Create a Rule

This page walks through the rule wizard: choosing an action, the steps every rule shares, and the optional filter and action panels. The example is a Protect Attachments rule on Email Flow, the most common rule. Each action's own page covers its specific options.

Before you begin

• For Email Flow rules: your mail is routed through mxHERO. See Routing Architectures.
• For User Mailboxes rules: your Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or IMAP mailboxes are connected. See Accounts and Directory.
• For rules that save files: a cloud storage account is connected, preferably at organization level. See Storage Overview.
• Your users are in Settings › Accounts and Groups, so that rules can match them as managed accounts.
• Plan a test: one pilot user and a test folder. See Testing Mail Flow.

Choose an action

1. Open Rules › Create a Rule, or click Create a rule on the Rules List.
2. Under What would you like to do?, click an action. A description of the action appears.
3. Click Start Rule Creation.

The ten actions and the targets they support are listed in How Rules Work.

How the wizard is laid out

• Left column: numbered steps. Each step card has a Confirm button and a collapsible Advanced Options panel. Confirm each step before you go to the next one. If you change an earlier step, confirm it again.
• Between the steps: Add Filters buttons add optional filter panels, and Add Action adds the More actions... panel. Remove an added panel with its trash icon.
• Right column: Rule Name, Rule Description, Locale & Time zone and a Summary that fills in as you confirm steps.
• Bottom: Save Rule. It stays disabled until every step is confirmed and the rule has a name. Hover over the warning icon next to it to see what's missing.

The steps depend on the action:

Step 1. Action: choose what to save

For actions that save to storage, Select what to save: offers up to three choices. You can pick more than one.

Defaults differ by action. Protect Attachments requires Attachments. Secure Emails requires Email's Body in PDF. Zip Attachments allows only Attachments.

1. Choose what to save.
2. Optionally open Advanced Options. For Protect Attachments these are:
   • Select where to add the attachment links: Email's body, “attachments.pdf“ file, or Both (default). With a PDF, recipients still see a paperclip on the message.
   • Template for link and notification messages: a notification template from Settings › Integrations › Storage settings, or Use platform default messages. See Notification Templates.
   • Customize password notifications: your own Message to recipient and Subject prefix for password emails.
3. Click Confirm.

To limit the rule to certain attachments, click Add Filters under the Action step. See Filters and Exclusions.

Step 2. Target: choose which mail the rule applies to

1. Under Rule Scope:, choose a target. Only the targets the action supports are shown.

   

2. For Email Flow, set Target all emails sent:

   • Between (both directions) or From (one direction only).
   • Sender and Recipient: type to search for an address, domain, group or tag, or choose Organization, Anyone or Anyone else. The defaults are Organization and Anyone.

   

3. For Protect Attachments, Copy Emails and Secure Emails on Email Flow, choose how recipients get links:

   • Send an individual copy of the content and attachment links to each recipient (default). Each recipient gets their own upload and links.
   • Send the same copy of the content and attachment links to all recipients. One upload and one set of links for everyone.

4. Click Confirm.

Important: At least one side, the sender or the recipient, must be an account your organization manages. For example, Anyone to Anyone is not valid. See Senders and Recipients for the full rules and examples.

The User Mailboxes and Forwarding Address targets have different fields. See Rule Targets.

Step 3. Cloud Storage: choose where files go

1. In Cloud Storage Account:, choose an account.

   • Organization accounts are listed first, with their status, for example Synced or Not synced with an Authorize link. Use these when you can.
   • Individual accounts follow. Choosing one shows an Important Note: an individual account's sign-in can expire without warning, and the rule then stops saving. Click Continue only if you accept that risk.

   

2. For an organization account, choose under Select which storage accounts are used:

   • Automatically select the storage account based on sender/recipient (default): each user's files go to that user's own storage account.
   • Use a specific storage account: all files go to one account, entered in Organization account.
   • Balance uploads using a list of accounts: spread uploads across up to 100 accounts. See Storage Load Balancing.

   

3. Choose Select a security option: to control who can open the links. Options include Accessible to the folder collaborators (no shared link), presets such as Preset: Public access links and Preset: Organization access links, and your own security policies and definitions. Options vary by provider and target. See Link Security Options by Provider.

   

4. Optionally open Advanced Options:

   • Select a template option: apply a metadata template (Box and Egnyte). See Template Definitions and Policies.
   • Tracking option: track email opens and link access. See Link Tracking.
   • Link to folder: send one link to the folder instead of one link per attachment, Never, Always, or From a certain number of attachments.

5. Click Confirm.

Step 4. Storage Filepath: choose the folder and file names

1. Under Filepath where to copy your files:, choose Root to build the path from the top of the storage account, or Pick from storage to start in an existing folder. For Egnyte, choose Shared space or Private space instead.

2. Edit the Subfolder path. Type { to insert a variable, for example {Email Address} or {Sent or Receive Date / yyyyMMdd}. The default path for Protect Attachments is:

   Protect Attachments/{Email Address}/{Peer Address}/{Subject Normalized}/{Sent or Receive Date / yyyyMMdd}

   

3. To choose the folder with conditions instead, turn on Use a copy policy instead and select a copy policy. See Copy Policies.

4. Optionally open Advanced Options:

   • Attachment Name Formatting (and Email Name Formatting when you save emails): file names built from variables. The default for attachments is {Attachment Name}.
   • Use a subfolder to save attachments: put attachments in their own subfolder.
   • Do not overwrite existing files: keep existing files with the same name instead of replacing them.

5. Click Confirm.

Variables, path rules and examples are in Storage File Paths and Variables Reference. Characters that providers don't allow are removed automatically. See File and Folder Naming Rules.

Optional: Add Action (More actions)

Click Add Action after the last step to open More actions....

Warning: With Bounce email to sender, a message whose attachments can't be stored is not delivered. The sender gets a [BOUNCED] notice. Leave Deliver anyway unless your policy requires that unprotected attachments never reach recipients.

Name and save the rule

1. In the right column, enter a Rule Name. Use a name that says what the rule does, for example "Protect – outbound to external".
2. Optionally add a Rule Description.
3. Optionally set Locale (notification language) and TimeZone (for date variables). Leave them empty to use the organization defaults. See How Rules Work.
4. Check the Summary. Every step should show a blue check.
5. Click Save Rule.

The rule is saved and starts running. Email Flow rules apply to new mail within about 1 to 2 minutes. User Mailboxes rules start processing within a few minutes.

Verify

1. Open Rules › Rules List. The rule is on the Executing Rules tab with a green dot.
2. Send a test message that matches the rule, for example from your pilot user to an outside address with an attachment.
3. Check that the recipient got links instead of the attachment, and that the files are in the storage folder you set.
4. Open Reports › Email Flow Logs, find the message and check for a Rule Executed event for your rule. See Email Flow Logs.

Troubleshooting

Related pages

• How Rules Work
• Rule Targets
• Filters and Exclusions
• Rules List
• Protect Attachments
• Storage File Paths