Outlook Connector for MDaemon
MDaemon PRO supports Outlook Connector for MDaemon, a separately licensed product available from Alt-N Technologies. Outlook Connector makes it possible for you to share your Microsoft Outlook calendars, contacts, tasks, and more with other users-something which was ordinarily only possible when Outlook was coupled with Microsoft Exchange Server. Outlook Connector for MDaemon can effectively eliminate your dependency on Exchange.
When you have installed Outlook Connector for MDaemon, the Outlook Connector dialog will be available from Setup Outlook Connector… (or Ctrl+C). This dialog is used for activating and configuring Outlook Connector and for authorizing specific accounts to use it.
For more information on Outlook Connector for MDaemon, visit www.altn.com.
Outlook Connector Users
…accounts allowed to connect using Outlook Connector
This is the list of MDaemon users who are authorized to share their Outlook folders, Calendars, Contacts, and so on via Outlook Connector. You can add users to the list by using the options outlined below.
New Outlook Connector user
To add an MDaemon user to the list of authorized Outlook Connector users, select the desired user from this drop-down list and then click Add.
Add
After selecting a user from the New Outlook Connector user drop-down list, click this button to add that account to the list of authorized Outlook Connector users.
Remove
To remove an account from the list of authorized Outlook Connector users, select the desired user in the list and then click Remove.
Authorize any account to connect using Outlook Connector
To instantly authorize all MDaemon accounts to connect via Outlook Connector, click this button and all MDaemon accounts will be added to the …accounts allowed to connect using Outlook Connector list.
Authorize accounts the first time they connect using Outlook Connector
Click this checkbox if you want each MDaemon user to be added to the …accounts allowed to connect using Outlook Connector list the first time he or she attempts to connect using Outlook Connector. Note: if you enable this option then you have in effect authorized all MDaemon accounts to use Outlook Connector for MDaemon. The accounts simply will not be added to the list until the first time each one uses it.
Enable users to connect using Outlook Connector for MDaemon
Click this checkbox to activate Outlook Connector for MDaemon. Your users will not be able to utilize Outlook Connector's features unless this option is enabled.
Share account data with Outlook Connector users
Click this option if you want all MDaemon accounts that have been authorized to connect via Outlook Connector to be visible on the Permissions list that appears in the Outlook Connector for MDaemon Plugin. When sharing Outlook items, Outlook Connector users will choose from the list those accounts to which they wish to grant permission to share them. When this feature in disabled, the Outlook Connector Plugin's Permissions list will be blank and the users will have to enter email addresses manually-only addresses belonging to accounts authorized to connect via Outlook Connector will be able to share the Outlook items. If a user enters an address that is not authorized then the items will simply not be shared with that address unless it is authorized to connect via Outlook Connector at some later time.
Restrict shared data to members of users own domain
This option is only available when the Share account data with Outlook Connector users feature is enabled. Click this checkbox if you want only users who are authorized to connect via Outlook Connector and who belong to same domain to appear on the Permissions list in the Outlook Connector Plugin-accounts belonging to different domains will not be listed even if they are authorized to connect via Outlook Connector.
Generate Outlook Connector shared folders
Click this button to generate a set of Outlook Connector folders for each domain. It will generate the following folders: contact, appointment, journal, task, and note.
Keep contact folders up to date with MDaemon users
If this option is enabled, MDaemon will keep the contact folders synchronized with its account list.
Attachment Linking (Setup Attachment linking…, or Ctrl+K) is a new feature that makes it possible for MDaemon to remove all attachments from incoming email messages automatically, store them in a designated location, and then place URL links in the message from which they were extracted pointing to their location.
This can greatly speed up mail processing when your users retrieve their messages or synchronize their mail folders since the messages will be devoid of large attachments. It can also provide increased security and an increased level of protection for your users since attachments can be stored in a central location for monitoring by the administrator and will not be downloaded automatically to mail clients where they might be executed automatically.
Further, both the location where files will be stored and the URL links inserted into messages in place of attachments are flexible. In MDaemon you merely designate the location where you wish to store the files and the format of the URL that will be inserted into the messages. You can use macros to make these paths dynamic, or you can simply make them static. The level of security and user requirements for getting to these files is up to you and depends entirely upon your particular system and the security measures that you have implemented. You could, for example, place files in a storage location accessible via FTP, or in a secure directory requiring specific access credentials, or in a public location accessible to anyone- whatever you prefer.
