Offline SharePoint

This is my sixth and last post in a guest series I’m doing here on “The Myths & Truths of Email Management with SharePoint.”. My last post was on SharePoint list scalability.

SharePoint is a great platform for managing email and attachments and has several advantages in the right scenarios. In addition to providing the capability to store, organize, and search for content, SharePoint enables email to become part of the content that is shared throughout the organization. This improves collaboration and content re-use. There are a number of alternatives for moving emails to SharePoint, including out-of-the box methods such as email-enabled lists, managed folders, and third party applications such as Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook. The key to success is building an architecture that is scalable, while making it easy for information workers to use.

PST Files – While some of the capabilities of Exchange and SharePoint overlap, there are distinct differences and advantages of one platform over the other for different scenarios. When important files are stored on individual PST files throughout the organization, the information becomes inaccessible islands. Worse still, PST files pose security and data loss concerns, and often lead to the loss of enterprise content. In reality, PSTs are a thing of the past. Storage and sharing of email and attachments in SharePoint offers distinct advantages for collaboration, document management, and discoverability through a rich search interface.

Exchange Public Folders – While I don’t recommend deploying Public Folders for new applications, you needn’t worry if you already have them. They will continue to be supported by Microsoft in the next major version of Exchange server after Exchange 2007, and for at least 10 years thereafter. For new Exchange deployments, SharePoint is “strongly encouraged” for application development.

If deploying both Exchange 2007 and SharePoint, it doesn’t make sense to build up a huge Public Folder deployment. It’s confusing to users and additional overhead for the team managing Exchange. Microsoft is making major investments in SharePoint and has indicated that it’s the preferred application platform for collaboration and document management going forward.

SharePoint Advantages – As discussed, SharePoint offers a number of advantages over PST files and Public Exchange folders for email management:

• It supports the sharing of email across the enterprise
• User-based email and attachment selection ensures that “important” content is stored
• SharePoint centralizes critical enterprise content on secure company servers
• Email becomes “structured” enterprise content when custom metadata is applied
• The email body and attachments become findable and reusable
• Information workers can take advantages of the version control and history features
• Content types support retention policies and regulatory compliance requirements
• SharePoint improves collaboration and enterprise content management

“Out of the box” there are two ways (highlighted in this series of posts) that Microsoft products support the integration of Exchange and SharePoint for email management: (1) “send to” email-enabled SharePoint lists and (2) “auto copy” Managed Folders to SharePoint.

Email-Enabled Lists – Email-enabled self service lists can easily get out of control and become a significant drain on IT resources. Microsoft IT decided against using email-enabled lists internally. Most organizations don’t need the email-enabled functionality and the oversight it requires, and users prefer to access archived emails in .MSG format (rather than the .EML format created in SharePoint lists). With proper planning and design, email-enabled lists can be deployed successfully. However, Managed Folders are a better alternative.

Managed Folders – Introduced in Exchange 2007, Managed Folders provide administrators with an easy way for users to archive email. Managed Folders can be configured to “auto copy” emails added to them to SharePoint libraries. This incredibly insightful feature can significantly reduce mailbox sizes, while capturing the intended emails (in .MSG format) and attachments. Still, abuse must be avoided to ensure that SharePoint does not become a dumping ground. Managed Folders require a solid information architecture design, and trained administrators who understand scalability and how to manage it.

SharePoint Scalability – Storing emails and attachments in SharePoint can have great advantages for project and knowledge management in corporations, if they are secured in the proper context. However, SharePoint lists and libraries can quickly be bogged down with too much content if not carefully managed. The scalability of SharePoint lists is a major consideration and requires oversight, especially when using email-enabled lists. The default “All items” view can be particularly problematic.

Training and guidance may be required to change corporate culture so users understand where and how content should be stored. Training users to tag content with metadata will increase the usefulness and “findability” of documents. Folders, custom views, indexed columns, and a query-based design are best for large lists to ensure fast performance.

Third-Party Solutions – When deploying SharePoint for email management, it’s important to consider what you get out of the box with Microsoft, and what you get with a partner. Most gaps you find in SharePoint are filled by a very solid partner ecosystem. For example, Gold Certified Microsoft Partner Colligo Networks offers an Add-In for Outlook that makes it easy for users to drag-and-drop emails into SharePoint, while reducing the burden on IT. I would encourage you to try their .Net client-only solution to see if it can meet your Outlook and SharePoint integration requirements.

