Overview

This section provides the following information about the new client-side Mailbox Synchronization feature:

Introduction

The iManage Work Desktop for Windows offers its customers the client-side filing options for Microsoft Outlook. The users can file emails to iManage Work folders directly from Microsoft Outlook mailbox. The email filing options are facilitated by the client-side server iwWCS.exe, that is installed on each user's machine individually along with iManage Work Desktop for Windows. 

From iManage Work Desktop for Windows 10.4.0 onwards, iManage offers the new Mailbox Synchronization feature as one of the client-side filing options to iManage Cloud customers using the http://cloudimanage.com/ endpoint.

Automatic synchronization of email status

In the previous versions of iManage Work Desktop for Windows, when you filed an email successfully, the icon  appeared on the email only in your mailbox.  

From iManage Work Desktop for Windows 10.4.0 onwards, when you file an email to iManage Work, the new Mailbox Synchronization feature automatically marks it as filed, and the icon  appears in the sender and recipients mailboxes who have access to the email in the filing location. This indicates to the sender and all the recipients that the email is already filed to iManage Work. The email in the recipient's mailbox is also stamped with the filing date, document number, and filing location. An email can be filed by the sender or any of its recipients, and it is considered for synchronization. By enabling this feature, filing of an email multiple times by different users is avoided.

Characteristics of Mailbox Synchronization feature

The following are some of the important characteristics of Mailbox Synchronization feature:

Characteristic

Description

Enabling Mailbox Synchronization

By default the Mailbox Synchronization feature is disabled. This feature must be enabled using the EnableMailboxSync configuration in the imEMM.config file.

Starting Mailbox Synchronization

  • Once the feature is enabled, the synchronization process runs in the background automatically and you need not perform any action.
  • Microsoft Outlook must be running in your machine.
  • The synchronization process starts considering emails for marking when iManage Work Desktop for Windows 10.4.0 is installed for the first time. The existing emails in your mailbox prior to installing iManage Work Desktop for Windows 10.4.0 are not considered.

Configuring schedule

The mailbox synchronization process runs at the time interval defined by MailboxSyncInterval configuration in the imEmm.config file. The default interval is 15 minutes. That means, the mailbox synchronization process runs after every 15 minutes to check and mark the emails as filed.

The minimum value for the configuration MailboxSyncInterval can be configured as 2 minutes.

Restarting Mailbox Synchronization

If this feature is turned off and later turned on, the synchronization process restarts from the point where it was turned off. However, it only synchronizes the emails based on the value defined in RegressNumOfDaysMailboxSync configuration, if the turn off date falls beyond it.

For example, if the mailbox syncronization was turned off 100 days ago and the RegressNumOfDaysMailboxSync is configured as 90, it considers only the emails received in the last 90 days for synchronization.

Supporting distribution list

The mailbox synchronization feature supports distribution list. That is, the filed email status is synchronized even if the recipients are in a distribution list in the email.

NOTE:

The Mailbox Synchronization feature supports only the primary mailbox. It does not support shared and archived mailboxes.

imEMM.config options

The following options are available in the imEMM.config file to configure the client-side filing behaviour. For more information, see the section Configuration files for customization in iManage Work Desktop for Windows Customization Guide 10.4.0.

Option

Description

Value(s)

EnableMailboxSync

Enable Mailbox Synchronization feature to automatically mark an email as filed in the respective mailboxes of the sender and all its recipients who have access to iManage Work filing location, when the sender or any one of the recipients files it to iManage Work. This feature is disabled by default, and user needs to enable it by setting this configuration to TRUE.

Example:

"EnableMailboxSync":"TRUE"

TRUE (enabled)

FALSE (disabled) Default

RegressNumOfDaysMailboxSync

The number of days iwWCS.exe mailbox synchronization regresses to search for emails. The default value is 90 days. Any emails received before 90 days are not considered for synchronization. The mailbox synchronization process starts marking emails from the time it runs first, and does not consider older emails.

Example:

"RegressNumOfDaysMailboxSync":90

Default value: 90

MailboxSyncInterval

The time duration in minutes after which the mailbox synchronization process is invoked. The default interval is 15 minutes. That means, the mailbox synchronization process runs after every 15 minutes to check and mark the emails as filed.
This option cannot be configured with a value lesser than 2 minutes.

Example:

"MailboxSyncInterval":15

Default value: 15

Minimum value: 2

Search folder for Mailbox Synchronization

This section provides details about the search folder that is created for Mailbox Synchronization feature. This information can be utilized by an administrator for troubleshooting activities.

After installing iManage Work Desktop for Windows 10.4.0, when iwWCS.exe runs for the first time on user's machine and Mailbox Synchronization is enabled, it creates a search folder WCSE_SFMailboxSync under the mailbox Root directory. This folder saves all the new emails that are to be marked as filed for optimizing the performance of iwWCS.exe.

The search folder WCSE_SFMailboxSync is:

  • created under Root directory of user's Microsoft Outlook mailbox.
  • hidden and user cannot view or modify the search criteria on it.

The following search criteria is applied on the WCSE_SFMailboxSync search folder to identify the emails to be marked:

Search criteria for WCSE_SFMailboxSync

Description

FilingStatus does not exist

Indicates that an email is not yet marked as filed.

PR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME < 90 days

Indicates that an email is received in the last 90 days.

It is the MAPI property of email in Microsoft Outlook mailbox.

RegressNumOfDaysMailboxSync < 90

Indicates the number of days iwWCS.exe Mailbox Sync regresses to search for emails. The default value is 90 days. The emails older than 90 day are not considered for marking.
The Mailbox Sync starts marking emails from the time it runs for the first time, and does not consider older emails.

Example:

"RegressNumOfDaysMailboxSync":90

Known issues

This section lists the known issues in the Mailbox Synchronization feature in iManage Work Desktop for Windows 10.4.0.

Reference Number

Description

NT-108836

If the configuration EnableChangeDescription in imEMM.config file is set to 1, the Send and File dialogue provides an option to users to change the description of an email that is used while filing it to iManage Work. When a user changes the description, the subject of the original email and the description of the filed email are not identical. In this scenario, an email is synchronized only if the MessageId of both the email matches. If the MessageId does not exist or it is different for original and filed email, then the match based on other MAPI properties (Subject, Sent time, and Sender) fails, and the email is not considered for synchronization.

NT-108910

When the mailbox synchronization feature searches for matching emails in the non-filer user’s mailbox based on the MAPI properties Subject, Sent time, and From, the difference between the sent time of the email in the filer's mailbox and the non-filer's mailbox should be in the range of ± 5 seconds. If this time difference is out of the range, the email is not marked for synchronization in the non-filer's mailbox.