Defining a Message Source

Message Sources records define where Bulk Messaging may be run. Message sources must be configured for each service where messaging is required. Aptify provides a Message Source for the following services: Persons, Companies, Organizations, Employees, Orders, and Campaign List Detail. Additionally, message sources may also provide filters to limit the records which can be used for bulk messaging.

The bulk messaging icon appears in the view toolbar for a service if it meets the following two criteria:

• The service has at least one active and properly configured Message Source.
• The service has at least one email field (that is, a field with an Extended Type of Email). This can be a virtual field.

Follow these steps to create a Message Source to enable messaging for a particular entity that has one or more email fields:

1. Open a new record from the Message Sources service. 
   
    
2. Enter a Name and Description for the message source.

3. Enter the name of the entity for the message source in the Entity field.
   

   The entity you specify must have at least one field that uses the Email Extended Type.

4. Place a check mark in the Active box.
5. To apply a filter to the entity, enter the text of the filter into the Auto Filter field.
   • The Auto Filter appends a WHERE clause to the Message Source SQL statement so you can target email recipients.
   • For example, to filter the view so that only those records with an email address are included in the bulk message, the Auto Filter is set to Email1 <> ' '.
   • If your organization uses the Exclude from Email option on the Persons record to indicate that a person does not wish to receive email communications, you can enter a filter of EmailExclude=0 to automatically filter those people out of a message run.
     • EmailExclude is the field name in the Persons entity for the Exclude From Email option.
     • To combine multiple filters together, use standard operators. For example, to filter out blank email addresses and people who have opted out of emails, enter Email1 <> ' ' AND EmailExclude=0 in the Auto Filter field. 
6. Save the record.
7. Specify the appropriate Defining Messaging Fields.

Defining Messaging Fields

When configuring a bulk message, the user has the option of selecting to which email address the message should be sent. Messaging fields define the fields in the message source that contain valid email addresses. For example, in the Persons service, the fields that could be used as a valid "To" address for email are Email1, Email2, and Email3.

1. From the Messaging Fields tab of the Message Sources record, open a new Messaging Fields form.
   
    
2. Enter the name of a field that contains a valid To address into the Field Name field.
   • The name you enter must match the name of an email field (that is, a field with an Extended Type of Email) in the Entity specified on the Message Sources record's General tab. 
3. Click OK to save and close the Messaging Fields record.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 to define additional messaging fields.
   • Alternatively, you can click OK and New in Step 3 to save the current record and open a new Messaging Fields record in one step. 
5. Save and close the Message Sources record.