Configuring MainBoss Service

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You configure MainBoss Service by clicking the Edit settings button in Administration | MainBoss Service. The Edit settings button is only enabled when MainBoss Service has been installed.

In order to configure MainBoss Service, the service must be stopped. This will be true the first time you configure MainBoss Service. If you want to change the configuration later on, you must click Stop Service in Administration | MainBoss Service before you can reconfigure.

Configuring MainBoss Service requires that you specify a mailbox where people can send problem reports. You must also specify how MainBoss Service can send and receive messages from that mailbox.

• Messages are sent using a technique called SMTP.
• Messages are received (read) using one of two techniques: POP3 or IMAP4. We recommend that you use POP3 unless your site has a reason for preferring IMAP4. (For MainBoss's purposes, POP3 is more efficient than IMAP4.)
  
  There are several versions of both POP3 and IMAP4. We do not recommend plain POP3 or IMAP4; these techniques transmit passwords in unencrypted form, making them insecure. POP3S and IMAP4S are secure enhancements of POP3 and IMAP4 that use encryption. TLS (Transport Level Security) offers a different approach to POP3 and IMAP4, also using encryption to obtain secure communications.
  
  Which version should you use? It depends on your e-mail software. Different e-mail packages accept different techniques. If you don't know what your software accepts, we recommend trial and error in this order: TLS within POP3; POP3S; TLS within IMAP4; IMAP4S; POP3; IMAP4. As noted previously, POP3 and IMAP4 are not recommended—only use them if your e-mail software is too old to accept any of the secure techniques.

For more information on SMTP, POP3 and IMAP, see the documentation for your e-mail software.

To configure MainBoss Service, click Edit settings in Administration | MainBoss Service. MainBoss opens a window that contains the following:

Incoming Mail section: Controls how MainBoss Service processes requests sent in by e-mail.

Incoming mail server type: Choose one of the options listed.

Incoming mail server: The name of the computer that receives your incoming mail. For example, if you're running Microsoft Exchange, this is usually the name of your Exchange server. This machine must allow mail access through POP3 or IMAP4.

Incoming mail server port: The port used by the mail server. When you select an option under "Incoming mail server type", MainBoss automatically sets the port to the standard default:

• For POP3 and TLS within POP3: 110
• For POP3S: 995
• For IMAP4 and TLS within IMAP4: 143
• For IMAP4S: 993

Note: Getting the port numbers wrong is the most common source of errors when configuring MainBoss Service.

Username: The name of the e-mail account to which requests will be sent. For example, if users send mail to workreqs@yourcompany.com, the Username would be workreqs.

Password: The password (if any) for the specified Username.

Mailbox (IMAP4 only): The name of the mailbox, if you're using any version of IMAP4. The default is inbox.

Although the IMAP4 standard calls this the mailbox, most people would likely call this value a folder name. In general, the only time a value should be entered here is if incoming request e-mails somehow end up stored in a different folder from the default. (This can happen if you're using server-side rules to sort incoming mail into folders.)

Process E-mail Interval: Dictates how often MainBoss Service will check for new incoming messages. By default, this is 0:30 (every 30 minutes).

Automatically create new requestors: If this is checkmarked, MainBoss Service will automatically create new entries in the Requestors table (Coding Definitions | Requests | Requestors) whenever an e-mail message is received from someone who isn't currently on the list.

Remember that your MainBoss Requests license may place limits on the total number of requestors allowed in the Requestors table.

Outgoing Mail section: Controls how MainBoss Service sends out e-mail (acknoweldgements to requestors and notifications to assignees).

Return E-mail address: The return e-mail address to be placed on acknowledgements and notifications (i.e. the address that will be used if the recipient wants to reply). This should be the e-mail address of a person in the maintenance department who can personally handle responses from clients.

