Inbound email notifications - retrieve mailer name

rafas_10 · 3 weeks ago

Hi everyone,

Currently I have an inbound action created which I want to use to retrieve the name of the sender.

For example, when you receive an email it displays as 'Example user <example.user@gmail.com>.

How can I retrieve the 'Example user' in my inbound to populate the field 'people_name' for example?

Appreciate the help!

rafas_10 · 2 weeks ago

Hi everyone,

I've got a way to workaround on this topic by fetching directly on the 'headers'. Here is the script for everyone in need:

var InboundEmailUtils = Class.create();
InboundEmailUtils.prototype = {

    initialize: function() {},
    getGuestNameFromEmail: function(email) {

        // Default return value
        var guestName = "";

        // Safety check to avoid null pointer errors
        if (!email || !email.headers) {
            return "";
        }

        // Full raw email headers as one big string
        var rawHeaders = email.headers;

        /**
         * Extract ALL lines that start with "From:"
         * - ^From:   → must start at beginning of line
         * - g        → global (find all occurrences)
         * - m        → multiline mode (^ applies per line)
         * - i        → case-insensitive
         */
        var matches = rawHeaders.match(/^From:\s*([^\r\n]+)/gmi);

        // If at least one "From:" header exists
        if (matches && matches.length > 0) {

            /**
             * Always use the LAST "From:" header
             * - Forwarded / processed emails may add multiple From lines
             * - The last one represents the real human sender
             */
            var lastFromLine = matches[matches.length - 1];

            // Remove the "From:" prefix and trim spaces
            guestName = lastFromLine.replace(/^From:\s*/i, "").trim();


            // Remove email address if present
            if (guestName.indexOf("<") > -1) {
                guestName = guestName.split("<")[0].trim();
            }

            // Decode quoted-printable encoded names 
            if (guestName.indexOf("=?") === 0) {

                guestName = guestName
                    // Remove encoding prefix (ISO or UTF-8)
                    .replace(/=\?iso-8859-1\?Q\?/i, "")
                    .replace(/=\?utf-8\?Q\?/i, "")
                    // Remove encoding suffix
                    .replace(/\?=/g, "")
                    // Quoted-printable uses "_" instead of spaces
                    .replace(/_/g, " ")
                    // Convert hex characters (=E9 → é)
                    .replace(/=([A-F0-9]{2})/gi, function(_, hex) {
                        return String.fromCharCode(parseInt(hex, 16));
                    })
                    .trim();
            }
        }

        return guestName;
    },

    type: 'InboundEmailUtils'
};

View solution in original post

Dr Atul G- LNG · 3 weeks ago

Hi @rafas_10 I assume that every incoming email is associated with a user in the instance. You can use the email ID to search in the User table and retrieve the corresponding user name

https://www.servicenow.com/community/itsm-forum/how-to-set-the-caller-id-from-email-inbound-action/m...

if (email.origemail == '[email_address]') {
        var arrSubject = email.subject.split(' : '); //need to include the 
        var gr = new GlideRecord('sys_user');
        gr.addQuery('user_name', arrSubject[1]);
        gr.query();
        if (gr.next()) {
            current.caller_id = gr.sys_id
        }
    } else {
        current.caller_id = gs.getUserID();
    }

*************************************************************************************************************
Regards
Dr. Atul G. - Learn N Grow Together
ServiceNow Techno - Functional Trainer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dratulgrover
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LearnNGrowTogetherwithAtulG
Topmate: https://topmate.io/dratulgrover [ Connect for 1-1 Session]

****************************************************************************************************************

rafas_10 · 3 weeks ago

Hi @Dr Atul G- LNG ,

Actually this emails come from users that are not within our system. So they send an email to a specific mailbox and that mailbox redirects the email to us and creates an HR Case.

I can retrieve the email.from but not the original sender name.

Any ideia?

Dr Atul G- LNG · 3 weeks ago

Have a look here:

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-forum/would-i-be-able-to-pull-the-user-name-from-an-e...

*************************************************************************************************************
Regards
Dr. Atul G. - Learn N Grow Together
ServiceNow Techno - Functional Trainer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dratulgrover
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LearnNGrowTogetherwithAtulG
Topmate: https://topmate.io/dratulgrover [ Connect for 1-1 Session]

****************************************************************************************************************

Mark Manders · 3 weeks ago

You can get the string in front of the '@' by using regex, but that doesn't tell you anything. Emails coming in from users that aren't in your system, can be literally anything. What if the email is from a user with a business and uses the info@mybusiness.com address? You get 'Info'. People have weird email addresses for personal use. Do you want 'iamacatperson' in your HR case?

Please mark any helpful or correct solutions as such. That helps others find their solutions.
Mark