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E-mail logging and how to get the QUEUE folder filled with message automatically in Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007

  • Artikkeli

The E-Mail Logging feature is a service that offers users e-mail integration between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This allows the user to maintain current e-mail records in both systems. It also gives the user the ability to share and publish knowledge about external contacts.

This is how it works: The e-mail dispatcher ("watchdog") monitors a specified mail folder, which is referred to as the Queue folder in this blog, on the Exchange Server. When an e-mail is retrieved from the Queue folder by the dispatcher, it is then placed in another folder – referred to as the Storage folder in this blog. The dispatcher logs the interaction in the Interaction Log Entry table in Navision. If the sender or the receiver is unknown to the system (no e-mail address is registered in the system), the e-mail will not be registered/logged in Navision and will not be stored in the queue or storage folder in Outlook. If the e-mail is marked with an option other than Normal, such as Private, Personal or Confidential, it will be deleted.

There is a very old whitepaper that discusses this (Navision40_IntegrationwithOutlook_Technic.doc). It was written in the Exchange 5.5 days. This paper also discusses the way how to automate the Queue folder. Here is an extract from that paper:

There are several ways to get an e-mail copied to the Queue folder for further handling. The first method (Message Archival) involves using the E-Mail Logging feature on the Exchange server. In order to use the other methods they must be set up in each individual client Outlook installation. These methods offer various degrees of automatic logging.

· Message Archival. The Exchange Server can be set up to log all traffic and forward the e-mails to a specified folder or mailbox, which should then be used as the Queue folder. To configure the Exchange server to enable Message Archival, refer to the link below:

Exchange 2000 and Exchange Server 2003
https://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q261/1/73.ASP

· Setting Up Rules in Outlook. You can also set up rules in Outlook that are triggered by sending and/or receiving an e-mail. These rules are based on user-defined conditions. You can set up the rules to allow specific e-mails to be copied to the Queue folder. To ensure that all outgoing e-mails are placed in the Queue folder.

When you define these rules, make sure that they are the first rules that are applied so that other rules do not override them.

· Creating a Button. Another way to use the client to log your mail is to create a button you can click to have your e-mails copied automatically to the Queue folder. See the whitepaper for detailed instructions on how to create this button.

· Setting Up an E-Mail Logging User. You can set up an individual user on the Exchange Server. Make sure the user’s Inbox is selected as the Queue folder. Other users can simply add this recipient as a “BCC” on outgoing e-mails that they want to log. Note that this only works for outgoing e-mails and should, therefore, be used in combination with the other methods described above.

One would expect this to work in Exchange 2007 the same way it worked in Exchange 2007. Well, there is news. Message Journaling in Exchange 2007 is much powerfull then it ever was. Good news you as a NAV admin would think. Well, there are many reasons why one would use Exchange 2007 Message Journaling over Exchange 2003 Message Archival. There is however one big reason for a NAV admin NOT to use is and that is that it breaks E-mail logging because of the following reasons: "It is all about security".

By default, all communication between computers running Exchange Server 2007 in the same Exchange organization is encrypted. This encryption includes journal reports. Exchange Server does a number of things to help reduce the risk of journal reports being tampered with:
Secure links are used between Hub Transport servers and Mailbox servers in the Exchange 2007 organization.
Journal reports are sent as "Microsoft Exchange" on behalf of the sender of the original message.
Sessions between the Hub Transport server and Mailbox server are authenticated.
Only authenticated connections are accepted when journal reports are sent between the Hub Transport servers and the Mailbox servers in the same Exchange 2007 organization.

The workaround is to create two Transport Rules. To do so, please start up Exchange Management Console, expand Organization Configuration, Hub Transport. On the left side pane of the screen, below Actions / Hub Transport, click on New Transport Rule. Follow the wizard and generate the conditions. For the Transport Rule to be effective for E-mail logging, you need to select "sent to users inside or outside the organization" and make sure it has Inside selected and when you create the second Transport Rule, you again need to select "sent to users inside or outside the organization" but then make sure it has the Outside selected. BCC the message to the Email logging account. Using BCC will copy just the message to the folder where it can be processed by the NAS as usual. By modifying the rules yet further you can reduce the set of messages copied to the folder so that the NAS is yet more efficient than it was using exchange 2003 message logging as the number of messages to parse can be easily reduced

This again makes the Exchange 2007 a far more better powerfull application then all other releases of Exchange Server!

Marco Mels
Microsoft Dynamics NL

Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) EMEA
These postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confer no rights. You assume all risk for your use

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