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Inbound Action to process mailto.approval button

hamidouche
Kilo Guru

3 weeks ago

Hi,

I have a notification with a requirement to add two buttons to Approve or Reject an Approval Resquest for a catalog item.

I used the OOTB templates: mailto.btn.approval , mailto.btn.rejection

I have 2 questions:

1- What is the difference between these templates and these ones: mailto.approval , mailto.rejection

2. When I click on the link, it opens a new email box, I click send, but the request is not approved or rejected.

I understand that there is a missing step here: inbound action?

Can you explain how to create an inbound action for this exact scenario?

 

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2 REPLIES 2

pr8172510
Kilo Sage

3 weeks ago

Hi @hamidouche,

  1. Difference between the templates

  • mailto.btn.approval / mailto.btn.rejection generate button-style mailto links.

  • mailto.approval / mailto.rejection generate text mailto links.

  • Both use the same inbound email approval mechanism.

  1. Why the approval isn't processed
    Opening the email client and sending the email is not enough. ServiceNow must receive the email and process it through an Inbound Email Action.

Verify
 

  • Email receiving is enabled.

  • The notification includes the watermark so the record can be identified.

  • The OOTB approval Inbound Email Actions are active and not modified.

  • The incoming email matches the inbound action conditions.

If the OOTB inbound email actions do not meet your requirements for example, because you have customized the email format or approval process you may need to create or customize an Inbound Email Action.

 

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yashkamde
Mega Sage

3 weeks ago

Hello @hamidouche ,

 

mailto.btn.approval / mailto.btn.rejection: Styled HTML buttons (visually prominent, for HTML emails) mailto.approval / mailto.rejection: Plain text hyperlinks (for plain text emails)

 

Yes ! You Need an Inbound Email Action -

When the user clicks the button and sends the email, ServiceNow's inbound email processor intercepts it and executes the approval logic.

 

In the script, parse the email.subject to extract the approval sys_id and the action (approved/rejected), then update the record:

approval.state = action;
approval.update();

 

If my response helped mark as helpful and accept the solution.

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