Configure Incoming and Outgoing e-mail for SharePoint2013 with Exchange2013 - Part 1

Part 1 : Incoming Email Setup

Configure incoming email through SharePoint setting so users can email directly to lists and libraries without opening  SharePoint list and libraries. It's a time saver for end user, rather than login into SharePoint and having to manually post or manually upload a document to SharePoint  you can do it through  the direct posting from  outlook(any other)  to SharePoint environment. List and libraries can be assigned unique email addresses so as a result of that end users can send emails even with attachments.

- If you are using the basic scenario, each SharePoint front-end web server must be running the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service and the SharePoint Foundation web application service.
- If you are using the advanced scenario, you can use one or more servers in the server farm to run the SMTP service and to have a valid SMTP server address. Alternatively, you must know the name of a server outside the farm that is running the SMTP service and the location of the e-mail drop folder.

Note : It's possible to accomplish this without Exchange, but that approach doesn't provide the best end user experience.

End user will email through the  exchange server to the SharePoint server in order to do this we need to configure SMTP services on the SharePoint server. SharePoint has no way of accepting  emails from Exchange. It doesn't have mechanism to taking these emails and  putting them to list or libraries. SMTP service provides an ability to take emails from exchange server and put it into a library or list.

Then need to configure incoming email settings on the SharePoint server and we have to configure send connector on the exchange server.  Finally we have to configure a test list or libraries on the SharePoint site.

Step 1 :Install and setting SMTP :

Firstly you must be a member of the farm administrators group to configure an SMTP server.

Please follow the below steps to add SMTP role to the SharePoint Server.

1.       open central admin as Administrator and Click on "Configure incoming e-mail settings"

2.       Go to your server manager, click on "Add role or Features"

3.      Click on Next and choose "Select a server from the server pool" and click Next

4.      Here you need to check "SMTP Server" and finally install it.

5. To configure SMTP on SharePoint Server browse to Server Manager > Local Server > Tools> "Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager". Expand Server Name >

     Right Click on SMTP and click on Properties

6.       Click on Access > Authentication and ensure Anonymous is checked

7.       Next click on the connection tab and confirm that "All Except the below list is checked"

8.       Now click on the relay button. "Only the list below" should be selected and confirm that "Allow All computers which successfully authenticate to relay, regardless of the list above"

9.       Now you can go to the Services and make sure SMTP service is running.
Click on run and type services.msc and scroll down to "Simple mail transfer protocol(SMTP)" open the properties and set it on automatic.

Step 2 : Configure Email Settings in SharePoint

1. Configure settings based on the screen shots

 

Step 3 : Create Send Connector :

1. Browse to Exchange console https://ExchangeServerName/ecp

2. Click on Mail Flow > Send Connectors

3. Click on New Send Connector Icon and give it meaningful name and chose Internal

4. Choose "Route mail through smart hosts" and click on Add and provide SharePoint Server FQDN

5. Choose None as the Authentication method

6. Provide the FQDN of the SharePoint Server where SMTP role is installed and click on Save and then Next

7. On the Source Server screen add the exchange server and click on Finish. Ensure that the Connector status shows as Enabled.

Step 4 : Enable Incoming email on Document library

1. Browse to your Web Application and create a new document library App. Then browse to the List settings of the Document Library App.

 

2. Click on Incoming e-mail settings.

3. Configure the settings based on the following screen shot

Step 5 : Test the incoming email functionality

1. Send an email with an attachment to the email address that you configured.

2. Navigate to the Drop folder on the SMTP server, default location for the drop folder is C:\inetpub\mailroot\Drop

3. You should see your emails sent in this folder.

4. Wait for 5 mins and these emails should get processed by the timer service.

5. Browse to the Document library and you should see the attachment being uploaded to the document library.

Nintex Forms with Cascading drop downs

In this example I demonstrate Service type store with SharePoint Lists. You’ll need to create four lists, two with lookup information for the cascading drop down.

