Server-side and Client-side rules - several questions

[ezaton]

A user has pointed few weird behaviors I would like to point out. If anyone can help me understand these, I would appreciate it:

1. When creating a new rule using Scalix interface in Outlook and selecting the condition of "Mail sent only to me" the rule will be client-side rule. Selecting "Where my name is in the TO box" is server-side. Why is this behavior?
2. In Outlook general rules, you can select to show a pop-up of a new mail message as an action. Can you do this in Scalix?
3. When a new message is sorted using a server-side rule into a folder other than Inbox, Outlook does not notify of new mail (no pop-up). Is this normal? It doesn't happen when applying client-side rules.
4. You cannot select the account the message rule should apply to. If you have another account in addition the the Scalix conneciton, you cannot apply rules on it.

Thanks!
Ez

[ezaton]

I cannot set a rule to select mail sent from a list. Scalix rules wizard will ask to convert the list to its members. If I modify the list later, I have to modify that rule as well. Will this behavior be changed in future release?

Thanks.
Ez.

[Valerion]

1. When creating a new rule using Scalix interface in Outlook and selecting the condition of "Mail sent only to me" the rule will be client-side rule. Selecting "Where my name is in the TO box" is server-side. Why is this behavior?

The Oulook Rules Wizard is more capable (has more features) than the server-side rules engine. If Outlook cannot store a rule as server-side it will do it as client-side instead.

It may also happen because the server cannot get the data. Eg. if you autofile to a PST the server has no way to locate the folder, only Outlook can do that. I think your example falls in this category, where the server does not have enough data to work with.

2. In Outlook general rules, you can select to show a pop-up of a new mail message as an action. Can you do this in Scalix?

As far as I know, no.

3. When a new message is sorted using a server-side rule into a folder other than Inbox, Outlook does not notify of new mail (no pop-up). Is this normal? It doesn't happen when applying client-side rules.

When applying client-side rules the message ends up in the INBOX, and Outlook notifies you before applying the rule. However, in the case of server-side rules it is never placed in the INBOX and Outlook doesn't know that it's a new message. All it is told is that the message count in the folder has changed, if it's subscribed to the folder (ie, you opened it before in this session). I think this is a Outlook limitation, as it only notifies on new mail in the INBOX.

4. You cannot select the account the message rule should apply to. If you have another account in addition the the Scalix conneciton, you cannot apply rules on it.

What do you mean by "another account"? You should not have another IMAP/POP3 account in the same profile, as this will cause issues sooner or later. And you cannot create another MAPI account in the same profile. If you are opening a mailbox as a delegate, then you'll have to log in as that user and set its rules.

I cannot set a rule to select mail sent from a list. Scalix rules wizard will ask to convert the list to its members. If I modify the list later, I have to modify that rule as well.

Can you give me an example here of what you are trying to do?

[ezaton]

It may also happen because the server cannot get the data. Eg. if you autofile to a PST the server has no way to locate the folder, only Outlook can do that. I think your example falls in this category, where the server does not have enough data to work with.

As said - I want to move new mail to a mailbox folder (for example - under Inbox I have created a folder called "temp", under my Scalix tree). I set a rule saying that this rule will apply if I am in the TO field, and it's a server-side rule. I change that same rule so that the condition is "Mail sent only to me" and this becomes client-side rule. What has changed?

What do you mean by "another account"? You should not have another IMAP/POP3 account in the same profile, as this will cause issues sooner or later. And you cannot create another MAPI account in the same profile. If you are opening a mailbox as a delegate, then you'll have to log in as that user and set its rules.

I have seen no limitation of the likes. Even for the purpose of importing mail from the current IMAP folders, I might need to add to the MAPI account supplied by Scalix the additional IMAP account, and let my users copy their mail. What issues am I bound to encounter? This is an issue...

ezaton wrote:
I cannot set a rule to select mail sent from a list. Scalix rules wizard will ask to convert the list to its members. If I modify the list later, I have to modify that rule as well.

Can you give me an example here of what you are trying to do?

Example: I have a list of friends whom to I forward my jokes (everyone has one of these lists). I setup a rule which says that every mail recieved from a member of this mailing-list (previously created in my own personal contacts folder) should be redirected to a specific folder. Scalix claims it cannot use lists, and offers to add all members of this list - just the bunch of them. If I modify the mailing list (adding another one to this list, for example), I have to modify the rule so it will extract the whole names from this list again.

If you have a company-wide such list, and people sort based on the members on this specific list (for example: sales. All sales personnel), changes to this list will require all the company's people to re-edit their mail rules, and readjust the "from" (in our example) field to fit the modified list. In a large company, sometimes HR change lists of names without notifiying the users about it (not all the company should know that Joe, a new salesman has joined his team, however, his name will be added to the "sales" mailing list).

Thanks.

[Valerion]

As said - I want to move new mail to a mailbox folder (for example - under Inbox I have created a folder called "temp", under my Scalix tree). I set a rule saying that this rule will apply if I am in the TO field, and it's a server-side rule. I change that same rule so that the condition is "Mail sent only to me" and this becomes client-side rule. What has changed?

My guess here would be that the way Outlook interprets "mail sent only to me" is ambigous for the server-side filter, or that Outlook cannot pass the data to the server-side filter in a way it can understand.

I have seen no limitation of the likes. Even for the purpose of importing mail from the current IMAP folders, I might need to add to the MAPI account supplied by Scalix the additional IMAP account, and let my users copy their mail. What issues am I bound to encounter? This is an issue...

I have never used it like this, but I did see quite a few reports about people losing emails in this setup on the forums. Also, in the release notes it's listed as "not supported, do not do this". For a short-term solution I think you can try to take a chance, but it may also blow up on you.

If you have a company-wide such list, and people sort based on the members on this specific list (for example: sales. All sales personnel), changes to this list will require all the company's people to re-edit their mail rules, and readjust the "from" (in our example) field to fit the modified list. In a large company, sometimes HR change lists of names without notifiying the users about it (not all the company should know that Joe, a new salesman has joined his team, however, his name will be added to the "sales" mailing list).

This will not happen with Public Distribution Lists (Groups in SWA), and I use that fairly often. I have not used Outlook's own distribution list manager for this. The server-side filter cannot read your mailbox to determine the membership list, this will slow the service router down a lot, as it has to put in a request to the local client interface and have to wait for a response. In a high-volume environment you can easily have mail piling up wating for this to happen, especially if everyone on a server having 1000+ users are doing this. Therefore asking for the user list would be a compromise, as that can be statically stored.

The only alternative is to make such rules completely client-side.

[ezaton]

How to I force rules to be client-side?

Thanks!