Configuring the Email Monitor XML file

1. Open the xml file in Notepad or any text editor.
   
2. Define the value of the ServerURL tag as per requirement, for example:
   
3. Similarly define the value for Collection Url (including the DefaultProject)
   
   IMPORTANT
   – The values for both the ServerURL and Collection Url should correspond to the folder structure described before.
   – Make sure that the URL does not end with a forward slash “/”
   – User can define multiple Collection URLs in the config file.
4. Provide the value for AdminEmail. This email address is used as a mitigation, in case the desired functionality can’t be achieved using the address defined in Email tag (explained in the next step).
   
   

   Note: Only a single Admin email can exist in the config file.

5. “Email” tag is the main tag in this file that defines where the email would be sent. The emails sent to this address would be used to create desired types of work items. Configure the Email tag as required
   1. Email: Provide the target email address where the email should be delivered for work items creation/update. In case some criteria does not match with the desired values, the warning email would be sent at the Admin Email defined above.
      
      

      Note: Multiple email addresses can be defined in the config file.

   2. Work Item Type: Set the desired type of work item to be created. In the following example CategoryReference represents the internal category type of work items. Multiple values in this tag means that the relevant type of work item would be created depending upon the template of team project. e.g. If the team project is using CMMI template then the email would create a Requirement work item. Similarly, for Agile based project a User Story would be created and for a Scrum based project a Project Backlog Item would be created.
      
   3. FieldReference=”System.Title”: Tells what would be the title of the work Item to be created. The following example shows that the subject of the email would become the title of the work item.
      1. OnCreate= ”true” means that the title would be set from the email’s subject only for new Work Items.
      2. OnUpdate=”false” means that for existing Work Items, the Title field would not be updated.
         
   4. FieldReference=”System.Description”: Tell where to put the information from the incoming emails (i.e. in which property/field of the work item). The following example uses the Description field for this purpose.
      1. OnCreate= ”true” means that for new Work Items, the content of the email (described next) would be used to populate the Description field of the work item.
      2. OnUpdate=”false” means that for existing Work Items, the Description field would not be overwritten. Instead the update would go to the comments/history section of the work item.

   5. The later part of this field tells the composition of the description field. The following information would compose the Description field:

      1. Sender Name shown inside <> e.g.
      2. Sender Email also shown inside <> e.g. <alice.ducas@steveandrews.com>
      3. Email body added in a new line
         
   6. The final FieldReference=”System.History” is used for discussion emails that come after a work item has been created. Instead of overwriting the Description field, the subsequent email information is stored in the Comments field (internally called History). The composition of the History field is more or less the same as of Description field discussed above. Users are advised to keep the original settings for this tag.
      
   7. Following the successful completion of the configuration file, save and close the file.