid=5f7b421a6e1f408c38488397179ab14c6e1f405c7cbf955cd9%2fwxO9qltjQwt0pU7d4GRErBl5njQP%2f" method="post">
     <label for="fname">First name:</label>
     <input type="text" id="fname" name="fname"><br><br>
     <label for="lname">Last name:</label>
     <input type="text" id="lname" name="lname"><br><br>
     <input type="submit" value="Submit">
   </form>
  </body>
</html>

You can add a &redirect={URL} parameter to the API URL query string if you want the server to respond with a 303 Redirect once the message has been accepted.

When the form is posted to ThinkAutomation a new message will be sent to your Automation in Json format. For example:

xxxxxxxxxx
{
    "fname": "Alice",
    "lname": "Bamber"
}

The RemoteHost, User-Agent & Origin headers will also be added to the ThinkAutomation message headers. You can access these values in your Automation.

You can then use Extract Field actions to extract the data from the message and perform any other Automation actions. If your ThinkAutomation Server is not active when a web form is submitted it will be queued by the ThinkAutomation API for up to 48 hours.

Returning Automation Results

By default Web API POST requests will respond with a 202 Accepted response as soon as the message has been queued (unless a &redirect parameter is specified). You can optionally wait for the Automation results by adding &results=json or &results=text to the URL. If the &results parameter is used then the HTTP response will be sent back when the Automation has completed for the message. The response will include the Automation return value.

If &results=json is used the Web API will return the results of the Automation in the MessageResultDetail object of the Json response.

If &results=text is used then Web API will return the return value of the Automation as text or HTML. If the Return Value contains Markdown text it will be converted to HTML first. If the Return Value is already HTML it will be return as HTML.

Note: Ensure the Allowed Origins entry on the Message Source API properties contains the URL for the site containing the forms you will be posting to ThinkAutomation.

Web Get Requests

The ThinkAutomation Web API also accept HTTP GET requests. You can specify the message content as part of the URL. Whenever the URL is requested a new ThinkAutomation message will be created.

The body, subject, from & to addresses can be specified on the query string:

xxxxxxxxxx
https://api.thinkautomation.com/addmessage?taid=5f7b421a6e1f408c38488397179ab14c6e1f405c7cbf955cd9%2fwxO9qltjQwt0pU7d4GRErBl5njQP%2f
&from=alice%40test.com
&subject=unsubscribe
&body=testmessage

The body, subject, from and to query string parameters are optional.

You can add a &redirect={URL} parameter to the API URL query string if you want the server to respond with a 303 Redirect once the message has been accepted.

Passing Field/Value Pairs

You can also pass specific parameters using x-parametername=value. In this case the message passed to ThinkAutomation will be in Json format with each parameter value (excluding the 'x-').

For example:

xxxxxxxxxx
https://api.thinkautomation.com/addmessage?taid=5f7b421a6e1f408c38488397179ab14c6e1f405c7cbf955cd9%2fwxO9qltjQwt0pU7d4GRErBl5njQP%2f
&from=alice%40test.com
&subject=unsubscribe
&x-name=Alice+Bamber
&x-email=alice%40test.com

The message body which would be sent to ThinkAutomation as:

xxxxxxxxxx
{
    "name": "Alice Bamber",
    "email": "alice@test.com"
}

If you do not want to use field=value pairs you can pass the raw body text using the &body= query string parameter. The ThinkAutomation message body will be set to the contents of the body parameter with no conversion.

The RemoteHost, User-Agent & Origin headers will also be added to the ThinkAutomation message headers. You can access these values in your Automation.

You can then use Extract Field actions to extract the data from the message and perform any other Automation actions. If your ThinkAutomation Server is not active when a web request is made it will be queued by the ThinkAutomation API for up to 48 hours.

Returning Automation Results

By default Web API GET requests will respond with a 202 Accepted response as soon as the message has been queued (unless a &redirect parameter is specified). You can optionally wait for the Automation results by adding &results=json or &results=text to the URL. If the &results parameter is used then the HTTP response will be sent back when the Automation has completed for the message. The response will include the Automation return value.

If &results=json is used the Web API will return the results of the Automation in the MessageResultDetail object of the Json response.

If &results=text is used then Web API will return the return value of the Automation as text or HTML. If the Return Value contains Markdown text it will be converted to HTML first. If the Return Value is already HTML it will be return as HTML.

See: Using The Web API

Static Scheduled

This message source type is useful if you simply want to run an Automation at a preset schedule without a specific incoming message. It enables you to execute an Automation based on the Schedule (for example, every 10 minutes). It uses a static default message (that can be blank).

At the scheduled time a new message is added to the process queue. The Automation assigned to the Message Source will be executed.

Message Source Schedules

Message Sources can be assigned a Schedule. This defines how often the Message Source should be checked for new messages. Schedules can be every x minutes or at specific times. You can also select the days of the week that the Message Source should be active. Select the Schedule tab on the Message Source properties page to edit the schedule. A default schedule will be created for new Message Sources if required.

Web Form, File Pickup, SendGrid, Twilio, Teams, SMTP and API message source types do not need a schedule. Any new messages for these Message Source types will be processed immediately.

Message Source General Properties

A number of additional properties can be set for each Message Source. Open a Message Source form (select a Message Source and click Edit on the ribbon) and select the Properties tab.

Unzip Zipped Attachments

If this option is enabled then any incoming message containing zip file attachments will be automatically decompressed and the contents added as attachments and the zip attachment removed.

Drop Attachments

If this option is enabled then all attachments will be dropped from incoming messages. This option is useful if your Automation does not require access to attachments as it will improve performance and reduce the size of the Message Store database.

Note: The Unzip Zipped Attachments and Drop Attachments options do not affect the original incoming message. They only affect the message that is processed and stored by ThinkAutomation.

Pause Message Source On Automation Errors

If this option is enabled then any errors that occur in an Automation executed from the Message Source will automatically pause the Message Source. This prevents further messages from being processed until the Automation error is resolved. A notification will appear in the ThinkAutomation Studio (and optionally an email will be sent) whenever a Message Source is auto-paused.

