HaloPSA Guides

Disclaimer: Distribution Lists may be called Segments, depending on which Halo product you are using (functionality is the same between products).

In this lesson we will cover:

- How to set up the Distribution list module

- How to add members to a distribution list

Setting up the Distribution List module

The previous bulk email functionality allowed you to select users from the user list to bulk email or select a monitored service to bulk send emails to, before now the 'from address' was restricted to the default outgoing address that is set in Configuration > Email (Guide: Sending Bulk Emails). With Distribution Lists you can decide the from address that the email comes from by deciding which mailbox to send from, for this to be possible the outgoing tab on the mailboxes you want to send from or configure as the reply to must have the checkbox "Show in From Address" Enabled, without this checkbox on, the mailbox will not be an option in the single select fields for 'from address' and 'reply to address' that are configurable when creating a Distribution List. The mail campaigns work in tandem with distribution lists in order for emails to be sent on certain scheduled times after the campaign has been started.

Enable this setting to use the mailbox of your choice:

Fig 1. Show in 'From Address' setting

Make sure to enable the module by hovering and clicking the '+' icon also make sure the agents have the correct permission for this module (You can find this module in Configuration > Users):

Fig 2. Distribution List Module

A permission has been added to control how Agents can use Distribution Lists. The Distribution Lists access level can be set on the role permissions or on agent permissions. The permission option 'Read and Modify' will mean agents can look at distribution lists, send bulk emails via a distribution list and also edit the members of a distribution list. The option for 'Read and Send' will mean agents will not be able to edit the members of a distribution list, but they can send out emails to the distribution list members.

Note: If the agents role permission is a higher level of permission than what you are trying to manually set on the agent, the role will override due to inheritance. The highest level of access an agent has will always be granted, whether it be given manually or from the role.

Admins will have full access to distribution lists, meaning they are the only agents that can create them.

To begin configuring the lists, you must navigate to the distribution lists module found in the navigation area. This is likely to be found in the overflow menu (indicated by the three dots symbol in the left side navigation bar):

Fig 3. Distribution lists module in navigation pane

Once in the distribution list area, you can click new in the top right to begin creating your first distribution list:

Fig 4. New distribution list

After giving your list a name, a from address, reply to address, deciding whether it is dynamic or not, you can save the page. 

Add Members to the Distribution List

Now that it has been saved, you can "Add Members" via the members tab:

Fig 5. Members tab

After configuring the mailbox correctly, it will be an option in the following fields (From Address and Reply to Address):

Fig 6. From and Reply address

The Distribution Lists module will allow you to add Users to a list, from which you can send Bulk Emails to (Send Individually or BCC). Communications made to the Users on these lists are tracked and can be viewed in the History tab of the Distribution List, or from the Users activity feed if the "Show a Users Distribution List activity in their Activity Feed" setting in Configuration > Users > Distribution Lists is enabled.

Fig 7. User activity feed

The from address set on the Distribution List will override the from address set at client level. Users can also be added in Bulk from existing User lists by selecting with the checkbox, and using the edit drop down menu, there is now the option to pick a Distribution List to add the users to:

Fig 8. Add user to distribution list from list

Fig 9. Choose list

As well as adding users to the Distribution List, you can then also bulk remove them via the Distribution List:

Fig 10. Bulk remove users from distribution list, within distribution list

Email templates are applied when bulk sending from anywhere in Halo, the templates must be custom made templates, you can't choose from the default options.

You can import users to distribution lists, this is achieved by using the following option in Configuration > Users > Distribution Lists:

Fig 11. Import distribution lists

The spreadsheet you will import with should have the following column headers: DistributionListName, UserID, UserEmail:

Fig 12. Spreadsheet import for distribution lists

This above import will populate the distribution list specified on the import, the matching field used to match onto users in the system is the UserID field:

As of v2.154 you can set Dynamic Distribution Lists, this will allow the option to pick multiple entities from the table. The overview tab of the Distribution List will contain the following Dynamic Distribution List option:

Fig 13. Use dynamic members list

After saving your list, you will not be able to make any changes to the Dynamic List checkbox, the members list column of the Distribution List will also display as Dynamic:

Fig 14. Member count displaying as dynamic if list is set to be dynamic