An Introduction to Email in Automations

It’s important to cover email notifications in some detail because they are one of the most commonly used protocol types on FME Server.

“Email” is a protocol that may be used by both Trigger and Action components in an Automations workflow. Email Triggers receive incoming emails from external clients, and Email Actions send emails out to an external account.

Email Protocols

In fact, email is not a single protocol. There are several methods of email transfer that exist. FME Server supports two of these email-related protocols: SMTP and IMAP.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the ability to directly receive an email through an email server built into FME Server, or indirectly send an email through an SMTP service, for example, a Gmail account.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is an indirect process that connects to an email account on a server elsewhere. When that account receives an email, the IMAP protocol passes it on to FME Server.