Email Object

You can send email from within a survey by using an Email node. The email will be sent to the specified address(es) when the respondent passes this point in the Survey. Note that the respondent will not automatically be informed that the email is being sent; you will need to copy him/her if you wish them to know. As with all the other New Objects, to create an Email node:

1. Click on the Email object in the New Object toolbox to select it, and drag and drop the object at the desired place in the Survey tree, or

Right-click in the Survey Tree at the place where you wish to insert the email object, choose Insert Inside or Insert After as appropriate, then select the email object from the drop-down list.

An Email object is created in the Survey tree, and the Email Details page opens - .



Figure 1 - The Email Details page for setting up an email to be send from within a Survey

2. Select the properties and options, and add the addresses as required (see below for more information).

Important
When adding a From address, if you add the wrong domain, a custom domain you do not control yourself, or a domain which has not been configured to allow the servers to send on its behalf by using SPF records, then you risk severely degraded deliverability, and negatively affecting the service as a whole.
Also, if an email sent by Authoring is automatically forwarded from one recipient’s inbox to another the email may not arrive at the second inbox, as the original DKIM signing and SPF records will not match the originating server.

3. Save the changes.

Invitation and Reminder Emails

The Invitation and Reminder Email folder allows you to store directly in the Survey the email texts and setups that will be used when distributing the survey to the respondents. All the emails you set up in the Survey will be available in Respondents > Emailing(go to Sending Emails to Respondents Overview for more information).

Note: Users logged on to Authoring with the Standard User permission have a different email setup interface (go to Sending Email as a Standard User for more information).

If you duplicate the Survey, the Invitation and Reminder Email folder will be included in the copy of the survey. It will also be included in the XML survey exports and imports, it can be included in libraries and templates, and it can be translated via Forsta Plus Translator (go to About Translator for more information). This means that email texts and setups can be stored and reused in all survey languages.

Note: You can also send email from within a survey using an Email node

To add a new email object to your Survey:

1. Either drag the “Email” object from the New Objects toolbox and drop it into the Invitation and reminder emails folder in the Survey Tree, or right-click on the Invitation and reminder emails folder and choose Insert email from the menu - .



Figure 2 - Inserting an Email object

A new email object is added to the folder and its Email Details page opens. To edit an existing email object, either double-click on it or right-click on it and choose Edit from the menu - .



Figure 3 - Editing an Email object

2. Select the properties and options, and add the addresses as required (go to Email Details for more information).
3. Save the changes.

Important
When adding a From address, if you add the wrong domain, a custom domain you do not control yourself, or a domain which has not been configured to allow the servers to send on its behalf by using SPF records, then you risk severely degraded deliverability, and negatively affecting the service as a whole.
Also, if an email sent by Forsta Plus is automatically forwarded from one recipient’s inbox to another the email may not arrive at the second inbox, as the original DKIM signing and SPF records will not match the originating server.

Note: If you have the system_api_access permission then the email object properties will also include the Activate Logging checkbox.

When you are using the WYSIWYG editor, you will be able to format the text by using the buttons in the formatting toolbar.

Properties and Settings

The various properties and fields in the Email Details page are as follows:

Note: Some of the properties on this page differ from those available on the Details page that is displayed when you are designing Invitation and Reminder email.

• Text Mode - the currently selected text editing mode. Click the Switch between ... button in the details page toolbar to change between WYSIWYG and HTML. The text editing tools in the toolbar above the Email Details page are active when you are in the WYSIWYG mode
• Id – displays the name/title of the current email object. The default values are “e1”, “e2”, etc. You can enter more descriptive titles if you wish.
• Deleted – will be selected if the email object is soft-deleted. If you uncheck the Deleted option, the email object will be undeleted.
• Read only – choose this setting if you want the email object to be locked so that no changes are made to it accidentally, either in Survey editing mode or when sending the email.

• Send as HTML – check to send the email as HTML code. Only mail clients that support HTML will be able to read the email.
• Send as plain text – check to send the email as plain text. Most mail clients will be able to read it.

