Updating TrakIT by email

You can update TrakIT without signing in, by sending an email to TrakIT’s own mailbox. This is handy at a port, a depot or on the road: forward a delivery order to the work order, record that containers were discharged, or send a bulk update file from your phone. TrakIT reads the mailbox, does what the subject asks, and replies with the result.

This guide is for users who send these emails, and for the system administrators who set the mailbox up. It follows an email from the mailbox to the reply. The examples use the mailbox trakit@example.com, the job EXBL2610045 and the containers ABCU1234560 and ABCU2345677.

1. Find TrakIT’s mailbox

Each TrakIT installation has its own mailbox. A system administrator connects a Gmail or Office 365 mailbox on the OAuth inbox page, or TrakIT Support sets one up for your installation. Ask your system administrator for its address. A rate card’s Feeds tab also shows it, if TrakIT knows it.

Every 5 minutes, TrakIT reads the new emails, keeps a copy on the Emails Received tab of the Message log, takes them out of the mailbox, acts on the ones whose subject is a command, and replies. Allow up to 10 minutes for the reply. Because TrakIT empties the mailbox, it should be used for TrakIT only.

2. Send from your TrakIT address

TrakIT knows who you are only by the address you send from. It must be the Email on your TrakIT user (see User), and your user must not be locked. Otherwise TrakIT replies to a command with Sender email address ‘…’ not recognized. User cannot be authenticated. and does nothing else.

TrakIT then acts as you, with your access:

• The work order or job must be one you can open in TrakIT: its workflow must be one of yours.
• Each command needs the permissions listed in Who can do what.

The reply goes to the address on your user, with the subject Email Response. It starts with Your email was processed. Please see the result below:, followed by the result of your command.

3. Write the subject

The subject tells TrakIT what to do. It must start with the command:

Subject	What TrakIT does	See
TrakIT Upload and a reference	Adds the attached files to the work order or job.	Upload documents
TrakIT Save and a reference	Saves the text of the email on the work order.	Save an email
TrakIT Update, no .xlsx file attached	Records an event on the work orders listed in the email.	Record events
TrakIT Update, with .xlsx files attached	Applies the files as bulk updates.	Send a bulk update file
TrakIT Rates and a rate card’s code	Reads the attached rates into the rate card.	Send rates to a rate card
TrakIT Exchange Rates	Adds the exchange rates in the attached .xlsx files.	Send exchange rates

• Upper and lower case don’t matter, and extra spaces are ignored.
• TrakIT ignores FW: at the start of the subject, but not Fwd: or RE:. When you forward or reply, replace the whole subject with the command.
• The reference is the work order ID, the container number or the load ID; TrakIT Upload also takes the job reference. Write it straight after the command, with a space, and without spaces or commas inside it.
• A container number or load ID can be on several work orders over time. TrakIT takes the latest. To choose another work order, give its ID.

An email whose subject is not a command gets no reply. On the Emails Received tab, it shows Subject not recognized.

4. Upload documents

The forwarder sends you the delivery order for container ABCU1234560. To file it on the work order:

1. Forward the email, or write a new one, to trakit@example.com, with the documents attached.
2. Set the subject to TrakIT Upload ABCU1234560.
3. Send it.

Each attached file becomes a document, titled with its file name without the extension. Where it goes depends on the subject:

Subject	The documents go to
TrakIT Upload ABCU1234560	The whole job of the work order, under For Job on its work orders.
TrakIT Upload ABCU1234560 Noshare	This work order only, under For this Work Order only.
TrakIT Upload EXBL2610045	The job with that reference. Noshare is refused for a job: Cannot upload document for Job with ‘NoShare’ keyword.

The documents then appear on the Documents tab of the work order, as if you had added them there:

• They are internal: external users, such as the customer, don’t see them.
• They are not limited to any role: every user who can see the work order’s documents can open them. For a sensitive document, use Add Documents on the work order instead, and choose its Role Access.
• If the workflow’s document checklist has a File Name Expression that matches a file’s name, TrakIT links the document to that checklist item.
• The same limits apply as on the page: each file can be up to 20 MB, of the file types allowed on your installation, and a file with the same title, name and size as an existing document is refused. Your email service may limit the size of the whole email.

Images in your email signature arrive as attachments too. TrakIT skips small images whose names start with image0, but others are uploaded: remove images from your signature before you send.

The reply lists each file with Success! and the work order, or the reason it was not added.

5. Save an email or a thread

To keep a conversation about a shipment with the work order:

1. Forward the latest email of the thread to trakit@example.com.
2. Replace the subject with TrakIT Save and the work order ID, container number or load ID, for example TrakIT Save ABCU1234560.
3. Send it.

TrakIT saves the text of the email, including the earlier messages quoted in it, as a text file named Email_Upload_ and the work order ID, titled Saved Email Content. Like an upload, it goes to the whole job, or to the work order only when you add Noshare after the reference. The job reference can’t be used here.