Well, that’s it for this series of posts on the OfflinesharePoint blog. I hope you found them interesting and informative. If you’d like to keep up with my latest posts, please visit my blog “SharePoint Joel’s SharePoint Land”.

- Joel Oleson.

As part of our continuing series on email management in SharePoint, I wanted to comment on Joel Oleson’s last post on storing all emails and attachments in a single document library. As he points out, SharePoint lists can exhibit performance problems when they are used to store large numbers of items. Since Colligo Contributor is a client-based solution for storing and displaying SharePoint lists, it can often improve list rendering performance for users.

Colligo Contributor will reflect server performance optimizations to the client since it supports folders, views, and filters. In addition, the performance of the Contributor interface is usually significantly better than the browser for content cached locally, for example when accessing content for a specific view. A unique feature in Contributor, which is not available out-of-the-box in SharePoint, is default folder-level metadata. This feature can provide advantages for tagging content since users can set default metadata values that get applied automatically when content is dragged into a SharePoint folder in Outlook. Colligo Contributor 3.2 supports large SharePoint folder hierarchies rendered through the Outlook interface.

This is the fifth in a guest series I’m doing here on “The Myths & Truths of Email Management with SharePoint.”. My last post was on Managed Folders.

Storing all emails and attachments in a single document library is a common practice and popular method for personal storage, however this is not a recommended best practice for knowledge repositories. In SharePoint, document libraries require special information architecture because of performance degradation associated with lists that contain a large number of items.

To gain a better understanding of the issues, there are a few documents that I would recommend developers and architects review, as outlined below.

• The whitepaper called “Working with large lists in Office SharePoint® Server 2007” has charts and metrics based on query time with performance considerations being a key indicator. The recommended limit of 2000 items per folder popularized in WSS 2.0 is not a bad one for those that don’t have the time to invest in designing a query based interface, though there is no performance “cliff” at 2000 items in a list. You may want to recommend to your users that they keep their lists under 1000 or use 3000 items as an upper limit at which point IT gets involved in assisting teams and groups to more efficiently scale their lists.
• Microsoft IT recently published a whitepaper titled “SharePoint Performance Optimization” that discusses ways of optimizing render time of sites and reducing database blocking. At Microsoft, the IT team has set-up a scan to detect large lists over 3000 items to ensure proper usage and divide up content where appropriate.
• Another useful article is the one on capacity boundaries on TechNet. It’s a good resource for seeing guidance on “limits” within the product along with charts on list performance.

If you currently have lists with a large number of items, or cannot avoid them in your application, below are a few quick ways to improve their performance.

1. Views can have a big impact on performance. The default “All Items” view should be avoided because it can take tens of seconds to render as a list grows into the tens of thousands. Views with too many items can can cause content database locking during query time. Changing the default view to something with a smaller number of items can often be a quick fix.
2. Filters are another way of limiting the number of items displayed in SharePoint. Note, however, these queries can be inefficient in large lists.
3. For document management deployments, use folders and sub-folders for better scale and retrieval. Keeping each folder with less than 2000 will support better performance. Even better, limit folders to one hundred or so to prevent unnecessary scrolling.
4. Using Indexed columns is another way to manage list scalability and increase index query optimization.
5. The most efficient method of retrieval is search queries.

Truth: SharePoint lists exhibit performance problems as list size grows, so it’s best to limit the number of items in lists and use views, folders, and filters to improve query performance.

Happy Valentines Day! In our continuing series on email management in SharePoint, I wanted to expand on Joel Oleson’s last post on Managed Folders. Here I will present an alternative to Managed Folders that let’s you store emails directly in SharePoint – Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook.

Colligo Contributor reduces the IT administration required to manage the routing of email content to SharePoint since it enables users to set-up their own links between Outlook folders and document libraries in SharePoint, based on existing user permissions set SharePoint. Like Managed Folders, Colligo Contributor automatically extracts email properties and moves emails and attachments to SharePoint when users drag-and-drop them into a folder in their mailboxes. In addition, Contributor enables the users to tag content with custom metadata and choose content type at the time emails and attachments are moved to SharePoint – a feature that is not available through Managed Folders. This can reduce the workload for legal site administrators and ensure that the proper retention policies are applied to content at the time it is saved by the user.

