Send an email

The Send an email action A tool for building the processes, logic, and direction within workflows. sends a customizable email to recipients that you specify. The email originates from the workflow action, and you can customize:

  • Who receives the email.
  • What the email subject/message body is.
  • What attachments the email includes.
Important: 

The Send an email action may execute on servers running outside your data center Centralized locations used to house servers used by Nintex for remote storage, processing, or distribution of data. Nintex has a number of regional data centers available for Nintex Workflow Cloud. For information about where your data center is located, contact you Nintex account manager. region. Before implementing, consider performance and regional concerns where digital boundaries are an issue. The IP addresses used by SendGrid for Nintex Workflow Cloud are:

  • 149.72.132.168

  • 167.89.109.75

  • 198.21.3.35

To view video tutorials on how to use this Nintex capability, take the SELF: Introduction to Nintex Workflow Cloud course in Nintex University.
Before you start 

Variables allow you to store and manipulate data and files in your workflows. They can be created by start events, forms, tasks, workflow actions, or automatically created when a workflow is run. For more information, see Variables.

You can start a workflow whenever a new or updated file is detected (example: Box - New file), upload files on start or at any point in the workflow, generate documents from tagged templates, send and receive files via email, and manipulate files. You can set up file handling in your workflow start event The connector and event for triggering the workflow to run, including required configuration. An example is Box - New file, which triggers the workflow to run when a new file is uploaded to the specified folder. and actions A tool for building the processes, logic, and direction within workflows..

Note: Your tenancy's default file storage location must be configured to hold files for later reference by the workflow. This location is used for uploaded files and for files stored as output from actions.

  • Generate documents from tagged templates using Generate document
  • Send and receive files via email; for example, see Assign a task
  • Manipulate files in services (see Connectors): 

  • For example, store any email attachments received by the task assignee.

    1. On the Designer canvas, click the action you want to configure.

    2. Find the output field for storing the file or set of files.

      For example, to store attachments received in task assignee email replies when they may attach multiple files, use the Assign a task Multiple file attachments option for the Store output field.

    3. In the output field, select a variable or specify a file path: 

      • Select a variable. For outputs storing multiple files, select a collection variable. For outputs storing a single file, select a file variable.

      • Specify a file path. You can use any combination of text and variables, beginning with the root folder. If available, use the folder browse icon on the right of the path field to navigate to the folder and any subfolders that you want, and then edit the path as desired to include variables and different text.

      The availability of variable or path options for storing files varies by action. For more information, see Connectors and Workflow actions.

  • For example, reference the new Box file that started the workflow to attach it to a task email notification or reference an image received by the task assignee to generate an invoice document.

    1. On the Designer canvas, click the action you want to configure.
    2. Find the field where you want to reference the stored file select a variable or specify a file path:

      • Select the file variable associated with the stored file. For example, select the variable for the new Box file that started the workflow or select the variable storing Multiple file attachments output from a task action.

      • Specify the file path where the file is stored. You can use any combination of text and variables, beginning with the root folder. If available, use the folder browse icon on the right of the path field to navigate to the folder and any subfolders that you want, and then edit the path as desired to include variables and different text.

        Both a file variable and a file path are used in the example image below for the Dropbox Business - Copy a file action. A file variable is selected for Source and a file path is specified for Destination.

        The variables "CountryVariable" and "Program" insert the values into the file path as determined by earlier workflow logic (in this case, fields in a submitted form). For example, if the person submitting the form selects Australia for country and specifies Inspire2017 for program, then the resulting file path is "/SpecialProgramNDAs/Australia/Inspire2017NDA.docx."

Configure the send an email action

In the Designer page:

  1. Click the Communication action group in the action toolbox.

    or

    Find actions by browsing action groups or by typing an action name or function in the Search field at the top of the action toolbox.

  2. Drag the Send an email action to where you want to send an email.
  3. Click the Send an email action.
  4. Type the Recipient email addresses.
  5. Type the Subject of the email.
  6. Type the Message body of the email.

