Default to directory / address book other than System

[WTPsyche]

Have you ever had the feeling that what you were about to post has been answered a hundred times, yet spending hours searching the forum, you just can't find the answer? That's why I'm cringing as I post this. Please forgive me and point me in the right direction if this has already been answered.


Scalix 10... I've got multiple directories set up, basically as different filters of the System Directory, for each division of users (separate mail nodes). There is really no reason for each group to be able to view the System directory, as what they need is filtered to their own directory.

1) Can I make Outlook/SWA default to a address book other than System?

2) If yes, can I hide or use ACLs to keep one group from viewing the contents of the System or other directories, or even their existence?

The latter I do in the Public Folder structure with BBs, where one group/mailnode can't even see the existence of another group's/mailnode's public folder. This is what I'd like to do with the available directories.

Thanks.

Steve

[florian]

Hi Steve,

what you're suggesting (basically partitioning the system) cannot be done as of today. This is a typical requirement for hosted markets. We're looking into advancing some of our functionality along the lines of what you're describing for an upcoming Scalix release sometime in 1H/2007.

Cheers,
Florian.

[WTPsyche]

That's exactly our scenario here, although we're hosting to internal groups.

I figured out that you can change which address book displays by default through the options in the Outlook Address book, and you can remove address books from the list to resolve from, but not remove or hide the actual address books completely. I assume that even this limited functionality doesn't exist in SWA... yet. Also, I haven't tested it, but I assume that when I make future changes/additions to the mapi.cfg file, these changes in Outlook may or may not still work. Moot point though really.

Thanks for the reply.

[florian]

Well, you can really hack the thing, but it's not nice.

you can actually HIDE ALL Entries in the system address book using the "hide" function in SAC or by setting the EX-CDA-DIRECTORY attribute on all entries manually.

You would then DIRSYNC locally to additional directories (note: you need enterprise edition to do that, otherweise you would copy the directory entries). while syncing, you would leave-out the HIDE attribute.

you would then make these additional directories visiblde to outlook. SYSTEM would still appear but it would be empty.

for swa, you would have to make those additional directories accessible through Scalix LDAP; this is as well possible.

for different SWA user populations or outlook user populations you would need separate sets of directories and config files.

the public folder trees could be managed through permissions. You would use mailnodes for this as permissions can be set as wildcards based on mailnodes. you could then also use mailnodes as the selection criteria for the sync.

if you get going with all this, you've somewhat archieved your goal!

If you don't understand what I'm talking about, never mind - this is pretty heavy duty stuff, actually. That's (and because it has some holes like the "empty" system directory) probably the most important reason why we are working on a more comprehensive solution for those environments....

Hope this helps anyway,
Florian.