Only the text is saved, not the attachments: send those with TrakIT Upload. With some mailbox set-ups, TrakIT keeps only the first 8,000 characters of an email’s text. The reply says Email content uploaded successfully.

6. Record events

At the port, containers ABCU1234560 and ABCU2345677 have just been discharged. To record it:

1. Write a new email to trakit@example.com, with the subject TrakIT Update and no attachment.

2. On the first line of the body, write the event’s name as the work order shows it: the name and any Specific Info / Suffix, for example Discharged or Arrived at Border.

3. On each following line, write one container number, load ID or work order ID:

   Discharged
   ABCU1234560
   ABCU2345677

4. Remove your signature, and send.

For each line, TrakIT finds the latest work order with that container or load ID (or the work order with that ID) that has the event, and fills the event with the date and time your email arrived, with the remark Updated via email. It records the change in the work order’s audit log and updates the work order’s status.

TrakIT only fills events that are empty or TBA: it never overwrites a date. It doesn’t change data fields, or closed and cancelled work orders. The event must also be one you may update: your role needs Update Events & Data, and the event must not be Hidden or View Only for your roles on the Workflow Access tab. Other checks on the event still apply, such as chronological order: if one refuses the date, the reply gives the reason.

How TrakIT reads the lines after the first:

• Empty lines and a line END are skipped.
• TrakIT stops at the first line with any character other than letters, digits, - and _, a space included, such as Best regards, Regards, or an email address.
• Any other word on a line of its own, such as Thanks, is read as a container number and reported as not found.

The reply lists each line with its result.

Result	Means
Success!	The event was filled in.
Event or work order not found	No work order with that container, load ID or ID has an event of that name. Check the spelling of the first line.
Cannot overwrite current value …	The event already has a value. Change it on the work order.
Work Order is cancelled, Work Order is closed	The latest work order with that container is closed or cancelled.
No permission to change	The work order’s workflow is not one of yours.
[ No data found or processed ]	No line could be read. Check that the event is on the first line and the containers on the lines below.
Invalid Email format	The body has only one line.

7. Send a bulk update file

To change many work orders at once, prepare an Excel file as for the Bulk Updates page, with the changed cells in yellow, and save it as .xlsx. Then email it as an attachment with the subject TrakIT Update. To ignore the event sequence as well, add IgnoreSequence to the subject.

TrakIT applies each .xlsx file as if Overwrite existing data were selected (see Options), and the reply gives the results for each file: Unchanged Values, Successful Updates and the Errors. When an .xlsx file is attached, the body of the email is not read, and other files are ignored. See also Can I send a bulk update by email?.

If the reply shows only Attachment Received: and the file name, with no results, your role is missing a permission: Upload and Overwrite Existing Data in the Bulk Updates section, and Ignore Event Sequence when the subject asks for it.

8. Send rates to a rate card

If your company uses Rate management, you can send a rate card’s rates by email: attach the .xlsx or .csv file and use the subject TrakIT Rates followed by the card’s code, for example TrakIT Rates VR-0012. Add replace to delete the draft’s lines that the file doesn’t have. TrakIT writes the rates into the card’s draft only if every row is right, and replies with a workbook listing each row. See Feeds on the Rate card page.

9. Send exchange rates

To add many exchange rates at once, prepare an .xlsx file as for the Upload Rates tab: on the first sheet, one currency pair per row, with the base currency code, the target currency code and the rate, and optionally the alternate rate and the rate date. Email it as an attachment with the subject TrakIT Exchange Rates. You can attach several files.

TrakIT adds each row as a new rate, with the same checks as on the page; a row without a date gets today’s date. The reply lists each file and, for each row with currency codes, Success or the reason the row was not added, for example Exchange Rate already exists for the day. As on the page, a header row shows up as an error that you can ignore. Files other than .xlsx are ignored; if none is attached, the reply says No excel files were attached with email.

Who can do what

Every command needs a sender recognized as an unlocked TrakIT user. Beyond that:

Command	Needs
TrakIT Upload, TrakIT Save	Access to the work order’s workflow.
TrakIT Update (events)	Access to the work order’s workflow, Update Events & Data in the Work Orders section, and update access to the event.
TrakIT Update (Excel file)	Upload and Overwrite Existing Data in the Bulk Updates section, plus Ignore Event Sequence for IgnoreSequence, and the work order permissions the changes need.
TrakIT Rates	Import in the Rate Management section.
TrakIT Exchange Rates	Create in the Exchange Rates section.

When nothing comes back

• No reply after 10 minutes. Check the subject: it must start with the command, with no Fwd: or RE: in front. Check that you sent it to the right mailbox.
• Not recognized. Send from the address on your TrakIT user, or ask a system administrator to correct it. A locked user gets the same reply.
• To see what TrakIT received and replied, a user with Read in the Message Log section can open Emails Received and select the email: TrakIT’s reply is on the right.