Displaying e-mail messages

The panel allows the evaluation of up to five different e-mail mailboxes. The access data for a mailbox are set using the PC Client software (see chapter 4.3.1. Introduction, installation and program start). The panel supports the synchronisation of mailboxes to mail servers using POP3 (Post Office Protocol of Generation 3) or alternatively via

IMAPv4 (Internet Message Access Protocol of Version 4). These protocol variants can be con-figured independently in the PC Client software for the up to five mailboxes.

The panel cyclically polls all the mailboxes using the set protocol and checks to see if new e-mail have arrived. The poll time (time between the cyclic synchronisation operations) can be configured for each mailbox in the e-mail settings of the PC Client software, allowing demand-orientated updating of the displayed messages on the panel.

In addition 'manual' polling of the mailboxes is possible directly on the panel (see section "Dis-playing e-mail messages" below).

i For the panel to be able to synchronise the mailboxes cyclically without faults, and thus re-ceive e-mail messages, the LAN connection (Ethernet operation) and, if necessary, the WAN connection (Internet) must be available without interruptions. It is generally advisable to have a suitable flatrate connection (e.g. DSL Flat) for synchronisation with Internet mail-boxes, in order to keep the telephone and Internet connection costs as low as possible.

The panel offers the option of information other devices, via switching objects, on the KNX/EIB about the arrival of new e-mail messages. In this way, display elements on user pages of the panel can be controlled, which then provide information on the arrival of new e-mail messages.

The "e-mail" parameter node of the ETS plug-in contains five 1 bit communication objects; one object per mailbox. As soon as the panel detects at least one new message in a mailbox, it transmits a "1" telegram to the bus via the corresponding object. This operation only ever takes place once for each synchronisation operation. The first time mailboxes are synchronised after a device reset, the panel always signals new e-mails, if there are messages in the mailbox, even if they are older messages.

The panel automatically transmits a "0" telegram about mailbox objects onto the bus, as soon as the panel operator opens a mailboxes via the "Mailboxes" system page (see picture 40), and thus displays the contents.

In addition to the communication objects, the panel also displays newly-arrived e-mails in a mailbox using a "letter icon" (42) within the mailbox buttons (see next section).

i The panel automatically synchronises the mailboxes for the first time 1 minute after a device reset (return of mains power, programming operation). There is no automatic syn-chronisation before this time has elapsed, meaning that e-mail messages are displayed after a delay after a reset (see next section).

Displaying e-mail messages

The operator of the panel can display the contents of their mailboxes on the device display at any time and thus read the e-mail messages. To do this, they must open the "Mailboxes" sys-tem page (see picture 40). It is possible to jump to this page by opening the page using a func-tion button.

picture 40: System page for mailboxes (41) Display name of a mailbox (specified in the PC Client software) (42) "Letter icon" to signal new e-mails in the mailbox

A button is displayed in the mailbox overview for each active e-mail in the PC Client software (see chapter 4.3.1. Introduction, installation and program start). The display name of each mail-box, as entered in the PC Client software, appears as text in the buttons (41) and thus clearly identifies the mailboxes. Mailboxes with new messages are indicated by a "letter icon" (42).

As soon as the operator taps a mailbox button, the panel switches to the inbox display page of the appropriate mailbox (see picture 41).

i Pressing a mailbox button for a long time (> 5 s) synchronises the appropriate mailbox with the mail server. This allows manual synchronisation in addition to the cyclic mailbox polling by the panel.

It should be noted that the synchronisation operation may take several seconds. For this reason, it is necessary to wait after manual synchronisation until the inbox is opened.

i Optionally, each mailbox and the main e-mail page "Mailboxes" can be protected by pass-words. Should password protection be required, then the password levels of the panel must be assigned in the "e-mail" parameter node in the ETS plug-in. If a mailbox is protected by a password, then the display page of the inbox (see picture 41) is only displayed if the password was input correctly.

