Tutorial: Create workflows that process emails using Azure Logic Apps, Azure Functions, and Azure Storage

Applies to: Azure Logic Apps (Consumption)

Azure Logic Apps helps you automate workflows and integrate data across Azure services, Microsoft services, other software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps, and on-premises systems. This tutorial shows how to build a logic app workflow that handles incoming emails and any attachments, analyzes the email content using Azure Functions, saves the content to Azure storage, and sends email for reviewing the content.

In this tutorial, you learn how to:

The following screenshot shows the workflow at a high level:

Prerequisites

• An Azure account and subscription. If you don't have a subscription, sign up for a free Azure account.

• An email account from an email provider supported by Azure Logic Apps, such as Office 365 Outlook, Outlook.com, or Gmail. For other providers, review the connectors list here.

  This logic app workflow uses a work or school account. If you use a different email account, the general steps stay the same, but your UI might appear slightly different.

  Note

  If you want to use the Gmail connector, only G-Suite business accounts can use this connector without restriction in logic app workflows. If you have a Gmail consumer account, you can use this connector with only specific Google-approved services, or you can create a Google client app to use for authentication with your Gmail connector. For more information, see Data security and privacy policies for Google connectors in Azure Logic Apps.

• Download and install the free Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer. This tool helps you check that your storage container is correctly set up.

• If your workflow needs to communicate through a firewall that limits traffic to specific IP addresses, that firewall needs to allow access for both the inbound and outbound IP addresses used by Azure Logic Apps in the Azure region where your logic app resource exists. If your workflow also uses managed connectors, such as the Office 365 Outlook connector or SQL connector, or uses custom connectors, the firewall also needs to allow access for all the managed connector outbound IP addresses in your logic app's Azure region.

Set up storage to save attachments

You can save incoming emails and attachments as blobs in an Azure storage container.

1. In the Azure portal with your Azure account credentials, create a storage account unless you already have one, using the following information on the Basics tab:

   Property	Value	Description
   Subscription	<Azure-subscription-name>	The name for your Azure subscription
   Resource group	<Azure-resource-group>	The name for the Azure resource group used to organize and manage related resources. This example uses LA-Tutorial-RG. Note: A resource group exists inside a specific region. Although the items in this tutorial might not be available in all regions, try to use the same region when possible.
   Storage account name	<Azure-storage-account-name>	Your storage account name, which must have 3-24 characters and can contain only lowercase letters and numbers. This example uses attachmentstorageacct.
   Region	<Azure-region>	The region where to store information about your storage account. This example uses West US.
   Performance	Standard	This setting specifies the data types supported and media for storing data. See Types of storage accounts.
   Redundancy	Geo-redundant storage (GRS)	This setting enables storing multiple copies of your data as protection from planned and unplanned events. For more information, see Azure Storage redundancy.

   To create your storage account, you can also use Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.

2. When you're done, select Review > Create.

3. After Azure deploys your storage account, find your storage account, and get the storage account's access key:

   1. On your storage account menu, under Security + networking, select Access keys.

   2. Copy your storage account name and key1, and save those values somewhere safe.

   To get your storage account's access key, you can also use Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.

4. Create a blob storage container for your email attachments.

   1. On your storage account menu, under Data storage, select Containers.

   2. On the Containers page toolbar, select Container.

   3. Under New container, enter attachments as the container name. Under Public access level, select Container (anonymous read access for containers and blobs) > OK.

   When you're done, the containers list now shows the new storage container.

   To create a storage container, you can also use Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.

Next, connect Storage Explorer to your storage account.

Set up Storage Explorer

Now, connect Storage Explorer to your storage account so you can confirm that your workflow can correctly save attachments as blobs in your storage container.

1. Launch Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer. Sign in with your Azure account.

   Note

   If no prompt appears, on the Storage Explorer activity bar, select Account Management (account icon).

2. In the Select Azure Environment window, select your Azure environment, and then select Next.

   This example continues by selecting global, multitenant Azure.

