question Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records in ITSM forum

Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:02:49 GMT

Hello Team,
I have a requirement regarding inbound email updation/creation, so pls check the below requirement:
"As a user, want to ensure no records are created when inbound email is received, however updates are okay, Inbound actions, including flow actions should not be able to create records, but updating of existing records should be permitted.

Can we achieve this by creating a Flow - (as that will execute before an inbound action) and dropping any action where the email does not contain a watermark".

If the above is achievable through flow designer, could you pls give me the possibilities/steps to configure, Thanks in advance.

Thanks,
Avinash

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

SD_Chandan — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:26:09 GMT

1. Create a flow triggered by Email Received
2.Add a condition to check for email watermark
If Email Watermark is empty → Stop flow
If Email Watermark is present → Proceed
3.If watermark is missing, stop the flow — this prevents record creation
4. Inbound actions can still update records if watermark is present

Kindly mark it correct and helpful if it is applicable.

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

SD_Chandan — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:27:18 GMT

hi @Avinash_M
1. Create a flow triggered by Email Received
2.Add a condition to check for email watermark
If Email Watermark is empty → Stop flow
If Email Watermark is present → Proceed
3.If watermark is missing, stop the flow — this prevents record creation
4. Inbound actions can still update records if watermark is present

Kindly mark it correct and helpful if it is applicable.

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

pavani_paluri — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:37:23 GMT

Hi Avinash,

Could you please clarify whether the inbound email in question is a new message or a reply?

If it’s a reply, ServiceNow has built-in functionality to automatically update the target record using the watermark (email.watermark). No custom logic is typically needed for this case.

However, if it’s a new email, and the requirement is to prevent creation of new records, I suggest implementing the following approach:

Scripted Inbound Email Action
Steps:
Navigate to:
System Policy → Email → Inbound Actions

Edit or create an inbound action for the target table (e.g., Incident, RITM, etc.)

In the Script section, use the following logic:

if (!email.watermark) {
gs.info("Inbound Email skipped: No watermark found");
action.setAbortAction(true); // Stops creation or updates
return;
}

// Proceed only if target record exists
var target = email.getReference();
if (target) {
// Example: Add the email as a comment
target.comments = "Email reply: " + email.body_text;
target.update();
} else {
gs.info("Watermark exists but no matching record found.");
action.setAbortAction(true); // Prevents record creation in case of invalid watermark

Additional Checks

Ensure no active Inbound Email Actions are set to "Create Record" unless specifically intended.

Why Not Use Flow for Blocking?
Flows cannot cancel record creation triggered by other inbound actions.

Use Flows only for post-processing or auditing inbound emails.

Final Summary

Prevent new record creation: action.setAbortAction(true) in script
Allow updates to records: Use email.getReference() and update as needed

Mark it helpful if this helps you to understand. Accept solution if this give you the answer you're looking for
Kind Regards,
Pavani P

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 07:37:12 GMT

Hi Chandan,
Thanks for your response, in this requirement I'm not looking for creating, here I'm looking for updating the records, can you pls give me the process of the updating the existing records through flow designer, is that possible?

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 07:38:33 GMT

Hi Pavani,
It is not a New Message, it is a reply
I'm looking for the reply/updating the records only when we have watermark.

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 07:46:12 GMT

Hi pavani,
Thanks for your reply, I'm looking for only reply/update the records through flow designer, is it doable? if it is doable could you pls guide me for the steps to create through flow designer?

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

pavani_paluri — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 08:01:49 GMT

Hi Avinash,

Please see below steps to create a Flow

Step 1: Create a Flow
Navigate to Flow Designer → Create New Flow
Name it: Update Record from Email Reply
Trigger:Choose Email → When email is received

Steps 2: Add Condition to Check for Watermark
Set condition:Trigger → Watermark → is not empty
Step 3: Get the Target Record (e.g., Incident)
Add an action:
Lookup Record (or Get Record)
Step 4: Add Update Action
Add Action → Update Record

Record: Use the one found from step 3
Fields to update:
Comments → "Email reply: " + Trigger.Body Text
Or any other field you wish to update

Note:

Flow Designer will not block creation of a new record if other inbound email actions are active.
You must disable or restrict any Inbound Email Action that has "Create Record" to ensure new records are not being created separately.

