Introducing the all-new email parser!

Introducing the all-new email parser!

Greetings,
 
We are pleased to introduce to you, a brand-new, upgraded version of the Zoho CRM Email Parser, which is packed with fresh features and has been completely redesigned to meet latest customers needs and their business requirements.
 
On that note, the Old Email Parser will reach end-of-life on June 1, 2023. After EOL, old email parser will not be available in your CRM account. In the spirit of preparing for this deprecation, we encourage all of you to try the all-new email parser at the earliest. In this post, we will discuss key pointers on the following:
— the improvements made in the New Email Parser
— how to prepare for deprecation of the Old Email Parser

What is the email parser?

Email parser is a data extraction tool in Zoho CRM that helps an organization in various business functions such as lead generation and information updates. It is designed to automate the process of adding records to Zoho CRM by extracting information from incoming emails.
Now, let's have a detailed look at the functionalities that we have brought with this enhancement. 

Enhancements in the New Email Parser

The following are the enhancements you can now see when you switch to the latest version of the email parser:

1. Single parser email ID for all parser rules  

Previously, for each parser rule there was a different parser address. It was often tedious to assign and keep track of a new parser ID for each individual vendors. The logistics involved in tracking and maintaining these parser IDs was itself often time-consuming. However, in the new version of the email parser, there's only a single, common parser email ID for all rules, meaning that regardless of how many vendors you're working with or how many rules you create, you can use one parser ID for all. This makes working with the email parser much easier and cuts down your setup and maintenance time significantly.


Also, a maximum of five approved parser addresses can be set up in common for all rules early on during the configuration.

2. A more powerful and intuitive configuration interface  

In the latest version of email parser, the entire configuration interface allows free parsing and is highly intuitive, powerful, and, most importantly, user-friendly—unlike the previous version, which demanded rigid adherence to delimiters. 


The email parser interface automatically gives you a preview of the parsed data on the same screen where the field mapping occurs, so it's easier to get a snapshot of all the fields that are being parsed.

There's also an advanced configuration tab which involves options for filtering emails applicable to the parser based on criteria and associating automated actions, such as sending for approval, updating fields, and assigning records to certain users based on assignment rules.

You can also parse HTML emails directly, as opposed to converting them to plain text emails first—which was necessary for the old parser. You can also create email parser rules for each layout in a module.

3. Custom functions: Configure the email parser without associating a module

The new email parser now supports the execution of custom functions based on parsed data. In this case, the parser rule is not associated with a particular module. Using custom functions helps you with extensibility and interoperability in Zoho CRM. You can extend the email parser function to more than one module within Zoho CRM, and even to connect with other Zoho services. You can also perform ad hoc actions in third-party applications based on the parsed data.

  • For example, let's say that based on an incoming email inquiry, a property management company called Zylker wishes to update both Contact and Account records in CRM. The email sender's name, phone number, and address will go to the Contacts module, whereas their company information will go to the Accounts module.
  • Let's say also that the same company has another requirement: Based on an incoming email from a customer regarding the status of their property, they want to update corresponding information on a third-party listing website automatically. They can achieve this by using the email parser to execute custom functions.
Once you have the required custom functions written, you can associate them to the parser rule and have the action executed for subsequent incoming emails.

4. Update records and send them for approval

Update Record is a function by which you can update the latest information on a record from an incoming parsed email.

For example, say you receive an incoming email from a prospect named Jane Evans. Normally, a new lead record would be created for a new inquiry email, but if Jane is already in the CRM system, you want the CRM to update Jane's information on the same record as opposed to creating a duplicate record. If this is your expectation, you can check the Update Record option in the parser rule's Advanced Configuration settings.
 
Note: CRM will use the email field to detect duplicate records. For the Update Record option to show up, you must have first mapped the "Email" field from the email content, which serves as the primary identifier, or a "unique field" for a record.
 
You can also choose the Send for Approval option—in which case, records parsed via email parser need to be reviewed and approved from the Waiting for Approval tab in the selected module in order to become a part of the CRM system.

5. Informative parser reports 

In the new version of the email parser, you're presented with accurate, detailed insights on the number of emails being parsed per rule, the fields extracted, and a list of customized actions associated with the records the parser has created. This detail summary gives you a clear picture of how effective your rules have been and indicates the revisions you may need to make to those rules based on those insights.
 