Automations

An Automation is executed for each incoming message from the configured Message Source. Automations can contain any number of Actions. Automations themselves can Call other Automations and the returned value from the called Automation can be assigned to a variable in the parent.

Field Replacements

All Actions that have parameters allow you to use %field% replacements.

This means you can specify a ThinkAutomation extracted field, variable, built-in field or solution constant as the parameter (or part of) that will be replaced at execution time with the value of the variable. Field names must be enclosed with % symbols.

For example, outgoing emails can contain values extracted from the incoming message by simply inserting %fieldname% (where 'fieldname' is the name of your field) into the email text (or any other fields):

Dear %Name%,

We have received your enquiry %Msg_Subject%. This has been assigned ticket number %TicketNumber%.

Another example: The Process Attachments action allows you save attachments from the incoming message to folders on your system. If you had created a field called OrderNumber you could save the attachment as:

C:\Orders\order%OrderNumber%.pdf

If %OrderNumber% contained '1234' then the file would be saved as C:\Orders\order1234.pdf.

Built-In Fields

In addition to extracted fields and variables that you create in your Automation, you can also use any of the following built-in fields:

Bounce/Automatic Reply Processing

ThinkAutomation can recognize a variety of bounced email, automatic replies and unsubscribe replies. If the incoming message is detected as a bounce, automatic reply or unsubscribe the %Msg_BounceType% built-in field will contain the reason. The %Msg_BounceAddress% will contain the bounced email address.

The %Msg_BounceType% will contain one of the following:

The &Msg_BounceType% field will be blank if the message is not a bounce/auto-reply.

Solution Constants

You can also create Solution Constants. These are solution-wide constants that can be used as %field% replacements on any Automation within a Solution. To create Solution Constants click the Edit Solution button on the ThinkAutomation Studio Explorer ribbon. Select the Constants tab.

You can then specify any number of Constant Name and Constant Value pairs.

For example: If you create a solution constant with name 'VatNumber' and value 'GB12345678' then if you can specify %VatNumber% on any Action property on any Automation within the Solution, the value 'GB12345678' will be replaced when messages are processed.

System Constants

A number of system constants can also be used:

You can also create your own constants for each Solution. See the Solution Constants tab on the Solution Properties page. These Constants can be used on any Automation within the Solution.

The Root Folder

The %Root% system constant will contain a folder path to:

\ProgramData\Parker Software\ThinkAutomation.NET\%SolutionName%\

For example, if your solution name is 'Orders' and your system drive is 'C:\' then %Root% will contain:

C:\Program Data\Parker Software\ThinkAutomation.NET\Orders\

The %Root% field replacement is useful for any Actions that need to save files locally. ThinkAutomation ensures that the folder exists and the ThinkAutomation Message Processor service will always have access to it.

For example: If using the Create Document action to create a PDF document you can set the Save To property of this action to %Root%.

InLine Functions

The field replacement %func% can be used to execute a number of inline functions. The function will be executed and the returned value replaced. InLine functions can be used inside any action entry as with fields/variables.

The format of inline functions is: %func%:FunctionName(Value[,parameter][,parameter])

The value & parameters can be any fixed text or a %field% replacement.

For example, in the text:

Dear %func%:ToProperCase(%fullname%),

If the fullname variable was set to 'alice bob' - when replaced the text would be:

Dear Alice Bob,

The following functions can be used:

Format Examples:

Order Date: %func%:Format(%Msg_Date%,U) :

replaced the text would be:

Order Date: 09 November 2020 09:00:00 :

If a parameter includes a comma you need to enclose it in quotes. Eg:

Order Date: %func%:Format(%Msg_Date%,"hh:mm tt, ddd-MM-MMM yyyy gg") :

Would be:

09:00 AM, Mon-11-Nov 2020 A.D.

Json Extract Example

You can use the %func%:JsonValue inline function to extract a specific Json path value. For example, if you have a variable called 'AddressJson' set to:

xxxxxxxxxx
{ 
  "employee": { 
    "name":    "John",  
    "salary":   56000,  
    "married":  true 
   } 
} 

You could use the inline function such as:

Dear %func%:JsonValue(%AddressJson%,"employee.name"),

At runtime the replaced text would be:

Dear John,

Automation Actions

An Automation can contain any number of Actions. Each of the actions are optional. You can run one or more of the actions depending on your requirements. You can add multiple instances of each action type - so for example, you can send multiple Outgoing emails by adding multiple Send Email actions.

To add an Action double-click an action in the Toolbox, or press ENTER on the selected action. You can also drag and drop an action to the Actions List.

Tip: You can also quickly add actions by typing the action name and selecting from the list. Press the TAB key to select the first action in the list based on the letters you have typed. The new action will be inserted below the currently selected action in the Actions List.

When you add an action the corresponding property page for the action type will be displayed. To edit an existing action double-click it or press ENTER. When editing an action property page, each action property that accepts text data can include %field% replacements. Drag a %field% from the variables list on to the property or type the %field% name. These %field% holders will be replaced with the Extracted Field, Variable, Built-In Field or Constant value when the Automation executes. See: Field Replacements.

When a Message is processed the actions will be executed in the order they appear in the Actions list. You can re-order actions using Move Up/Move Down buttons.

You can create If [else] End If or Select Case blocks to conditionally execute blocks of Actions and you can assign a Condition to each action.

ThinkAutomation includes a default set of built-in actions (shown below). You can also add additional Custom Actions from our on-line library or create your own using the Custom Action Designer

Tip: When designing your Automation you should disable the Message Source. This will prevent messages being retrieved until you have completed and tested your Automation. You can still send test messages to process using the Send Message option even if the Message Source is disabled.

Available Built-In Actions

ThinkAutomation includes a collection of built-in Actions for common tasks. You can also download more Actions from the on-line library and you can create your own custom actions using the Custom Action Designer.

Not all actions may be listed here. Parker Software regularly adds additional Action types.

