Processing Large Numbers of Email Messages

How to Process Large Numbers of Email Messages

The sequence below follows the package shown in the video. The mailbox connection and the exact condition inside each message check are not opened in the recording, so those details are intentionally not invented here.

Step 1: Consolidate the repeated Office 365 jobs

The original design uses many similar packages. Each package connects to Office 365, applies one filter, extracts an attachment, and is configured to repeat every minute. Create one combined package instead so the mailbox connection is not repeatedly opened by every separate rule.

Result: the video opens one package named 003 Process Emails containing all visible routing branches.

Step 2: Start with Office 365 Email Loop

Add Office 365 Email Loop as the first action. The loop retrieves messages through Microsoft Graph API and supplies one current message to the package at a time.

Result: downstream actions can inspect the current message without reconnecting once for every routing rule.

Step 3: Check the current message against each rule

Add branches using Check Email Message. The completed canvas shows checks such as Reqnoorders, AP Age Debt, AP payment history, AR Age Debt, GLT, Order status, and Transactions APAR. The narrator gives the attachment name as one possible criterion; the recording does not open the exact expression used by each branch.

Result: a matching message follows the corresponding extraction branch, while the loop continues evaluating the package flow.

Step 4: Extract attachments into the branch folder

Connect each matching branch to Extract Email Attachments. In the inspected Reqnoorders action, Execution Result is Defined By Action, Message is #Message#, and Folder is \\fin-aptos\data upload\nep\reqs no orders. Use Attachment File Save Filter is False.

Result: the action is configured to save attachments from the current matching message into that rule’s network folder.

Step 5: Delete only after attachment extraction succeeds

The inspected extraction action routes On Success to [1]-Delete Message. The package’s successful branches converge on an action named Delete Message. Current Office 365 Email Action documentation also documents delete and move operations.

Result: a successfully handled message is configured to be removed so it is not collected again on the next scheduled run.

Step 6: Return to the loop for the next message

Connect the completed path back to Office 365 Email Loop. The loop advances to the next message and repeats the same checks and extraction routes.

Result: one package is configured to process the selected folder one message at a time. The video calls this batch processing, but it does not show a configurable batch-size or per-run message-limit setting.

Designing the Workflow for a Large Mailbox

• Reduce repeated connections: one loop package replaces many one-rule packages that reconnect on separate schedules.
• Process one current message: the loop supplies each message to the same set of checks and actions in turn.
• Separate retrieval from processing: Office 365 Email Loop retrieves the message; Check Email Message routes it; Extract Email Attachments writes the files.
• Change message state after success: the demonstrated extraction action reaches Delete Message through its success output.
• Keep mailbox size and run size distinct: the mailbox may contain many messages, but the loop handles one current message at a time. Neither the video nor current loop documentation shows a batch-size limit.
• Schedule the combined package: use the Scheduler at an interval appropriate for the mailbox and downstream work. The final schedule is not shown in the video.
• Review execution information: use the Execution Monitor and action logs while testing. Detailed action logging can create large files and should not be left on casually in production.

For an IMAP mailbox, the documented IMAP4 Email Loop provides the same one-message-at-a-time pattern. The embedded video itself uses Office 365.