Configure email activity accounts

Configure email activity accounts
To support sending marketing emails for the store, we must use the Administration Console to configure outbound and inbound email activity accounts.
The inbound account is used to retrieve information about emails that cannot be delivered. This information is used for reporting purposes. When you configure the inbound account, we can set an option to Retry soft bounces from e-mail activities. As a result, the marketing services can attempt to resend these emails later.

Procedure

Open the Administration Console and select Store on the Administration Console Site/Store Selection page.
Click Configuration > E-mail Activities. The E-mail Activity wizard opens.
Complete the fields on the Outbound email Activity Account Configuration page with the information for an outbound SMTP account.

Option Description
Name Name for the account, for example, OutboundEmailAccount.
Description Type a brief description for the account.
Host Type the host name of the SMTP server to connect with.
E-mail address Type the email address of the outbound account, for example, YourOutboundMailName@ YourHostName.
Account Type the email account to use on the SMTP server. This entry acts as a user ID to connect to the server.
Requires authentication Select this option if the email account requires authentication before connecting to the server. If we select this option, the following field displays:
Password

Enter the password for the account.

Port Enter the port number on the SMTP host that accepts SMTP requests. The default is 25.
Commerce host Enter the fully qualified host name of the Transaction Server. Important: The fully qualified host name is the host name that is combined with the domain name. For example, if the host name is system1 and the domain is mydomain.com, the fully qualified host name is system1.mydomain.com. This requirement also applies when you configure the Commerce host field for inbound accounts.

(Developer) For WebSphere Commerce Developer, use the host name localhost.
Time to start delivery Enter the time at which the account begins mailing pending email activities. The date and time are based on the current system time for the computer where Transaction Server is installed. For the Hours field, valid values are 0 to 23 (use the 24-hour clock).

Click Inbound Acoount.
Complete the fields on the Inbound email Activity Account Configuration page with the information for an inbound POP3 account.

Option Description
Name Name for the account, for example, InboundEmailAccount.
Description Type a brief description for the account.
Host Type the host name of the POP3 server to connect with.
E-mail address Type the email address of the inbound account, for example, YourInboundMailName@ YourHostName.
Account Type the email account to use on the POP3 server. This entry acts as a user ID to connect to the server.
Password Enter the password for the account.
Port Enter the port number on the POP3 host that accepts POP3 requests. The default is 110.
Commerce host Enter the fully qualified host name of the Transaction Server. This name is for the computer that retrieves email associated with the email activity.Important: The fully qualified host name is the host name that is combined with the domain name. For example, if the host name is system1 and the domain is mydomain.com, the fully qualified host name is system1.mydomain.com.

(Developer) For WebSphere Commerce Developer, use the hostname localhost.
Retry soft bounces from e-mail activities Select this option to configure the automatic resending of the email to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. If we select this option, the following options display:
Number of times to retry soft bounce recipients

Select the number of times to resend email activities to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs.

Interval time between delivery and subsequent retry attempts

Enter the time, in hours and minutes, between the initial send time, and each subsequent attempt.

Extract bounce information only. Do not retry soft bounces Select this option to prevent the automatic resending of the email to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. If we select this option, the following options display:
Length of time after delivery to extract bounce information

Enter the time, in hours and minutes, between the initial send time, and the time when bounce information is extracted from the database. This extract happens only one time. Setting this time to an hour or more should be sufficient to capture the relevant data because any bounce information should be returned quickly from the destination email servers. Keep in mind that there is some minimal load placed on the server to extract this information. Therefore, we can defer the extract until such time that this database activity has minimal impact on the server.

Click OK to save the email activity configuration.

Related concepts
Email activities
Email templates

Related tasks
Improving Email activity sending performance
Configure the store to avoid sending multiple marketing e-mails to the same email address
Forcing email activities to be sent right away during testing
Viewing emails that were not delivered
Configure timeouts for SMTP connections
Manage message types
Configure outbound email notification messages

Related reference
Troubleshooting: Marketing activity is not sending email messages as expected

Option	Description
Name	Name for the account, for example, OutboundEmailAccount.
Description	Type a brief description for the account.
Host	Type the host name of the SMTP server to connect with.
E-mail address	Type the email address of the outbound account, for example, YourOutboundMailName@ YourHostName.
Account	Type the email account to use on the SMTP server. This entry acts as a user ID to connect to the server.
Requires authentication	Select this option if the email account requires authentication before connecting to the server. If we select this option, the following field displays: Password Enter the password for the account.
Port	Enter the port number on the SMTP host that accepts SMTP requests. The default is 25.
Commerce host	Enter the fully qualified host name of the Transaction Server. Important: The fully qualified host name is the host name that is combined with the domain name. For example, if the host name is system1 and the domain is mydomain.com, the fully qualified host name is system1.mydomain.com. This requirement also applies when you configure the Commerce host field for inbound accounts. (Developer) For WebSphere Commerce Developer, use the host name localhost.
Time to start delivery	Enter the time at which the account begins mailing pending email activities. The date and time are based on the current system time for the computer where Transaction Server is installed. For the Hours field, valid values are 0 to 23 (use the 24-hour clock).

Option	Description
Name	Name for the account, for example, InboundEmailAccount.
Description	Type a brief description for the account.
Host	Type the host name of the POP3 server to connect with.
E-mail address	Type the email address of the inbound account, for example, YourInboundMailName@ YourHostName.
Account	Type the email account to use on the POP3 server. This entry acts as a user ID to connect to the server.
Password	Enter the password for the account.
Port	Enter the port number on the POP3 host that accepts POP3 requests. The default is 110.
Commerce host	Enter the fully qualified host name of the Transaction Server. This name is for the computer that retrieves email associated with the email activity.Important: The fully qualified host name is the host name that is combined with the domain name. For example, if the host name is system1 and the domain is mydomain.com, the fully qualified host name is system1.mydomain.com. (Developer) For WebSphere Commerce Developer, use the hostname localhost.
Retry soft bounces from e-mail activities	Select this option to configure the automatic resending of the email to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. If we select this option, the following options display: Number of times to retry soft bounce recipients Select the number of times to resend email activities to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. Interval time between delivery and subsequent retry attempts Enter the time, in hours and minutes, between the initial send time, and each subsequent attempt.
Extract bounce information only. Do not retry soft bounces	Select this option to prevent the automatic resending of the email to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. If we select this option, the following options display: Length of time after delivery to extract bounce information Enter the time, in hours and minutes, between the initial send time, and the time when bounce information is extracted from the database. This extract happens only one time. Setting this time to an hour or more should be sufficient to capture the relevant data because any bounce information should be returned quickly from the destination email servers. Keep in mind that there is some minimal load placed on the server to extract this information. Therefore, we can defer the extract until such time that this database activity has minimal impact on the server.