Two watermarks in incoming Email messages

[jonnyseymour]

Lets talk about:

• Watermarks
• Two watermarks on the incoming emails
• Testing two watermarks on the incoming emails

Watermarks

By default, the system generates a watermark label at the bottom of each notification email to allow matching incoming email to existing records.

The watermark always includes "Ref:" and a customizable prefix (default MSG), followed by the auto-numbered identifier of the source record (such as incident, problem, or change request). For example, Ref:MSG3846157.

Inbound email actions might not work properly if watermarks are omitted from email notifications.

Two watermarks on the incoming emails

Sometimes, inbound actions can have more than one watermark added by mistake. It could be caused by comments appended from other incoming records, text matching Ref:, etc.

If two watermarks are found on an email, the incoming email will use the first watermark, ignoring the second.

To resolve this problem, you need to ensure the first watermark is the one wanted or add it to the subject of the incoming email.

Testing two watermarks on an incoming emails

I've sent to my instance 8 emails based on 4 existing watermarks:

• OK1: Watermark 1: Ref:MSG0000330 (valid) - Incident: INC0000055
• OK2: Watermark 2: Ref:MSG0000331 (valid) - Incident: INC0010009
• NO1: Watermark 3: Ref:MSG0XXXXX1 (invalid)
• NO2: Watermark 4: Ref:MSG0XXXXX2 (invalid)

Here is the watermark matching result of incoming emails with two watermarks:

Cases	Email 1	Email 2	Email 3	Email 4	Email 5	Email 6	Email 7	Email 8
Subject	-	-	-	-	OK1	OK1	NO1	NO1
Body	OK1	OK1	NO1	NO1	OK2	NO1	OK2	NO2
Including watermarks	OK2	NO1	OK2	NO2
Result	OK1	OK1	No match	No match	OK1	OK1	OK2	No match

As you can see, it will search on the subject, then the first watermark on the body even if the second is valid.

Also notice that even if the subject watermark is invalid, we later try to find it on the body.

NOTE: Please note the syslog table hold the information on troubleshooting on watermark matching.

Search with <instance>/syslog_list.do?sysparm_query=sourceLIKE<email-sys-id>

Conclusion

You need to ensure the first watermark is the one wanted or add the watermark to the subject of the incoming email.

The email process will search on the subject, then the first watermark on the body.

Review what you have learn

After reading this blog you should be able to understand

• How valid watermarks can be ignored
• Watermarks on the subject
• Where in the logs you can see the watermark matching to a target record.

More information here:

• Email Resources Page (KB0540674)
• Incoming email classified as reply to 'null' via watermark
• Two watermarks in incoming Email messages
• 3 steps to determine if and why the event processor is unable to start
• Diagnosing and remedying stuck event processes
• Docs: Additional email properties
• Docs: Available system properties
• Docs: Create an email notification
• Docs: Notification examples
• Docs: Notifications
• Docs: Scripting for email notifications
• Troubleshooting email notifications - Send to the Event Creator
• Troubleshooting Outbound Email (KB0521382)
• Troubleshooting stuck event process (KB0547784)
• Verifying the recipient has an email address (KB0528669)
• Verifying the recipient's email address is properly formatted (KB0528671)
• Speed up your email delivery by validating recipients
• My other blogs

Note: Tested on Fuji, with Chrome