Common

• Extract Field : Parse and extract data from the incoming message and assign the result to a field name.
• Set Variable : Assign a value to a variable with various Set Operations.
• Execute Script : Execute custom C# or Visual Basic .NET code.
• Update A Database : Update a SQL database using extracted fields from the incoming message.
• Process Attachments : Save attachments to specific folders on your file system.
• Move Incoming Message : Move the incoming email message to a different folder on the source email account.
• Comment : Add a comment line to an Automation and optionally save the comment value to the log.

Data

• Lookup From A Database : Execute a SQL database query and assign column values to variables.
• Open Database Reader : Open a database reader for use with a For..Each block.
• Execute A Database Command : Execute a database command or stored procedure.
• Update A Database Using Custom SQL : Execute custom Update or Insert commands.
• Update MongoDB : Create or update MongoDB documents.
• Lookup From A MongoDB Database : Lookup a document from a MongoDB database and assign it to a Variable.
• Embedded Data Store : Save and query data using the embedded Document DB.
• Embedded Files Store : Save and query files using the embedded Document DB.
• Update Excel File : Update A Microsoft Excel file.
• Lookup From Excel : Lookup specific cell and cell range values from an Excel file and assign to variables.
• Update CSV File : Add a row to a CSV file.
• Counter : Update a counter value.

Outgoing

• Send Email : Send an outgoing email immediately or on a scheduled future date.
• Remove Scheduled Outgoing Message : Remove pending scheduled emails for a given recipient.
• Forward Original Message : Forward the incoming message and optionally add or drop attachments.
• Wait For User Response : Request confirmation from a user before continuing execution.
• Send Appointment : Creates an appointment in any iCalendar compatible Calendar Server.
• Send Slack Message : Send a message to a Slack channel.
• Send Tweet : Send a Tweet to Twitter or reply to an incoming Tweet.

Documents

• Create Document : Create a formatted document and save it in various formats.
• Convert Document : Convert a document or incoming attachment from and to various formats.
• Convert Document To Text : Convert documents from various formats to plain text or extracts PDF form data.
• Convert PDF Document : Convert a PDF document or attachment to image files, text or html.
• Sign PDF Document : Add a digital signature to a PDF document.
• Save As PDF : Save the incoming message or any HTML file or URL as a PDF document.
• Word Merge : Performs a mail merge on a Word document or Attachments and saves the merged document as a new file.
• Print : Print the incoming message and/or attachments.
• Run A Report : Create a report using a pre-defined report template and export it to various formats.

Office 365

• Get/Update Contact : Get or update a contact for an Office 365 account.
• Create Appointment : Create an appointment for an Office 365 account.
• Update Incoming Message : Update flags on the incoming message.
• Send Teams Message : Send a message to a Microsoft Teams Channel.

General

• Text Operation : Perform various operations on text values.
• Date Operation : Perform various operations on date values.
• File Operation : Perform various operations on files & folders.
• Math : Perform mathematical calculations and save the result to a variable.
• Parse CSV Line : Extract column data from a comma separated text value.
• Encryption : Encrypt/decrypt text data or files.
• Compression : Compress/decompress text data or files.
• Create Hash : Create hash values for text data or files.
• Set Message Store Flag : Assign a flag to the message stored in the Message Store.
• Set Logging Level : Set the amount of detail recorded in the Automation log.
• Create Passcode : Create a random Passcode and assign the value to a variable.
• Find and Replace : Finds and replaces text in any variable.
• Create JSON : Create a Json Document and assign it to a variable.
• Update JSON : Create or update multiple Json paths within Json text and return the updated Json to a variable.
• Convert JSON To Html : Convert Json to a readable HTML table and assign the HTML to a variable.
• Read/Write Text File : Write data to a text file or read an existing text file and assign the content to a variable.
• Tokenize : Tokenize any text and assign the comma separated tokens to a variable.
• Extract Email Signature : Parse contact and company information from email signature footers.
• Text To Speech : Convert text to a speech WAV file and return the WAV file path to a variable.

Network

• DNS Lookup : Perform a DNS Lookup and assign the returned data to a variable.
• Ping : Ping any host and return the results to a variable.
• Execute Secure Shell Command : Execute SSH commands against any host and assign the response to a variable.

CRM

• Get CRM Entity : Read entity values from Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Sugar or Zoho CRM.
• Update CRM Entity : Add or update Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Sugar or Zoho CRM entities.
• Query CRM Entities : Perform a generic query to read one or more CRM entities as Json text, CSV or Markdown.

Xero

• Xero Contact : Read, create & update Xero Accounting contacts.

Web

• HTTP Get : Read any web page and assign the returned HTML or plain text to a variable.
• HTTP Post : Post data to any web page using a HTTP POST.
• Download File : Download a file via HTTP and return the local path to a variable.
• OAuth SignIn : Obtain a authorization token from an OAuth endpoint for use on subsequent actions.
• Cloud Storage : Download or Upload files to various cloud storage providers.
• Read JSON Document : Parse a JSON document from any URL and assign element values variables.
• Wait For Webhook : Wait for a 3rd party webhook call.
• Call A Soap Web Service : Execute a SOAP or .NET Web Service and assign the results to variables.
• FTP Upload : Upload files or attachments to an FTP or SFTP server.
• FTP Download : Download files from an FTP or SFTP server.
• Get Browser Info : Extract browser name, version and operating system info from a User Agent.

Location

• Translate : Translate text from one language to another and assign the result to a variable.
• Detect Language : Detect the language of any text and assign the language code to a variable.
• Speak Text : Return a URL of a WAV or MP3 file containing spoken text in the desired language.
• GeoIP Lookup : Perform a GeoIP lookup for any IP address, URL, domain name or email address. Assign the Country, Region and City information to variables.

Twilio

• Twilio Make A Telephone Call : Make a telephone call and optionally connect the call to another number.
• Twilio Send SMS Message : Send a SMS message via Twilio.
• Twilio Wait For SMS Reply : Send a SMS message via Twilio and wait for a reply.
• Normalize Phone Number : Convert a phone number to the correct internationalized version for use with Twilio.

