Edit Data Connection

Arclab® Inbox2DB

What is a Data Connection?

A "Data Connection" is the connection from the data source (source email) to the target database:

data connection

The data from the source email will be extracted and exported to the target database.

If you have multiple source email formats, then you need to setup one data connection for each email format.

You can setup multiple data connection for the same email account (inbox) and select the messages for the connection based on a filter.

Edit Data Connections

Click on "Create Data Connection" to run the data connection wizard.
Click on the name of the connection or "Edit" to edit the data connection:

Edit Connection

Source (Email) Account

Click on "Data Connection Source" > "Account" > "Select Account" to select the source email account:

Select Email Account

Select the email account from the drop-down menu or click on "New Source Account" to setup a new email account.
(don't setup the same email address/account twice!)

The program supports IMAP and POP3 mailboxes including TLS/SSL encryption. If your mail server supports both, then you should use IMAP.
Make sure, you enter the correct account data and server type according to the information provided by your mail administrator when settings up a new account:

Select Server Type

Click on "Test Email Account" to verify the settings!

IMAP Source Folder (IMAP only)

New in version 5.0:
Click on "Data Connection Source" > "IMAP Source Folder" > "Edit" to change the IMAP Source Folder.
By default the program checks for new messages in the "Inbox" folder.
Enter a custom folder name if the program should check this folder instead.

IMAP Source Folder

Sample: If the program should process messages in the IMAP folder "Orders" instead of the default folder "Inbox", click on "Edit" and type in "Orders".
Click on "Edit" and leave the folder name empty or click on "Reset" to use the default "Inbox" again.

Select a Top-Level Folder:

Just enter the name of the folder, e.g.

folder

Select a Subfolder:

Please note: The hierarchy delimiter depends on the IMAP server. If you want to specify a subfolder try:

folder.subfolder
or
folder\subfolder
or
folder/subfolder

Select a Subfolder in the Inbox-Folder:

The folder name of the inbox folder is always "Inbox" even if it is displayed in your email program as e.g. "Posteingang (German)".
So if you want to select a subfolder in the inbox, enter e.g. "Inbox.Subfolder".

Inbox.subfolder
or
Inbox\subfolder
or
Inbox/subfolder

Message Filter

It's important to setup a message filter (e.g. "Sender Include Keywords) in order to process only selected messages in your email inbox.
Click on "Edit" to change e.g. the "Data Connection Source" > "Subject Include Keywords":

Edit Subject Include Keyword

Please use your normal mail client (e.g. MS Outlook), locate the correct message and take a look at the "Subject" and "From" (sender).

In our sample all messages which should be processed have the subject: Order Notification followed by a number, e.g.

Subject: Order Notification #345398754

The number is different for each mail, so we only use "Order Notification" as "Subject Include Keyword".

This means the program will process all messages with the keyword/phrase "Order Notification" in the subject. The keyword/phrase can be at any position inside the subject, so it would also work if the subject would be: "#345398754 Order Notification"

In our sample all messages are sent by the same sender, e.g.

From: support@arclab.com

Use e.g. "support@arclab.com" as "Sender Include Keyword" to include a single sender or "@arclab.com" to include all sender from the domain.

Only use the "Sender Include Keyword" if all messages (which should be processed) have the same sender.

Setup Message Filter

Use the "Subject Exclude Keywords" (Ignore message if the subject ...) to exclude messages based on keywords in the subject.
e.g. if someone has replied to the message you might want to exclude "RE:" (depending on your "Sender Include Keywords").

Save Processed Messages (Message Archive)

New in version 4.2:
Click on "Data Connection Source" > "Save Processed Messages" > "Change" to enable/disable the message archive for this connection.

Save Processed Messages

The program saves a full copy of each processed message in the "Data Folder" if "Save Processed Messages" is enabled.
This option is disabled by default for connections created with version 4.2 (or later).

Please observe the legal regulations of your country regarding the storage of personal data and the EU GDPR.

Data Connection Target (Target Database)

The program supports MS Excel, MS Access and ODBC as target database. ODBC allows you to use any target database for which an ODBC driver is available, e.g. MS SQL or MySQL. Click on "Data Connection Target" > "Target Connect String" > "Select Target" to select the target database:

Select Target Database

(Version 6.3++)
Check "Preserve existing Table and Field Mappings" to change the target database or the ODBC connect string without remapping the table or fields. This option makes it possible to change the connect string of the connection if the database (filename or user/pass) has changed, but the database table and fields have not.

Important: Add the column names and a sample record before when using a MS Excel file.
See: How to define "Column Names" and "Data Types" in MS Excel

A database or excel file can contain multiple tables or sheets, so it's required to select a table/sheet inside the target database.
Click on "Data Connection Target" > "Target Connect String" > "Select Table" to select the target table/sheet:

Select Target Table

Select the table or sheet from the drop-down menu and verify the field types. The program auto-detects the field types from the database.

If the field types seems to be invalid, open your target database (e.g. using MS Excel or MS Access) and change the field types before going further. Click on "Reload Table Columns" after you have fixed the field types in the database/sheet.