3. In the browser window that appears, sign in with your Azure account.

4. Return to Storage Explorer and the Account Management window, and check that correct Microsoft Entra tenant and subscription are selected.

5. On the Storage Explorer activity bar, select Open Connect Dialog.

6. In the Select Resource window, select Storage account or service.

7. In the Select Connection Method window, select Account name and key > Next.

8. In the Connect to Azure Storage window, provide the following information, and select Next.

   Property	Value
   Display name	A friendly name for your connection
   Account name	Your storage account name
   Account key	The access key that you previously saved

9. On the Summary window, confirm your connection information, and then select Connect.

   Storage Explorer creates the connection, and shows your storage account in the Explorer window under Emulator & Attached > Storage Accounts.

10. To find your blob storage container, under Storage Accounts, expand your storage account, which is attachmentstorageacct here, and expand Blob Containers where you find the attachments container, for example:

    

Next, create an Azure function that removes HTML from incoming email.

Create function to remove HTML

Now, use the code snippet provided by these steps to create an Azure function that removes HTML from each incoming email. That way, the email content is cleaner and easier to process. You can then call this function from your workflow.

1. Before you can create a function, create a function app by following these steps:

   1. On the Basics tab, provide the following information:

      Property	Value	Description
      Subscription	<your-Azure-subscription-name>	The same Azure subscription that you previously used
      Resource Group	LA-Tutorial-RG	The same Azure resource group that you previously used
      Function App name	<function-app-name>	Your function app's name, which must be globally unique across Azure. This example already uses CleanTextFunctionApp, so provide a different name, such as MyCleanTextFunctionApp-<your-name>
      Do you want to deploy code or container image?	Code	Publish code files.
      Runtime stack	<preferred-language>	Select a runtime that supports your favorite function programming language. In-portal editing is only available for JavaScript, PowerShell, TypeScript, and C# script. C# class library, Java, and Python functions must be developed locally. For C# and F# functions, select .NET.
      Version	<version-number>	Select the version for your installed runtime.
      Region	<Azure-region>	The same region that you previously used. This example uses West US.
      Operating System	<your-operating-system>	An operating system is preselected for you based on your runtime stack selection, but you can select the operating system that supports your favorite function programming language. In-portal editing is only supported on Windows. This example selects Windows.
      Hosting options and plans	Consumption (Serverless)	Select the hosting plan that defines how resources are allocated to your function app. In the default Consumption plan, resources are added dynamically as required by your functions. In this serverless hosting, you pay only for the time your functions run. When you run in an App Service plan, you must manage the scaling of your function app.

   2. Select Next: Storage. On the Storage tab, provide the following information:

      Property	Value	Description
      Storage account	cleantextfunctionstorageacct	Create a storage account used by your function app. Storage account names must be between 3 and 24 characters in length and can contain only lowercase letters and numbers. Note: This storage account contains your function apps and differs from your previously created storage account for email attachments. You can also use an existing account, which must meet the storage account requirements.

   3. When you're done, select Review + create. Confirm your information, and select Create.

   4. After Azure creates and deploys the function app resource, select Go to resource.

2. Now create your function locally as function creation in the Azure portal is limited. Make sure to use the HTTP trigger template, provide the following information for your function, and use the included sample code, which removes HTML and returns the results to the caller:

   Property	Value
   Function name	RemoveHTMLFunction
   Authorization level	Function

   #r "Newtonsoft.Json"
   
   using System.Net;
   using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
   using Microsoft.Extensions.Primitives;
   using Newtonsoft.Json;
   using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
   
   public static async Task<IActionResult> Run(HttpRequest req, ILogger log) 
   {
      log.LogInformation("HttpWebhook triggered");
   
      // Parse query parameter
      string emailBodyContent = await new StreamReader(req.Body).ReadToEndAsync();
   
