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Creating links to folders on the Exchange server

You must create links between the folders which store each user's contact, schedule, and task information on the Exchange server and NexJ CRM.

You can create and configure these links individually using NexJ Admin Console or you can create multiple links simultaneously by using an SQL script. Typically, you use an SQL script to onboard a large number of users. The following image provides an overview of using an SQL script to onboard a large number of users.

Using an SQL script to onboard users

Subscriptions to folders on Exchange Server

After creating links to folders on Exchange Server, NexJ CRM monitors and maintains links to the folders on Exchange Server. NexJ CRM sends a subscription request to Exchange Server to subscribe to notifications for contacts, schedule item, and tasks. The last renewal time of a folder is updated when a notification is received from Exchange Server for the folder. A NexJ CRM batch process runs every minute to check links to contact, schedule item, and task folders. Links to folders are resubscribed if the last renewal time exceeds the renewal period. Exchange Server also sends a keep-alive heartbeat notification twice during each renewal period, for example, if the renewal period is 20 minutes, a heartbeat is sent every 10 minutes.

The following image shows how the NexJ CRM and Exchange Server manage subscriptions to folders on Exchange Server.

Managing subscriptions to folders on Exchange Server

Creating individual links to folders on the Exchange server

Every folder in the Exchange server stores a particular type of item for a single user, such as all of the user's tasks. These folders can be individually linked to NexJ CRM, with synchronization configured separately for each one.

To add a link to an Exchange server folder for a user, that user must have a default email address in NexJ CRM that corresponds to one of the email addresses in their Exchange user profile.

To ensure full synchronization of user data, all email aliases for a user should be in their NexJ CRM profile. For example, if John Doe's default email address is jdoe@yourcorp.com and he has aliases john.doe@yourcorp.com and john@yourcorp.com, then all three email addresses should be stored in NexJ CRM. You can enable LDAP Sync to synchronize email aliases automatically.

A link is synchronized only when both the link and the corresponding server synchronizations are enabled.

To create and configure links to folders on the Exchange server:

  1. In NexJ Admin Console, navigate to the Synchronization page.
  2. Select the desired Exchange server in the Targets list of the Synchronization tab.
  3. Click the Create links for a user button  next to the snapshot synchronization buttons.
    A dialog opens listing the users you can create a link for.
  4. Select the user you want to add links for. You can use the Find tool to search for a specific user.
  5. Click OK.
    The new links appear at the bottom of the Links list.
    • Each user has three folders: Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks. By default, Tasks and Calendar folders are synchronized both inbound and outbound, while the Contacts folder is synchronized outbound. You can change the default synchronizations for these folders.
  6. Select the Outbound checkbox to enable or disable outbound synchronization for each folder.
    Creating links to folders does not automatically synchronize existing information for the user. To import any past or future tasks or schedule items, use batch synchronization. Capture an initial snapshot, followed by expanding snapshots if required. For more information, see Expanding snapshots workflow.

If you try to delete a link in the Synchronization tab in NexJ Admin Console, and it has synchronized more than 4096 items between the Microsoft Exchange Server and NexJ CRM, you will not be able to delete the link.

Creating multiple links to folders on the Exchange server

Every folder in the Exchange server stores a particular type of item for a single user, such as all of the user's tasks. These folders must be individually linked to NexJ CRM. You can create multiple links simultaneously by using an SQL script to add users to the NJExchangeProspect table. During batch synchronization, the required links are created for each user in the table and the user is removed from the table.

To create links to folders on the Exchange server for more than one user at a time:

  1. In your database manager, issue the following command to determine the IDs for the users for whom you need to create folder links.

    select up.id, u.loginName from NJUserPerson up, NJUser u
              where up.userId = u.id


  2. In your database manager, issue the following command to determine the ID for the target Exchange server.
    select id, name from NJSyncTarget
  3. In your database manager, issue the following command to import the users into the NJExchangeProspect table.

    insert into NJExchangeProspect values (newid(),
              UserID, ServerID,
              activate, retries,
              getdate())
     
    where
    • UserID represents the ID from the NJUserPerson table for the user
    • ServerID represents the ID for the target server
    • activate indicates which action should be taken with the user. Specify 1 to activate the user. Specify 0 to deactivate the user.
    • retries is the starting number of retries for creating the folder links for the user. In the NJExchangeProspect table, this number will be incremented with each unsuccessful try. Specify 0.

    The records for these users have now been added to the NJExchangeProspect table. Folder links for the users are created during the next batch synchronization. You can initiate batch synchronization from the Global Exchange Synchronization Options dialog in NexJ Admin Console.
  4. [Optional] Initiate the batch synchronization process.
    1. In NexJ Admin Console, in the Synchronization page, click the Configure button for Global Options.
    2. In the Global Exchange Synchronization Options dialog, ensure that the Enable periodic invocation of batch sync setup option is selected.
    3. Complete other fields as required and click OK. For more information about global Exchange options, see Configuring global Exchange synchronization options.
  5. [Optional] Use NexJ Admin Console to monitor the batch synchronization process.
    • To see a log record for each processed link, review the details in the Audit Trail page.
    • To see a log record for the completed batch process, review the details in the Process Queue page.

The links to folders on the Exchange server are created for all users included in the NJExchangeProspect table. In NexJ Admin Console, in the Synchronization page, you can see the newly added folder links. Review the remaining entries in the NJExchangeProspect table to determine why they were not synchronized as expected.

Viewing links to user folders

You can view information about links to user folders for a target server in the Links list at the bottom of the Synchronization page.

To view links to user folders:

  1. In NexJ Admin Console, navigate to the Synchronization page.
  2. In the Links list at the bottom of the page, the following column display for each user folder.

    Inbound column
    Whether inbound synchronization is enabled
    Outbound column
    Whether outbound synchronization is enabled

  3. Select a user folder. The following information displays in the details section at the right of the Links list.

    Name
    The name and folder type of the user for whom synchronization is enabled.
    Folder owner
    The name of the owner of Exchange server folder
    Last subscription renewal
    The last time that the system renewed the folder's subscription to the Exchange server folder
    Subscription state
    The subscription state of a user folder that receives notifications from Exchange Server.
    The following states are available for folders which use the push notification communication method.

Waiting to subscribe
The folder does not have an active subscription and is waiting to subscribe through the next subscription batch job.
Subscribed
The folder is subscribed and is waiting for notification to arrive from Exchange Server on the callback URL.
Disabled
Inbound synchronization is disabled for the folder.

The following states are available for folders which use the streaming notification communication method.
Waiting for autodiscover
Autodiscover has stored information about the grouping to which the link belongs. The NexJ application server requires grouping information to subscribe a user folder.
Waiting to subscribe
The grouping information has been obtained from the Autodiscover service and is waiting for the subscription batch job to subscribe this user folder.
Queueing to stream
A subscription ID has been obtained from Exchange Server and is being queued to open the streaming connection.
Streaming
A streaming connection is open for this folder and the folder is listening for changes.
Disabled
Inbound synchronization is disabled for the folder


Version
Specifies the Exchange Server version

You have viewed information about user folders for a target server.