Mark it helpful if this helps you to understand. Accept solution if this give you the answer you're looking for
Kind Regards,
Pavani P

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 08:19:01 GMT

Hi Pavani,
Thanks for your quick response, I will try and If i face any challenges I'll get back, I'll let you know the results.

Regards,
Avinash

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 15:25:45 GMT

Hi @pavani_paluri,
in flow designer trigger condition, I'm not getting Trigger:Choose Email → When email is received, do we need to enable any plugins in my instance Email Filters plugin is already enabled. So, can you pls give me any further steps.

Regards,
Avinash

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

pavani_paluri — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 15:31:33 GMT

Hi @Avinash_M,

If You're not seeing "When email is received" in Flow Designer because the Email Flow Triggers plugin is likely not active.
Go to Plugins, search for Email Flow Triggers(com.glide.email_flow_trigger) and activate it.
After that, refresh Flow Designer, the trigger should now appear.

Mark it helpful if this helps you to understand. Accept solution if this give you the answer you're looking for
Kind Regards,
Pavani P

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 18:30:09 GMT

Hi @pavani_paluri,
Thank you for your response,
I'm not sure why the Email Flow Trigger plugin (com.glide.email_flow_trigger) isn't available in either my enterprise instance or my Personal Developer Instance (PDI). I have checked both, but the plugin doesn’t appear in the list. I do have the Email Filters plugin (com.glide.email_filter) installed, so I’m unsure what’s causing the issue.

Regards,
Avinash

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

k_lutz — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 19:04:08 GMT

Avinash,

Some of the other suggestion seem usable for your use case. If you are only looking for a trigger in a flow I have a suggestion in the attachment. I do wonder how you then plan to lookup the record without a watermark. If someone provides a value in the subject line you would have to parse it out and then use that in a lookup or maybe there is something else you have decided to use in the lookup.

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 07:36:22 GMT

Hi @pavani_paluri
can you have a look in to this below requirement on the same what we are discussing, if possible give me your inputs:

The existing inbound actions ideally don't need modified. We need to create a flow which checks if a watermark exists in any inbound email. If the watermark does not exist, then the email processing should be halted in the flow. If the watermark does exist, then the flow should allow the email processing to continue to be processed by all flows/inbound actions.

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 07:39:33 GMT

Hi @k_lutz,
Thank you somuch for your reponse, and your approach is helpful, but I need some clarity/inputs, could you pls check the below requirement and give me your thoughts/inputs to achieve:

"The existing inbound actions ideally don't need modified. We need to create a flow which checks if a watermark exists in any inbound email. If the watermark does not exist, then the email processing should be halted in the flow. If the watermark does exist, then the flow should allow the email processing to continue to be processed by all flows/inbound actions."

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

k_lutz — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:07:31 GMT

Hello Avinash,

I would definitely check your email log to see what is sent in to define the conditions for the flow to fire in the situations you want. My first thought would be that you need several check like:

Receive type is reply
Type is received
Body does contains Ref:MSG

Receive type is New &
Subject does not contain re: &
Body does not contain Ref:MSG

The reason for the send on is because you do not need a watermark to update a case. I can compose a new email with the format "re: INC00123456...." and it will update the related record because of the email properties in the system. This may be a rare occurence but it could happen if someone is on the email thread and wants to email it to the group be deletes all the older text and just adds their own and replies.

In addition, you should probably set the email record to received-ignored so that no other flow / action tries to process it. Hope that helps but would definitely test and look at the email logs to verify what is and is not firing.

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

Avinash_M — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:15:57 GMT

Hi @k_lutz

I have given conditions as per the above image but its not working whether we have watermark or not.
Note: Stop processing checkbox added through this system property - "glide.hub.flow.inbound_email_trigger.show_advanced" .

Re: Regarding Configure inbound email creation and updates of records

k_lutz — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:21:30 GMT

Avinash,

Can you look at the XML of the email record? My guess is that the system is interpreting those as "new" even if you are sending in a reply. Look in the XML for the entry related to receive_type and it is probably showing as "new". I found a KB that stated the following:

The system classifies an email as a reply when it fails to match it to the forward receive type and it meets any one of these criteria:

The subject line or email body contains a recognized watermark such as Ref:MSG0000008.
There is no watermark and the Reply-To header contains a recognized message ID of an email with a target record.
There is no watermark and the subject line contains a recognized reply prefix such as RE: and a recognized record number such as INC0005574

So it seems like if it is missing the watermark or not aligned to an existing ticket...the system is going to set it as "new".