Send Emails with Attachments From FME Flow Automations

Introduction

Welcome to the final tutorial of the Getting Started with FME Flow series. In this tutorial, you will refine the automation from the previous tutorial to email an attachment to a user each time the schedule initiates the workspace.

Step-by-Step Instructions

An External Action will be used to send an email from the automation set up in the previous article. The email will include the AddressesToNotify Excel spreadsheet as an attachment.

1. Complete the Previous Tutorial

Before working through this tutorial, please complete the Schedule a Workspace to Run with FME Flow Automations tutorial to build the automation. Optionally, you can download and import the starting project. Please see the documentation for instructions. Note that if you are importing the project as a non-admin user, you will need an admin to grant permissions to the project and its contents before you can proceed.

2. Open Automation

Log in to FME Flow and open the Schedule Addresses to Notify automation that was created in the previous tutorial.

3. Add an External Action

If continuing from the previous tutorial, stop the automation first before editing.

Now, let’s hide the Next Action guides to clean up the canvas and practice adding components manually. To do this, go to Menu, then select Hide Guides.

With the guides hidden, let’s manually add an external action. Click on the plus sign (+) in the bottom left corner to open the menu (1). Click External Action to select it (2). Now, click anywhere on the automation canvas to place it.

To connect the external action to the workflow, click the Success output port (checkmark) on the Address To Notify run workspace component, then click and drag it to the External Action component input port. Tidy up the canvas (if desired) by moving the components in-line, similar to FME Workbench.

4. Set Up Email

Double-click on the External Action component to open the parameters. In the External Action Details dialog, change the Action to Email (send). After selecting the action type, more options will appear.

To send an email from FME Flow, you will need access to an SMTP email account. FME Flow includes common SMTP templates, such as Gmail and Outlook. Gmail will be demonstrated in this tutorial. If your email provider is not listed, you can manually enter the SMTP Server and Port.

Click the Load Template button, then select Gmail; this will auto-populate the SMTP Server and Port fields.

Next, enter your SMTP Account and Password and set the Connection Security. Typically, SSL/TLS is the default, but you may need to contact your email administrator or view your email properties to determine the security type. 

Then, set the Email To and Email From. The Email From field will match the SMTP account email. You can send the email to the same email address as the SMTP email for testing purposes. Now for the Email Subject, set it to:

New Addresses To Notify

Next, click the ellipsis for the Email Attachment to open the file browser. Navigate to Data > Flow Training > AddressesToNotify_updated.xlsx, then click OK.

In the Email Body, enter:

See attached file for new addresses to notify for water service.

Once the parameters are set, click Validate (1) to ensure that the email credentials are correct. A Valid message will appear at the top under Load Template (2). After validating, click Apply (3).

5. Start and Trigger Automation

Click Start Automation. With the automation running, we can trigger it now, so we don't have to wait until tomorrow to see if the email works. Open the FME Flow Schedule component and click Trigger to trigger the schedule.

6. Review Email

Open the email account that was set up in the Email To field. Confirm that an email was received with the attached AddressesToNotify_updated.xlsx spreadsheet.

Continue Your FME Journey

• Next Steps: Getting Started with FME Flow Automations

Interested in exploring another practical example similar to this tutorial?

• Send Email from Automations
• Run a Workspace in Response to Incoming Email

Want to continue learning FME Flow basics?

• The FME Academy is a guided, on-demand way to learn the entire FME Platform, and it's FREE!

Interested in data integration and workspace authoring?

• Tutorial: Getting Started with FME Form

Have a specific question?

• Reach out to the FME Community.

Data Attribution 

The data used here originates from data made available by the City of Surrey, British Columbia. It contains information licensed under the Open Government License - Surrey.