Happy New Year! This is my first post of 2009 on the Offline SharePoint blog and the fifth in a guest series I’m doing here on “The Myths & Truths of Email Management with SharePoint.”. My last post was on SharePoint email-enabled lists.

The subject of this post is Managed Folders. Managed Folders were introduced in Exchange 2007 to provide administrators with an easy way for users to archive email. Any Managed Folder can be configured such that all emails sent to it are routed to SharePoint. It’s an incredibly insightful feature and when implemented properly can reduce mailbox sizes, while capturing the intended emails and attachments. When not implemented properly, Managed Folders can be abused, causing SharePoint to become a dumping ground.

One poor example of managed folder design could be a managed folder called “Keep.” If everyone is told to put their email in that one folder and it’s archived to SharePoint, it sounds like a perfect solution for email archiving. However, there are some serious drawbacks. First, scale is an issue. Putting all that junk into one list can overwhelm SharePoint since it doesn’t scale well to support millions of items in one list, especially if there is a single view. Second, what about the security of that list? Managed Folders require extensive administrative set-up. It’s an IT option in Exchange, not a feature that is end user configurable.

So what does a good Managed Folder design look like? An example might be a folder titled “Legal Hold,” which is used to archive items under legal hold because of an investigation or other circumstance. On the SharePoint side, a specific document library is set-up and secured, then a legal site administrator is responsible for any tagging and for managing the views for the LCA team. A special search view might be set-up with specific indexed columns to support a quick and easy search. To avoid performance problems, avoid the “All items” view. I’ll discuss performance issues related to SharePoint list scalability next.

Truth: Managed Folders can work well, but require a solid information architecture design & trained administrators who understand how to manage scalability.

This is the fourth post in a guest series I’m doing here on Email Management in SharePoint. The third post was Myth #2.

Emailing a post to a blog … very cool or archiving an Exchange Discussion List to a SharePoint list … super cool … but be careful. Email-enabled self service lists can easily get out of control. Microsoft IT, which loves to use nearly every feature of SharePoint, decided against using email-enabled lists.

Email-enabled lists can be a significant IT resource drain. Without the proper planning and management, AD objects will be created with archiving and no lifecycle. Contact account naming standards are another reason. IT doesn’t want to see random contacts in AD.

Everyone wants to have the document library called “docs” and everyone wants to have the discussion list called “discussion”. If you have a process or even a workflow to get requests and manage these requests, you can better manage who needs them, when they are needed and for how long. So, my recommendation here is to know what you’re doing. Otherwise, it’s very easy to end up with a mess.

Like Public Folders, email-enabled lists can also pose security risks if not managed properly. Fortunately, they are more often secured to the context of the team so they are not as much of an exposure.

List scalability can pose problems with email-enabled lists. You don’t want to send all data from all users to one list. Put content in context in different site collections, sites, folders, as it relates to the context of the group, team, or project.

Most SharePoint environments don’t need the email-enabled functionality and the oversight it requires. Those that decide to use it should plan to set-up specific content objects and point the lists at them. Steve Smith’s document called “How to configure Incoming Email Enabled Libraries in MOSS2007 RTM using Exchange 2003 in an Active Directory Domain” explains in detail how to set-up email enabled lists. Don’t be surprised if it’s more complex to set-up than initially thought. I recommend setting it up in a preproduction environment first and learning how it works, then exercising administrative tasks and troubleshooting tasks around maintenance of the list, inbound SMTP, and AD contact objects.

In summary, I’d suggest you get answers to the following questions before implementing email-enabled SharePoint lists:

• Are those contact objects in a separate OU?
• How do you know if the inbound SMTP stops working?
• Can anyone send to the list?
• Does the item show up the way you expect it to, or are just attachments showing up?
• Does the metadata look like you expect it to?

The answers will help you better understand the nature of these special lists and help you better take advantage of this functionality, if you decide to use it.

Truth: Use with caution: To be successful, email-enabled lists require management & oversight to scale past a few thousand items.