The passwords can be set using the "Adjust passwords" system page (Service page ->

Area 3 <Administrator> -> Passwords).

i If the panel could not synchronise the mailboxes (e.g. connection fault in the network / there has been no synchronisation on the mail server or after a device reset), then the pan-el confirm the operation in the negative with an acoustic tone when the mailbox button is tapped. In this case, the panel does not switched to the inbox display page.

picture 41: Inbox display page of a mailbox (43) Message header of the e-mail

(44) "Read" button of an e-mail

An e-mail is primarily divided up into the two areas "Message header" and "Message contents".

The inbox display page firstly displays only the message headers to give the user a quick over-view and to increase handling speed. The messager header of an e-mail (43) is displayed in two lines on the display page. The subject of the e-mail is displayed in the first line. The second line contains the sender, the date and the time of the message.

The panel can evaluate and display a maximum of 32 e-mail messages in each mailbox. Up to four message headers can be displayed on each inbox display page. If there are more e-mails in the mailbox, then the additional message headers are displayed on the ext pages, which can be accessed using the "Forward" button. If a mailbox contains more than 32 messages, only the most recent 32 e-mails are displayed.

Pressing the "Back" button leaves the inbox and causes a jump back to the mailbox system page.

The message contents of an e-mail can be displayed by pressing the "Read" button to the right of a message header (44) briefly. Long actuation (> 5 s) of this button causes the panel to de-lete the appropriate e-mail immediately without displaying the message contents. This allows quick and easy removal of spam mails from the mailbox, for example.

After brief actuation of the "Read" button, the panel polls the complete mail from the mail server.

During this operation, which may take some time, depending on the size of the message con-tents, "Please wait, loading data..." is displayed on the panel screen. An hourglass in the centre of the screen also symbolises the wait operation graphically.

In Read mode, after a successful load operation, the panel displays only the message contents (plain text) of the polled message. No hyperlinks in the text are evaluated. The panel does not display HTML or RTF contents or e-mail attachments. Should an e-mail message contains only the elements just named, and no plain text, then pressing the "Read" button will cause the panel to activate the internal piezo buzzer briefly. The same thing occurs when there are no e-mails in the mailbox.

In Read mode, a maximum of nine lines of text are displayed on the panel screen. If the e-mail message contains more lines of text, then pressing the "Forward" button in the message text switches to the second page. If the text is longer than two pages, then it is cut off.

Pressing the "Back" button exits Read mode for e-mail messages. Tapping the "Delete" button causes the panel to delete the e-mail completely on the mail server.

i Caution: an e-mail deleted on the mail server by the panel cannot be restored.

i The following information should be observed with regard to the inbox protocol (IMAPv4 , POP3) configured in the PC Client software:

With IMAPv4, only the "Inbox" directory of the mail server is synchronised. The panel does not poll other directories. In addition, the panel cannot modify the directory structure on the IMAP mail server. With IMAP, the e-mails stay on the server. The panel only ever down-loads a copy of the message.

With POP3 too, only copies of the messages are downloaded. The originals remain on the mail server until 'Delete' is pressed on the panel.

i The panel does not support encryption of the communication ot the mail server (e.g. SSL).

i Newly arrived e-mails are not signalled on the screen for as long as the inbox display page is shown or Read mode is active. New messages are only visible on the screen with the

"Letter icon" (see picture 40) when the inbox display page is exited. The newly arrived mes-sages can be read the next time the display page is opened.

Irrespective of the signalling of new e-mails on the panel screen, it is possible to display newly arrived messages using the "New message" communication objects at any time.

General information on e-mail text display

The character set of the panel is Windows codepage-orientated. Incoming message texts are usually encoded as ISO codepage or UTF-8. The panel converts the incoming texts, including special characters (e.g. Ää Öö Üü ß) to the system character set selected in the ETS plug-in.

When an incoming character is not contained in the system character set, then this character cannot be display and is labelled with "?" in the device. This may occur, for example, when a panel is set to the Western European character set 1252 and e-mails are received from the Eastern European area (e.g. ISO 8859-2). As these two zones are not intercompatible, there may be characters which cannot be displayed.

Conversion of the character sets requires some time, meaning that short waiting times may oc-cur when reading e-mail messages - in particular e-mails contains a large amount of text.

4.2.4.13.3 Sending e-mail messages