The email object will have two text fields for each language selected for the survey; one for HTML body and one for Plain text body. You can choose to send the email in either one or both of those formats. When you choose to distribute the email in both formats, the mail clients supporting HTML will use the HTML version, other mail clients will display the text version.

• Disable email when moving backwards - check this box if you not want the email to be sent when the respondent is moving backwards through the Survey. If this box is not checked, then the email will be sent every time the respondent crosses the node.

• To - type into this field the email address to which the email is to be sent.
• From - the email address of the person sending the email (your email address).

Important
When adding a From address, if you add the wrong domain, a custom domain you do not control yourself, or a domain which has not been configured to allow the servers to send on its behalf by using SPF records, then you risk severely degraded deliverability, and negatively affecting the service as a whole.
Also, if an email sent by Authoring is automatically forwarded from one recipient’s inbox to another the email may not arrive at the second inbox, as the original DKIM signing and SPF records will not match the originating server.

• Cc - is an abbreviation for carbon copy. If you add a recipient's name to this field, a copy of the message is sent to that recipient and the recipient's name is visible to other recipients of the message.
• Bcc - is an abbreviation for blind carbon copy. If you add a recipient's name to this field, a copy of the message is sent to that recipient and the recipient's name is not visible to other recipients of the message.

• Default language - if respondents do not have any language specified in the respondent list, if their language is not activated, or if it does not exist in the current email, they will receive the email in the default language. If you set Default language to 'None', respondents who do not match any of the activated languages will not receive the email.

• Language fields - one pair of HTML and Plain Text Body fields is displayed for each language

• Activate language - use this field to specify which languages the email is to be sent in. If no default language is set, respondents who do not match any of the selected languages will not receive the email.
• Subject - the subject of the email. The text you type into this field will appear in the email's Subject field.

• Html body - Authoring can send Multipart emails, meaning that you can send both Plain Text and Html in one message. This then allows the recipient's mail client to decide which version is to be displayed. Use this field to compose the text of Html emails. If you want to send only HTML emails (not Plain Text), use only this field and deselect the Send as plain text checkbox. If you want to send Multipart emails, use both the Plain Text and Html fields.
• Plain text body - use this field to compose the text of Plain Text emails. If you want to send just Plain Text emails (not Html), use only this field and deselect the Send as HTML checkbox. If you want to send Multipart emails, use both the Plain Text and Html fields.

Note: You can use the same types of response piping in the address and subject fields and in the HTML and Plain Text bodies as in other types of question.

Fixed Sender Domain and Delivery Report Functionality

All Forsta SaaS customers have access to the Fixed Sender Domain and Email Delivery Report functionality. This functionality reduces the risk of emails being treated as spam, and gives users the option to see the status of sent emails through the Email Delivery Report (go to Email Delivery Report for more information).

This means that if you are working in the SaaS environment, you will by default have either the “@us.confirmit.com” or the “@euro.confirmit.com” sender domain in the From field when you send emails via Respondents > Emailing. You can manually override this fixed sender domain by typing another sender domain into the Email, but you should be aware that in these cases 1) incomplete Email Delivery Reports will be generated, and 2) the emails are more likely to be interpreted as spam by recipient servers because the sender email domain will not match the sender server domain.

When using the default fixed sender domains “@us.confirmit.com” or “@euro.confirmit.com”, you can still receive feedback from respondents when they reply to your email. To receive reply mails, you will have to specify a valid email address in the Reply to field.

Note that "Out of Office" replies will always be sent to the From address according to the emailing standard.

Note: Customers using Forsta SaaS environments who have specified their own fixed sender domains, will keep these domains.
On-Premise clients must license the Premium Emailing add-on to access this functionality. On-Premise clients should contact their Account Manager for further information.
This functionality will not work in Lotus Notes; only the email address will be displayed.

Important
When adding a From address, if you add the wrong domain, a custom domain you do not control yourself, or a domain which has not been configured to allow the servers to send on its behalf by using SPF records, then you risk severely degraded deliverability, and negatively affecting the service as a whole.
Also, if an email sent by Forsta is automatically forwarded from one recipient’s inbox to another the email may not arrive at the second inbox, as the original DKIM signing and SPF records will not match the originating server.

Read more about the Email Delivery Report functionality here