      // Replace HTML with other characters
      string updatedBody = Regex.Replace(emailBodyContent, "<.*?>", string.Empty);
      updatedBody = updatedBody.Replace("\\r\\n", " ");
      updatedBody = updatedBody.Replace(@"&nbsp;", " ");
   
      // Return cleaned text
      return (ActionResult)new OkObjectResult(new { updatedBody });
   }
   

3. To test your function, you can use the following sample input:

   {"name": "<p><p>Testing my function</br></p></p>"}

   Your function's output looks like the following result:

   {"updatedBody":"{\"name\": \"Testing my function\"}"}
   

After you confirm that your function works, create your logic app resource and workflow. Although this tutorial shows how to create a function that removes HTML from emails, Azure Logic Apps also provides an HTML to Text connector.

Create your logic app workflow

1. In the Azure portal's top-level search box, enter logic apps, and select Logic apps.

2. On the Logic apps page, select Add.

3. On the Create Logic App page, under Plan, select Consumption as the plan type, which then shows only the options for Consumption logic app workflows. Provide the following information, and then select Review + create.

   Property	Value	Description
   Subscription	<your-Azure-subscription-name>	The same Azure subscription that you previously used
   Resource Group	LA-Tutorial-RG	The same Azure resource group that you previously used
   Logic App name	LA-ProcessAttachment	The name for your logic app and workflow. A Consumption logic app and workflow always have the same name.
   Region	West US	The same region that you previously used
   Enable log analytics	No	For this tutorial, keep the Off setting.

4. Confirm the information that you provided, and select Create. After Azure deploys your app, select Go to resource.

5. On the logic app resource menu, select Logic app designer to open the workflow designer.

Add a trigger to check incoming email

Now, add a trigger that checks for incoming emails that have attachments. Every workflow must start with a trigger, which fires when the trigger condition is met, for example, a specific event happens or when new data exists. For more information, see Quickstart: Create an example Consumption logic app workflow in multitenant Azure Logic Apps.

This example uses the Office 365 Outlook connector, which requires that you sign in with a Microsoft work or school account. If you're using a personal Microsoft account, use the Outlook.com connector.

1. On the workflow designer, select Add a trigger.

2. After the Add a trigger pane opens, in the search box, enter office 365 outlook. From the trigger results list, under Office 365 Outlook, select When a new email arrives (V3).

3. If you're asked for credentials, sign in to your email account, which creates a connection between your workflow and your email account.

4. Now provide the trigger criteria for checking new email and running your workflow.

   Property	Value	Description
   Importance	Any	Specifies the importance level of the email that you want.
   Only with Attachments	Yes	Get only emails with attachments. Note: The trigger doesn't remove any emails from your account, checking only new messages and processing only emails that match the subject filter.
   Include Attachments	Yes	Get the attachments as input for your workflow, rather than just check for attachments.
   Folder	Inbox	The email folder to check

5. From the Advanced parameters list, select Subject Filter.

6. After the Subject Filter box appears in the action, specify the subject as described here:

   Property	Value	Description
   Subject Filter	Business Analyst 2 #423501	The text to find in the email subject

7. Save your workflow. On the designer toolbar, select Save.

   Your logic app workflow is now live but doesn't do anything other check your emails. Next, add a condition that specifies criteria to continue subsequent actions in the workflow.

Check for attachments

Now add a condition that selects only emails that have attachments.

1. Under the trigger, select the plus sign (+), and then select Add an action.

2. On the Add an action pane, in the search box, enter condition.

3. From the action results list, select the action named Condition.

4. Rename the condition using a better description.

   1. On the Condition information pane, replace the condition's default name with the following description: If email has attachments and key subject phrase

5. Create a condition that checks for emails that have attachments.

   1. On the first row under the And operation list, select inside the leftmost box. From the dynamic content list that appears, select the Has Attachment property.

      

   2. In the middle box, keep the operator is equal to.

   3. In the rightmost box, enter true, which is the value to compare with the Has Attachment property value that's output from the trigger. If both values are equal, the email has at least one attachment, the condition passes, and the workflow continues.

