Send Information to Sharepoint via Email and integrate into a List

Question

I have an Idea but could not find out if it is possible. I will line out, what I want to do and hope that someone can tell me, if it is possible.

I want to collect structured Information from many people within but also outside my organisation (LAN). The Information is very easy Say X = ?, Y = ? to M = ?. The Idea is to send out the request via Email and let the people respond to a SharePoint Email Address (I know that there is the possibility for example for document libraries to receive emails). Now the trick would be to extract the Information automatically into a SharePoint list which I can use further.

Is that possible? I found some Information on InfoPath and Form Libraries but I can't find a concrete example where a Information extraction takes place from an Email content.

Thanks a lot for your help! Richard

Answer 1

I'd say create 2 lists, one for the email submission and another for the replies. The first list that handles the email submissions is going to hold all the information you want to tell your recipients. From there, you kick off a Visual Studios workflow that you deploy to your farm. In this workflow, you customize the Send Email From Address to the "incoming email" address to the second list. You then can take the replies and extract the information there. In summary:

• List 1 - Email Submission
• List 2 - Email Replies
• List 1 has a Visual Studios workflow assigned to it called "Submit Request"
• When a new List 1 item is created, the workflow uses the fields in the list item and puts it in your email inside the workflow.
• "Submit Request" workflow customizes the Send From address to an email address (i.e. [email protected])
• Set the incoming email of List 2 as that email address ([email protected])

You may be able to edit the from address using REST in sharepoint 2013 workflows. Check out this link: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/spses/archive/2014/10/24/you-can-t-specify-the-from-address-for-email-messages-when-you-use-the-quot-send-an-email-quot-option-from-a-sharepoint-designer-2013-workflow-action.aspx