Detailed weekly performance reports can be sent to the creator of these rules or a custom email ID. Email reports are also sent upon record creation failure so that the appropriate users can take immediate action.


6. Reorder and filter  

You now have an option to reorder the list of parser rules based on your preferred order. This is important because the email parser system is designed to execute only the very first rule whose criteria an incoming email meets. Therefore, the order of the parser rules becomes essential for effective email parser performance.

You can also filter rules by status (active/inactive) and also by module.

7. Contextual access to parsed emails  

You can view not only the Configuration Info for each parser rule, but also insights based on parsed emails.




This way, from the perspectives of both parser rules and parsed emails, you can derive useful insights.
 
The "Email" tab lists the most recent email in your parser inbox, where you can check properties like parsing status, the rule used to parse it, and more. If the email has not met any rule, you may also create a new parser rule contextually from this email page.


You can also re-run an email in the event of parser failure if there's no match found, as well as parse emails in bulk. (Note that this is applicable only for the emails that have a template match and for which the parsing was unsuccessful.)

Preparing for deprecation of the Old Email Parser

For existing users:

Existing users, who have not already switched to the new parser can do so by clicking on the Switch to New Parser button. Rules available in both the parsers will be working simultaneously until the Old parser is deprecated, but the rules available in the Old parser will not be displayed in the New parser view, and vice versa.



It's essential to manually create the existing rules in the New parser because once the Old parser is deprecated, only the rules present in the new parser will function. Since there won't be any rules from the previous parser available, the new parser will require that you create all rules from scratch.

Please note:  

  • Until the deprecation of the Old Email Parser on June 1, 2023, both the old and new versions will co-exist, after which, the New Email Parser will become the default version. .
  • The rules in the Old Email Parser parser won't be available once it has been deprecated. Therefore, if no rules are added to the New Email Parser , there won't be a parser to run. So be sure to write rules in the New Email Parser before the deprecation. Additionally, keep in mind that once your old rules have become obsolete, they cannot be recovered.

For new signups  

For new signups, only the new parser will be available as the default feature, and not the old parser. There is no action required from users in new signups.

Further reading   

Help Doc: Click here
What's New and What has Changed — A comparison guide: Click here

Thanks, have a great day. 
Regards, 
Sai Shree | Zoho CRM 

    • Recent Topics

    • Google Fonts Integration in Pagesense Popup Editor

      Hello Zoho Pagesense Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance Zoho Pagesense’s popup editor with Google Fonts support. Current Limitation: Currently, Pagesense offers a limited set of default fonts. Google Fonts

    • Control Position of “X” (Close) Button in Popup Editor

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a customization improvement in the PageSense popup editor. Current Limitation: Currently, the position of the “X” (close) button is fixed and cannot be customized in the popup

    • Add Standalone “Save” Button in Pagesense Popup Editor

      Hello Zoho Pagesense Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request an important usability improvement in the Pagesense popup editor. Current Limitation: There is currently no dedicated Save button while building a popup. The only way to save

    • Text Direction Control in Pagesense Popup Editor

      Hello Zoho Pagesense Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to add text direction control in the Pagesense popup editor. Current Limitation: Currently, the popup editor does not provide native support for RTL (Right-to-Left)

    • Autosave in Pagesense Popup Editor

      Hello Zoho Pagesense Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance the Pagesense editor with an autosave functionality. Current Limitation: Currently, changes made in the Pagesense editor must be manually saved. In

    • Billing frequency is not displayed correctly.

      Hello There is an issue while displaying the billing frequency on a subscription quote. I am able to activate the subscription details and get this lovely overview: If I am adding a Plan which I charge quarterly, first of all it should be possible to

    • Creating Secret via Vault API

      Hi I am trying to create a secret through vault api.  This is the response I get. One thing I am not sure is how to decrypt the secretdata, how to get the secrettypeid? {     "operation": {         "result": {             "error_code": "",             "message": "Sorry, we are unable to process your request.",

    • Is It Possible to Hide Menu Option from Main Navigation?