      

   In your underlying workflow definition, which you can show by selecting Code view on the designer, the condition looks similar to the following example:

   "Condition": {
      "actions": { <actions-to-run-when-condition-passes> },
      "expression": {
         "and": [ {
            "equals": [
               "@triggerBody()?['HasAttachment']",
                 "true"
            ]
         } ]
      },
      "runAfter": {},
      "type": "If"
   }
   

6. Save your workflow.

Test your condition

1. On the designer toolbar, select Run Trigger > Run.

   This step manually starts and runs your workflow, but nothing will happen until the test email arrives in your inbox.

2. Send yourself an email that meets the following criteria:

   • Your email's subject has the text that you specified in the trigger's Subject filter: Business Analyst 2 #423501

   • Your email has one attachment. For now, just create one empty text file and attach that file to your email.

   When the email arrives, your workflow checks for attachments and the specified subject text. If the condition passes, the trigger fires and causes Azure Logic Apps to instantiate and run a workflow instance.

3. To check that the trigger fired and the workflow successfully ran, on the logic app menu, select Overview.

   • To view successfully fired triggers, select Trigger history.

   • To view successfully run workflows, select Runs history.

   If the trigger didn't fire, or the workflow didn't run despite a successful trigger, see Troubleshoot your logic app workflow.

Next, define the actions to take for the True branch. To save the email along with any attachments, remove any HTML from the email body, then create blobs in the storage container for the email and attachments.

Call RemoveHTMLFunction

This step adds your previously created Azure function to your workflow and passes the email body content from email trigger to your function.

1. On the logic app menu, select Logic app designer. In the True branch, select Add an action.

2. Under the Choose an operation search box, select Built-in. In the search box, enter azure functions, and select the action named Choose an Azure function.

   

3. Select your previously created function app, which is CleanTextFunctionApp in this example:

4. Now select your function, which is named RemoveHTMLFunction in this example.

5. Rename your function shape with the following description: Call RemoveHTMLFunction to clean email body

6. Now specify the input for your function to process.

   1. Under Request Body, enter this text with a trailing space:

      { "emailBody":

      While you work on this input in the next steps, an error about invalid JSON appears until your input is correctly formatted as JSON. When you previously tested this function, the input specified for this function used JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). So, the request body must also use the same format.

      Also, when your cursor is inside the Request body box, the dynamic content list appears so you can select property values available from previous actions.

   2. From the dynamic content list, under When a new email arrives, select the Body property. After this property, remember to add the closing curly brace (}).

      

   When you're done, the input to your function looks like the following example:

   

7. Save your workflow.

Next, add an action that creates a blob in your storage container so you can save the email body.

Create blob for email body

1. On the designer, in the True block, under your Azure function, select Add an action.

2. Under the Choose an operation search box, select All. In the search box, enter create blob, and select the action named Create blob.

   

3. Provide the connection information for your storage account, and select Create, for example:

   Property	Value	Description
   Connection name	AttachmentStorageConnection	A descriptive name for the connection
   Authentication type	Access Key	The authentication type to use for the connection
   Azure Storage account name or endpoint	<storage-account-name>	The name for your previously created storage account, which is attachmentstorageacct for this example
   Azure Storage Account Access Key	<storage-account-access-key>	The access key for your previously created storage account

4. Rename the Create blob action with the following description: Create blob for email body

5. In the Create blob action, provide the following information:

   Property	Value	Description
   Storage account name or blob endpoint	Use connection settings(<storage-account-name>)	Select your storage account, which is attachmentstorageacct for this example.
   Folder path	<path-and-container-name>	The path and name for the container that you previously created. For this example, select the folder icon, and then select the attachments container.
   Blob name	<sender-name>	For this example, use the sender's name as the blob's name. Select inside this box so that the dynamic content list appears. From the When a new email arrives section, select the From field.
   Blob content	<content-for-blob>	For this example, use the HTML-free email body as the blob content. Select inside this box so that the dynamic content list appears. From the Call RemoveHTMLFunction to clean email body section, select Body.