Joel Oleson discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of Exchange Public Folders in his last post. Like Public Folders, Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook provides a convenient method for linking SharePoint document libraries and lists into Outlook folders. Unlike Public Folders, the addition of shared folders to mailboxes does not necessitate IT involvement. They can be added by end users themselves, based on existing user permissions set in SharePoint. Optionally, IT administrators can push out a configuration file to the clients that automatically links a set of SharePoint document libraries and folders to Outlook without user intervention. This file can also be used to manage a number of configuration options, including default metadata for individual folders.

Joel mentioned that SharePoint is a better option if you are migrating Lotus Notes applications. It is important to consider some gaps that need to be filled when doing these migrations:

1. mail and document management system integration,
2. a rich client experience on the desktop, and
3. offline caching for mobile and remote workers.

Lotus Notes users will be accustomed to a rich desktop client that integrates with the email application and works online and offline. Out-of-the-box SharePoint only supports an online browser-based experience. Outlook 2007 syncs with SharePoint document libraries, discussions, and a few standard lists, but it doesn’t support elements such as custom lists, content types, metadata, or views that users are used to in Notes applications. It also doesn’t support drag-and-drop from Outlook to SharePoint. For an overview of the offline SharePoint capabilities of Outlook, you may find this post from 2006 informative.

If you are looking to provide an equivalent to the Notes client, the Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook supports SharePoint’s advanced elements that are used to migrate Notes applications, and it integrates SharePoint with email. In addition, it can cache SharePoint lists and libraries (including views and metadata) so the applications and content can be used offline.

This is the third post in a guest series I’m doing here on Email Management in SharePoint. The second post was Myth #1.

In early 2006, the Exchange Team at Microsoft outlined their thoughts about the future of Public Folders in a blog post titled “Exchange 12 and Public Folders.” It was intended to let customers know that Microsoft was de-emphasizing Public Folders for certain applications, but many misunderstood this to mean that Public Folders were dead.

Microsoft’s position was clarified in March 2008 in a post titled “Updated Exchange Public Folder Guidance,” which encourages use of SharePoint for new deployments and migration where overlap exists. This blog confirmed that Microsoft will continue to support Public Folders in the next release of Exchange and for an additional 10 years from its release.

This post also provides the first scenario-based examples where Public Folders and SharePoint are compared. I know both the SharePoint team and the Exchange team were involved since I was on the SharePoint team when it was designed and played a role in getting it cross posted on the SharePoint team blog.

Click to Enlarge

Above is my version of the table in the blog post. I’ve changed some of the wording to make it easier to understand, with a bit of commentary emphasis on really investigating SharePoint functionality when both Public Folders and SharePoint have overlap across a scenario. SharePoint is “strongly encouraged” for most application development, though in some instances there still may be some advantages to Public Folders. For example, the capabilities of team calendars in Exchange vs SharePoint should be compared against the specific requirements of the application. Also, if you are looking at email-enabled lists in SharePoint, you may find that public folders are a better match for your requirements.

While de-emphasizing Public Folders, Microsoft didn’t stop evolving them altogether. For example, in Exchange 2007 there were new ways of managing the Public Folders with Powershell cmdlets. Please note that the functionality and features require investments on the part of the customer. However, the current guidance is that Public Folders are now in maintenance mode.

It’s illustrative to look at what Microsoft IT is doing internally with Public Folders. They decided to impose constraints both on time and size to limit the growth of the stores. Microsoft IT also turned off replication to reduce the unnecessary growth of storage. New folders were locked down to exception-based requests, with new provisioning requests pointed to SharePoint (with the common exception of distribution list archiving).

So why is Microsoft IT moving more content to SharePoint? In contrast to Public Folders, SharePoint was designed as an application platform and it’s important to note that this is the continuing direction of Microsoft. Both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server are major investments for them and they will continue to augment their functionality to support the common scenarios of customers.

While Exchange Public Folders were previously the endorsed solution by Microsoft for sharing email, SharePoint is now the recommended solution. If you are still considering Public Folders, it’s important to understand it has several well known limitations and challenges, described below.

1. Public Folders and custom applications built on them are the bane of the life of an exchange administrator. Control, performance, scale, and replicating chaos are a number of common concerns. Public Folders require heavy upfront and ongoing management.
2. Security is also often a concern due to the public nature of email-enabled Public Folders. Organizations are exposed to large risks if the random content flying around in emails is not controlled, so Public Folders need to be carefully managed. Security and liability are definitely something to be considered in all cases where email content is stored. It’s important to understand who has rights to store email on the server.
3. Public Folders can also be an HR nightmare. These “public” social dumping grounds often become a place where pictures and music are exchanged. As well, DLs (Distribution Lists) can get buried in group and team email-enabled security groups.

