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mikeycisme123Flag for United States of America

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Serverside Rule to Move Messages to Public Folders

Hi all,

Our users organize client email into about 25 different folders, listed under Public Folders, All Public Folders, Clients, and then the customer name. The customer name is always in their domain name - i.e. Company1 always has a domain name such as Company1.com.

We'd like to create a custom server-side rule for Microsoft Outlook 2003 to run on our Exchange 2003 SP2 server which will filter incoming email to a user's inbox and filter according to a list of clients, and if the clients name is found in the "sender" field, forward that email to the appropriate customer folder.

Anyone have any idea how to do this?

Thanks!

Mike
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peakpeak
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Fill in the From field in the rule with company1.com
Select Forward to and fill in the recipients address (or public folder email address)
I'm assuming you know how to make a rule on a public folder, otherwise right-click, choose Properties->Administration, button Folder manager or similar
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MrLonandB

The rules will need to be created in Outlook: "When messages arrives from (address of sender) and is addressed to: (recipient) forward a copy to: (Name of Public Folder).
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This has to be configured using rules in Outlook - ESM wouldn't be able to configure it.

It's not intelligent enough to have one rule to work out 25 clients and forward to the appropriate public folder, you'll need a rule per client.

I assume the clients are already sending mail to the user's mailbox so you don't need to worry about that. Logon as the user and open Outlook. In Mail view, open the Rules wizard (Tools > Rules and Alerts)

For every client, you will need to create a new rule. Click New Rule, select the option "Start from a blank rule". On the next screen select the condition "with specific words in the sender's address" and configure in the properties for that client their email address and press Add. (If they send from multiple addresses, type @<client domain name>.com)

Then OK out, and on the next screen select the option to "move it to the specified folder". Set the condition for that folder to the Public Folder you want to forward to. Complete the wizard and Apply/OK the Rules and Alerts window. The server will be updated and the rule will be applied when the mail arrives at the server since it won't be considered a client-side rule.

Alternatively, you could always mail-enable the Public Folders and give them email addresses like Client1Support@yourdomain.com, then get the client to send mail to that domain instead. This would eliminate the need to have many rules, since mail would go straight to the public folder. You'll have to make a registry change though to make these external messages appear as messages, not notes/posts in the public folder, with Exchange SP1 or 2. http:Q_22748699.html#a19652457

Hope this Helps

Tigermatt
Just re-read my post and this

"like Client1Support@yourdomain.com, then get the client to send mail to that domain instead"
should actually be
"like Client1Support@yourdomain.com, then get the client to send mail to that email address instead".

tm

Avatar of mikeycisme123

ASKER

Thanks for the response, but we are trying to do something a little more complicated:

1. We have a list of company domains their email will come from
2. We have a list of corresponding company names for the public folders

We'd like to create one rule or script which compares each incoming email to column 1 in the list, and if the domain is found, forward the email to the name of the folder in column 2, all which are located under Public Folders \ All Public Folders \ Clients

Mike
Where does the messages originally arrive? A public folder or a mailbox?
So you are wanting any message received from these clients - BY anyone in your organization - to have a copy placed in a particular Public Folder that corresponds to the domain from which the original email was received?

Why not just mail-enable the public folders and have the customers mail directly to the email address of their public folder to begin with?
Actually these messages come to individual users who are assigned to provide support. They work closely with our clients, thus they use their own addresses. They don't want to mail-enable any public folders.

The rules / scripts will be applied to individual user's mail boxes, but at the server. This way they arent' getting messages on their Blackberrys or home Outlook clients if the rule or script only is set to run on their Outlook on their work workstation. It's impossible to get these guys to install anything on their own home computers anyway.

Mike
I see. Well, there's nothing native to Exchange that will accomplish this. Maybe someone else knows of the script you are needing. Good luck.
You aren't going to get anything that will run server side to put the email in to public folders. If the email messages are coming in to users direct something has to read that email message then move the item. Note that import element - the message is being moved, not delivered to the public folder. The move functionality is client side only.

Simon.
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tigermatt
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Thanks for all your responses  - I'll leave this open for a little longer.

Mike
Mail enable the public folders you want rules to send the messages to.  Give each public folder a unique e-mail address.  Log into the users mailbox using OWA you want to setup a server side rule on.  Create the rule in OWA, and set you incoming conditions (with <whatever> in the subject line) and then have it Forward the message to the e-mail address you created for the public folder, then delete the message.  This is the only way I have found to get around this.  If you create a rule to move the message to the public folder directly in Outlook, it will always remain a client side rule.  Rules created in OWA are always server side rules.
"If you create a rule to move the message to the public folder directly in Outlook, it will always remain a client side rule."

Depending on both the rule condition and action to take which you selected in Outlook will affect whether it is a client or server-side rule. Provided the actions are something which can be carried out by the server, it should be a server-side rule, whereas more complicated ones (or those with actions the server simply can't do, like show a desktop alert) would be forced to become a client-side rule.

"  Rules created in OWA are always server side rules."

In this case this statement is true because OWA will only allow you to create rules which will be able to run server-side. OWA is not really an email client and therefore you cannot create client-side rules in it.

Anyway I'm glad it's working for you now.
"If you create a rule to move the message to the public folder directly in Outlook, it will always remain a client side rule."

"Depending on both the rule condition and action to take which you selected in Outlook will affect whether it is a client or server-side rule. Provided the actions are something which can be carried out by the server, it should be a server-side rule, whereas more complicated ones (or those with actions the server simply can't do, like show a desktop alert) would be forced to become a client-side rule."

Read what I posted again.  I didn't that that any rule you create in Outlook will remain a client side rule, I said that if you create a rule to move the message to a PUBLIC FOLDER directly in Outlook, it will always remain a client side rule.  You cannot have a server side rule that moves a message to a public folder, as this action is dependent upon your profile and personal credentials (to determine access to the public folder) which makes it a client side rule.  

The point is you cannot have a server side rule move a message to a public folder.  The only way to get a message from your inbox to a public folder server side is create a server side rule to forward the message to the email address of the public folder.
Sorry, in that case you are totally correct. The move operation is counted as a client-side action, since it depends on the user account as to whether they have permission over that public folder etc.
really old question, but you could create a transport rule, which will be server side, to intercept the message, send it on to the intended recipient and add the address of the mail enabled public folder.

basically, this is setup like an outlook rule, but done on the server, you setup something like this "if message from contain text "@company1.com" forward to "company1.com's Public Folder email address".
then the message will be in both places like they wanted.
roarkinc,

A transport rule would certainly be a possibility, but the Author was (at the time) on Exchange 2003 where transport rules are not available!

-Matt