Setting up the SMTP Adapter
This tutorial describes the necessary steps to connect to the Retarus Transactional Email (SMTP Adapter) for email traffic originated from Salesforce. This adapter setup will allow to create and submit arbitrary numbers of Salesforce-originated emails to the cloud service, which takes care of the whole SMTP based processing and reporting chain.
The Email SMTP Adapter from Retarus - takes care of all aspects of business email processing, including bounce handling, advanced security features, active reputation management up to cutting edge emergency fallback environments.
The implementation of the adapter consists of three main steps outlined in the following chapters:
Setting up the email relay
Establish an email domain filter
Testing the solution
Prerequisites
To perform the steps outlined here, the following prerequisites must be given:
Retarus Transactional Email Description
'Retarus Transactional Email SMTP' service is booked, provisioned, and activated.
Email service login credentials (user/account name and password) available
Target hostname etc. available
Account names here won’t usually be people names, but more something likelhsdf-SKs3EaaaaabEq3mHn_GehH3jD2s@mail-de.retarus.com:25
These credentials will be provided by Retarus
Adapter Setup
This chapter describes how to set up an email relay for Salesforce-generated mails by configuring Salesforce to automatically route outbound emails through the Retarus email services using SMTP.
PS, if emails originate from more than one domain, it is possible to configure multiple email relays, for instance one relay for each domain.
Open ‘Setup’
Select 'Email Relays' from the left-hand menu
Select 'Create Email Relay'
Configure the relay using the settings outlined below.
Setting | Configure | Description |
|---|---|---|
Host | t.b.a. | The hostname of the sending Retarus SMTP server for a specific sending domain. This information will be made available through Retarus in the service setup phase. Example |
Port | 25,576 or 2525 | The port number of your company’s SMTP server. Relaying of email is supported on port numbers 25 (preferred), 587 or 2525. |
TLS Setting | Required Verify | The Retarus service requires enabled TLS to operate. Select “Required Verify”. |
Enable SMTP auth? | ACTIVATED | In the Retarus environment, Auth Plain is used with User name and Password provided by Retarus. Make sure that the checkbox is activated. |
Auth Type | Auth Plain | Select “Auth Plain”. |
Username | t.b.a. | Specify the user name for relay host SMTP authentication. If “Enable SMTP Auth” is set to true, this field is required. |
Password | t.b.a. | Provide the password for relay host SMTP authentication |
Confirm password | t.b.a. | Confirm your password |
Next, we establish an email domain filter which determines whether an email relay is restricted to specific domains. We configure the filter for the relay we established in the last chapter.
Select 'Email Domain Filter'
Select From setup menu: email → email delivery settings → email domain filters
Select 'Create Email Domains Filter'
and configure according to the table below
Setting | Description |
|---|---|
Sender Domain | Restricts the email relay to sending emails based on the listed sender domains. This field accepts comma-separated values and supports the wildcard character * (default). |
Recipient Domain | Restricts the email relay to sending emails based on the listed recipient domains. This field accepts comma-separated values and supports the wildcard character * (default) |
Email Relay | Select here the email relay for the domain filter, which was created before. |
Active | Enables or disables the domain filter. For the Retarus adapter described here, activate the filter. |
It’s surely good advice to discuss the best definition of domain filters, in particular the usage of wildcards, ahead of the go-live. Don’t hesitate to discuss this subject with your Retarus representatives, too.
Finally, save the page.
Once the email relay is enabled in Salesforce, companies do not necessarily need all the Salesforce Email Deliverability settings located in Setup, e. g. Bounce Management with Email Relay.
Some of these settings modify the envelope-From address of emails sent from Salesforce. The header From address remains set to the sender’s email address. The return-path in the headers is also modified. This change in the email headers may affect email delivery to your email server, as the modified return-path includes a Variable Envelope Return Path value (VERP).
Example of a standard return-path: name@domain.com
Example of a VERP return-path: <name@domain.com__x@x.bnc.salesforce.com>
Select 'Deliverability'
Select from setup menu Email → Deliverability
Configure Deliverability options
Disable the following two email deliverability options when using email relay with Retarus:
Turn off “Activate Bounce Management” as the Sender Domain will be overwritten and therefore no accepted at Retarus Transactional Email
Turn off “Enable compliance with standard email security mechanisms”
Turn on “Configure TLS settings for outbound emails” with “Required Verify”
Once the email relay is enabled in Salesforce, companies do not necessarily need all the Salesforce Email Deliverability settings located in Setup, e. g. Bounce Management with Email Relay.
Some of these settings modify the envelope-From address of emails sent from Salesforce. The header From address remains set to the sender’s email address. The return-path in the headers is also modified. This change in the email headers may affect email delivery to your email server, as the modified return-path includes a Variable Envelope Return Path value (VERP).
Example of a standard return-path: name@domain.com
Example of a VERP return-path: <name@domain.com__x@x.bnc.salesforce.com>
Select 'Deliverability'
Select from setup menu Email → Deliverability
Configure deliverability options
Disable the following two email deliverability options when using email relay with Retarus:
Turn off “Activate Bounce Management” as the Sender Domain will be overwritten and therefore no accepted at Retarus Transactional Email.
Turn off “Enable compliance with standard email security mechanisms”.
Turn on “Configure TLS settings for outbound emails” with “Required Verify”.
After disabling the settings, outbound email sent from Salesforce to your relay server will show both envelope-from and return-path as name@domain.com.
Disable enhanced email
Do to the fact, that Salesforce is rewriting the Email From Address for Open and Link Tracking, Enhanced Email has to be disabled.
To verify the configured adaptor, we set up a little test scenario and send perform a test email transmission.
Test setup
In order to test the adapter, we
create a new account
create a new contact
send a mail to the contact from the contacts page
We assume familiarity with the process of creating an account and a contact with email address in Salesforce. We will skip most of the details here. Please refer to the official Salesforce documentation or help base in case of anyquestions.
Expected results
After a successful mail transmission, we should see an acknowledgment directly in the contactspage - mail summary.
Add test account
Add test contact with an email address
Create a test contact with an email address.
Write and send email from the contacts page
Check email transmission in Salesforce
Successfully sent emails will be listed in your email summary.
EAS Portal
To check and monitor the email traffic, we go to the Enterprise Administration Services Portal.
Visit: https://myeas.retarus.com/ and log in with your EAS admin account credentials.
Do not confuse the EAS login with either SMTP server credentials nor Transactional Email account ID’s. Service stakeholders and administrators obtain an EAS user account in the setup phase from retarus or their own respective admins.
Please note that the availability of reporting or tracking views in EAS and myEAS depends on certain rights, which must be assigned to your EAS user login. In case you miss something, please contact your administrator and check your portal user security level.
The EAS provides access to configuration options as well as reporting and tracking overviews.
In the top menu, select "Transactional Email" and in the left-hand menu, "Reporting." You should be able to find and investigate the emails sent from your Salesforce tenant.