3.3 Enabling Folders to Receive Entries through E-Mail

Novell Vibe enables you to e-mail entries into folders. This is useful if you don’t have access to the Vibe site and still want to create an entry. You can also send text messages into folders, so you can still capture thoughts and contribute to conversations when you don’t have access to a computer or the Internet.

To enable folders to receive entries via e-mail, complete the following sections:

3.3.1 Enabling and Configuring the Inbound E-Mail Server

The Vibe administrator should have enabled and configured the inbound e-mail server during the Vibe installation, as described in Enabling Inbound E-Mail in the Novell Vibe 3.3 Installation Guide.

For information about enabling and configuring inbound e-mail after the Vibe installation, see Reconfiguring the Vibe Site in the Novell Vibe 3.3 Administration Guide.

3.3.2 Enabling Incoming E-Mail for the Vibe Site

For folders to be able to receive entries via e-mail, Vibe administrators need to enable the Vibe site to allow incoming e-mail.

For information on how to enable Vibe to allow incoming e-mail, see Disabling/Enabling Inbound E-Mail Postings in the Novell Vibe 3.3 Administration Guide.

3.3.3 Enabling E-Mail Posting with a Simple URL

When you define a simple URL for a folder, Vibe creates a URL that enables you to quickly navigate to the folder, and also creates a corresponding e-mail address that users of the folder can e-mail to.

  1. Navigate to the folder where you want to define the URL.

  2. Click Folder > Configure Views, URLs and Controls in the Action toolbar.

  3. Click the Simple URLs and E-mail Addresses tab.

  4. In the Define a simple URL for this folder or workspace section, specify the URL that you want to use to reference the folder.

  5. Click Add.

  6. Select Allow e-mail posts to this folder via the following addresses.

  7. Click Apply, then click Close.

You can now make entries to the folder by e-mail or by text-messaging your entry to the e-mail address that you created, as described in Adding Entries to a Folder Via E-Mail in the Novell Vibe 3.3 User Guide.

3.3.4 Defining Who Has Access to E-Mail Entries

By default, only users with rights to create entries in a particular folder can e-mail entries into that folder.

Vibe enables you to view who has rights to create entries in a folder, grant rights to other Vibe users, or configure the folder to allow all users to create entries by e-mailing into it.

Viewing Who Has Rights

  1. Navigate to the folder where you want to view who currently has rights to create entries in the folder.

  2. Click View > Who Has Access in the Action toolbar.

  3. In the provided table, the Create Entries section lists all of the users who have rights to create entries in the folder.

    These are the users who have rights to e-mail entries into the folder.

Granting Rights to Other Vibe Users

You can grant other Vibe users rights to create entries in a folder.

For information on how to change access control settings in a folder, see Section 4.2.1, Controlling Access to Workspaces and Folders.

Setting Up a Folder That All Users Can Send E-Mail To

You can enable your Vibe folder to receive e-mail entries from all users, regardless of whether they have access to create entries in the folder or not.

This enables e-mail entries to be submitted by anybody, inside or outside of the Vibe system. If you are worried about receiving spam messages in your folder, do not set up your folder to accept e-mail entries in the way described in this section.

  1. Navigate to the folder where you want to enable all users to create entries via e-mail.

  2. Click Folder > Access Control in the Action toolbar.

  3. Ensure that No is selected in the Inherit Role Membership section, then click Apply.

  4. In the table, click Add a User.

  5. In the provided field, use the type-to-find functionality and specify E-mail Posting Agent.

  6. In the E-mail Posting Agent row, select the check box in the Participant column.

  7. Click Save Changes > Close.

    Now all users can create entries in this folder via e-mail, using the e-mail address that you created in Section 3.3.3, Enabling E-Mail Posting with a Simple URL.