Sending user stories to the backlog via email

You can add backlog items to a Scrum Mate project via email using the inbox feature. 

Generate a project email address

Projects have no email address when you create them, so you need to generate an email address to send emails to the project. Once you generated the email address, you can set up who can send emails to the project, and where those emails will arrive.

Step 1: Select the project on the Projects tab of the settings page

Step 2: Generate the email address

Click on the [Generate email address] button at the project settings page.

Scrum Mate generates the email address for your project. Within a few seconds, the email address appears.

If you want to save the email address to your address book, or you want to share it with your team members, click on the clipboard icon on the left side of the email address. It will copy the address to the clipboard.

Step 3: Set permissions and Inbox behavior

Once you generated the email address of the project, anyone will be able to send emails to the project backlog who knows the email address. If you want a stricter rule, you can change it in the email settings.

Setting who can send emails to the backlog

Scrum Mate allows you to control who can send emails to the backlog.

By default, Scrum Mate accepts emails from everyone who knows the email address of the backlog.

If you want Scrum Mate to be more restrictive, you can set up the inbox to receive emails from team members and specified email addresses only.

Step 1: Open the project settings at the settings page and click on [Show email settings] button

Step 2: On the Inbox settings dialog, select who can send emails to the project

• Select the ‘Project  members,  and the following addresses’ option.

• Add all email addresses you want to allow receiving emails.

• Click on the ‘Save’ button to save changes

Emails from other senders will be abandoned and won’t show up in the inbox or in the backlog.

Adding emails from the inbox to the backlog

By default, emails will wait in the inbox until someone with backlog editor permission adds them to the backlog. However, you can set up the inbox to move all items to the backlog automatically.

Moving inbox items to the backlog manually

If there are emails in the inbox, an email indicator at the top right menu bar of the backlog shows how many emails are waiting in the inbox.

Users with write access right on the project can add an item from the inbox to the backlog or delete an item from the inbox.

To add an email to the backlog, or delete an email from the inbox:

• Click on the email icon to open the inbox

• Move the mouse pointer over the item in the inbox

• Click on the add icon to add to the backlog, or the trash icon to delete it from the inbox

Adding emails to the backlog automatically (skipping inbox)

If you want to add emails to the backlog automatically, you can set up to skip the inbox. 

To set skipping the inbox:

• Click on Inbox settings on the project settings dialog to open the inbox settings panel.

• Check the “Skip inbox, send items directly to backlog” checkbox

• Click on the ‘Save’ button to save changes