   The following image shows the fields to select for the Create blob action:

   

   When you're done, the action looks like the following example:

   

6. Save your workflow.

Check attachment handling

1. On the designer toolbar, select Run Trigger > Run.

   This step manually starts and runs your workflow, but nothing will happen until the test email arrives in your inbox.

2. Send yourself an email that meets the following criteria:

   • Your email's subject has the text that you specified in the trigger's Subject filter: Business Analyst 2 #423501

   • Your email has at least one attachment. For now, just create one empty text file, and attach that file to your email.

   • Your email has some test content in the body, for example: Testing my logic app workflow

   If your workflow didn't trigger or run despite a successful trigger, see Troubleshoot your logic app workflow.

3. Check that your workflow saved the email to the correct storage container.

   1. In Storage Explorer, expand Emulator & Attached > Storage Accounts > attachmentstorageacct (Key) > Blob Containers > attachments.

   2. Check the attachments container for the email.

      At this point, only the email appears in the container because the workflow hasn't processed the attachments yet.

      

   3. When you're done, delete the email in Storage Explorer.

4. Optionally, to test the False branch, which does nothing at this time, you can send an email that doesn't meet the criteria.

Next, add a For each loop to process all the email attachments.

Process attachments

To process each attachment in the email, add a For each loop to your workflow.

1. Return to the designer. Under the Create blob for email body action, select Add an action.

2. Under the Choose an operation search box, select Built-in. In the search box, enter for each, and select the action named For each.

   

3. Rename your loop with the following description: For each email attachment

4. Now select the data for the loop to process. In the For each email attachment loop, select inside the Select an output from previous steps box so that the dynamic content list appears. From the When a new email arrives section, select Attachments.

   

   The Attachments field passes in an array that contains all the attachments included with an email. The For each loop repeats actions on each item that's passed in with the array.

5. Save your workflow.

Next, add the action that saves each attachment as a blob in your attachments storage container.

Create blob for each attachment

1. In the designer, in the For each email attachment loop, select Add an action to specify the task to perform on each found attachment.

   

2. Under the Choose an operation search box, select All. In the search box, enter create blob, and select the action named Create blob.

   

3. Rename the Create blob 2 action with the following description: Create blob for each email attachment

4. In the Create blob for each email attachment action, provide the following information:

   Property	Value	Description
   Storage account name or blob endpoint	Use connection settings(<storage-account-name>)	Select your storage account, which is attachmentstorageacct for this example.
   Folder path	<path-and-container-name>	The path and name for the container that you previously created. For this example, select the folder icon, and then select the attachments container.
   Blob name	<attachment-name>	For this example, use the attachment's name as the blob's name. Select inside this box so that the dynamic content list appears. From the When a new email arrives section, select the Name field.
   Blob content	<email-content>	For this example, use the email content as the blob content. Select inside this box so that the dynamic content list appears. From the When a new email arrives section, select Content.

   

   When you're done, the action looks like the following example:

   

5. Save your workflow.

Check attachment handling

1. On the designer toolbar, select Run Trigger > Run.

   This step manually starts and runs your workflow, but nothing will happen until the test email arrives in your inbox.

2. Send yourself an email that meets the following criteria:

   • Your email's subject has the text that you specified in the trigger's Subject filter property: Business Analyst 2 #423501

   • Your email has at least two attachments. For now, just create two empty text files and attach those files to your email.

   If your workflow didn't trigger or run despite a successful trigger, see Troubleshoot your logic app workflow.

3. Check that your workflow saved the email and attachments to the correct storage container.

   1. In Storage Explorer, expand Emulator & Attached > Storage Accounts > attachmentstorageacct (Key) > Blob Containers > attachments.

   2. Check the attachments container for both the email and the attachments.

      

   3. When you're done, delete the email and attachments in Storage Explorer.

Next, add an action so that your workflow sends email to review the attachments.

