Issue
The changes / requests approvals don't get processed although approvers have sent the Approval or Rejection emails.
The received email's email log we see statements as -
Skipping 'Update Approval Request', did not create or update sysapproval_approver
Stop processing detected after executing script: Update Approval Request.
These statements imply that email processor validated the inbound action, however something in the script failed and target record didn't get updated.
In this case Target field of the email record would also remain NULL.
Cause
For a pending approval notification email, in the mail script there are mailto actions associated which are responsible for opening a new email window with subject line as -
Re:<Request_number> - approve or Re:<Request_number> - reject.
If user instead of clicking Approve or Reject button chooses to reply to the notification email and the subject of the email doesn't contain approve or reject in the subject line, then the script for Inbound Action - Update Approval Request fails.
There are conditions associated to this in the script of the inbound action.
if (email.subject.indexOf("approve") >= 0)
current.state = "approved";
if (email.subject.indexOf("reject") >= 0)
current.state = "rejected";
if (current.state != "approved" && current.state != "rejected") {
gs.log(getFailurePreamble() + "The subject is malformed. The approver probably did not click the approve or reject button on the email.");
Resolution
2 possible resolutions to this issue are
1. Advise the approvers to click on Approve or Reject button to process the approval request.
2. If approver is choosing to reply to the notification email, they should change the subject line to include approve or reject in the subject line.