Create the SharePoint Lists

Create two custom lists. These custom lists form the basis for the lookups, which the main list will look the cascading information up from.

1.            Navigate to a SharePoint Team Site.

2.            Click the Site Settings icon, and select Add an App. Select Custom List, and call it "Countries". Click Create.

3.            Open the newly created SharePoint list, and click new item. In the Title field, enter your required country names.

Create the Second SharePoint List - ProvinceDetails

1.            Click the Site Settings icon, and select Add an App. Select Custom List, and call it "ProvinceDetails". Click Create.

2.            Open the new list, click on the List tab and select List Settings.

3.            Click Create column from the available options.

4.            Fill in the following options:

a.            Type “CountryData” as the Column name.

b.            Select Lookup (information already on this site) in The type of information in this column is section.

c.             Select Yes for Require that this column contains information.

d.            Select Contries from the Get information from drop-down.

e.            Select Title from the In this column drop-down.

f.             Navigate to the list and click on new item.

g.            Type “Western” in Title.

h.            Select “Sri Lanka” from the CountryData drop-down and click Save.

i.              Likewise you can add required province information according to the Country.

Create the Second SharePoint List - DistrictDetails

1.            Click the Site Settings icon, and select Add an App. Select Custom List, and call it " DistrictDetails". Click Create.

2.            Open the new list, click on the List tab and select List Settings.

3.            Click Create column from the available options.

4.            Fill in the following options:

a.            Type “ProvinceData” as the Column name.

b.            Select Lookup (information already on this site) in The type of information in this column is section.

c.             Select Yes for Require that this column contains information.

d.            Select ProvinceDetails from the Get information from drop-down.

e.            Select Title from the In this column drop-down.

f.             Navigate to the list and click on new item.

g.            Type “Colombo” in Title.

h.            Select “Western” from the ProvinceData drop-down and click Save.

i.              Likewise you can add required district information according to the Province.

Create a custom list for Services and enter values as follows.

Customizing the SharePoint List Form using Nintex Forms

Now that we have created the three lists required for the cascading drop down, we need to create the Nintex Form to display this information on a SharePoint list.

1.       Create a new list and click Nintex Forms in the Ribbon.

2.       Select all of the controls on the form except the Nintex Forms label, the Save, and the Cancel buttons.

3.       Right-click and select Delete.

4.       Add two Label controls to the form and change their title to “Country Name”, “Province Name”, “District Name”, “Service Name” and “Service Type”.

5.       Add a List Lookup control from the SharePoint category of the Form Controls. Place the List Lookup control next to the Country label. Resize the control to reduce its default height. Double-click on the action to open the settings.

6.       Type “CountryText” as the Name of the control.

7.       Select Countries from the Source List drop-down, and click Save.

8.       Add another List Lookup control from the SharePoint category of the Form Controls. Place the List Lookup control next to the Province Name label. Resize the control to reduce its default height. Double-click on the action to open the settings.

9.       Type “ProvinceText” as the Name of the control.

10.   Select ProvinceDetails from the Source List drop-down.

11.   Expand the Filtering section:a.Select By a controls value from the Filter available selections drop-down.

12.   Type “CountryData” in the Where field box.

13.   Select CountryText from the Filtered by control drop-down. Click Save.

14.   Do the same for District Name controls by filtering data from “DistrictDetails” List with “ProvinceData” coulumn.

15.   Add a List Lookup control from the SharePoint category of the Form Controls for Service Name and bind data from Services List.

16.   Add a calculate field to get key field by combining Service and District

Preview the Form

1. In the Ribbon, click on Preview. Select Generate Preview, and test out the cascading dropdown.

2. When the configuration of the form is complete, Save and Publish.

You can add custom java script function to “Client Click” property in save button to prompt message box:

window.alert("Your Custom Alert");return true;

If we add a duplicate record it will indicate using the calculated field key.

Create Read Form

Add a new List for Service From and add two labels, one text box and list lookup control to read value from our main form.

Configure list lookup with Main list and get Service Type to drop down list.