Sentiment

• Score Sentiment : Perform Sentiment Analysis on any text and return the score to a variable.
• Train Sentiment : Train the Sentiment Analysis database.
• Classify Sentiment : Assign the most relevant sentiment class name for any text to a variable.

Azure

• Azure File : Download or Upload files to Azure Storage shares.
• Azure File Get Link : Get URLs to files in an Azure Storage share and assign to a variable.
• Azure Cosmos DB : Update Or Query Documents In A Cosmos Container.
• Azure Blob : Get or Put Azure Blobs.
• Azure Table : Get or Put Azure Table Entities.
• Azure Queue : Get or Put Azure Queue Messages.
• Azure Form Recognize : Extract text, key-value pairs and tables from documents, forms, receipts, invoices and business cards using the Azure Form Recognizer service.

System

• Execute PowerShell : Execute PowerShell commands and assign the results to a variable.
• Run A Program : Execute a Windows executable file and assign the output to a variable.

Custom Actions

ThinkAutomation also includes Custom Actions. These are additional actions you create or download from our on-line library. You can add actions from the on-line library for use on any of your Automations.

On-line Library

To explore the online library, click the Custom Actions tab on the ThinkAutomation Studio ribbon and then click Explore Online Library button.

You can then view custom actions in the online library. Use the Search box to search for specific terms. Select a custom action that you wish to use and then click Install. This will download the custom action from the online library and add it to your local library. The custom action can then be used on any of your Automations in the same way as the built-in actions.

Create Your Own

ThinkAutomation Professional Edition includes the ability to create your own Custom Actions. Custom Actions include a UI builder for configuring the Action settings and a C# or VB.NET editor for editing the execution code. Once a Custom Action has been created it appears in the available actions list and can be used like any other action on any Automations. You can also share your custom action with the ThinkAutomation community.

Extracting Fields

For each Automation you can create any number of Extract Field actions. An Extracted Field is a distinct piece of data that ThinkAutomation will parse and extract from the incoming message and assign it a 'Field Name'. You can use these extracted field values on other action properties using %Field% replacements.

To create an Extracted Field drag the Extract Field action to your Automation.

Automation Flow

Logical operations allow you to control the flow of actions, call other Automations and conditionally execute actions (or blocks of actions).

Call Automation

The Call action enables you to call another Automation with a value and assign the result to a variable. Select the Automation to call - this must be within the same Solution or an Automation saved to the Library. From the With Message Body Set To list - select the variable to pass to the called Automation. The called Automation will receive this value as its incoming message body value (%Msg_Body%). You can also optionally add Attachments.

Wait For Completion

Automations can return a value using the Return action. Enable the Wait For Completion option and select the variable to receive the returned value from the Assign Return Value To list. The current Automation will wait until the called Automation has completed.

If Wait For Completion is not enabled, then a new message for the selected Automation will be added to the process queue. The current Automation will continue without waiting for the new message to be processed.

Note: Called Automations can also Call other Automations. An Automation cannot call itself. You should ensure that called Automations do not in turn Call the parent - as this would result in a loop.

Return

Ends execution of the Automation and returns a value. If this is the parent Automation for the incoming message then the returned value will be saved in the Message Store - otherwise the value will be passed back to the calling Automation.

Automations do not have to return a value. If all actions complete for an Automation then it will return automatically with a blank return value.

The return value can be fixed text or %field% replacements or a combination. For example, the return value can be set to: 'New Order: %OrderNumber% For Customer %CustomerName%'.

Returned values are stored against the processed message in the ThinkAutomation Message Store. You can view the Message Store to see returned values for each message. The Return value will also be displayed if you use the Send Message option in the Studio to manually send a message to an Automation.

Showing Return Values On Web Form Message Sources

If you use the Web Form message source then the Return value can also be displayed to the web user after the form is submitted. Enable the Wait For & Include Automation Results In The Confirmation Message option on the Message Source Web Form properties.

If the Return value contains HTML (eg: 'Your order number is: <strong>%OrderNumber%</strong>') it will be formatted when shown to the user. If the Return value is Markdown then the markdown will be converted to HTML (eg: 'Your order number is: **%OrderNumber%**').

If.. Then.. Else.. End If

Conditionally executes a group of actions based on a Condition.

When you drag an If Action onto the actions list the Condition Builder will be displayed.

Here you create a Condition that will be tested. The condition must be true to start the If block otherwise processing moves to the next Else or End If statements.

In the If column you select a message property or one of your Extracted Fields or Variables.

In the Is column you select one of the following Match Types:

• Equal To
• Not Equal To
• Less Than
• Greater Than
• Less Than Or Equal To
• Greater Than Or Equal To
• Is Blank
• Is Not Blank
• Contains
• Contains One Of (list of comma separated words or phrases)
• Contains All Of (list of comma separated words or phrases)
• RegEx Matches (matches a regular expression)
• Does Not Contain
• Starts With
• Ends With
• Length Equal
• Length Less Than
• Length Greater Than
• Is A Valid Email Address
• Is Not A Valid Email Address
• Date Only Equal To
• Date Only Less Than
• Date Only Greater Than
• Hour Less Than
• Hour Greater Than
• Minute Less Than
• Minute Greater Than
• Weekday Number Equal To

In the Value column enter a value to compare against. This can contain %field% replacements.

Click the Add button to add another line. The new line can be assigned as an AND or OR clause.

Each If statement must have a matching End If.

If blocks can be nested inside other If Blocks.

You can also assign a Condition to individual actions using the Condition tab of the Action properties page.

Contains One Of/Contains All Of Match Types

For the Contains One Of or Contains All Of match types you can enter a comma-separated list of words or phrases (if any of the values contains a comma you should enclose it in double quotes). For Contains One Of the If field must contain at least one of the values. For Contains All Of it must contain all of the values. Both Contains One Of and Contains All Of use case-insensitive matching.

