SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) Part 23 – Step-by-Step Guide to Mail Adapter Configuration with Attachments

1 year ago 29

This is the 23^rd post in my blog series on “SAP CPI – Cloud Platform Integration for beginners”. In this post we will see the how-to setup mail server details in CPI Mail adapter and also configure the attachment option.

Overview of this blog series:

SAP CPI Introduction
SAP BTP tools and features overview (BTP, Global Account, Sub-Account, Entitlements, Connectivity, Security)
SAP CPI Web IDE overview
Registering a trial account and enrolling to SAP CPI service
Deep dive into Cloud Integration features with real world scenario example
Use cases of palette functions
Adapter configurations
Using Cloud connector for connecting to backend SAP systems
Overview on API Management & Open Connectors
Integration using Open Connectors with real world example

In short, below is the content we will elaborate in this tutorial:

Overview on Mail Adapter
IFlow Setup

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1. Overview on Mail Adapter

SAP CPI (SAP Cloud Platform Integration) provides a comprehensive set of tools and capabilities for integrating various systems and applications within an organization. One of the key features of SAP CPI is its Mail Adapter, which allows seamless integration with email services and enables the exchange of data and attachments.

The Mail Adapter in SAP CPI acts as a bridge between the integration platform and email systems such as Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, or any other SMTP/POP3-compliant mail server. It provides the ability to send and receive emails, along with their attachments, as part of integration scenarios.

Here are some key aspects and capabilities of the SAP CPI Mail Adapter:

Configuration:

The Mail Adapter can be easily configured within SAP CPI using the web-based integration flow editor. Administrators can define settings such as mail server details, authentication credentials, email formats (e.g., plain text or HTML), and attachment handling options.

Email Sending:

With the Mail Adapter, SAP CPI can send emails from integration flows to external recipients or internal mailboxes. It supports various email attributes like sender, recipient(s), subject, body, and priority. Attachments can also be included by specifying the file location or providing the file content directly within the integration flow.

Email Receiving:

The Mail Adapter allows SAP CPI to receive incoming emails and process their contents. It supports the retrieval of email attributes such as sender, recipient(s), subject, body, and attachments. Integration flows can be triggered based on the arrival of new emails, enabling automation and integration with other systems.

Attachment Handling:

The Mail Adapter facilitates the handling of email attachments within SAP CPI. Attachments can be extracted from incoming emails and processed according to the integration flow’s requirements. They can be saved to local directories, transformed, or forwarded to other systems as needed.

Error Handling and Monitoring:

SAP CPI provides robust error handling and monitoring capabilities for the Mail Adapter. It allows administrators to track the status of email processing, monitor incoming and outgoing messages, and handle exceptions or failures during integration flows involving the Mail Adapter.

2. IFlow Setup

The SAP CPI Mail Adapter does not support request-reply functionality primarily because of the asynchronous nature of email communication.

When using the Mail Adapter, the communication between the integration flow in SAP CPI and the email server follows an asynchronous pattern. The integration flow can trigger the sending of an email or listen for incoming emails, but it does not maintain a direct, synchronous connection with the email server.

Hence, use SEND palette function for email scenarios.

Regarding the mail adapter properties:

Address – SMTP mail address

Proxy type – If its through cloud connector, mention on-premise or else Internet.

Location ID – of cloud connector

Protection – Off / STARTTLS Mandatory/STARTTLS Optional

Authentication – None / Plain Username Password / Encrypted Username Password

Under the processing tab,

From – Email From

To – Email To

Cc/Bcc

Subject – Mail subject. Here we can mention dynamic properties/header which can flow at runtime as shown below.

Mail Body – We can pass the incoming payload as mail body like below or configure a mail body as per requirement.

Body-Mime type – The content type of the body section. If its Text/HTML, then if there are any html elements, it would be converted. If you want to send as it is, then choose Text/Plain. There are many other options also. Feel free to explore.

Body Encoding – UTF-8

For Mail attachments,

SAP has provided 2 options. We can create an attachment by passing the header content or the body content.

We can see in the below image, where we are passing the stacktrace header (which we set in previous content modifier step, ${exception.stacktrace}). Mention the name of the attachment also.

Add Message attachments – If there are any attachments sent by the sender and the same has to be transmitted to the receiver, then this option should be enabled.

Content transfer Encoding – Automatic