Emailing MOSS

MOSS has mail!
Integration, storage and management of e-mail in MOSS
Kathy Hughes
SharePoint MVP
Quest SharePoint Seminar, Tuesday, 7th July, 2009, Sydney, Australia
www.kathyhughes.com

Agenda
The great debate:
Public folders or SharePoint
E-mail storage!
Options for adding e-mail to SharePoint
Pros and Cons of each option
Deployment considerations – client/server
Backup and upgrade considerations
Format of destination e-mails
Quotas and limits in SharePoint lists, management
Q&A

Stick with Public Folders?
Public folders are alive and well in Exchange 2007
Public folders will be supported in the next version of Exchange server and for at least 10 years following that
SharePoint search can be configured to crawl Exchange public folders
Concerns over storing e-mails away from Exchange
Duplication – more dumping grounds!
Security
What about retention policies
Backups
I currently have e-mails stored in public folders, how can I move them to SharePoint?
Should I move existing e-mails or not?

Exchange team recommends
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/03/31/448537.aspx
* Depending on scope of scenario, use Exchange PF's or SharePoint ** Depending on the scope of the application use Exchange Web Services and/or SharePoint

Move e-mail to SharePoint?
E-mails are records often part of a bigger picture
Tied in with a project
Multiple sets of threads
Share - consolidate e-mails (team site)
Centralise all e-mails related to a project
Maintain historical records in one place
Avoid loss of important project e-mails in individual mailboxes through Exchange retention policies*
Leverage SharePoint security to control access to e-mails
Consistent user experience
Users don’t have to navigate ‘outside’ SharePoint to find and access e-mails
Make e-mails and e-mail content (and attachments) searchable
Align e-mails with SharePoint taxonomy/categorisation/information flow
Don’t put everything into one big folder
*Especially important if you organisation has e-mail retention policies, i.e. Deletion and no PSTs

Upfront Considerations - SharePoint?
Two main approaches for integrating e-mail:
Outlook Drag ‘n drop from inbox to SharePoint
Outlook use Send (to, cc, bcc, part of distribution group)
Primary deployment considerations:
Office version (2007, 2003 or earlier)?
Exchange version (2007, 2003, or earlier, OWA)?
Server-side or client-side or both?
Upgrade considerations?
Retention policies, security
PST’s – does your organisation support PST files?

Upfront Considerations (cont)
Reversal strategy
Format of e-mails – open MSGs in Outlook or EMLs in Outlook Express
Policies and versioning
Think about any limitations/policies you might want to place on e-mails in SharePoint, i.e. Expiration
Metadata / search
How do you want to expose your e-mails in SharePoint
Key columns for search
Number of users in organization
Scalability of solution
Licensing costs if you choose to go down the 3rd party add-on route
IT resources
complexity of solution, dependencies on IT resourcing for deployment and management

How?
By developing a methodology which utilizes our existing infrastructure
SharePoint
Exchange, Active Directory
Outlook 2003/2007
InfoPath (forms)
Include e-mail integration as part of our upfront design strategy
Align e-mail storage with current and/or future business processes
Resources
Support

What?
What types of e-mail do we want to store/integrate?
Message/Mail (.MSG) files
Calendar items
Contacts
Tasks
Forms
The most common form of e-mail integration in SharePoint are e-mail bodies and attachments

Options for Integration
Drag ‘n drop from Outlook to document library (between applications)
Use “Connect to Outlook” from within document libraries and lists
E-mail enable document libraries and lists and send e-mails (and attachments) from Outlook
Send e-mails from SharePoint – DLs, Alerts (demo time permitting)
Use Exchange 2007 managed folders to drag ‘n drop e-mails into SharePoint document libraries directly from Outlook
Records management features
Use a 3rd party product, like Colligo Contributor or Scinaptic OnePlaceMail – send via Outlook

I love Outlook!
Outlook as the Principle Tool
3rd party –
Colligo Contributor
and OnePlaceMail–
Outlook add-in
Send to a
Document Library
userEmpowerment
Exchange 2007 managed folders
Connected SharePoint lists and
document libraries
Exchange public folders

