Setting import mail project options

If you use a dedicated email address for customers to send issue reports to, you can import emails sent to that account to the Helix ALM project to track them as issues.

Helix ALM does not track bounced, automated, or mailing list generated emails as issues and deletes these emails from your dedicated account.

Helix ALM cannot determine which project an email should be imported into and cannot differentiate between personal and business email. Use a dedicated email account to ensure only emails that include issue information are imported to the project.

Issues added from email import contain the following information. The entire email is also added to the issue Email tab.

Part of email Added to Helix ALM issue
From user Found by customer
Subject Summary field
Body Description field
Attachments Attachments

1. Choose Tools > Administration > Project Options.

The Project Options dialog box opens.

2. Select Import Mail from the Issues category.

3. Select Enable importing issues via email to enable email import.

4. Select a Protocol to use to send tracked email. You can use POP, IMAP, or Exchange Online.

Exchange Online sends email via Microsoft Exchange Online. Additional configuration is required in Azure Active Directory before you can use the Exchange Online protocol with Helix ALM. See the server admin guide for information about setting up Azure Active Directory to use the Exchange Online protocol in Helix ALM.

If email tracking is configured to use the IMAP or POP protocol with an Exchange Online email address, we recommend changing it to use the Exchange Online protocol instead. Basic Authentication with the IMAP and POP protocols is deprecated with Exchange Online connections.

5. Enter the information about the email account.

  • Host — Host to import mail from. Enter an IP address (e.g., 123.34.5.26) or your mail server’s fully qualified domain name (e.g., mail.yourcompany.com).
  • SSL — SSL protocol to use to encrypt communication between the mail server and Helix ALM Server. You can use the Negotiate, STARTTLS 1.0, or TLS 1.2 protocols. Select <not set> if you do not want to use a secure protocol.
  • Port — Port number to use. The default POP port is 995 if you select an SSL protocol and 110 if you do not. The default IMAP port is 993 if you select an SSL protocol and 143 if you do not.
  • Username and Password — Leave the password field empty if a password is not required. Do not use the same username as the return email account configured in the Send Mail project options. Helix ALM can get stuck in a loop if an email account uses an auto-reply and you configure Helix ALM to send an acknowledgment after importing mail.
  • Enter the Return Email Address used by the Helix ALM Server to send tracked email. When a user replies to tracked email, the email is returned to the Helix ALM Server and then attached to the corresponding item before it is forwarded to the user who sent the original message.
  • Tenant ID — Tenant ID for the Azure Active Directory that Helix ALM is registered in.
  • Application ID — ID that Azure Active Directory assigned to the Helix ALM app registration.
  • Client secret — Client secret generated in Azure Active Directory for the Helix ALM app registration.
  • Azure AD authentication endpoint — Azure Active Directory authentication endpoint to acquire the appropriate token for each national cloud.
  • Microsoft Graph endpoint — Microsoft Graph API endpoint to access the Microsoft 365 platform.
  • Email address —Email account in Exchange Online that Helix ALM will monitor for incoming emails. This is also known as the User Principal Name in Azure Active Directory. This cannot be the same address configured for email tracking in the server admin utility.

6. Click Test Connection to validate the connection to the mail server. The Connection Test Results dialog box opens. If the test connection fails, you can copy and paste the text into an email or text file and send it to your system administrator for help. Click Close to close the dialog box.

7. Enter or select any additional options.

  • Time to wait for initial connection response specifies how many seconds the Helix ALM Server waits for an initial response from the email server. If a response is not received in the specified time, Helix ALM cannot import issues from the email server and reattempts the connection based on the Look for new emails value.
  • Time to wait for other connection responses specifies how many seconds the Helix ALM Server waits for connection responses from the email server after the initial connection. If a response is not received in the specified time, Helix ALM cannot import issues from the email server and reattempts the connection based on the Look for new emails value.
  • Look for new emails specifies how often to check for new emails to import. You can also choose File > Import > Perform Server Import to manually import email at any time.
  • Email an acknowledgment to the submitter automatically emails the issue submitter using the content of the selected email template.
  • Enter next sequence number in issue’s Reference field enters the next available sequence number in the issue Reference field. You can set the next available sequence number in the Issues project options. See Setting issue project options.

8. Click OK to save the changes.