Using Connector

Learn to configure the connector, and to add and manage users on it.

After installation you need configuration the connector application using a configuration console (SynchroConnectorConfigurator.exe). After this you can define the basic settings regarding connecting to the messaging system and configuration of CRM.interface.

create users and master user and configure credentials for them. Such users need to have certain settings enabled on them for mail synchronization to happen successfully for them.

Below are required configuration and settings:

Connection Settings

In this dialog you can define the basic settings regarding connecting to the messaging system and configuration of CRM.interface.

Connection Settings Dialog

Set the Configuration for the CRM.Connector universal as per the table below:

Fields	Description
Server type	The Server type can be either "Gmail" or "Universal". See chapter Authentication - Access of mailboxes, User management for further details.
Hosting Domain or Server name	Depending on the value you have selected for "Server type", you either have to specify the Hosting Domain (in case of Gmail) or the Server name (in case of all other systems). See Example Configuration below.
IMAP/SMTP settings	Supported Authentication Methods are: None STARTTLS SSL/TLS What method to choose depends on what the target system supports and on how the target system is configured. E.g. Gmail supports solely port 993 and SSL/TLS for IMAP. See Example Configuration below. Note: IMAP is used for retrieving e-mails from the messaging server. SMTP is used to send messages to users or administrators (see "Sending Warning Message" Settings and Inform admin users about the following events).
Setting "Mail address spaces to be synchronized"	Add all mail address spaces you want to synchronize. If connector comes across e-mail addresses of a mail space which is not defined to be synchronized, you can find information concerning this matter in the log file. `[…] does not belong to any of the defined mail spaces: […] and is NOT to be synchronized`
URL of CRM.interface	CRM.interface can be either installed on the same or a different machine as connector.
Port Number	This setting specifies the port number of CRM.interface; since CRM.interface is running in IIS, the port number is either 80 (or 443 when using HTTPS) by default.
Automatically update list of mailboxes to synchronize n time(s) a day	Updating the list of mailboxes requires re-initialization of connector -which may take a while in a scenario with many users- and therefore can have a huge impact on the duration of synchronization cycles. Therefore it might make sense to consider doing this update only once a day or even switch it off in a scenario in which the user list (users whose mailboxes are supposed to be synchronized) doesn’t change often. If this setting is set to "1" you can additionally schedule when the list should be updated.
Connection string to synchronization data base	The connection string must be built in the following form: `server=MYSERVER; Trusted_Connection=no; database=MYDATABASE; connection timeout=5` Note: The attributes `server, database, Trusted_Connection` are mandatory; the `connection timeout` parameter is optional. `Trusted_Connection` must always be set to no. The credentials of the user are read from users.xml and therefore must not be provided in the connection string. Examples `server=PC1711\\SQLEXPRESS;Trusted_Connection=no;database=connector_universal;connection timeout=5 server=dbserver01;Trusted_Connection=no;database=connector_universal;connection timeout=5`

Example configurations

Connection Settings for Zimbra Collaboration Suite

Connection Settings Open-Xchange

Connection Settings for Zarafa

Connection Settings for Gmail

Starting/Stopping Service and applying changed settings to the running service

Starting and Stopping of the Service: Connector service cannot only be restarted using Microsoft Tools but also via the administrative console ("configurator") of the application as well.

At the bottom of the administrative console the "state" of the service is displayed. Possible values are "unknown" or any of the regular states of Windows services (starting, started, stopping, stopped, etc.).

Connection Settings Dialog - Status information

Applying changed settings to running service: It is possible to apply changed settings to the running service, which means that the service doesn’t need to be restarted to use the new settings. Depending on which configuration has changed, the injection of the new settings causes a full, a partly or even no re-initialization of the service. For example changing the messaging server endpoint causes a full re-initialization.

After the injection the configuration changes are added to the command queue of connector and processed after the connector has finished its current tasks. Typically it won't take more than a few seconds until the new settings are applied by connector. Information on the (re-)initialization progress and result are displayed at the bottom of the dialogue box along with a progress bar.

