Cannot send mail from inside Cognos Controller client

Product:

Cognos Controller 10.1.1
Windows 2008 server

Symptom:
Can not send mail from inside Cognos Controller client

Error message:
Email server reported an error, some or all messages could not be sent. Please check with your local administrator that the email server is operational and that the system configuration is correct (connection details can be found in details and or log file).

java.lang.NullPointerException
com.ibm.cognos.ccr.configproperty.EmailSettings.fromURI(EmailSettings.java:70)
...

Cause:
The value for General Configuration - Server Preferences are not filled in for
variable name: C4_EMAIL_SERVER
variable value: mailrelay.domain.se:25

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cfpm/v10r1m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ctrl_ug.10.1.1.doc%2Fc_syparlist.html

Solution:
Start Cognos Controller client
Log in as administrator
Go to Maintain - General Configuration - Server Preferences
Add new variable name C4_EMAIL_SERVER
Add new variable value to your mail server name (FQDN) and include the port number (:25)
Click Save.
All users need to log off Cognos controller to make the change take affect.

Above is for the new dialog boxes in Cognos controller like Group - Command Center.
Where after you have listed the status for a group/company's on the right side have a icon to send notification email.
To get this to work, the user you logged in with to Cognos Controller must have a valid email address added to its user account information in Cognos controller.

To add email address to user in Cognos Controller client, go to
Maintain - Rights - Users dialog
Click on the user in the list on left side, and add a email address on the right side for the user.
The email address must be allowed by the company email server to send email, often a address that exist inside the company.

If the sending users email address is wrong, you get a error message like this:
Unable to proceed, please address errors listed below.
Cannot send without email address for sender (ADM). Please check system configuration.
...

The mail setting inside Maintain - Configuration - General Configuration
tab general 3 is for all the old mail functions in old controller dialogs.
Here you should also specify the mail server at SMTP server line:
mailrelay.company.se
and select the email format you want to use, recommend CSV.

To test this you can go to Transfer - Export Structures.
Mark E-mail and enter an email address to receive the mail on the line at the right.
Mark what to send, for example Country Structure.
Click RUN icon.
Click CLOSE on message that temp file is created.
Enter the message text and click OK to send the email.

You need to logout from Cognos Controller client, to make any changes take affect from the General Configuration dialog.

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