    7. For more options in the Message body toolbar, click (Full Screen).

For more information on the fields and buttons, see Send an email fields, buttons, and settings.

You can configure the Send an email action to retrieve one or more file variables from previous points in the workflow and send the files as attachments.

In the Designer page:

  1. Click the Send an email action.
  2. Click the File attachments field.
  3. Click + Variable.
  4. Select the file variable that you want to attach.
  5. Click Insert.

For more information on the fields and buttons, see Send an email fields, buttons, and settings.

Field Description

Variable types
Recipient email addresses Email addresses for recipients of the email message that the action sends. Use commas or semicolons to separate multiple email addresses.

Text, Decimal, Integer, Boolean, DateTime, Collection

Reply to

The email address the recipient responds to when they reply to the email address that the action sends.

Note: If you add variables to the Reply to field, the variable values must make up a single email address or the workflow will fail.

Text, Decimal, Integer, Boolean, DateTime, Collection

Sender display name

The From name in the email that the action sends. The sender display name is followed by the default sender. For example, if your Sender display name is "Marketing Team" and the default sender is nintex@workflowcloud.com, the From field in the email displays as: Marketing Team <nintex@workflowcloud.com>. If you do not enter a sender display name then the email only shows the default sender in the From field.

Text, Decimal, Integer, Boolean, DateTime, Collection
Cc Email addresses for the Cc line on the email message that the action sends.

Text, Decimal, Integer, Boolean, DateTime, Collection
Bcc Email addresses for the Bcc line on the email message that the action sends.

Text, Decimal, Integer, Boolean, DateTime, Collection
Subject

Subject of the email message that the action sends.

Text, Decimal, Integer, Boolean, DateTime, Collection
Message body

Body of email message that the action sends.

Button

Tooltip

Description

Bold

Apply bold formatting to the selected text.

Italic

Apply italic formatting to the selected text.

Underline

Apply underline formatting to the selected text.

strikethrough icon Strikethrough Apply strikethrough formatting to the selected text.
subscript icon Subscript Convert the selected text into a subscript.
superscript icon Superscript Convert the selected text into a superscript.
Open Sans Font name

Apply a font style to the selected text.

The default font name is Open Sans.

Size

Font size

Select the size of the font for the selected text.

Text color Change the text color for the selected text.
Background color Apply a background color for the selected text.

Insert/Remove Numbered List

Convert the selected text into one or more numbered list items.

Insert/Remove Bulleted List

Convert the selected text into one or more bulleted list items.

Styles Formatting styles Apply formatting styles from h1 to h6, or Blockquote to the selected text.
Align left Align the selected text to the left.
Center Center the selected text.
Align right Align the selected text to the right.
Justify Justify the selected text. The text is distributed evenly between margins when this is selected.
HTML View or edit the HTML version of the message body.

Full Screen

Display the field and toolbar buttons in a larger panel with additional toolbar buttons available.

Decrease indent

(Displays only in the larger panel that's displayed when Full screen is selected.)

Decrease indentation for the selected list items.

Increase indent

(Displays only in the larger panel that's displayed when Full screen is selected.)

Increase indentation for the selected list items.
Table

(Displays only in the larger panel that's displayed when Full screen is selected.)

Opens the Table Properties dialog to add a table.
Image

(Displays only in the larger panel that's displayed when Full screen is selected.)

Opens the Table Properties dialog to add a URL to show an image.

Link

(Displays only in the larger panel that's displayed when Full screen is selected.)

Add a hyperlink to selected text. When you click the Link button, the Message body window presents two additional fields relating to the hyperlink: URL and Text. Type the URL and amend the Text if necessary. Click OK to confirm the hyperlink for the text.

Unlink

(Displays only in the larger panel that's displayed when Full screen is selected.)

Remove a hyperlink. The unlink button becomes available after you click a hyperlink in the message body.

Text, Decimal, Integer, Boolean, DateTime, Collection

File attachments

Variables representing files to attach to the email that the action sends.

File, Collection