Online Connections - E-mail Requests

In order to retrieve online requests from E-mail, the appropriate settings need to be configured in Maintenance / Online Reservations / Other Online Interfaces / Connections & Options.  This allows Campground Master to retrieve E-mail messages from a POP3 mailbox.  (POP3 stands for "Post Office Protocol 3", which is a standard E-mail system used on the Internet.)  These settings are similar to configuring most E-mail applications in Windows, like Microsoft Outlook.

To use the E-mail retrieval functions, Campground Master must be able to access a POP3 mail server via the Internet.  For more details, see the Setting Up for E-mail Requests section.

Enable retrieval of online reservation requests from E-mail

This box must be checked to enable the E-mail portion of Online Reservations support.  If this is not checked, the "E-mail" option will not be available in other Online Reservations functions.

Ask to re-import previously downloaded requests  (if not checked, it will do it automatically)

(Available in Version 11.1 and later.)

This box normally is unchecked, so it will re-import previous requests automatically and show them in the list (as Processed, etc if they've already been handled).  The main reason for this option is so that you can make it ask before re-importing, in the case that the temporary "Downloaded Requests" file gets so large or corrupted that it locks up Campground Master for way too long.  Check this option so you can tell it not to import the next time you go to Retrieve Online, so it will open up the dialog immediately and you can Delete the Downloaded Requests file.  Once that's done, then you can reset this option to go back to automatically re-importing.

Automatically connect to the Internet each time

If you use a dial-up internet service, you can select this option to connect automatically when it needs to retrieve E-mail (and it will also disconnect automatically when done).

POP3 Server Settings

You will need to enter the appropriate settings for accessing the POP3 mailbox.  The host name/address is usually "mail" or "pop" followed by your ISP or web host domain name.  An example is below:

Host Name/Address:        pop.myisp.com

Port Number:                995          [x]  Use SSL

Username :                myusername

Password :                mypassword

If you have any questions about the proper settings to use in POP3 Setup, please contact your Internet provider.

Note: If you have anti-virus or security software like Norton Internet Security enabled for checking incoming E-mail, that may need to be disabled to prevent interference with Campground Master's retrieval process (only try disabling the security if you get an unusual error message when trying to retrieve E-mail messages).

Delete messages from server immediately after retrieving them

Use caution when choosing this option.  Once you have things running smoothly, this can be selected if (and only if) the POP3 mailbox you're using is dedicated to online requests -- otherwise it would delete all of your other messages also, before you can download them with your normal E-mail program.  If this option is not checked, messages will continue to accumulate in the mailbox (and take time to download each time), until you manually delete them.  You could still delete messages by logging into the mailbox from another E-mail program, but you would have to be careful about deleting requests not yet processed.

Remember that all retrieved messages are also stored in a local file when they're retrieved, so even if you delete the requests from the mailbox but don't get a chance to process them, you can use the Reprocess Downloaded Requests function to get them from the downloaded file later (until you use Delete the Downloaded Requests of course).

Local Working Directory

This is where the downloaded requests will be saved locally, in a file named "email.txt".  This defaults to a blank entry, which means it will use a location in the Windows Temp folder (e.g. C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\CM\<databasename>\.  If you prefer to put it somewhere else, enter the entire path name here.

Defaults for Online Deposit Transactions

If you're using a 3rd-party reservation service and they take a deposit for you, then you probably want to use a special Payment Method and Description for these deposits (since they're not coming directly into your normal account).  If the payment description field is left blank, it will default to the payment method name.

You can also designate a special Operator name so you can identify them on reports.  If this is left blank, the transaction and reservation will be recorded with the operator logged in at the time the request is processed.  Note that even if you won't be receiving deposits online, you can set the operator name to be used in "Created by" for the reservations.

Note that if you enter a deposit locally after saving the reservation request, then these values aren't used for that deposit transaction (the current operator is used).