Which is the best practice to send and receive emails?

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1

Hello Guys,

What is the best practice to Read and Send Emails? Can you please give us your thoughts?

Option - 1
IMAP - To Get Email
SMTP - To Send Email

Option - 2

OUTLOOK - To Get Email
OUTLOOK - To Send Email

2

Both are best options.

But in 2nd option, there is a dependency on outlook application it should be always running.

1 Like
3

If outlook is up and running condition, what would you choose…

4

2nd option, it is easy to use.

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5

hey @siva.s !! Depends on your goal! Take a look!

  • SMTP – It is short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and is a basic protocol that only allows sending messages
  • POP3 – It stands for Post Office Protocol and is an older version of a protocol for reading messages. Although this protocol is almost obsolete, most mail servers supports it.
  • IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol only helps to receive messages and also provides additional features such as “ Read ” and “ Move” emails between folders.
  • Exchange - This is a Microsoft Enterprise email solution which is integrated within UiPath flawlessly and allows the user to perform multiple actions such as Send, Delete, Move , and Get Email messages.
  • Outlook – This activity uses the API of the desktop application and hence does not require to set up users, servers, or other advanced details. This activity integrates Outlook API such that UiPath can use the already logged-in Outlook account.

Hope it help!

6

Hi @siva.s !
For option 1:
if you use SMTP, a best practise is to secure your passwords (windows locker, orchestrator, etc) so you don’t write your mail and password in the code (or in a file). You will need to know the port number, server name and type of connection.

For option 2:
If you have Outlook already set up on your production environment, then you should use it ! You don’t even need credentials.

If you want to choose between these two options, I suggest you as @Yogesh1 did to use Outlook activities. You have these two options in case one of them does not work for you (security policy, technical settings not up to, etc), but the easiest to use is Outlook.

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8

Hey, @siva.s,

We suggest using activities that best fit your needs.

There are 4 things to consider when you choose your Mail Activities are:

  • Mail Server you are automating
  • Attended / Unattended & Cloud/On-Prem
  • Authentication type and security implied by the customer policies.
  • Scenario to automate

We suggest using the New Outlook Activities from Microsoft Office 365 Package with Integration Service Connections or Gmail Activities from Google Workspace Activities (GSuite) Package as they have the latest features.
These can work on Studio, StudioWeb, Windows and Cross-Platform.

If you can’t use these, consider Outlook Activities and, after, IMAP/SMTP/POP3 activities, as those offer limited capabilities.