      Is it possible to hide a menu option, e.g. Admin, from the Main Navigation based on some criteria, e.g. login = zoho.adminuser

    • Unleash the power of detail, with Table View.

      What use is context that's not available where you need it? With this in mind, we bring you the Table View. This feature will add more power to the way you organize and work through your ticket load. Table View comes in handy when you want more control over the ticket information you see. This is a nifty tool for users who find themselves limited in terms of the level of information that is being offered in the Classic View and Compact View. With an upper limit of 15 columns, agents can glean most

    • Kaizen #126 - Circuits in Zoho CRM - Part 1

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! Today, we will discuss an exciting topic—Circuits in Zoho CRM. For starters, we will discuss what Circuits are, how beneficial they are for businesses, different views of a Circuit, and the different

    • 'Statement of Accounts does not exist' error received, when creating PO using api in Zoho Inventory

      Here is request json -- JSONString = { "date": "2019-09-24", "purchaseorder_number": "PO-6-1", "delivery_date": null, "delivery_org_address_id": 36221200000056XXX, "vendor_id": 362212000000564XXX, "attention": "Testing", "line_items": [{ "unit": "Pieces", "account_id": 36221200000003XXX, "quantity": 1, "item_id": 362212000000049XXX, "tax_type": "", "tax_name": "", "name": "One HD", "purchase_rate": 85, "tax_percentage": 0, "item_total": 85.00, "tax_id": "", "warehouse_id": 362212000000564XXX }] }

    • Multiple clients in one project

      Hi team, What is the possibility to have more than one client to be linked for one project in the Zoho Books? Our business model is to have a project, and this project have expenses/bills, as well, we issue invoices for this same project to several customers.

    • I can receive but not send emails

      Hello, I've been not able to send emails for almost a year now. I been using alternate email to do this. I want to know how to fix this so I can use my zoho account normally again.

    • Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels

    • Workdrive on Android - Gallery Photo Backups

      Hello, Is there any way of backing up the photos on my android phone directly to a specific folder on Workdrive? Assuming i have the workdrive app installed on the phone in question. Emma

    • Can receive but not send messages in Zoho Mail

      Hello! I was able to configure my email client successfully in that I can receive messages just fine. However, when I send messages out, they seem to go out fine (I don't receive any errors or anything), but the recipient does NOT receive those messages.

    • Clients not receiving emails

      I've been informed that my emails are not being received. Is there anything that I should look into to rectify this? Many thanks!

    • Rendering PDF to view on page

      My company upload lots of PDF files onto Zoho. But every time we open it, it downloads the file instead of viewing it on the web page. Does Zoho allow uploaded PDF files to be rendered to view on web page yet? I've been trying to use <embed> or <object> but it cannot be loaded.  (similar thread: https://help.zoho.com/portal/community/topic/how-to-open-a-pdf-file-of-a-view-in-preview-mode)

    • Dynamically Fetching Lookup Field Display Value

      I have an audit trail form, Audit_Changes, that tracks old vs new values across different forms. For lookup fields, the old/new value is the ID, but I also need the display value. What's a best practice for dynamically fetching the display value of the

    • Zoho Toolkit Email Signature Generator

      I'm having real issues with the email signature generator with no matter where I host the photo, Zoho doesn't seem to show the photo on the link provided?

    • Ability to Create New Items When Zoho Trident is Minimized via tray or taskbar icon

      Allow users to create new items (emails, calendar events, tasks, etc.) directly from the system tray icon or by right clicking the task bar icon, even when the window is minimized or not actively running in the foreground. This enables quick access to

    • I can not see Undeliverable emails from my Mass Email Leads activity in CRM

      I am sending email templates and I can not see the Undeliverables? I only receive the "Out of Office" replies and any manual replies from the lead. Can you please let me know where the Undeliverable emails are sent so I can use the information to clean up the database?

