Standard e-mail notifications are sent by way of an automated process; although you can reply to them, there is no mechanism available to process the reply e-mail. However, a task type developer can include one or more Task Action Links in the body of the notification e-mail; when you open the e-mail, the Task Action Link appears as a standard hypertext link.

When you click on a Task Action Link, an automated e-mail response (predefined by the task type developer) is sent to an e-mail account specified within the Task Action Link. This reply e-mail usually contains a reference to a specific task action that will be executed upon receipt of the reply e-mail—for example, approve or deny an order, or escalate the priority of the task. For more information, see Replying to a Notification without a My webMethods Connection.

It is up to the task type developer to include information in the notification e-mail informing you of the results of clicking a Task Action Link. These task notification reply e-mail actions are logged and displayed on the task's Audit View tab in My webMethods.

After you click the Task Action Link, you do not need to take any further action. The reply e-mail is sent by way of the e-mail client on your computer. All standard e-mail behavior applies. For example, if you collect outgoing messages in your Outbox to be sent manually, the reply notification e-mail will follow this behavior.

You can execute a Task Action Link one time only. Each subsequent time you click on a Task Action Link, a reply e-mail will be sent, but it will be ignored and will have no effect on the task.

For information about the configuration of task e-mail listeners and further information about the behavior of task reply e-mails, see Configuring a Task E-mail Listener.