Essential SharePoint 2007, 2nd Edition

Emailing to Libraries

SharePoint libraries can be configured to receive email. Once configured, users can simply email attachments to an alias set up for the library. SharePoint checks for new messages every five minutes or so using the SharePoint Timer service; if it finds a message, it loads the attached document into the library and optionally loads the message as well. Figure 8-9 illustrates the process.

Figure 8-9. Emailing to a document library

To use this feature, you or a system administrator need to complete the following tasks:

• Configure the mail exchange (MX) record in DNS to relay email to the SharePoint server.

• Install the SMTP service on the SharePoint server to receive the relayed mail.

• Create an Active Directory (AD) organizational unit (OU) to contain the contacts for the SharePoint libraries. Delegate control of that OU to the AD account used by the SharePoint application pool so SharePoint can create and delete items in that OU.

• Configure SharePoint to allow libraries to receive mail.

• Enable email for the library.

The first three tasks above require special knowledge that is beyond the scope of this book. To find out more about those tasks, do the following:

• For WSS, search Microsoft.com for "Configure incoming email settings (Windows SharePoint Services)."

• For MOSS, search Microsoft.com for "Configure incoming email settings (Office SharePoint Server)."

These resources do ...