    • Select Zoho Contacts as Meeting Participants in Zoho Cliq

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the meeting scheduling functionality in Zoho Cliq. Current Limitation: When scheduling a meeting in Zoho Cliq, participants can only be selected from: Organization

    • Ability to Select External Users from Participants List When Scheduling Meetings

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the meeting scheduling experience in Zoho Cliq. Current Limitation when scheduling a meeting in Zoho Cliq: External users can be selected from the list only under

    • Kaizen #212 - Map Dependency Fields in Zoho CRM using APIs

      Hi Everyone!! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen series! Over the past few weeks, we have been addressing your questions and feedback shared through our Kaizen 200th feedback form. Thank you for your continued engagement and thoughtful queries. We

    • Outdated state in mexico

      Hello Zoho team, the drop down to add the state for customers, when they introduce their state in mexico has a city named “Distrito Federal” that name changed many years ago to “ciudad de mexico”. could you please update this so my clients can find the

    • Is anyone using Zoho Flow with airtable?

      I need to build a flow that collects data from airtable and uses some of that data to create folders and files in google drive. I have fully function version of this in zapier and want to migrate to zoho. I am trying to perform a very basic fetch from

    • AI in Zoho Workplace: A Sneak Peek into What’s Coming!

      Hello everyone, We’re super excited to share something we’ve been working on and we want you to be part of it! You may have seen our announcement blog post introducing a major evolution in how AI works within Zoho Workplace. Want to be among the first

    • Meet Canvas' Grid component: Your easiest way to build responsive record templates

      Visual design can be exciting—until you're knee-deep in the details. Whether it's aligning text boxes to prevent overlaps, fixing negative space, or simply making sure the right data stands out, just ironing out inconsistencies takes a lot of moving parts.

    • Best way to share/download presentation files in Zoho without losing formatting?

      Hello Zoho Community, I often work with PPT/PDF files in Zoho Docs and share them with colleagues. While PDFs usually give a direct download option, I’ve noticed that PPT/PPTX files sometimes only open in the viewer without a clear download link. Is there

    • Workflow Failure - Notifications

      Good afternoon, I have just experienced an error whereby a Workflow failed, for a reason currently unknown. The problem is that one of my users had to flag this manually (thankfully he's very thorough) and this otherwise would have flown under the radar.

    • Introducing Bin Locations In Zoho Inventory

      Hello users, We are excited to let you know that your wait for the Bin Locations feature has now come to an end! Yes, you heard us right! We are here to introduce the much-awaited Bin Locations now in Zoho Inventory. But before we dive into the feature

    • Error "Invalid client task found corresponding properties" only when triggered from workflow ?

      Hi All, I am facing an error message I never encountered previously: Error in executing On Add - On Load script Error in executing thisapp.get_all_projects_api_call function. Line:(2) Error in executing thisapp.getAccessTokenFromRefreshToken function.

    • How to interpret Campaign report statistics - definitions/explanation

      I am trying to make sure I understand the Campaign report correctly Do you have a list of definitions for: Delivered - it has reached the recipient's inbox Campaign reach - is this the number that have opened the campaign email? Unique Opens Clicks/Open

    • Feature request - pin or flag note

      Hi, It would be great if you could either pin or flag one or more notes so that they remain visible when there are a bunch of notes and some get hidden in the list. Sometimes you are looking for a particular name that gets lost in a bunch of less important

    • Schedule a Call by Date and Time when a specific lead status is selected

      Hi Wanting to create a workflow where a call can be scheduled by date & time when a specific lead status is selected. Can only currently set the date by Due Date - Trigger Date - Plus 'x' day(s) Thanks

    • Zoho CRM's Copy Customization functionality now works across DCs, for customized accounts, and more

      Availability This feature is available in Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. These changes have been rolled out to all users in all DCs. For more information, please refer to these help documents: Overview | Instructions Hello

    • How can I bold text on Zoho Forms submit buttons?

      In the old theme builder, I could bold the text on a form's submit button. With the new theme builder, I can only change the text of the header or fields in the form, and not the button itself.

    • Hiding Pre-defined Views

      You can enhance Zoho with custom views - but you cannot hide the pre-defined views. Most users focus on 4 or 5 views. Right now for EVERY user EVERY time they want to move to one of their 4 or 5 views - they have to scroll down past a long list of pre-defined views - we don't use ANY of the pre-defined views. Adding the feature to allow a predefined view to be hidden completely or only visible to certain users would be a big improvement in usability for Zoho CRM. This feature is already available

    • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile

    • Next Page