"From" field in internal emails

[fishkake]

Hello!

I'm building a database for travel authorization, which is (on request) ten times more complicated than it needs to be, but hey, I just work here! What happens now is that a user fills in a form, and closes it, and it sends a doc link to the first approver, and he approves it, then it sends a doclink to the second approver, etc. etc.

My question is, can I set the "From" field for these emails? I realize this is getting harder on the internet, but this only needs to work internally. I would really rather not send the form every time I send the email, if avoidable, but calling maildoc.From = "Travel Auth." doesn't work. I would like all the approval emails to show up as being from the Travel Authorization database. Can this be done? Surely!

 

[pmonett]

Why do you not leave the From field alone (since it is sent by someone and not automatically, hmm ?) and just set a meaningful subject ?
Like "Travel Authorization : requires your input" ?

The fact that an authorization request is sent by someone should not be an issue, it is part of the workflow.

Pascal.

 

[fishkake]

The problem is that after the first approver approves the request, it is sent to the second approver. The second approver then gets an email from the first approver, which then looks like the first approver is the requestor.

I already have a subject line constructed from fields, and if the requestor was always in the From field, this would be fine, but it doesn't look right coming from the first approver.

I would have thought this was easy to do! Another way I guess would be to create a new mail database for this purpose, but the volume of traffic really doesn't justify a new mail database (10-20 entries per month at most).

 

[pmonett]

I think you should set the subject line to clarify the issue.
Something like "TA : Final approval required" should do nicely in a two-tier approval system, no ?

In the workflow, the second-tier approvers should know they only get first-tier approvals, so I do not see where the issue is. Of course, if this is a user request, they I understand how hopeless your position is ;-).

There is a method for forging a from address, but I am loath to expose it here since it opens a whole other can of worms.

Pascal.

 

[fishkake]

If there's a way to forge From addresses over the net, then you're wise not to post it. But is there no way I can edit one of the 'display' fields on the form, just so it appears differently in the inbox view?

 

[pmonett]

Since the issue is for internal mail only, there is another solution. In Notes you have the possiblity of mailing any kind of data, thus you can send something that is not a Memo - which is the default mail form.
If you can get authorization for this, then you can have the IT department include a different form in everyone's mail template - call it TravAuth for example.
This TravAuth form could be formatted to show the person your workflow process needs to show, instead of showing the originator. Of course, you can still include a link to the TA db and keep the rest of the workflow as is.

In that way, you solve the issue of the name, and we both stay away from notions of "forging".

How's that for an idea ?

Pascal.

 

[fishkake]

I am the IT department!! Part of it, anyway...

That is a solution, most definitely, but it also involves a rather large change... We have some 1200 mailboxes running, and thats one hell of an upgrade just so that one database works! The problem is that only a select few people will ever need this database, but potentially everybody, so the only solution would be to upgrade 1200 databases when probably 20 of them will ever need it, which isn't ideal...

I've found a way to do it, which I will assume is the same as your way. It took a hell of a lot of work, but I found the alternative to the From field, by dismantling the Inbox view. I expected this only to work internally, but it works externally too, so I'll say no more.

Thanks a lot for your help mate!