Is there a way to execute a UC4/Automic Object using a email

[Kenneth Hutchins]

We are trying to streamline a process for one of our end users. We create a JP and currently are using a CALL which send the user an email and once they log into UC4/Automic their response to the CALL (yes/no) triggers or blocks the next object. 

The user asked if there is away for them to reply to the email, instead of logging into UC4/Automic? 


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DevOps Engineer
ULLICO
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[Joel Wiesmann]

You think about a solution like this?
https://youtu.be/1kMuOpHwzJg

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Swisscom Automation Engineer & PE Membership Creator

Entfessle mehr Automic Wissen mehr Automic Tools
https://membership.philippelmer.com/
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[Kenneth Hutchins]

This is cool. But how was the "Configurable response" email setup?

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DevOps Engineer
ULLICO
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[Pete Wirfs]

I have mixed feelings about this.  Requiring the customer to do this approval manually provides the best security and audit trail.

You could change the workflow to trigger on something else, for instance it could watch for the existence of an empty file that is created in a shared folder, and then you give the customer a small program that creates this file when they want it to run.   The email could probably hyperlink them to this program.

There is also an email agent available, so they could send an email to UC4 to activate processing.  We've never gone down that path however.  I don't think it is free and there would be significant setup/support issues.

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Pete
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[Pete Wirfs]

In our case, we don't let customers log on to production to approve things.  Instead, we have our customers email the approval to our operations staff, and the operations staff complete the UC4 approval. (and the email is saved for audit purposes.)

The operations staff add a buffer to the process; If there is something else going on of higher importance, the request can be held up to avoid collisions.

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Pete
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[Pete Wirfs]

Another idea is to use the RESP API to perform a function that allows the customer to run something that approves the process.

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Pete
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[Joel Wiesmann]

Hey Pete

Did you check out my solution (the linked video)? The AE logic orders a one-time-ticket and sends it to the user as part of a hyperlink that also can contain hardcoded feedback (yes, no etc.). Once the user clicks the link, a webapplication will invalidate the ticket start an AE object, having some more details (ticket# and feedback).

I pretty like the idea. The user does not need access to the AE at all. I'm thinking about adding some more features and create a dockerized all-in-one solution.

Regards
Joel

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Swisscom Automation Engineer & PE Membership Creator

Entfessle mehr Automic Wissen mehr Automic Tools
https://membership.philippelmer.com/
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[Christoph Rekers]

Hi there,

The most easiest way may be the old Call API. Copy the Call API files to any directory of the Users PC. the call api ini file contains the user, dep and pw. Password can be encryped. Place a bat file in that directory that has a content like this:

"C:\CALLAPI\ucxbxxxc.exe" SCRIPT=SET_VARA_VALUE.txt

the script file has a content like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:pset &my_value# = "Hello World"
:SET &RUNID= ACTIVATE_UC_OBJECT(SC#27.SCRI.PUT_VALUE_TO_VARA,,,,,PASS_VALUES)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

or 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:PUT_VAR VARA.BLABLA , "KEY1" , "value1" 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



A user needs to be created in the corresponding AE client, that has the priviledge Call Api and the rigth to start a certain object or write a value to a VARA. The e-mail the user receives contains a link to his call-api-bat-file like so:

file://c:\CALLAPI\call-api.bat


That would be my quick and dirty solution

Cheers
Christoph 


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Automic AE Consultant and Trainer since 2000
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[Kenneth Hutchins]

Hi Chris, is there a video or document on how to configure the rest API? I tried using this from GIT Hub and its not working. 

GitHub - brendanSapience/UC4-Automic-REST-API: REST API for Broadcom | Automic Automation Platform (source Code)

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DevOps Engineer
ULLICO
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[Franz Zalubil]

Hi,

yes there is a Mail Integration Solution (RA Solution) available. 

The Mail Agent RA Solution allows customers to monitor a Mail-Inbox and then interagates the subject or body of an email. If a pattern is recognized, jobs or workflows can be launched. This eliminates manual operations tasks to perform such tasks. This will allow for seemless integration and allows for automation of internal processes. Attachments can be stored or processed automatically. Depending on the content of the incoming Mails, pre-defined actions can be started

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Managing Consultant EMEA - Enterprise Studio
HCL Technologies Austria GmbH
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