Watermarks on notification emails
By default, a unique watermark label will be generated at the bottom of each notification email to allow matching incoming email to existing records.
Starting with the Jakarta release, randomized watermarks will be automatically generated for notification emails in base systems. The random character string succeeded by an underscore reduces the possibility of a watermark being guessed or coincidentally matching the watermark of an email from another instance.
Note:
If you are upgrading from a release before Jakarta, random watermark support is optional and requires the Random Watermark Support plugin to be activated.
Watermark format
The email watermark always begins with "Ref:" to identify the label as a watermark. After this identifier, the default label is 31 characters in length and consists of:
- A customizable prefix — The default prefix is MSG.
- An auto-numbered identifier — The numeric string identifying the source record, such as incident, problem, or change request.
- An underscore character followed by a random character string.
When inbound emails are processed, the system matches random watermarks to the appropriate source records.
Watermark configuration
Watermarks are always generated, but you can configure them as follows:
- Create a custom watermark prefix for each instance to prevent accidentally triggering events in the wrong instance.
- Use custom prefix characters after MSG.
- Hide all email watermarks globally.
- Omit watermarks from individual email messages.
If watermarks are omitted from email notifications, inbound email actions might not work properly. Without a watermark, the system processes inbound email messages as described in Criteria for matching email to inbound actions.
Note:
Email clients that use the plain text version of the email still show the watermark.