Drag and Drop

A Drag and Drop rule watches one or more Box folders. When someone saves an email file (.eml or .msg) into a watched folder, mxHERO files it the way a Copy Emails rule would: the email, a PDF of its body and its attachments as separate files. Use it when people want to file selected emails by hand, from any mail app, without forwarding them anywhere. This page covers setup, what users do, and how mxHERO reacts when watched folders change.

Before you begin

• Box for Organizations is connected in Settings › Integrations. Drag and Drop works only with Box and only with the organization-level connection. If it isn't connected, the dashboard shows an error and returns you to the Rules List. See Connecting Box.
• You know which Box folders will be the drop folders. A folder can be watched by only one rule, and watched folders can't be inside each other (parent and child), even across rules.
• Users who will drop email have access to those folders in Box (through Box Drive or the Box web app).

How it works

A dropped email file triggers a Box notification; mxHERO processes it and saves the results back to Box.

1. When you save the rule, mxHERO asks Box to notify it about each watched folder (a Box webhook).
2. A user uploads a file to a watched folder.
3. mxHERO processes files whose names end in .eml or .msg. Other files are ignored and never cause an error.
4. mxHERO saves what the rule asks for (email, body PDF, attachments) and, by default, puts the results in the same folder as the dropped file.

Each file is processed once per rule. mxHERO keeps trying for up to five days if Box is temporarily unavailable.

What users do

Tell users which folders are drop folders and how to drop email into them:

After a short time, the filed email (for example the body as PDF and each attachment) appears in the folder. Users don't need to sign in to anything else.

Create a Drag and Drop rule

Step 1: Action

1. Open Rules › Create a Rule, click Drag and Drop, then Start Rule Creation.
2. Under Select what to save:, choose one or more:
   • Email (selected by default): the whole message. Under File type for saved email:, choose .EML (default), .MSG or Original extension. Original extension keeps the format of the dropped file.
   • Attachments: each attachment as its own file.
   • Email's Body in PDF: the message body as a PDF.
3. Click Confirm.

To save only some attachments, click Add Filters under the Action step. The Attachments Filter panel has the same filters as the other storage actions (size, extension, name, type, inline images, attached emails, filter policy). See Filters and Exclusions.

Step 2: Target

1. Under Rule Scope:, Storage Webhook is the only choice ("Monitor your cloud storage to process emails when added/uploaded.").

2. Under Folders being monitored in your cloud storage:, click Open file picker to select folders, browse Box and select one or more folders. All folders must belong to the same Box account.

   

3. Optionally open Advanced Options and turn on Prevent re-processing (see below).

4. Click Confirm. mxHERO checks the folders and shows an error if one is already watched by another rule (or sits inside or above one), doesn't exist, or the Box account can't access it.

Prevent re-processing (off by default): "Prevent re-processing of emails uploaded by other mxHERO tools." Turn it on when another mxHERO rule, for example a Copy Emails rule, saves .eml or .msg files into a folder that a Drag and Drop rule watches. Files that mxHERO uploads are then marked in Box ("Uploaded by mxHERO" in the file description), and Drag and Drop skips them, which avoids filing the same email twice or in a loop.

Important: Prevent re-processing is an organization-wide setting. Changing it in one rule changes it for all Drag and Drop rules in your organization.

Step 3: Cloud Storage

Cloud Storage is fixed to Box for Organizations; you can't choose another provider or an individual account. Under Select which storage accounts are used::

• Automatically select the storage account based on sender/recipient (default): files are saved as the Box user who uploaded the email, so they keep that user's ownership and permissions.
• Use a specific storage account: files are always saved as the Box user you enter.

Balance uploads using a list of accounts isn't available for Drag and Drop.

Step 4: Storage Filepath

The default destination is {Same folder as dropped}: results are saved next to the dropped file. You can add a subfolder with variables, for example {Subject Normalized}, or use a copy policy. See Storage File Paths and Copy Policies.

The variable {storage_source_folder_id} (the watched folder) is available only in Drag and Drop rules. Folder sharing (Collaborate Subfolder) isn't available.

Add Action (optional)

Click Add Action to open More actions...:

• When the email was successfully processed: Do nothing (default), Send a copy or Forward the email to an address.
• Process email using mxHERO AI (Mail2Cloud Advanced): also index the email for AI search. See Store in AI.

Name and save

1. Enter a Rule Name and optionally a Rule Description. Set TimeZone if you use date variables in names or paths.
2. Click Save Rule. mxHERO creates the Box notification for each folder. If Box refuses (for example, the folder no longer exists or mxHERO isn't allowed to watch it), the save fails with an error.

Copying a Drag and Drop rule removes its folders, because a folder can be watched by only one rule. Pick new folders in the copy.

When watched folders change

mxHERO follows what happens to the watched folders in Box:

To start watching again, edit the rule, pick the folder (or a replacement) in the Target step, and save. Codes appear in Reports › Notifications. See Notification Error Codes.

Verify

1. Save a test .eml file into a watched folder.
2. After a short time, check that the PDF, attachments and/or email file appear in the destination folder, with the names you configured.
3. Drop a non-email file (for example a .docx). It should be ignored.
4. If nothing appears, check Reports › Notifications and the rule in the Rules List.

Limits and failure behavior

• Box for Organizations only. Other providers and individual Box accounts are not supported.
• Only files ending in .eml or .msg are processed.
• One rule per folder; no overlapping parent and child folders across rules. All folders of a rule must be in the same Box account.
• If saving fails temporarily, mxHERO retries for up to five days. Storage errors appear in Reports › Notifications (storage_error).

Troubleshooting

Related pages

• Copy Emails
• Connecting Box
• Create a Rule
• Storage File Paths
• Variables Reference
• Notification Error Codes