How to Create an Auto-Response Mail Message in Lotus Notes 8.5.3+

Why would you do this?
Suppose that you have an externally accessible generic email address for your company; support@mycompany.com or info@mycompany.com.

You might expose this to the web and allow people to send messages to you.

Setting up an auto-response email will tell the senders that their message reached its destination and that it will be dealt with accordingly.  It's also good practice to include links to FAQs or other useful information.

Why 8.5.3
The techniques we'll be using here work in older versions of Notes but some of the options seem to have moved around in 8.5.3.  I figured it was a good time to show you where they've moved to.

The Procedure


Start Domino Designer and open the Mail file to be modified.  A really quick way to do this is to right-click on the application tab and choose "Open in Designer".

In the Left hand panel of designer, expand Code and then double-click Agents.  A new window should appear.

Click the action button marked New Agent (at the top of the screen).

Give the Agent a Name, Alias and Comment;

Name: AutoResponder
Alias: AutoResponder
Comment: Sends an automatic response to any inbound emails sent to this address

Change the type to Simple Actions
Leave the Application field as is and click Ok.

In the left panel, click Document Selection.
At the bottom of the screen, you'll see an Add Condition button.
Click it.
Choose In Folder and then Select the Inbox.
Click Add

In the left panel, click Action
At the bottom of the screen, you'll see an Add Action button.
Click it.
Choose Reply to Sender
Make sure that it says Send Reply to Sender Only.
Tick Reply only once per person
Type your message
Click Add

So far so good.  Now to get this to occur for all new mail.

This is where I got stuck.
It makes perfect sense to have these agent properties at the bottom of the page, like they are for lotusscript agents but for some reason, they're not there in 8.5.3. A big thanks to Tony G for finding the missing menu option.

Right mouse click anywhere in the right hand panel and choose Agent Properties.

In the trigger section, choose On Event and Select After New Mail has Arrived.
You can now save and close your agent.

Note: In our tests it took 5-10 minutes for the agent to actually start working so don't despair if it looks like it doesn't appear to be working initially.   To test, send emails from an outside account, like Gmail and wait for the reply message.