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About Email Conversation View

Campus Cafe offers a conversation view in emailed activities that gathers all messages in an email thread and places them in a conversation.

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Two way emailing/conversation view requirements

For two-way emailing to function, users must have their email address authenticated via SMTP Authentication or Multi-Factor Authentication for the messages to attach appropriately. Additionally, users must have their authenticated email attached to only one user account in Campus Cafe. Users can search for their email address in the all people finder to see all accounts with the specific email address, allowing those user accounts to be accessed and the email address removed.

Sending Emails

When adding an email activity to a student, there are two options Quick Comment and Add New:

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Quick Comment

Quick comment will add the activity to the student and automatically send the value of the workflow email body to everyone defined as a recipient in the workflow, including (if identified as a recipient) the tracked person, advisors, counselors, faculty, preferred parents, and any addresses listed in the “To” section of the workflow:

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Activities are defined as “quick comments” in the Activity tracking template detail page, by clicking the checkbox next to the Quick Comment field:

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Add New

If “Add New” is selected, the activity will be added but the user will need to compose the email

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Compose the message:

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This is utilized if changes need to be made to the email before being sent, or if an ad hoc email is to be composed, and no pre-defined email message exists in the system. When clicking the “Compose email” button, a pop up with a composition window appears:

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The tracked person’s email address auto-populates, but can be changed.  The email or emails defined in the “Send Email To” textbox will be the only recipient(s) of the email sent, and the only members of the email thread that is generated in the two-way emailing window. A “from” address must be defined from the drop down menu, and a subject must be entered.  The email can be populated from a saved template (not a workflow; one of the saved email templates from Admin Menu -> Saved Templates), or by entering data in the Body textbox.  The textbox can be resized by clicking the icon in the lower right hand corner of the box and dragged to resize.  Email templates can be edited in the body.  Currently, only simple editor format allows editing of the emails. Rich text format editing will be included in a future update. 

Email Thread

Once the email is sent, it will kick off an email thread that looks similar to the text message thread:

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Student replies will attach to the activity. The administrator who sent the initial email can reply from the Activity Tracking Detail page by clicking the “Reply” button and composing a response in the text box that appears OR by replying in from the administrator’s email, such as Gmail, outlook, cell phone mail app, or Office 365 Inbox; all will attach the reply to this email thread.When you send an email through Campus Cafe, the platform can store the message as well as any replies to create a complete history of the email conversation in one location provided the recipient continues to reply to the original email.

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Prerequisites

  • Your Campus Cafe environment must be configured to use SMTP authentication or multi-factor authentication.

  • Your Campus Cafe profile must include your email address. (Verify by going to the down arrow to the right of your name > Profile.)

  • No other Campus Cafe profile contains your email address. (Verify by going to Filters >All People and searching by email address.)

Required permissions

Module

Number

Description

Global

957, 1238

Create activity template for email

Global

928

Create workflow template for email

Activity tracking

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You must have access to the activity tracking member (category) associated with the activity template email

Create email activity and workflow

Typically, IT departments complete this step.

Creating an email activity and associated workflow provides your users the ability to select a pre-written email to send to a student or other party. The email could be blank to allow the user to write unique content every time or contain boilerplate text such as a brief paragraph inviting a prospective student to campus for a tour.

Regardless of the email content, at least one activity and associated workflow must be created in Campus Cafe to use email conversation view. At a minimum, you should create an activity with no pre-written content and your users can select this each time.

  1. Go to All Users > Activity Tracking Templates.

  2. In the Member dropdown list, select the category that best describes the intended use of the email then in Template Name enter text to describe your email.

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  3. Click Add.

  4. Enter a Description.

  5. Optionally, to allow users to quickly send a pre-written email without an opportunity to modify its content, select Quick Comment.

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  6. Click Save. This automatically creates a workflow to house the content of the email.

  7. Under Added Workflows, in the Work Flow Edit column, click the paper and pencil icon.

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  8. In Type, select Email.

  9. Optionally, select a Category to help you sort and report on emails sent.

  10. In Mode, select Email Sent on Add.

  11. Under Actions, select the recipient(s). Tracked Person represents the individual you’re emailing, typically an admissions prospect, applicant or student. When selecting Tracked Person, you must also select whether to email to their preferred email, non-preferred email or all their emails.

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  12. If you want a blank email that users can fill in each time, click Save and stop. Otherwise, continue to the next step.

  13. In Email Default Subject Text enter the boilerplate subject line.

  14. In Email Default Body Text enter the email content.

  15. Click Save.

Send an email

  1. Go the recipient’s Campus Cafe profile.

  2. Click the Activities tab.

  3. Click Activities.

  4. If the email has been set up as a Quick Comment, select from Comment the email and click Quick Comment. The pre-written email automatically sends.
    Otherwise, in Tracking Group Templates, click the magnifying glass and select the email then click Add New.

  5. The activity detail screen opens. Next to Email, click +.

  6. Click Compose Email and write your email. You must select a From Address and the Editor Format must be Simple.

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  7. Click Save and Send.

View email conversation

  1. Go the recipient’s Campus Cafe profile.

  2. Click the Activities tab.

  3. Click Activities.

  4. In the list of activities, locate the email and click the pencil.

  5. Next to Email click the +. To send a response, click Reply. Replies initiated through your email, such as Gmail or Microsoft Office 365 also appear here.

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