Important: The "Return E-mail address" should not be the same as the mailbox to which users mail requests. If it is, you'll run into trouble if a requestor has an auto-reply set up, such as "Hi, I've gone on vacation and won't be answering my e-mail." What happens is this: if MainBoss Service sends an acknowledgement to the user, the auto-reply replies to the MainBoss Service mailbox; MainBoss Service thinks this is a new request, so sends an acknowledgement to the requestor; the requestor's auto-reply sends another reply to MainBoss Service; MainBoss Service sends another acknowledgement; and so on, until someone runs out of disk space. The way to avoid this is to set "Return E-mail address" to refer to a human being (who can be smart about dealing with auto-replies).

Return E-mail Display Name: The name to be associated with "Return E-mail Address".

Send E-mail notifications as HTML: If this is checkmarked, MainBoss Service sends notifications in HTML format. Otherwise, notifications are sent as plain text.

MainBoss Remote URL for E-mail notifications: If you have a Web Access license, MainBoss Service can add HTML links to notifications that will let users jump from the notification e-mail directly to a web page displaying an associated request or work order. In order to do this, you have to specify the URL of the web site that you use for MainBoss's Web Access. For example, you might set "MainBoss Remote URL for E-mail notifications" to

http://ourcompany.com/MainBossRemote

Notification Interval: Dictates how often MainBoss Service will check to see if notifications should be sent. By default, this is 0:10 (every 10 minutes).

Outgoing SMTP mail server: The name of the computer that will handle MainBoss Service's outgoing mail. Normally, this is the same as "Incoming mail server", but it doesn't have to be.

Outgoing SMTP port: The port used by the SMTP mail server. This is usually port 25.

Use SSL encryption for outgoing SMTP connection: If this box is checkmarked, MainBoss Service will use SSL encryption when sending out mail (to requestors).

Outgoing SMTP server authentication: The options in this area determine what kind of authentication (if any) MainBoss Service will use when sending out mail.

Anonymous: If this option is selected, MainBoss Service will not use authentication (mail is sent without going through any identification process).

Use the default network credential: If this option is selected, MainBoss Service uses whatever authentication is provided by the network as the default.

Using the specified SMTP domain, username and password: Choosing this option indicates that your SMTP server requires a domain, username, and password in order to send out mail. The fields below specify the required information:

Outgoing SMTP Domain: The domain that MainBoss Service should specify when sending out mail.

Outgoing SMTP Username: The username that MainBoss Service should specify when sending out mail.

Outgoing SMTP Password: The password for the given username.

Notification Preferences section: Controls how the format that MainBoss Service uses when sending out notifications.

Requestors subsection: Preferences for formatting e-mail acknowledgements sent to requestors.

Subject Prefix: A character string to be used at the beginning of the e-mail message's subject line.

Message Introduction: A character string to serve as the first line of the e-mail message itself.

Request Assignees subsection: Preferences for formatting e-mail notifications sent to people assigned to requests.

Subject Prefix: A character string to be used at the beginning of the e-mail message's subject line.

Message Introduction: A character string to serve as the first line of the e-mail message itself.

Work Order Assignees subsection: Preferences for formatting e-mail notifications sent to people assigned to work orders.

Subject Prefix: A character string to be used at the beginning of the e-mail message's subject line.

Message Introduction: A character string to serve as the first line of the e-mail message itself.

Purchase Order Assignees subsection: Preferences for formatting e-mail notifications sent to people assigned to purchase orders.

Subject Prefix: A character string to be used at the beginning of the e-mail message's subject line.

Message Introduction: A character string to serve as the first line of the e-mail message itself.

Save & Close: Saves the current information and closes the editor window.

Cancel: Closes the window without saving any changes you've made to the record since the last time you saved. When you Save the record, the Cancel button changes to Close, indicating that you can safely close the window without losing any changes.

Close: Closes the window. This button only appears after you've saved changes with Save or before you've entered any data at all. Otherwise, the button is labeled Cancel.

For more on MainBoss Service, see The MainBoss Service Module.

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