Option 1:Drag ‘n Drop between Applications
From Outlook to SharePoint Document Library
Cannot always drag directly from Outlook into a Document Library/browser window
Typically involves dragging an e-mail (including any attachments) from Outlook to desktop then drag e-mail into a document library in Explorer View
Saves and stores e-mail (body+attachment/s) in .msg format
Doesn’t understand content type
Summary: Tedious and unproductive, especially for large volumes of e-mail or regular occurrences, no custom metadata, BUT install .MSG iFilter for search

Option 2: Connect to Outlook
No additional configuration required post-install of SharePoint
Works with Outlook 2007
Outlook 2003 users don’t see this option in document libraries, with the EXCEPTION of calendar / event lists
Read-only in Outlook 2007, with the exception of Discussion lists!
Can drag ‘n drop an e-mail into a connected Discussion list and the e-mail will appear as a new discussion thread
Summary: Limitations with read-only local folders; metadata isn’t fully supported, i.e. e-mails dropped into connected Discussion lists only include Subject and Body
Creates PST file on the client – consider PST policies
Some offline capabilities

Discussion Threads

Discussion Threads (cont)

Demo
Connect to Outlook

Option 3: E-mail Enabled Libraries and Lists
SharePoint Central Administration configuration
Farm-wide setting
Works with Exchange Server 2000/2003/2007
Additional configuration for Exchange 2007
Separate OU in Active Directory
Site owners access “Incoming e-mail settings” in document libraries and lists throughout site collections
Each library/list has its own unique e-mail address, suffixed by SMTP server/domain FQDN, e.g. libraryaddress@server.domain.com
Creates contact objects back in Active Directory
How do you manage this?
Naming conventions, lots and lots of objects added to AD…

Types of Lists you can e-mail
Document libraries
Announcements
Discussion
Calendar
Forms libraries

Dependencies
Initial configuration done by AD, Exchange and SharePoint administrator/s
SharePoint AD contact may fail to include all attributes required for in-coming e-mail and attachments
This may result in failure to receive attachments when sending e-mail to SharePoint document libraries
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926891 for further details

Process – Central Admin

Process – OU on Active Directory

Process – Exchange server

Process – Site by site

Process – Site specific address

E-mail Enabled Libraries and Lists
(CONT)
New library/list e-mail addresses are added to the designated OU on the Exchange server
Show or hide addresses in the GAL
Add addresses to Distribution lists
E.g. Project distribution list so that a project site captures all project-related e-mails
E-mails can be accepted to libraries and lists based on user permissions
Avoid spam (to some degree!)
Libraries and lists capture both the e-mail body and any attachments
Configurable per library/list

Send To:
2
1
3

Send Calendar items

Send Calendar items (cont)

E-mail Enabled Libraries and Lists
(CONT)
Summary
E-mails sent to libraries and lists by default don’t understand content types
If ‘Document’ is the default content type then the e-mail will be associated with the Document content type
Does not understand custom metadata, i.e. required columns are ignored
E-mails are stored in libraries as .EML format – not the .MSG type – inability to access with Outlook, reverts to a Web page instead OR open with Outlook Express
E-mails sent to discussion lists are stored as a ‘Discussion’ content type – including subject and body
E-mails sent to Calendars are added as an appointments

Demo
E-mail enabled lists and libraries

Option 4:Exchange 2007 Managed Folders
Allow end users to drag ‘n drop to a SharePoint document library without leaving Outlook 2003/2007
The strength of Exchange 2007 Managed Folders is in applying managed folders to the SharePoint records repository (Record Center) template
The managed folder journaling feature includes a ‘label’ parameter which is understood by the routing table in the records repository so that e-mails are stored specific to their ‘type’ - metadata
Managed folders are created/controlled by Exchange admin and can be selectively deployed to end users (through Outlook 2003/2007)
Placing retention on a managed folder, such as ‘delete after 3 months’ won’t apply to e-mails auto-forwarded to libraries and lists
Even after running ‘start-managedfolderassistant’ once e-mails are deleted from the Exchange server

Configure Managed Folders

Configure Managed Folders (cont)

Managed Folder - Format
Journal report and .MSG file are both sent to SharePoint

Hand-in-hand with Record Center…

Demo
Route e-mails to a Document library
Sending e-mails to a SharePoint records repository

