The activity stream on a case is showing the SysID of a user or is blank.

[allentschumper1]

Hello -

I've been around the block on this one a view times and thought I'd branch the question out to others.

The issue is that when we are in Agent Workspace, and on a record, in the activity stream...when viewing an email that has come in and/or been received...the FROM part of the email is showing a SysID or is blank.  Now, we know what the sysID is...it's a users SysID...then some times it is blank.  

The logic is based off if the email coming in has an associated user in the system (ServiceNow) it will find that and use that users ID in the from and if NO user is found based off the email sent in, then it simply puts the email address in the FROM.  BUT, right now, again, when there is a user in the system and they email in, it shows their SysID and if there is no user in the system, then it is blank.

You can peak at the attachment I have posted...shows both scenarios.  

What am I missing and/or what can be causing this?   And, ultimately, how do we remedy?

[jMarshal]

Are you using inbound email actions or flows to insert the content to the record, when received?

Also, in the screenshot, this is for a specific record type (record number begins with "FLE...")...does this happen for all records that are updated via email...or just that table?

I'm just getting info, in order to give you the best advice. You may need to fix this in multiple spots, depending on your configuration.

[allentschumper1]

No, not just for the FLE prefixed records...initially we thought so, but after further testing, it's more widespread.

and yes, inbound actions are used.

[allentschumper1]

I do wonder whether or not it has something to do on the user record itself as well, possibly?

I have to put in a caveat...it's typically only external users that have this issue.  If I send one in as an internal user (which all of our internal users have an @usbank.com suffix) it seems to work just fine.  not sure if it has something to do with Notification Devices, etc.  Just another food for thought 🙂

[jMarshal]

Yes, you're kinda on the right track...likely your inbound actions are written to say "from is the user who sent" -- which makes sense and will work easily for internal users (it will naturally work when all internal users can be referenced and have email accounts)...but if it's external, it will either find nothing (blank) or it will find a user without an email account associated perhaps (and thus try to stick in the sysID of the sys_user record)...

...go have a look at your inbound actions, my guess is they are more complicated than they need to be (possibly trying to glide to sys_user get the info about the sender)...

This should work though and is quite simple...try updating some of the inbound actions and see if it works:

gs.include('validators');

if (current.getTableName() == "<SPECIFIC TABLE FOR THE INBOUND ACTION>") {

current.work_notes = "Reply from: " + email.origemail + "\n\n" + email.body_text;

current.update();

}