For example: Suppose we want to check that the message body (%Msg_Body%) contains 'Red' AND 'Blue' AND 'Green' - we would use Contains All Of and set the value to 'Red,Blue,Green'.

Individual words or phrases in the comma separated list can contain %field% replacements. For example, you could use 'Red,Blue,%MyColor%' - %MyColor% will be replaced before the condition is checked.

Word Matches

By default the Contains One Of and Contains All Of match types match text anywhere, so if Contains One Of contained 'request' it would match for 'request' and 'requested' etc. To match whole words only, enclose the word or phrase in square brackets. For example: If we want to check that the message subject contains 'support' AND 'request' we would use Contains All Of and set the value to 'support,[request]'. This would match if the subject was 'New support request', but would NOT match if the subject was 'Support was requested'.

RegEx Matches Match Type

For RegEx Matches match type the value must be a valid Regular Expression. The match will be true if the If value contains one or more matches. For example: To check that the %Msg_Body% contains a ZIP code, set the If to %Msg_Body% and use the RegEx Matches match type with the value set to \b\d{5}(?:[-\s]\d{4})?\b

Checking Date Values

Where the If value is a date or datetime (for example: %Msg_Date%), you can use:

• Date Only Equal To/Less Than/Greater Than : where value is also a date or datetime. Compares the date only portions (ignoring the time).
• Hour Greater Than/Less Than : where value is a number. Compares the hour value of the time.
• Minute Greater Than/Less Than: where value is a number. Compares the minute value of the time.
• Weekday Number Equal To : where value is a number. Compares the day of week value (0=Sunday,1=Monday..6=Saturday).

You can also use other match types (Equal To, Not Equal To, Greater Than etc) where the If value is a date and the value is a date. In these cases the dates are converted to yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss format and then compared.

Example If Blocks

xxxxxxxxxx
If %Msg_To% Contains support Then
    If %Msg_Subject% Contains One Of urgent,ticket Then
        // Support Email
        If %Msg_Date% Hour Greater Than 8 And %Msg_Date% Hour Less Than 18 Then
            // Day time
            Send Teams Message To Support Team "Support Request: %Msg_Subject%" For User Support
        Else
            // Out of hours
            Send Email To outofhours@mycompany.com "Support Email: %Msg_Subject%"
        End If
    End If
End If  

Select Case.. Case.. End Select

Creates a Select Case block to conditionally execute a group of actions in the matching Case block.

When you drag a Select Case action onto the Actions list you will be asked for a Value. Enter a value or a %field% replacement.

A Select Case block will then be created.

Click a Case action to define the condition for each Case statement.

The Is can be:

• Equal To
• Not Equal To
• Less Than
• Greater Than
• Less Then Or Equal To
• Greater Than Or Equal To
• Contains
• Does Not Contain
• Else

Enter a Value or %field% replacement to compare against the Select Case Value

If the Select Case Value matches the Value of the Case statement then the Actions in the Case block will be executed. Drag any number of actions inside the Case block to execute. Execution will then move to the End Select action.

You can drag additional Case actions to the Select Case block.

The Case Else block will be executed if no matched Case actions are found.

Each Select Case block must have at least 1 Case action and end with an End Select.

Select Case blocks can be nested - so the Case actions can include further Select Case blocks.

For Each Loop.. Next Loop

Allows you to create a loop based on the following:

• Message Recipients (All, To, CC or BCC)
• Message Attachments (Regular Attachments, Inline Attachments only or both)
• Message Keywords
• Message Headers
• Extracted Fields
• Lines contained in any variable
• Comma Separated Values contained in any variable
• Email addresses, URL's and Tokens contained in any variable
• Data Reader Rows (See: Open Database Reader)
• Json Member in
• Variable Value

Inside the loop you can assign the values of the current loop item and current iteration count to variables. You can then use these values in actions within the loop.

For example, when looping on Recipients you can assign the Email Address & Name of the current recipient in the loop to variables by selecting from the Assign To drop downs.

When looping on Lines the Lines In will be split into lines (based on carriage returns and/or line feeds). Each non-blank line will then assigned to the loop value.

When looping on Comma Separated Values In, the In value will be split on commas. Quoted values will be handled. For example, if Comma Separated Values In contained:

1997,Ford,E350,"Super, luxurious truck"

.. then the loop would be executed 4 times with values:

1. 1997
2. Ford
3. E350
4. Super, luxurious truck

When looping on Json Member In the In value can be assigned any Json text. The loop will execute for each member. You can assign each member Name and Value to variables.

When looping on Tokens the Tokens In value will be split into words and tokens.

When looping on Keywords the incoming message body will be split into unique words (excluding common words).

When looping on a Variable Value - this assumes the variable is numeric. The loop executes n times - where n is the variable value.

You then place actions to execute inside the For Each - Next Loop block.

You can exit a loop using the Exit Loop action. This can be placed in an If block if you need to exit a loop based on a condition.

Label.. Go To Label

You can create multiple Label actions within an Automation. Each Label is given a name. You can use the Go To Label action to move processing to the label specified. Labels cannot be placed inside If, Select Case or For Each blocks.

Comment

Automations can contain any number of Comment actions. By default comments do nothing.

Tip: You can space out Actions in your Actions list by adding blank comments.

If the Show In Log option is enabled then the comment value will be added to the Automation Log (regardless of the current Log Level. The Comment text can contain %Field% replacements. Comment text will be truncated if longer than 1000 characters.

If the Show Notification In ThinkAutomation Studio option is enabled then the comment will appear in the ThinkAutomation Studio for any active Studio users as a notification when the Automation executes. The Message Processor will limit studio notifications to 500 per processed message to prevent the Studio being overloaded.

On Error

The On Error action enables you to control what should happen if an error occurs on any action following the On Error action. You can add any number of On Error actions to an Automation.

