Accessing email object variables

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  • Updated February 1, 2024
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    Summary of Accessing email object variables

    This guide explains how to access various pieces of an inbound email through object variables in ServiceNow. The global variablesysemailis available for use in inbound email actions, allowing for efficient email processing.

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    Key Features

    • email.to: Contains a list of email addresses in the To: and Cc: fields.
    • email.direct: Lists only the email addresses in the To: field.
    • email.copied: Contains addresses in the Cc: field.
    • email.bodytext: Provides the body of the email as plain text.
    • email.bodyhtml: Gives the body of the email in HTML format.
    • email.from: Contains the sender's email address based on matching with user records.
    • email.subject: Contains the subject of the email as plain text.
    • email.recipients: Lists recipient addresses as a plain text string.
    • email.recipientsarray: Provides recipient addresses in an array format for scripting.
    • email.importance: Indicates message importance (High, Low, or empty).
    • email.headers: Contains details about the sender and routing information.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing these email object variables, ServiceNow customers can effectively process inbound emails based on various criteria, enabling automation and streamlined workflows. For instance, the recipientsarray can be used in scripts to handle each recipient individually, enhancing the system's responsiveness to email communications.

    An inbound email action script contains the email object to access various pieces of an inbound email through variables. You can use the global variable sys_email with inbound email actions.

    Table 1. Accessing email objects with variables
    Variable Contents
    email.to Contains a comma-separated list of email addresses in the To: and Cc: boxes.
    email.direct Contains a comma-separated list of email addresses in the To: box.
    email.copied Contains a comma-separated list of email addresses in the Cc: box.
    email.body_text Contains the body of the email as a plain text string.
    email.body_html Contains the body of the email as an HTML string.
    email.from Contains an email address that depends on the following conditions:
    • If the address listed in the email Headers field matches an existing user's Email address, this variable contains the user's email address.
    • If the address listed in the email Headers field does not match an existing user's Email address, this variable contains the address listed in the email Headers field.
    email.from_sys_id Contains the Sys ID of the user who sent the email to the instance.
    email.fromAddress

    If system property glide.email.inbound_action.extract_from_header property is set to true, origemail is computed from the headers. The default value is false if the property does not exist.
    email.origemail Contains the address of the email sender as listed in the email Headers field.
    email.subject Contains the subject of the email as a plain text string.
    email.recipients Contains a comma-separated list of recipient addresses as a plain text string, in the To: box.
    email.recipients_array Contains the recipient addresses as an array.
    email.content_type Contains the MIME content type of the email (for example,text/plain; charset="us-ascii" or text/html; charset="us-ascii").
    email.headers Contains details about the sender, route, and receiver as a plain text string in the format of the sending email client.
    email.importance Contains an indication from the sender about how important a message is. The value can be High, Low, or empty.
    Note:
    The instance follows RFC 2822 (Internet Message Format), which requires multiple email addresses in a group to be separated by commas, not semicolons. The instance can set the values of the email.to, email.direct, and email.copied variables only if emails addressed to groups follow the expected RFC format.

    Inbound email.recipient variables

    The recipients variables (email.recipients, email.recipients-array) allow processing of inbound email based on the email recipients. For example, you can create a script to process email based on the array values: 
    var rarray  = email.recipients_array ; for ( var i  = 0 ; i  < rarray.length ; i ++ ) { var recipient  = rarray [i ] ; // do something with it }

    The sys_email variable

    This variable lets you access the received sys_email record that triggered the inbound email action. It can be used to reference fields on the email record, such as uid, sys_id, content_type, and so on.