Manual configuration of mapping email headers to SharePoint properties

Before you begin, please read Save email headers in SharePoint, which describes an automatic and simple way to configure email header mapping, without administrator configuration.

This article explains how to map email headers to SharePoint document properties, using the SharePoint Web UI.

To map email headers to SharePoint properties:

To enable this mapping, you should configure the SharePoint document library as follows:

  1. Add email columns to your SharePoint site. Below you can find the full list of email columns. It is not mandatory to define all these columns, select those that will help your users organize and search for emails. The important email headers are marked with an asterisk (*).
    Notes:

  2. If you use the default column names, the mapping between email headers and SharePoint document properties is done by default. If you wish to configure custom column names, you should provision the column names mapping using the MailHeaderMappingList key.
  3. It is recommended to create a new email content type with the email columns you created in step 1.
  4. Add the email content type to your target document libraries. If this content type is named E-mail or Email, harmon.ie automatically assigns this content type to uploaded emails. To define a custom content type name, follow the directions in Set mail content type when uploading email messages to SharePoint.
    It’s recommended to hide this email content type from the New button.
  5. Optionally, add a SharePoint email view with the email fields to your target document library to provide an Inbox-like display of email messages.

SharePoint columns used for email header mapping:

EMAIL HEADER TYPE DESCRIPTION
Bcc Single line of text The identity of the blind recipients of the message. This field is saved to SharePoint only if explicitly set by the administrator. It is recommended to set this column with Allow unlimited length in document libraries set to Yes.
Categories Multiple lines of text Message categories.
Cc* Single line of text The identity of the secondary recipients of the message. It is recommended to set this column with Allow unlimited length in document libraries set to Yes.
ConversationIndex Single line of text A unique identifier for the conversation.
ConversationTopic* Single line of text The common subject of the email thread. This column facilitates creating a SharePoint view to show related emails. Read Grouping email messages for more information.
Date* Date and Time The date and time when the message was sent.
From* Single line of text The address of the message sender.
HasAttachments* Yes/No (recommended) or Single line of text Indicates if the email message contains attachments. The default value should be No.
Importance Single line of text The message’s importance.
InReplyTo Single line of text The contents of this field identify previous correspondence that this message answers.
MailPreviewData* Multiple lines of text Stores the message content compressed, for the Show Preview command. It is recommended to set this column with Allow unlimited length in document libraries set to Yes, and Add to default view unchecked (to hide the column). Read Enable email previewing to learn more.
MessageID Single line of text A unique identifier for the message.
MessageClass Single line of text The type of the item (message, appointment, post, etc.). Used to show the correct item icon. Read Assign icons to uploaded Outlook items to learn more.
Received Date and Time The date and time when a message is received.
References Single line of text The contents of this field identify other correspondence that this message answers.
ReplyTo Single line of text Indicates any mailbox(es) to which responses are to be sent.
Subject* Single line of text The subject of the message.
Sensitivity Single line of text The message’s sensitivity.
To* Single line of text The identity of the primary recipients of the message. It is recommended to set this column with Allow unlimited length in document libraries set to Yes.
All multiple line properties should be defined as plain text.

Grouping email messages

Email messages uploaded to SharePoint through harmon.ie can be grouped by the ConversationTopic column in the SharePoint web interface. This feature allows you to view email messages in a pseudo-conversation view.

During the upload process, the email Subject column is stripped from the common prefixes to the core text, and the stripped subject is saved in the ConversationTopic column.

Saving Bcc recipients

To save the list of Bcc recipients in SharePoint, provision the ExposeBcc registry key to all users, and set its value to True.

To learn how to centrally and remotely provision registry keys, read the knowledge base article harmon.ie Classic – Administrator’s Settings.

Troubleshooting

Issue: Non-English characters in email headers are not saved correctly to SharePoint.

Cause: Outlook is configured to save messages in ANSI format instead of Unicode format which holds support for international characters.

Resolution: Configure Outlook to save messages in Unicode format:

  • In Outlook: Open the Options dialog, click Mail and check Use Unicode Format under the Save messages.
  • In Group Policy: enable Use Unicode format when dragging email message to file system.