Bottom line: if you are deploying both Exchange 2007 and SharePoint technologies (WSS or SharePoint Server), it doesn’t make sense to build up a huge Public Folder deployment. It’s confusing to users and additional overhead for the team managing Exchange.

But should you use Public Folders when you are doing a Groupwise, or Lotus Notes migration? For nearly all your Notes applications you should seriously look at SharePoint. For email it’s a no brainer… it’s Exchange. For discussion groups and archiving, you’ve got a decision to make. When migrating to SharePoint, you should do it with an understanding of what you get out of the box, and what you get with a partner. Most gaps you find in SharePoint are filled by a very solid partner ecosystem.

One last point. If you plan to customize SharePoint sites and site templates, have a look at this blog post on Features and Solutions. Features allow reusable pieces of functionality to be created and deployed to other sites, without modifying site templates. Solutions allow you to package Features in a cabinet (.cab) file and define important metadata about those Features.

Truth: The Exchange Team will include public folders in the next version and at a minimum support them for 10 years after the release. However, they encourage you to seriously consider SharePoint for application development.

As Joel Oleson mentioned in his last post, it is really important to make an email management solution attractive to end users (to ensure it gets used), while providing a mechanism to set metadata (for search) and content type (for retention).

Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook enables users to drag-and-drop emails and attachments right into Outlook folders that are synced to SharePoint document libraries. It’s easy to use because it supports the familiar Outlook operations, so information workers readily adopt it to move selected content to SharePoint.

Contributor Add-In also supports the manual application of metadata or automatic application of folder-level metadata. It is ideal for both compliance and collaboration applications since it extracts all the properties from emails (To, From, Subject, Date, etc.) and saves them as metadata. Users can select the content type so that hold periods can be specified. All emails moved through Colligo Contributor are saved in the .MSG format, so they can be easily opened again using Outlook.

Well, our recent webinar, “The Myths & Truths of Email Management with SharePoint.”, with Joel Oleson, was a resounding success with almost 2100 registants. As Joel pointed out on his blog, this was the “Largest Global SharePoint Webinar/Webcast Ever!”.

There were so many questions from the attendees that we couldn’t get them answered during the allotted time. Joel was kind enough to post the answers on his blog to the questions directed to him. He also posted a series of podcasts on the material he presented during the webinar.

I pulled out the Colligo questions and I’m going to answer them here. Please let me know what you thought of the webinar. If you are interested in hearing a replay, you can get it here.

Q) Where does Colligo save its cache? I heard not in a PST or OST.

A) Contributor caches SharePoint content on the users local file system. The default cache location is in the users local profile area; the location can be changed. It can be moved to any other valid path, including: the local file-store; network location; or other (for example, USB drive). For performance and connectivity reasons the local file-system is the preferred location for the cache. Contributor can be configured to secure data using the Windows Encrypting File System (EFS); a good introduction to Windows EFS can be found on Wikipedia. EFS can be configured to be compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 140-1 and FIPS 140-2).

The Colligo Contributor Administrators Guide provides a bit more detail on how the deploy and configure the products.

Q) Also, could you please repeat what you said about Colligo and Outlook ONLINE mode? Does colligo not work with Outlook in cached mode?

A) Colligo offers a number of versions of its SharePoint product line. All versions work with Outlook in cached mode. The standard version enables users to selectively cache SharePoint content on their local machine. There is also a read-only version (Viewer) and an online-only version that does not cache SharePoint content (Outlook Online) available. Both standard and Outlook Online versions will cache content that is dragged and dropped onto Outlook folders when a user is offline, then syncs it to SharePoint when the user comes back online.

Q) Does Contributor add-on for Outlook require that email be enabled in SharePoint?

A) No. Only a standard document library is required on the SharePoint side, not an email-enabled library. Once configured with the right columns, email metadata (eg: To; From; Date; etc) will be extracted automatically from emails to columns with the corresponding names when users drag-and-drop emails into a Contributor folder in Outlook. This document on the Colligo support site explains this feature further.