Each On Error action can be set to:

• Resume Next - just report the error in the log and continue.
• Retry - retry the errored action. You specify the Retry Count and Pause interval. If the action still fails after the retries you have the option of sending an error report email and pausing the Message Source.
• Go To Label - move execution to the specified label and optionally send an error report email.
• Execute Automation - transfer execution to another Automation.

If no On Error action is used on an Automation then by default ThinkAutomation will stop execution when an error occurs and pause the Message Source. This enables you to investigate the error before more messages are processed. You must then re-enable the Message Source to continue processing.

Testing Automations

During Automation development you can test your Automation without enabling the Message Source. Click the Send Message button on the Automation actions list toolbar. Enter the message text and click Send. You can also drop files onto the send message textbox. Any .eml or .msg files will be converted to emails and sent. Any text files will be converted to message text. Any other sort of files will be added as attachments and sent.

The test message will be processed immediately. The Results and Automation Log will be displayed along with any errors and Comment action values.

Use the Comment & Return actions to provide feedback. Comments can include %field% replacements, so if you need to see the value of a variable - simply add a Comment action containing the %fieldname%.

The Automation %Return% value will also be displayed if you have added any Return actions.

Undoing Saved Changes

The ThinkAutomation server automatically keeps a record of all changes made to Automations. You can revert to the previous version by clicking the Revert button on the Automation actions list toolbar. You can continue to do this until the Automation is reverted back to the first version.

Note: The number of revisions stored is set in the Server Settings - Revision Saving.

Automations Library

You can save a copy of any Automation to the Automations Library. The Call action can Call Automations in the library. This is useful when you have a specific Automation that is called from multiple Automations. Rather than creating multiple copies of the same Automation in different Solutions, you can have a single version.

To save an Automation to the library click the Save To Library button on the Automation toolbar.

To view the Library, select Automations Library from the Solution selector. You can add/edit/delete Automations in the library.

The Automations Library is also used when creating new Automations. When you select the New Automation button to create a new Automation. The New Automation dialog lists all current Automations and Automations in the library. You can select any of these to create the new Automation from. The New Automation will then be created based on the selected Automation. This is useful when you need a base Automation template to use to create new Automations from.

Sending Manual Messages To Process

You can send manual messages to any Automation regardless of its configured Message Source. Select an Automation in the Explorer view and click the Send Message button on the ribbon. You can specify from/to addresses & subject text. You can also add attachments. Enter the Message Text and click the Send button. The message will be processed immediately. The Return value (if any) for the Automation will be displayed, along with any Comment action values.

Automation Properties

When editing an Automation click the Properties tab to view/edit general Automation properties:

You can change the Automation Name and Details. These are text fields that can contain any text to describe the Automation.

You can enable or disable an Automation with the Enabled option. You can also enable/disable an Automation by right-clicking it in the Explorer. If an Automation is disabled no new messages will be processed. Messages will remain in the queue until the Automation is enabled.

Allow Concurrent Execution

If this option is enabled then the Message Processor will execute multiple messages concurrently. This setting is disabled by default on new Automations. It should not be enabled if the Automation should process messages in the same order that messages are received. For example: If a Database Pull Message Source reader reads records from a database and the Automation saves those records to a CSV file, then if concurrent execution is enabled there is no guarantee that the CSV rows will be in the same order as the Database Pull records.

Save Outgoing Messages To Sent Items

If this option is enabled then any outgoing emails sent using the Send Email action are saved in the Message Store database. You can view Sent Items when viewing the Message Store. Disable this option if you do not need to view sent items. This will improve performance and decrease the size of the Message Store database.

Viewing The Message Store

You can use the ThinkAutomation Studio to view the Message Store. Messages are added to the Message Store as they are received by the Message Sources. Click the Message Store tab on the ThinkAutomation Studio ribbon.

Messages are viewed by Solution - to change the currently selected Solution - click the Solution drop down menu on the Ribbon.

All Automations within the Solution will be shown. Select an Automation to view processed messages.

Messages are shown in pages of 1000 messages per page. Use the Page < and > selectors to move pages or press PgUp/PgDn buttons.

You can filter messages by Message Flag. Messages can be assigned a Flag value inside an Automation using the Set Message Store Flag action. You define the Flags using the Server Settings - Message Store Flags option. You can also manually set a flag for a message by right-clicking the message in the list and selecting Set Flag.

You can search for text using the search bar. Messages will be searched by Subject, From/To address and Automation Return value. You can also filter messages by clicking the filter icon in the message column headers.

Double click a message to expand the details. Click the Open button to view the full message body, attachments, headers and the Automation Log for the message.

Reprocessing Messages

Individual messages can be reprocessed. Select a message (or range of messages) and click the Reprocess button. The selected messages will be added back to the process queue and processed again by the Automation.

Deleting Messages

You can remove individual messages from the Message Store or you can remove all messages for the selected Automation.

Viewing Outgoing Messages

If you use the Send Email action to send scheduled emails on future dates then these scheduled messages are held in the Outbox until they are sent. The Outbox can be viewed by clicking the Outbox button on the Message Store view. You can remove items from the Outbox to prevent them from being sent.

Viewing Sent Items

Any outgoing emails sent using the Send Email action will be shown in the Sent Items view. You can disable outgoing emails being stored using the Automation - Properties - Save Outgoing Emails To Sent Items option.

Viewing The Logs

ThinkAutomation maintains logs for Message Source readers & Automation executions. Click the Logs tab on the ThinkAutomation Studio ribbon.

Log entries will be added in real time. You can filter log lines by clicking the Filter icon in the column headers. For Automation Log lines - double clicking a log line will open the Automation actions list with the relevant Action selected. The amount of detail recorded in the Automation log can be controlled on a per-Automation basis using the Set Logging Level action. You can also set a default level using the Server Settings - Logging setting.

Automation Logs for individual messages can be viewed by viewing the Message Store, opening a message to view the detail and selecting the Automation Log tab.

ThinkAutomation will automatically delete old log entries - depending on the Keep Messages For (Days) entry on the Solution properties.

Logs will also be removed if you manually remove messages from the Message Store.

