Outlook (not OE) issue opening Email in Alfresco repository

[andreas_wilmsme]

Hi all,
I have successfully
- configured Alfresco (3.2r2) to expose all required documents through the IMAP protocol
- configured Outlook 2010 (not Outlook Express) to connect to my Alfresco server and show all exposed folders
- moved/copied Emails with and without attachments (attachments are stored as part of the Email not as separate files in the repository)
- I can open the Emails from within Alfresco Explorer or Alfresco Share

The only issue I stiil have is that I can not open the Emails from within Outlook:
- I can open the folder and can see the subject, author, … of the Email(s) stored there (which I have previously moved there from within Outlook)
- Whenever I try to open the Email (as preview or in separate window) I only see a blank (preview) window and it seems as if Outlook is trying repeatedly to read and display the Email content (the window keeps flickering as if updated repeatedly.
The Alfresco log (configured to show 'debug' messages) does not show any errors but seems OK to me. Other IMAP accounts (e.g. "web.de" Accounts) are working just fine with Outlook 2010.

Has anybody been able to successfully use Outlook (2007 or 2010, but not Outlook Express) with Alfresco? Is there any specific configuration or "trick" involved to do this?
Thanks in advance for any help with this,
Andreas

[andreas_wilmsme]

Some additional information on this issue:

I installed and configured an IMAP account in Thunderbird - the message itself is displayed correctly there. However, Thunderbird does not display the attachment (in this case a CSV file) properly, some lines at the end of the file are missing. Emails without an attachment are displayed correctly in both Outlook and Thunderbird.

If I download the Email to my hard disk (EML format) and open it from there, the Email and its attachment display properly in both Outlook (yes, Outlook 2010 is obviously able to open EML files…) and Thunderbird. The Alfresco DEBUG log shows the same messages for Outlook and Thunderbird by the way.

09:20:37,962 User:andreas.wilmsmeier DEBUG [repo.imap.ImapServiceImpl] Getting folder 'Sandbox/aaa'
09:20:38,260 User:andreas.wilmsmeier DEBUG [repo.imap.ImapServiceImpl] Processing of documentLibrary
09:20:38,369 User:andreas.wilmsmeier DEBUG [repo.imap.ImapServiceImpl] Processing of aaa
09:20:38,536 User:andreas.wilmsmeier DEBUG [repo.imap.AlfrescoImapFolder] Message added: Message_2452.eml
09:20:38,536 User:andreas.wilmsmeier DEBUG [repo.imap.AlfrescoImapFolder] aaa - Messages count:1
09:20:38,543 User:andreas.wilmsmeier DEBUG [repo.imap.AlfrescoImapFolder] aaa - Recent count: 0 reset: true

Is this a pure Outlook issue (not likely considering that Thunderbird is having issues as well)? Or is there someting wrong with the way Alfresco is returning the Email or its attachment to Outlook and to Thunderbird?
Considering the fact that the file itself is just 674 bytes long, could it be that Alfresco is returning the data in 512 bytes blocks and is missing the last block of the attachment for some reason? Just a thought…
Andreas

[andreas_wilmsme]

Hello,
I have opened a JIRA issue for this one:
- http://issues.alfresco.com/jira/browse/ALF-2255

As I haven't seen any response yet: Is anyone actually using IMAP support on a larger scale? Are there any improvements/changes in to be expected in the Community 3.3 release?
All feedback welcome,
Andreas

[agentsmith0009]

Hi Andreas,

Can you plz tell me how you reached here:

configured Alfresco (3.2r2) to expose all required documents through the IMAP protocol
configured Outlook 2010 (not Outlook Express) to connect to my Alfresco server and show all exposed folders
moved/copied Emails with and without attachments (attachments are stored as part of the Email not as separate files in the repository)

I am using Alfresco 3.2 Explorer & Outlook 2007.

Here are my IMAP settings:

imap.server.enabled=true
imap.server.port=143
imap.server.host=a.b.c.d
imap.config.server.mountPoints=AlfrescoIMAP
imap.config.server.mountPoints.default.mountPointName=IMAP
imap.config.server.mountPoints.default.modeName=ARCHIVE
imap.config.server.mountPoints.default.store=${spaces.store}
imap.config.server.mountPoints.default.rootPath=/${spaces.company_home.childname}
imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.AlfrescoIMAP.mountPointName=Alfresco IMAP
imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.AlfrescoIMAP.modeName=MIXED
web.application.context.url=http://localhost:8080/alfresco

Trying very hard but no luck.

Hope to get a hint from here.

Thanks.

[andreas_wilmsme]

Hi,
here is my server configuration (anonymized). Exposes the document libraries of two sites (SIte1 and Site2):

imap.server.enabled=true
imap.server.port=143
imap.server.host=mydomain.net
web.application.context.url=http://www.mydomain.net:8080/alfresco
imap.server.web.application.context.url=http://www.mydomain.net:8080/alfresco

imap.server.attachments.extraction.enabled=false

imap.config.server.mountPoints.default.store=${spaces.store}
imap.config.server.mountPoints.default.rootPath=/${spaces.company_home.childname}
imap.config.server.mountPoints.default.modeName=MIXED

imap.config.server.mountPoints=Site1,Site2

imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.Site1.mountPointName=Site1
imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.Site1.folderPath=Sites/Site1/documentLibrary
imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.Site1.modeName=MIXED
imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.Site2.mountPointName=Site2
imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.Site2.folderPath=Sites/Site2/documentLibrary
imap.config.server.mountPoints.value.Site2.modeName=MIXED
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

How did you configure your Outlook? What exactly are the messages you see in the log or from Outlook?
Hope this helps,
Andreas

[agentsmith0009]

Hi Andreas;

Thanks a lot!

I tried in outlook 2003 & i can see Alfresco repository in my outlook 2003.

Also i have not tested in outlook 2007.I will go ahead once done in 2003.

Here are my settings(anonymized):

User Information
           Your Name : some user
           E-mail Address : helpdesk@somevaliddomain.com
Server Information
           Incoming Mail Server(IMAP) : Alfresco server IP
           Outgoing Mail Server(SMTP) : SMTP address for somevaliddomain for my project
Logon Information
          User Name : some user userid in alfresco
          password  : Alfresco password for some user userid

These are my settings.Here email id i have assigned is a valid id in domain.

Also i have not updated any setting under "More Settings" & only updated Alf_IMAP as name for this configuration.

Here user name & password are valid user name & password for alfresco login.This user has admin rights on Alfresco repository.

I can see Repository Structure in outlook client under Alf_IMAP folder successfully.

I can send mail from this client to outside but i am not able to get any email incoming to my client.

When i clicked in Send/Receive, i can see three tasks,two of which Alf_IMAP - Sending & Alf_IMAP: Folder:Inbox Check for new mail , both can be seen as completed but third one Checking for new mail in subscribed folders on Alf_IMAP seems to be stuck up & i can see no updation as it is showing remaining 60 seconds in progress for a long time.

Also i can not see any error on server console.But i can not see any incoming mail in outlook client.

But i can see test emails sent by me in outlook web based access for same user as mentioned above.

Hope you can get something.I am clueless.