Microsoft Outlook: Shared mailbox alert

[Diabolus]

I need the functionality to alert users to new email in a shared mailbox. I understand this cant be done in Outlook 2003, but does anyone know a work around?

Third part app, or maybe a script?

[Diabolus]

Can someone please help?

I need some sort of alert of a new message (maybe VBA script), or a way to setup a rule to copy e-mails that are sent to the sent folder of the Shared Mailbox.

Thanks!

[spsellars]

Haven't tried it, but supposedly this works with shared mailboxes (at least with Outlook 2007). Might be worth giving the trial a shot.

[Diabolus]

That would work, but its on Exchange which complicates everything.

[spsellars]

That would work, but its on Exchange which complicates everything.

How does it being on Exchange complicate things? Alerts are client side, and unfortunately Outlook doesn't monitor shared folders. If "Exchange Cached Mode" is off, a 3rd party alert software which monitors everything (including shared folders) should work.

If that's not an option, the only other option I can think of is to dedicate a machine to that shared mailbox, and have it forward alerts.

Edit: I think I understand what you meant now. That program isn't a "POP3 checker", it actually sits on top of Outlook's alert system. (And will supposedly monitor shared folders.) That does bring up another option though, can you just enable the POP3 service and use any generic mail alert utility on the clients?

[Diabolus]

How does it being on Exchange complicate things? Alerts are client side, and unfortunately Outlook doesn't monitor shared folders. If "Exchange Cached Mode" is off, a 3rd party alert software which monitors everything (including shared folders) should work.

If that's not an option, the only other option I can think of is to dedicate a machine to that shared mailbox, and have it forward alerts.

Edit: I think I understand what you meant now. That program isn't a "POP3 checker", it actually sits on top of Outlook's alert system. (And will supposedly monitor shared folders.) That does bring up another option though, can you just enable the POP3 service and use any generic mail alert utility on the clients?

Yep... and the Outlook alert system kinda blows as it is. I think I'm just plain screwed. I cant find anything online about this, though its a common request. I think what I am looking for would require some serious VBA code, and even then, it might not get deployed properly due to the macro settings on an enterprise level.

BTW - I really appreciate you putting some thought into this.

[spsellars]

Yep... and the Outlook alert system kinda blows as it is. I think I'm just plain screwed. I cant find anything online about this, though its a common request. I think what I am looking for would require some serious VBA code, and even then, it might not get deployed properly due to the macro settings on an enterprise level.

BTW - I really appreciate you putting some thought into this.

I'm not sure how you'd get a VBA solution to work. Since Outlook only monitors the primary mailbox, how would you trigger the VBA to run? (I guess you could hook into the Reminder system to trigger the VBA script at certain intervals, and have it manually run an alert rule on the shared box. That doesn't sound like fun to implement though.)

Do you have control over the server? If so, I honestly think enabling POP3 or IMAP services, and using any generic "new mail alert" program for that mailbox would be the easiest solution.

[Diabolus]

VBA Macro - check it out - this is doing what I want. The only problem I have now is on a distribution level since this needs to be deplayed to a couple hundred workstations. Does anyone know how to disable a macro warning each time Outlook launches? I can digitally sign the macro, but this needs to be done on an individual basis (I think, could be wrong)

Option Explicit

Public WithEvents sentItems As Outlook.Items

Private Sub Application_Startup()
Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim fld As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Set ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set fld = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderSentMail)
Set sentItems = fld.Items
Set fld = Nothing
Set ns = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub Application_Quit()
Set sentItems = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub SentItems_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)

If TypeOf Item Is Outlook.MailItem Then
If Item.SentOnBehalfOfName = "SH-SharedMailbox" Then
Item.Move Application.GetNamespace("MAPI").Folders("Mailbox - SharedFolder").Folders("Sent Items")
End If
End If
End Sub

[spsellars]

or a way to setup a rule to copy e-mails that are sent to the sent folder of the Shared Mailbox.

Ugh, I'm blind, I totally missed that alternative you presented.

If it works without warning using a self-signed certificate, getting a code signing cert from a top level CA should work fine for distribution. (Just make sure it's a CA that is trusted by default. Which also means if you happen to have an in house CA already trusted by all the clients, that should work too.) Thawte issues code signing certs specifically for AuthentiCode and/or VBA, but they're one of the pricier options.

Also, (and this will show how little I've coded my own VBA macros), if you're running this on multiple clients simultaneously, wouldn't you want to copy, instead of move? Or does Item.Move leave a copy for the next client to process too? (Or did I misunderstand the scope again?)

[Diabolus]

Want to move to keep the quote low on the senders mailbox.

Thanks for the distro idea