Q) Offline sync is already provided with Office 2007 so why would one want to use Colligo?

A) Outlook 2007 only supports offline access to files already in document libraries, and two way-sync of discussions, contacts, tasks, and calendars. It does not support upload of emails, and attachments to SharePoint document libraries, nor does it support the application of metadata, filters or views. It does provide the ability to upload email messages to SharePoint 2007 Discussion lists, however, the “Subject” and “Body” properties are captured, but the majority of email metadata is lost or changed in this process. For example, Outlook changes “From” to the person who added the email to the Discussion list, not the original author of the email. Many organizations require full metadata extraction even for just collaboration purposes. Storing email in a discussion list is usually not considered an option for email retention purposes.

Colligo Contributor Add-In integrates many SharePoint elements into the Outlook interface, including document libraries, lists, metadata, views, and content types. With Contributor Add-In, files and emails can be dragged and dropped into SharePoint document libraries that are accessible through the Outlook folder tree. Emails can also be moved or copied into SharePoint automatically using Outlook rules. When an email is moved to a SharePoint folder, an event handler on the client extracts the message fields (e.g. To, From, Cc, Received, etc.) and automatically populates the corresponding metadata fields in the SharePoint document library. Users can also set the content type and add custom metadata at that time, or later (from within Outlook), for further classification. The email, attachments, and metadata are immediately uploaded to SharePoint as a .msg file with an automatically generated unique name.

We’ve posted a few articles on this blog on the topic, here and here.

Q) What will be the performance issues on Outlook when using offline sync when it is creating PST files.

A) The big problem of using PST files to store emails is that they are not backed up on corporate servers which puts the data at risk. Outlook 2007 stores SharePoint offline in PST files, though they are synced with SharePoint.

Q) Why do you think e-mail management hasn’t taken off in terms of document management?

A) It’s still in its infancy in terms of maturity. Email has been around for a long time, but it’s very unstructured. Today it takes people to turn mail into more structured information. Colligo is an example of turning your mail into structured data and integrating it into document management.

Q) What about metadata?

A) Colligo Contributor enables users to set content type and metadata at the time they drag-and-drop content into SharePoint. This means that they do not need to go to the browser afterwards to set required metadata or change the content type. With Contributor, users always stay in the Outlook interface.

Metadata support was further enhanced with Contributor Version 3.1 (released in June 2008). Folder-level metadata support fills in a SharePoint gap by enabling users, or IT through the configuration file mentioned earlier, to set default metadata properties at the folder- or list-level. Metadata prompting can then be turned off so users need only drop content into a folder to automatically upload and set default metadata. Also released in 3.1 was Office 2007 metadata support which enables users to set metadata through the “Document Properties” pane in Office 2007 as an alternative to the Contributor “New Item” dialog.

The “column support” feature group on Features section of the Colligo support site describes the wide range of support for SharePoint metadata.

Q) Where are Colligo data stored locally in off line mode?

A) Contributor caches SharePoint content on the users local file system. The default cache location is in the users local profile area; the location can be changed. It can be moved to any other valid path, including: the local file-store; network location; or other (for example, USB drive). For performance and connectivity reasons the local file-system is the preferred location for the cache. Contributor can be configured to secure data using the Windows Encrypting File System (EFS); a good introduction to Windows EFS can be found on Wikipedia. EFS can be configured to be compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 140-1 and FIPS 140-2).

Q) Can Colligo separately capture and apply content type metadata to document attachments in MOSS?

A) Yes. As you know, content types can provide a way to specify document retention policies, which are used to determine when files are to be deleted or where they are routed for archival. When a user drags and drops attachments into a document libraries, they can be prompted to add custom metadata and set content type at that time.

Q) What versions of Office does Colligo Contributor work with?

A) Colligo Contributor works with both Office 2003 and Office 2007. It also works with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (and WSS 2.0) and MOSS 2007 (and WSS 3.0).

Q) Does Colligo support single instance store for documents that are stored in a list by two users?

A) Yes. When two users make a change to the same document or list item, a conflict will be created during the synchronization of the change. When this occurs, the Errors and Conflicts pane is opened and the conflict is displayed. The conflict is also highlighted in the list where the item resides. The user has the option to select which version (server or local) should become the new current version on the server. If they select the server version, the local copy with their changes will be permanently deleted. If the user selects the local version, it will be uploaded to the server on the next sync cycle and become the latest version.