Enable Debug Logging

The Enable Debug Logging button on the Logs tab will switch on debug-level logging for all Automations for a defined number of minutes. This is useful during Automation development if you need to see more detail in the logs regardless of the current logging level. Logging will revert to previous levels automatically after the Minutes specified.

Action Types

Common

Extract Field

Find and extract data from the incoming message body or a variable and assign the extracted data to a field name.

When creating your first Extract Field action it is a good idea to paste a copy of the message body you are extracting data from into the Helper Message box. ThinkAutomation will then highlight the data it will extract for each field as you specify the extraction properties. The Helper text will be saved with the Automation - so you only need to paste it once. For Database message source types the Helper Message text will be auto populated when you use the Test query option.

Enter a Name for the field.

Extract Field From

Select the Field or Variable that you want to extract data from. This defaults to %Msg_Body% - which means extract data from the body of the incoming message.

Finding Data

Find & Extract

In the Find & Extract section you specify how ThinkAutomation will find the data from the Extract From value.

Start From Last Extract Point

Normally ThinkAutomation moves the 'extraction point' as it moves through the Extract From value extracting data for each Extract Field action. Disable this option if you want ThinkAutomation to start from the beginning of the data when it looks for this field. Once a field is extracted the extraction point will be set to the end of the extracted data for the next Extract Field action. The next field extraction starts from this point unless you disable this option.

Case Sensitive

By default ThinkAutomation ignores case when it looks for fields. So 'order number' and 'Order Number' with both match when searching for 'Order number'. Enable this option if you want to perform a case sensitive search.

Is Repeating Block

This option sets the field as a repeating block. If set ThinkAutomation will enter a loop and repeat the extraction of this field until it finds the next field to extract (or the end of the message). You can Call another Automation with the results of each block loop to perform further actions/extraction.

Look For

Enter the text that ThinkAutomation should look for when searching the data for this field. This should be the text that is the same for each message and uniquely identifies the field.

Then Look For

Enter an additional text string that ThinkAutomation looks for AFTER it has found the above text. This is optional, but is useful when data is formatted in the message using an unknown number of tabs or spaces. Consider the following line:

xxxxxxxxxx
Customer code             :  ABC

We would search for 'Customer code' and then ':' because we don't know how many spaces are between 'Customer code' and ':'. The field extraction would then start after the ':'.

In both the Look For and Then Look For entries you can make use of Regular Expressions to assist with searching.

Find Next None-Whitespace

You can set the Look For or Then Look For to a single dot '.' - a single dot means find the next none-whitespace character.

This can be useful when searching for data. For example, suppose the text contains:

​x
Your serial number is:

1234-5678

If we wanted to extract the Serial Number we would be to look for 'Your serial number is:' and then look for '.' - which would effectively look for any none whitespace after 'Your serial number is:'.

Find Blank Line

You can set the Look For or Then Look For to '<BlankLine>' or you can include it, eg: 'Customer: <BlankLine>'. The <BlankLine> marker searches for a single blank line. A 'blank line' is LF + LF or CRLF + CRLF. To find multiple blank lines use '<BlankLine><BlankLine>'

Extract From Json

If the Extract Field From contains Json data then you can easily find and extract a specific Json path. Enter or select the Path. If Json sample data has been pasted into the Helper Message then the paths list will be populated automatically.

Extracting From Json Arrays

If the selected Path is an array then you can extract a single array value or all values. Enable the Extract All Array Values To CSV to extract all array values to a CSV string. For example, consider the following Json:

xxxxxxxxxx
{ "cars":[ "Ford", "BMW", "Fiat" ] }

Setting the path to 'cars[0]' would extract the single value "Ford". If Extract All Array Values To CSV is enabled then the extracted value would be "Ford,BMW,Fiat".

If the Extract Field From contained:

xxxxxxxxxx
{
  "cars": [
    {
      "Name": "Ford", 
      "Color": "Green", 
      "Model": "Focus"
    }, 
    {
      "Name": "BMW", 
      "Color": "Blue", 
      "Model": "3 Series"
    }
  ]
}

Setting the path to 'cars' and enabling Extract All Array Values To CSV would extract:

xxxxxxxxxx
Ford,Green,Focus
BMW,Blue,3 Series

Setting the path to 'cars[0].name' and enabling Extract All Array Values To CSV would extract "Ford,BMW"

Whilst setting the path to 'cars[1].name' and not enabling Extract All Array Values To CSV would extract 'BMW'.

You can use the Parse CSV Line action to further process CSV data.

Extracting Data

Click the Extract Data tab to define how ThinkAutomation will extract data for this field once it has found it.

There are a number of options you can use to extract data (all options start the extraction after the Look For, and optionally Then Look For text):

Until End Of Line

Extract all data up to the end of the line (or the end of the data if there are no more lines).

Until End Of Message

Extract all data up to the end of the data.

Until Any Of These Characters

Extract data until any of the following characters are found. You can then specify a list of characters to search for. If any one of the characters are found then extracting will stop.

Until These Characters

Extract data until specific words or characters are found. You can then specify characters, words or phases to search for. Extraction will stop when the words are found. Regular expressions permitted. You can use the <BlankLine> marker to search up to the next blank line.

Until These Many Characters

You can manually specify a number of characters to extract.

Until End Tag

Select this option if you are extracting HTML or XML tags. If the Look For value is a tag, for example: <mytag> then ThinkAutomation will extract up to the end tag </mytag>. This option will be automatically selected on new fields if you enter a tag in the Look For entry.

Use The Look For Expression

Select this option to extract the field INCLUDING the Look For expression. This is useful when you want to find AND extract using a regular expression. The data would be extracted starting from the Look For value. For example, if the 'Look For is set to the regular expression: [a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+\.[a-zA-Z.]+ (which is the regular expression for an email address) and the Use The Look For Expression option is enabled.. then the first Email address will be found AND extracted. If the Use The Look For Expression is not enabled then the first email address will be found and extraction will start AFTER the end of the email address.

Note: The Extract 'Until' options do not apply if you are using the Extract From Json option.