Option 5:Search Public Folders
Stick with public folders
Crawl/search public folder contents from SharePoint
Users navigate outside SharePoint to access contents of e-mails

Configure Search for Exchange

Option 6:3rd Party options
Purchase a 3rd party e-mail integration tool like Colligo Contributor or Scinaptic’sOnePlaceMail
This will solve metadata issue
Other options including the ability to be able to add e-mails directly to folders with document libraries
Familiar Outlook environment
Configuration by IT personnel, client/server components

3rd Party options
Content type recognition, custom metadata, folder selection

Demo
3rd party option
Quest has just released a new open source e-mail uploader
http://sharepointforall.com/media/p/401.aspx
Specific to e-mail attachments

Other:InfoPath & Outlook forms (custom sol)
Doesn’t require InfoPath on the client
Users fill in InfoPath forms within e-mail
Completed form or form data is submitted to SharePoint list or Forms library
Metadata is captured and exposed in SharePoint
Subsequent workflows
Other option - build a solution around Outlook forms – integrate with SharePoint document library

Considerations
OOTB features – Connect to Outlook, Send e-mail to library/list, drag ‘n drop from desktop into MOSS library
Resourcing costs to configure Central Administration and Active Directory
No additional licensing costs
Runaway train risk around AD contacts
Requires Exchange 2007 Enterprise server
Resourcing to configure/manage Exchange managed folders (IT)

Considerations (cont)
Purchase 3rd Party add-ons –
Colligo Contributor and Scinaptic OnePlaceMail (mentioned during today’s presentation)
See respective sites for pricing and feature details
Is it based on CALs and/or server - licensing?
May include options around volume licensing
IT planning and resourcing for deployment and management of client-side components
What are their plans around future upgrade scenarios – maintenance, etc.

Considerations (cont)
Capacity planning around document libraries
Remember best practices for view limits @ 2000
Different to total items or lists including folders
Be careful when planning e-mail lists/libraries
You could very quickly end up with large amounts of e-mails if sending e-mails to an e-mail enabled library as part of a distribution group, i.e. All threads, etc., throughout a project lifecycle (~3-6 months or greater)
Leverage views and folders (folders for large lists including e-mail)
Note, you can’t send e-mails to folders in document libraries using the OOB e-mail enabled library feature

Recommendations
If possible, maintain e-mails sent to SharePoint sites in .MSG format
Easier to retrieve and open in source Outlook application
If you must maintain an e-mail retention policy, then consider creating an e-mail content type and associating an information management policy to that content type, i.e. after X number of months route e-mails to the Record Center
Create a separate e-mail document library for each site, or an e-mail document library for each respective project within a site, e.g. ProjectX_emails
Part of upfront planning and design

Recommendations (cont)
Plan e-mail storage as part of your upfront design/deployment
Remember, incoming e-mail settings are done on a per farm basis
Do you want all sites throughout your site collections to have e-mail enabled libraries and lists
Consider creating custom site definitions with the option to e-mail enable a site removed
Do you want to send / route all e-mails to a Record Center?
Avoid dumping ground syndrome
Search - install an iFilter for .MSG files

Recommendations (cont)
Consider including document library/list e-mail addresses within distribution groups so the library/list automatically receives a copy of an e-mail, e.g. project e-mails
Finally, document and train your end users on the designated method/s for integrating e-mail in SharePoint libraries and lists
If it’s using Exchange 2007 managed folders then show them how to set up rules to automatically send e-mails to managed folders in their Outlook client
If it’s using Colligo Contributor or Scinaptic OnePlaceMail, then train them on use of the product and address any policies around use of the product/s

Resources
How to configure MOSS and Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 for incoming e-mail - whitepapers
Steve Smith, MVP, Combined Knowledge
http://www.combined-knowledge.com
Configuring Exchange 2007 managed folders and SharePoint Records Repository – whitepaper
Kathy Hughes, MVP
http://www.kathyhughes.com
Scaling papers: http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102377231033; http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx
E-mail Webinars - Colligohttp://www.colligo.com/articles/ResourceCenter.asp
Scinaptic OnePlaceMail - http://www.scinaptic.com/
Me – kathy@kathyhughes.com

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Emailing MOSS

by Kathy Hughes

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