In order for Attachment Linking to work, an Account must have the "Enable automatic extraction of MIME encoded attachments" option enabled (located on the Mailbox tab of the Account Editor) and use a mail client such as WorldClient, which understands how to render HTML formatted email messages. Normally, automatically extracted attachments are placed within the account's FILES directory. However, because it might be useful to group all the attachments for all accounts into a single directory (such as an accessible directory on your web server), the Attachment Linking feature allows you to do this by providing a space for you to designate a path to the directory, and it supports template and message macros to make the path dynamic. When you specify the location where extracted attachments will be stored you can use the macros to create multiple shared directories. For example, "$ROOTDIR$\Attachments\$DOMAIN$\" will group all attachments into a subdirectory named for the domain to which the user belongs. That directory is contained in another subdirectory called "Attachments" that is under MDaemon's root directory (usually C:\MDaemon\). So, if your account's email address is frank@example.com, then the above example will cause your extracted attachments to be placed in the subdirectory, "C:\MDaemon\Attachments\example.com\." You can further subdivide attachment storage by appending the "$MAILBOX$" template macro to the above example. This will cause your files to be stored in a subdirectory beneath "\example.com\" called "Frank." Therefore the full file path of the directory where your extracted files will be stored is: "C:\MDaemon\Attachments\example.com\Frank\."
The format of the URL that you include in the space provided can also be made dynamic by using template and message macros. Because your account holders will be using this URL to gain access to their file attachments you must make certain that the designated storage directory is accessible via URLs in HTML formatted email. The format and nature of the URL depends on how you wish to use it and the method of access that you wish to provide to your MDaemon users. If all of your users access their email exclusively from your local area network then you might choose to store attachments in a shared directory that is accessible locally but not via the Internet, and thus format the URL accordingly with a network or
Attachment Linking:intranet file path. Or, you might wish to make the attachments freely available to everyone and therefore place them in a public html folder, or a folder that is accessible via anonymous FTP. If you are using MDaemon's integrated web server then one easy method of making the attachments available to your users is to place them in a subdirectory of WorldClient's "HTML" directory (usually "C:\MDaemon\WorldClient\HTML\"). For example, the attachment path could be, "$ROOTDIR$\WorldClient\HTML\attachments\$DOMAIN$\" and the message URL, "http://$DOMAIN$:3000/attachments/$DOMAIN$/." However, depending on your network's security measures, this might make the attachments available to anyone, since it is a public html directory. Where you store the files and how your users will get to them is completely up to you.
Finally, when users delete or expunge messages with POP, IMAP, or WorldClient, MDaemon will automatically delete all attachments linked to that message in order to recover disk space.
Attachment Linking:
Enable attachment linking
Click this checkbox to enable Attachment Linking for all accounts that are configured to have attachments automatically extracted from their messages. The "Enable automatic extraction of MIME encoded attachments" option is located on the Mailbox tab of the Account Editor. When you click the Enable attachment linking option, you will be asked if you wish to enable automatic extraction of attachments for all MDaemon accounts. If you choose "No" then Attachment Linking will be enabled but you must manually activate attachment extraction for each account that you desire to use it.
Attachment path
Use this text box to designate the directory where you wish to store extracted file attachments. You can use template and message macros to make this path dynamic.
Message URL
This is the base URL that will be inserted into messages from which files have been extracted. For example, if a file named "myfile.gif" is extracted from a message and the Message URL is set to
"http://example.com/attachments/," then the URL inserted into the message will be: "http://example.com/attachments/myfile.gif."
Delete attachments from disk when messages are deleted
Click this option if you want extracted attachments to be deleted from the server whenever the message to which they are linked is deleted. Give this option careful consideration before enabling it. If it is enabled and a user collects his email via a POP client that is not configured to leave messages on the server, then all of his extracted attachments will be irretrievably lost. If this option is not enabled then no attachments will be lost, but a great deal of your hard drive space could eventually be taken up by outdated and useless files that their original recipient no longer wants or needs.