Managing Users

With this functionality you can either manually add users or import users from a *.csv file.

Adding/Importing user

The following attributes are required for each user, independent if users are created manually or imported:

E-mail Address (SMTP Address)
Password
Note: When synchronizing with Gmail only the SMTP addresses of the users are required. See Authentication - Access of mailboxes, User management for further information.
Synchronize (boolean flag: either TRUE or FALSE, case-insensitive). If this field is set to TRUE (respectively checked in the user interface) then the user's mailbox is synchronized. Instead of TRUE|FALSE you also can use 1|0.

Note: The mailbox of a user is only synchronized if the user is activated in Aurea.CRM via his ID table settings and activated in the synchronization database as well.

At first glance, this logic might look like overkill, but for several considerations, we do not want to hold the users’ passwords for the messaging system in Aurea.CRM.

Additionally, it might be quite helpful for testing purposes, because it allows for limiting the number of synchronization users without any need to change the settings in Aurea.CRM.

If you are importing the users via a file import, you have to provide the same columns separated by either semicolons, commas or tabs. You cannot mix different separators in a single import file.

Note: The row “ID” is filled automatically.

Example of a user import file

sync.one@test.local;mypassword1;FALSE
sync.two@test.local;mypassword2;TRUE
sync.three@test.local;mypassword3;TRUE

Note: The deletion of a user may cause duplication of synchronized items as the information in which items have been synchronized is deleted as well. However, to delete a line mark the very first column and press <delete>.

Configuration of users

The credentials (username or e-mail address and password) of the technical users are stored in an encrypted XML file - users.xml. Use the file update.Users.exe – which is installed in the installation directory of connector- to create or modify the users.xml file.

Sections users.xml

Section in `users.xml`	Description \| Necessary input	Required?
Universal Connector Master	Impersonation user for Aurea.CRM. Username, password.	Mandatory for all systems
Connector Technical User	used by connector to send warning and error e-mails. SMTP address, password.	Mandatory for all systems.
2-legged Authentication User	Impersonation user for Gmail. SMTP address and password.	Mandatory for Gmail.
Synchronization Database Admin	Used to access the synchronization database. Username, password.	Mandatory for all systems.
User Password Encryption	Secret phrase used for the encryption of user passwords in the synchronization database.	Optional

Creating a Master User

Create an Aurea CRM user matching the credentials of the master user specified in the step Configuration of users, creation of users.xml above.

Note: In forms.xml by default the master user OCSU is pre-configured. If you want to use a different user (name), you have to change the master user in forms.xml accordingly (section <masterUser client='universal' login='Principal,ClientID'>OCSU</masterUser>);

Creating User Settings

On start-up, connector requests a user list from Aurea.CRM. This list is based on the "Enable Connector settings" flag in the rep table.

In other words, in order to add a user to the synchronization process, you have to enable the "Enable Connector settings" check box for the rep and further enable at least one of the options "Synchronize e-mails" or "Synchronize appointments" for this user.

Note: The value in the Rep’s "E-mail" field must match the rep's e-mail address in messaging system.

Note: as of Service Pack 2 it is possible to define additional conditions on the ID table, see the WIKI article How connector(s) determine which users to synchronize for further information.

Note: If you want to synchronize the mailbox of a user, said user needs to be created in Aurea.CRM as a rep with a person assigned. In addition, the user must have the module right "groupware connector".

In other words, if you want to synchronize the mailbox of "Simon Seller" the following must exist:

A KP record for Simon Seller,
An ID record for Simon Seller,
A Login for Simon Seller with the "groupware connector" module right and the "Enable Connector settings" option for the rep Simon Seller activated.

Note: If you have set the CRM.interface option "use FI/KP from rep" to true, CRM.interface always takes the KP record linked to the relevant ID record of the user. If set to false, it is mandatory that the e-mail addresses of the Reps have to be unique within the KP table.

Tip: If this person "Simon Seller" has meetings with other employees of your enterprise (whose mailboxes are not synchronized) and you want to synchronize the full information, you have to create an entry in the rep table for these persons, but there is no need to create a login for them as well.