Use Gmail for TopView email notification
The following information provides details on using Gmail with TopView for both outgoing email (Notification) and incoming email (Alarm Acknowledge and information requests).
Google offers free Gmail accounts. They include the use of Gmail's outgoing (SMTP) and incoming (POP) mail servers. TopView can use these 2 mail servers to send and receive email. Note: a free Gmail account has a limit of 500 outgoing emails per day (24 hour period).
Google Workspace allows significantly more per day.
Use Gmail via account linking (OAUTH)
TopView 6.35 added support for linking email to your Google account for outgoing email and incoming email. Authentication between Gmail and TopView leverages OAUTH.
To configure this link, open the TopView Configurator application, then go to "Email-SMS Notification" in the left sidebar. Enable Email-SMS Notification and click the "[Configure]" button. Go to the "Outgoing Email Settings" tab and click the "[Sign in with Google]" button. Follow the prompts to link TopView to your Google account for email.
You may need to add port ":587" to the SMTP address, especially if initial tests fail (port 25 is used by default).
After completing the process of signing in with Google, you can optionally enable incoming email as well.
We recommend using a dedicated email account for emailing with TopView, especially if you set up incoming email. TopView will delete emails from the inbox when processing them.
Use Gmail via SMTP (outgoing) and POP/IMAP (incoming, optional)
With Two Factor Authentication ("more secure")
To use Gmail without enabling access for "less secure apps" in your Google account, you will need to enable Two Factor Authentication.
- Enable Two Factor Authentication for your Google Account
- Create an App Password for TopView to use
- Enter the App Password into TopView's outgoing SMTP password field, and in the POP password field if incoming email is enabled for the TopView configuration.
Changing your Google Account password will automatically revoke any App Passwords.
TopView uses the accepted standard of SSL/TLS for secure communication with email servers. "Less secure" does not indicate that TopView is using bad security practices, it's how Google indicates that there are ways to keep your Google account's password unknown to the TopView application (which is a preferred security practice) as well as allowing your Google account to revoke access to TopView. Learn more about what "Less secure apps" means from Google.
Notice: Less Secure Apps
Our recommendations previously included instructions using passwords and the "Less Secure Apps" option to send emails through Gmail.
Gmail is deprecating support for Less Secure Apps and this will not be an option moving forward.
We recommend moving to OAUTH or an App Password. OAUTH access to Gmail has been available for TopView installations since version 6.35.
Related Articles
Why does my notification include a time that's not included in notification message template?
When using a notification message template to send consistent notifications for alarms, you may notice a timestamp at the start of the notification that isn't in the template. This is due to an outgoing email setting, and can be suppressed. To remove ...Send different notification messages to voice and email, to email & SMS, or other different notification methods
How to send different notification messages to different recipients for the same alarm Method 1: Use multiple tag groups with tag group notifications The simplest way to send different notification messages through different media is to use tag group ...TopView - lost connection to Gmail account (Sign in with Google)
The following article is for TopView customers using a Gmail account to send/receive Email where authorization to the Gmail account was configured using "Sign in with Google" from the TopView Configurator > Email-SMS Notification > Outgoing Email. ...OAUTH access for TopView with Microsoft 365
This article provides information on setting up access to email for TopView through a Microsoft 365 system. TopView can leverage "Modern Authentication", or OAUTH, access to Microsoft 365 email systems. To facilitate access, TopView requires an ...Ports used during TopView operation
TopView can utilize a number of ports to perform its job, configure your firewall to allow communication over the following ports: Data source related ports OPC requires the use of DCOM, which is negotiated over port 135 TCP. The client and server ...