Set Up Email Notification

Integrating Prolaborate with the relevant Enterprise SMTP or O365 Outlook Mail authentication allows users to receive email notifications for their actions. This can be done by setting up appropriate connection settings to send email notifications to users for their actions in Prolaborate.

By default, email notifications sent to users are in HTML format. From Prolaborate V5.2.0 onwards, the administrator can choose the email message format, either HTML or plain text, from the Mailer configuration page in Prolaborate.

There are two approaches of Mailer configuration available in Prolaborate (from Version 4.3)

• SMTP Authentication (Click here)
• O365 Outlook Mail Authentication (Click here)

Prerequisites

• Administrator access is mandatory to configure the mailer.

Enable Mailer

To enable Mailer, navigate to the Mailer Configuration page by clicking Menu > Mailer Configuration.

Enable the Mailer Configuration from the top left of the page.

SMTP Authentication

SMTP is a protocol for sending email messages between servers. It is primarily for organizations using email servers having basic authentication.

When enabled, it lands on the SMTP configuration page by default.

Enter the following details,

Field	Description
Server	IP Address or Domain Name of SMTP Server.
Port	Port number of the outgoing mail (SMTP) server.
Encryption Type	Prolaborate Supports the following Encryption types, 1. SSL 2. TLS 3. Auto Note: Choose the Encryption Type as required based on the mail server.
SMTP Type	Enable the checkbox if your SMTP server type is MS Exchange or Office 365
Format	Prolaborate allows you to define the email format 1. HTML 2. Plain Text Note: Support for Plain Text is introduced in Prolaborate V5.2.0
Authentication Type	Prolaborate Supports the following Authentication types, 1. Base 64 2. Default Credentials 3. Plain Text Note: Choose the Authentication Type as required based on the mail server.
User Id	User Id of a user who has access to the SMTP server.
Password	Password of the entered User Id.
From Address (E-mail)	Email address from which you want to receive email notification from Prolaborate. Note: The domain of the e-mail should match the domain name of the server. The domain of the e-mail should match the domain name of the server.

Once the details are entered, click on Test Connection.

The details are validated in Prolaborate by connecting to the SMTP server using the details provided.

Click on Save. The changes are saved only if the details are valid.

O365 Outlook Mail Authentication

O365 Outlook Mail configuration using MS Graph is introduced for organizations using Microsoft Office-based email accounts. This feature supports Modern Authentication introduced by Microsoft.

Prerequisites

• Before configuring the mail authentication, the Admin must register the Prolaborate application in the Azure Portal and send a request.
• For the request received, the Azure Portal’s Super Admin should grant the required API permissions to receive email notifications from the Prolaborate Application.

Create New Application in Azure Portal

Let’s examine the steps needed to configure the mailer using O365 Outlook Mail Authentication in the Microsoft Azure Portal.

Open your Azure Portal and search for the service App registrations.

Select it from the search list and click on New registration.

Give the Prolaborate application a suitable name and select the required supported account types. Then, click on Register to register the application.

After registering the application, copy the ‘Application (client) ID’ and ‘Directory (tenant) ID’ and paste them in the respective fields Client ID and Tenant ID in the Prolaborate MS Graph configuration page.

Click on Client Credentials and create a New client secret.

Enter a suitable description and provide an expiry date for the client secret. Then click on Add to create a new client secret.

Copy the Value and Secret ID from the portal and paste them in the respective fields Client Secret and Secret ID in the Prolaborate MS Graph configuration page. 

Grant API permissions: Go to API permissions, select Add Permission, and click on the Microsoft Graph and the permissions for different types, as mentioned below.

API/Permission Name	Type
User.Read	Delegated
Mail.Send	Application
Directory.Read.All	Application

After adding the permission, Grant admin consent for the APIs, ‘Mail.Send’ and ‘Directory.Read.All’. 

Note:

• ‘User.Read’ API itself is sufficient for the Prolaborate to access MS Graph configuration. 
• To view the client secret expiry date in Prolaborate, all the three permissions must be given to MS Graph with admin consent granted to Mail.Send and Directory.Read.All APIs. 

Configure Mailer in Prolaborate

Now, open the Mailer configuration page in Prolaborate, switch to MS Graph Configuration, and provide the following details.

Field	Description
Client ID	Copy the Client ID from the Azure Portal and paste it into the Prolaborate field
Tenant ID	Copy the Tenant ID under App Registrations Section from the Azure portal and paste it into the Prolaborate field
Client Secret	Copy the value of Client Secret from App Registrations Section in the Azure Portal under API Permissions and paste it into the Client Secret field. Note: The Client Secret has an expiration date. Keep the valid client secret value for uninterrupted email service
From Address (Email)	Add the admin user email id in this field. The mentioned email ID is shown when you receive emails.
Secret ID	Copy the Secret ID under the App Registrations Section from the Azure Portal and paste it into the Prolaborate field. Note: This ID is used to show the Client Secret Expiry date in the MS Graph Configuration.
Client Secret Expiry	Shows the client secret expiry date in the MS graph configuration.
Format	Prolaborate allows you to define the email format 1. HTML 2. Plain Text Note: Support for Plain Text is introduced in Prolaborate V5.2.0

Click on Test Connection to validate the details entered. Prolaborate validates the details by connecting to the SMTP server using the details provided. The changes are saved only if the details are valid.

Once it is done, click on Save to save the configuration.

Once Mailer is configured, users will receive email notifications when they are tagged in a discussion or review or when they want to reset their password.

For example, users can reset their password by clicking the Forgot Password button on the login page, as shown in the image below. After that, they will receive an email with a link to reset the password.

If the mailer is not configured, clicking on the Forgot Password option on the login page will show the below error.