Q) Does Contributor need to be installed on Sharepoint server or is it just client application?

A) Colligo Contributor is a 100% client installation. The .msi is about 5MB. Installation is highly configurable. There’s a good knowledge base article on the Colligo support site that talks about the different installation options.

Q) are you recruiting .net developers?

A) Yes. We currently have some openings for good developers. Please send your resume to devjobs@colligo.com to the attention of Dave Foster, VP Development.

Q) Did Colligo provide a solution to migrate existing public folder to SharePoint including security attached to these public folders.

A) Colligo does not enable bulk migration of content stored in Exchange Public Folders to SharePoint. Some of our customers, however, are using Colligo Contributor Add-In to enable end users to migrate the content themselves, since they can simply drop emails and attachments in Public Folders directly into Colligo SharePoint folders. Contributor does support moving multiple files at a time by the way. User-based migration can provide some benefits since it enables end users to choose important content that needs to be moved.

Q) Is colligo contributor compatible with Outlook cached mode for offline working?

A) Yes. Colligo Contributor works in both Outlook cached and non-cached modes.

Q) Are Content Type Groups supported?

A) . Content types that are based on a content type group are supported by Colligo Contributor. If a global change is made to a content type group, that change will be reflected in the content type that is cached on the client next time a full sync is performed.

Q) What kind of “script language” is used for Colligo Scripting in terms of script a Colligo installation..?

A) The Colligo Contributor AdminShell is provided to allow administrators to perform specific administrator-functions with Colligo Contributor. It is possible to supply a script for the Admin Shell to execute. For a complete description of AdminShell commands please see this document on the Colligo support site.

Q) Will Colligo work with Outlook 2003 and WSS?

A) Yes. Colligo Contributor works with both Office 2003 and Office 2007. It also works with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (and WSS 2.0) and MOSS 2007 (and WSS 3.0).

Q) How is the local cache secured?

A) Contributor can be configured to secure data using the Windows Encrypting File System (EFS); a good introduction to Windows EFS can be found on Wikipedia. EFS can be configured to be compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 140-1 and FIPS 140-2).

Q) Can colligo be configured by group policy? How scalable is configuring the client for very large organisations?

A) Contributor offers administrators the ability to configure a number of settings at install- or post-install-time. Contributor saves settings in the registry. Many settings can be configured post-install by pushing out settings to the registry. The Colligo Contributor Administrators Guide provides a bit more detail on how the deploy and configure the products.

Colligo Contributor is very scalable. We have many large organizations with thousands of users deployed. We would be happy to provide references if you need them. There are also some case studies on our website.

Q) Can I add custom meta-data like ‘tags’ to annotate the content using Colligo contributor, and how do these tags then integrate with SP (are they retained)?

A) Colligo Contributor enables users to set content type and metadata at the time they drag-and-drop content into SharePoint. Afterwards, these are retained in SharePoint. Users do not need to go to the browser afterwards to set required metadata or change the content type. With Contributor, users always stay in the Outlook interface.

Metadata support was further enhanced with Contributor Version 3.1 (released in June 2008). Folder-level metadata support fills in a SharePoint gap by enabling users, or IT through the configuration file mentioned earlier, to set default metadata properties at the folder- or list-level. Metadata prompting can then be turned off so users need only drop content into a folder to automatically upload and set default metadata. Also released in 3.1 was Office 2007 metadata support which enables users to set metadata through the “Document Properties” pane in Office 2007 as an alternative to the Contributor “New Item” dialog.

The “column support” feature group on Features section of the Colligo support site describes the wide range of support for SharePoint metadata.

Q) Rules in MS Outlook – can they be used with SharePoint folders (using Colligo product)? I’ve tried setting up a rule for document library/discussion SharePoint folder in Outlook, but it wouldn’t work.

A) Yes. Outlook rules can be used to automatically move emails to Colligo folders for sync to SharePoint. It doesn’t work in Outlook because Outlook 2007 doesn’t support uploading emails to SharePoint by itself.

Q) How is Colligo licensed? Is it different for online and offline configurations?

A) Products in the Colligo Contributor 3.0 product family have an up front license fee, then annual maintenance and support fees. They can be purchased from the Colligo store, direct from a Colligo sales rep (email sales@colligo.com), or through one of our partners. Volume pricing and other enquiries should be directed to sales@colligo.com. The one-off pricing for offline product SKUs are available on our website. The licensing is the same for the online-only version, but the price is discounted.

Q) Is this a sales pitch for Colligo?

A) Good question. While we are in business to make a profit, we endeavor to provide content and speakers that are of general value to the SharePoint community. Of course we pick topics that we know something about, and that usually means somewhere in the webinar we talk a little bit about how Colligo applies to the subject at hand. We always hope that people who attend our webinars find value in the material we present and don’t feel it’s just a sales pitch.”

Q) What is the full cost of the contributor please?

A) Currently, the Colligo Contributor product line is priced in single lot quantities (including one year of maintenance and support) as follows: Colligo Contributor Client at USD$125/copy; Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook at USD$125/copy; and Colligo Contributor Pro at USD$150/copy. A 30-day trial of Colligo Contributor Add-In is available from the Colligo website.

Q) What are the differences between Colligo Contributor and Colligo Outlook Add-in?

A) Colligo Contributor is a family of .NET client applications that extend SharePoint to the desktop. The Colligo Contributor product line includes three products: Contributor Client (a standalone desktop client), Contributor Add-In for Outlook (SharePoint in the Outlook interface) and Contributor Pro (a combination of both interfaces).

Q) Does Colligo Contributor work with Microsoft Online’s SharePoint product?

A) The short answer is yes. We recently announced our support for SharePoint Online. Colligo was a part of the SharePoint Online beta and our products have been fully tested against it. By the way, Contributor Add-in will enable you to move content from Exchange Online to SharePoint online through Outlook if you plan to use it.

Q) Does the SharePoint Server backend need modified to accommodate the Outlook Plug-In, or is this a client modification only?

A) Colligo Contributor is a 100% client installation. The .msi is about 5MB. Installation is highly configurable. There’s a good knowledge base article on the Colligo support site that talks about the different installation options.

Q) How about such a product for Lotus Notes?

A) Unfortunately, most of the Colligo functionality presented will not work in a non-Microsoft environment. We have been considering doing a Lotus Notes drag and drop component similar to the Contributor Drop Box (see the bottom of this page). This would enable users to drag and drop out of the Lotus Notes client and have the emails stored in SharePoint. It would extract standard email properties and enable the user to set custom metadata at the time of drag and drop. Let us know if you would be interested in a product like this.

Q) Can u let me know about how to configure e-mail clients with MOSS 2007?

A) MOSS itself does not have any direct support for email clients. Outlook 2007 supports offline access to files already in document libraries, and two way-sync of discussions, contacts, tasks, and calendars. It does not support upload of emails, and attachments to SharePoint document libraries, nor does it support the application of metadata, filters or views. Colligo Contributor Add-In integrates many SharePoint elements into the Outlook interface, including document libraries, lists, metadata, views, and content types. With Contributor Add-In, files and emails can be dragged and dropped into SharePoint document libraries that are accessible through the Outlook folder tree. The email, attachments, and metadata are immediately uploaded to SharePoint as a .msg file with an automatically generated unique name.

Q) Will this suit for Lotus domino server?

A) Please see answer two questions back.

Q) How do you manage the UI if you have large number of libraries that you need to be able to copy to e.g. 300 projects each have a list which I might want to sync email to – how do I browse/search for the relevant list in the Outlook/Colligo UI?

A) SharePoint lists can be linked easily from within the Outlook UI. In version 3.2 a “connect” button is installed on the Outlook toolbar that let’s users self serve the link between Outlook folders and SharePoint. There is also an option to push out a configuration file to users which syncs a minimum set of folders to Outlook. So IT can control what is to be synced.

Contributor is optimized to work very well in the folder tree in Outlook. We have customers with a large number of folders and the interface is performing well.

The big issue here is manageability for the end user. Does it make sense for the user to have to deal with 300 document libraries? Perhaps a better way is to reduce the number of libraries and use folder hierarchies instead. Contributor supports default metadata at the FOLDER level, so users can drag and drop content into folders and the metadata is automatically set. Views and filters can then be used to organize content into projects.