Send email notifications

1. Return to the designer. In the True branch, collapse the For each email attachment loop.

2. Under the loop, select Add an action.

   

3. Under the Choose an operation search box, select Standard. In the search box, enter send email.

4. From the actions list, select the send email action for your email provider. To filter the actions list based on a specific connector, you can select the connector first.

   This example continues with the Office 365 Outlook connector, which works only with an Azure work or school account. For personal Microsoft accounts, select the Outlook.com connector.

   

5. If you're asked for credentials, sign in to your email account so that Azure Logic Apps creates a connection to your email account.

6. Rename the Send an email action with the following description: Send email for review

7. Provide the following action information and select the fields to include in the email.

   • To add blank lines in an edit box, press Shift + Enter.
   • If you can't find an expected field in the dynamic content list, select See more next to When a new email arrives.

   Property	Value	Description
   To	<recipient-email-address>	For testing purposes, you can use your own email address.
   Subject	ASAP - Review applicant for position: Subject	The email subject that you want to include. Click inside this box, enter the example text, and from the dynamic content list, select the Subject field under When a new email arrives.
   Body	Please review new applicant: Applicant name: From Application file location: Path Application email content: Body	The email's body content. Click inside this box, enter the example text, and from the dynamic content list, select these fields: - The From field under When a new email arrives - The Path field under Create blob for email body - The Body field under Call RemoveHTMLFunction to clean email body

   

   Note

   If you select a field that contains an array, such as the Content field, which is an array that contains attachments, the designer automatically adds a For each loop around the action that references that field. That way, your workflow can perform that action on each array item. To remove the loop, remove the field for the array, move the referencing action to outside the loop, select the ellipses (...) on the loop's title bar, and select Delete.

8. Save your workflow.

Now, test your workflow, which now looks like the following example:

Run your workflow

1. Send yourself an email that meets this criteria:

   • Your email's subject has the text that you specified in the trigger's Subject filter property: Business Analyst 2 #423501

   • Your email has one or more attachments. You can reuse an empty text file from your previous test. For a more realistic scenario, attach a resume file.

   • The email body has this text, which you can copy and paste:

     
     Name: Jamal Hartnett
     
     Street address: 12345 Anywhere Road
     
     City: Any Town
     
     State or Country: Any State
     
     Postal code: 00000
     
     Email address: jamhartnett@outlook.com
     
     Phone number: 000-000-0000
     
     Position: Business Analyst 2 #423501
     
     Technical skills: Dynamics CRM, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, JavaScript, Perl, Power BI, Tableau, Microsoft Office: Excel, Visio, Word, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Outlook
     
     Professional skills: Data, process, workflow, statistics, risk analysis, modeling; technical writing, expert communicator and presenter, logical and analytical thinker, team builder, mediator, negotiator, self-starter, self-managing  
     
     Certifications: Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Project Management
     
     Language skills: English, Mandarin, Spanish
     
     Education: Master of Business Administration
     

2. Run your workflow. If successful, your workflow sends you an email that looks like the following example:

   

   If you don't get any emails, check your email's junk folder. Your email junk filter might redirect these kinds of mails. Otherwise, if you're unsure that your workflow ran correctly, see Troubleshoot your logic app workflow.

Congratulations, you've now created and run a workflow that automates tasks across different Azure services and calls some custom code.

Clean up resources

When you no longer need this sample, delete the resource group that contains your logic app workflow and related resources.

1. In the Azure portal's top-level search box, enter resource groups, and select Resource groups.

2. From the Resource groups list, select the resource group for this tutorial.

3. On the resource group's Overview page toolbar, select Delete resource group.

4. When the confirmation pane appears, enter the resource group name, and select Delete.

Next steps

In this tutorial, you created a logic app workflow that processes and stores email attachments by integrating Azure services, such as Azure Storage and Azure Functions. Now, learn more about other connectors that you can use to build logic app workflows.