Below are Microsoft SharePoint MVP Bob Mixon’s answers to the questions posed by attendees to the recent webinar on Email Archiving in SharePoint:
If you have a hierarchy of folders with email in each folder, can the whole hierarchy be transferred into SharePoint?
If you are referring to a hierarchy of folders in Outlook, I am not aware of a program that provides the ability to pick that structure up and moves it in to a SharePoint Discussion List or Library. However, I do believe it would be a fairly trivial task to write a small program that could accomplish this for you.
If you are referring to a hierarchy of folders on a drive, this can be accomplished by simply connecting to a Document Library in SharePoint with Windows File Explorer. Once connected, you can use normal drag-and-drop features to move those folders to SharePoint.
Create a mapped drive to SP library?
Yes! You can add a “Network Place” and/or map an unused drive to a SharePoint Document Library. WebDAV (web-based distributed authoring and versioning) is a technology used by Windows and SharePoint to communicate with each other. This is the technology used when Windows File Explorer is communicating with SharePoint.
The following article describes the process for creating a Network Place:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA011544651033.aspx
Is SharePoint search is applicable on the attached email content in the document library?
Yes, SharePoint will search attachments.
Can we create custom workflow based on email on document library using metadata from and subject line…like Approved?
Absolutely! Now this depends on what workflow development tools you use; but most allow you to use metadata for conditional logic.
How does one create a document library in SharePoint with metadata columns such as sender, subject etc. so that people can sort on these columns within the document library? And is it possible in combination with the onsave metadata-prompt suppressed?
I answered this question on my blog in a separate post:
We currently use Public Folders to store project information. Each project has its own. How easy is to move data from these public folders (for later getting rid of this feature MS no longer supports)?
There are a number of publicly available 3rd party products that can ease this process. If there isn’t too much e-mail too move, you would use Colligo Contributor; it’s a very inexpensive approach.
Is it possible to archive an email from Outlook into SharePoint and have it retain the ‘Category’ that it was assigned in Outlook?
Not that I am aware of.
*** Update from Barry of Colligo. Actually, one of the properties that is extracted from emails by Colligo Contributor is the user specified ‘Category’. You can read more about that in this document. Once extracted, it can be saved as metadata in SharePoint. So it can be used to in views, filters and search.***
Hi I have a selection of users who prefer using folders instead of metadata. Have tried to dissuade this practice; should we just leave them be or encourage use of metadata?
This really depends on the type of data, where it is being stored and how it is being used. I wrote an article back in November 2008 on this very topic. Instead of repeating its content here, you can read it online at:
http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=954
We are looking at moving exchange public folders to SharePoint. What is the best way to accomplish this? There are some third party products to do it: Quest, AvePoint, Tsunami. Any comments on the pros & cons of these products?
I have used all of these products for moving e-mail from Exchange to SharePoint and they all have their own approach, configuration, pros and cons. I recommend your specific requirements drive the product selection process and have each of them respond to those requirements specifically.
Will Colligo Contributor work and add custom metadata when a user sends an email to an email enabled SharePoint list. Our users have asked for that?
Absolutely, that is one of Colligo Contributor’s best features!
What kind of legal issues can come up by storing email in SharePoint? For example by storing email in SharePoint does that make SharePoint a legal discovery object?
SharePoint absolutely can be setup to manage files for legal discovery. SharePoint is a system that can manage the full lifecycle and control of documents; e-mail can be considered one of these controlled documents too.
Is there any limit while sending email to library?
There are limitations to the total size of the e-mail; including attachments. These limits can be set by your SharePoint administrator or can be reached with a timeout. However, it’s rarely a problem, typically e-mail attachments are limited to 1 to 3 meg in size and this won’t be a problem at all with SharePoint.
http://www.message_caeltm.com/