Clean And Trim Blanks

Enable this option if you want the extracted data to be cleaned and trimmed. This will remove any leading or trailing spaces, tabs and carriage return/line feed/control characters from the field data.

Remove First/Last

You can also select to remove a number of characters from the beginning and end of the extracted data.

Additional Attributes

Select the Attributes tab to define optional additional attributes for the field.

Default Value

Enter a value that will be assigned to the field if no data is found or the extracted value is blank.

Case

This option allows you to change the case of extracted value or to apply Word Capitalization.

Validate

In this section you can define validation rules for the extracted field and you can define what action ThinkAutomation should take if the extracted data is invalid.

Select the Validate option to enable validation for this field. Select Cannot Be Blank Or Zero option if the field must be a value (or be non-zero in the case of numeric fields). For numeric fields you can also select a valid Numeric Range. The Must Be In List option allows you to define a list of valid values. In the Choices entry specify the list of valid values for the field. Separate each value with a | (pipe) character. For example, if the field must be Y or N - specify 'Y|N'

If Data Is Invalid

Here you specify what ThinkAutomation should do if the extracted field data is invalid. There are two options:

1. Set Field To Default Value - select this option if you want ThinkAutomation to replace the extracted data with the field's default value (or blank if no default it specified).

2. Throw Error - select this option if you want ThinkAutomation to cancel execution of the Automation for the current message.

    

Mapping To Database Columns

If you are going to use the Update A Database action in your Automation, then you can map extracted fields to tables & columns in the database you want to update. ThinkAutomation then builds the database update commands automatically.

Note: You can also use the Update A Database Using Custom SQL action type which allows finer control over database updates.

Select the Database Update tab to map the extracted field to a table & column in your database that you want ThinkAutomation to update.

Enter the Update Table Name that the field will be updated on. This table must already exist in your database. Multiple fields can use different table names if required - but the tables must be part of the same database.

Enter the Update Column Name in the table that the ThinkAutomation field will be mapped to.

Field Type

Select the Column data type in your database for the selected Column Name.

Max Field Length

You can optionally specify the maximum allowed field length for the database field. ThinkAutomation will truncate the field before updating the database if the extracted data is greater than the maximum length. Use this option to avoid database errors that will be raised when field data is inserted into your database that is greater than the defined length. This option applies to Text field types only. Set to zero if you do not want ThinkAutomation to truncate the field.

Key Field

Enable this option if this field is a Key Field. Key fields allow you to control how your database is updated. If you create one or more key fields, ThinkAutomation will first check if a record exists in your database using the key field values. If a record already exists then the existing record will be UPDATED otherwise a new record will be INSERTED.

Repeating Blocks

Often messages contain repeating sections. Most of the time you need to run a process or update a database for each individual block of the repeating section. ThinkAutomation allows you to do this by defining a field as a Repeating Block. When a field is defined as a repeating block, ThinkAutomation will enter a loop and extract each block of the repeating section in turn. Another Automation can then be called with the value of each block.

For example:

Suppose you receive the following message:

xxxxxxxxxx
Name     : Howard Williams
Company  : PSL
Order Ref: 1234

Product  : WHO1
Qty      : 1

Product  : WHO2
Qty      : 2

The Product and Qty fields can repeat any number of times depending on what the customer has ordered.

We can define the Product & Qty fields as a single field and set them as a repeating block. The repeating block can then be passed to another Automation for processing on it's own.

We would define the extraction of the above fields as follows:

1. Name = Extract Field From %Msg_Body% Look For "Name" Then ":"
2. Company = Extract Field From %Msg_Body% Look For "Company" Then ":"
3. Order = Extract Field From %Msg_Body% Look For "Order Ref" Then ":"
4. Block = Extract Field Repeating Block From %MsgBody% Look For "*" Call Process Order Lines

The Name, Company and Order fields we extract by looking for the Name:, Company: and Order Ref: field headers and extract until the end of the line.

For the Block field we set the Look For to '*' - which means start from the next character after the last extract point:

We set the Extract Data option to Until These Characters - and set this to '<BlankLine>' which means 'the next blank line'.

You then enable the Is Repeating Block option on this field. ThinkAutomation will then repeat the field extraction until it either finds the next field in the extracted fields list or the end of the message.

We then create another Automation. In this case - called 'Process Order Lines'. This Automation will receive each block of the repeating section as a new message. The 'Process Order Lines' Automation can then extract the Product and Qty fields and perform further processing.

When you enable the Is Repeating Block option the Call tab becomes visible on the Extract Field properties.

On the Call tab of the repeating block field we select the Automation to call. The Body Text should be set to the value that you want this Automation to receive for each block. The Body Text should contain the %ExtractedValue% replacement field - this will be replaced with the current block text on each call. You can add additional field replacements if you also want to pass previously extracted fields. For example:

xxxxxxxxxx
Name     : %Name%
Company  : %Company%
Order Ref: %Order%
%ExtractedValue%

For each block the 'Process Order Lines' Automation would be called with messages set to:

xxxxxxxxxx
Name     : Howard Williams
Company  : PSL
Order Ref: 1234
Product  : WHO1
Qty      : 1

and then..

xxxxxxxxxx
Name     : Howard Williams
Company  : PSL
Order Ref: 1234
Product  : WHO2
Qty      : 2

Set Variable

Create or set a ThinkAutomation variable.

In addition to Extracted Fields you can also make use of Variables in your ThinkAutomation Actions.

A Variable is simply a place holder for a specific value.

Many other Actions can return values which can be assigned to Variables. In these cases you should create the Variable first by simply dragging into the Actions list and giving it a name before using it other Actions.

Each Variable must be given a Variable Name. Enter or choose an existing variable or extracted field to change its current value.

You can optionally assign it a Value. The Value can be a fixed value or the value of another variable, extracted field or combination (using %field% replacements).

Set Variable Operations

The Operation option allows you to perform an optional additional operation on the Value before it's assigned to the Variable. The following operations are available: