Typical Public Folder Applications

You can really create just about any type of application in a public folder. Applications I've seen over the past few years include some of the following:

• Moderated or unmoderated message boards

• Sales force automation systems

• Inventory management applications

• Customer relationship management applications

• Information distribution systems

• Help desk systems

Basically, if your system needs to store information and have others access that information, you can turn your system into a public folder application. So, how do you tell whether your potential application is right for a public folder application? Well, there's no real litmus test for whether your application should be developed using public folders, but consider asking yourself the following questions:

• Does your system need to be accessible to users of your Exchange Server?

• Are there users who don't have accounts on your Exchange Server who'll need to access this application?

• How is the information currently collected and stored?

• Will your users need offline access to the information stored in your system?

• Will you need any features of Exchange in your application, such as routing or email communication outside your system?

No one can tell you without a doubt that your answers to these questions will definitely point you in one direction or another. However, if your application is accessed only by your Exchange users, needs information currently stored in Outlook items, requires offline access, and uses routing or other Exchange features, you should seriously consider a public folder application. The next few sections go into some detail about setting up a few typical public folder applications.

Creating Message Boards

A public folder can make a good message board application. You have a shared space that a variety of users can access whenever they're logged on to their Exchange Server. You can create views that resemble a typical message board by using Outlook 2003's new By Conversation View, shown in Figure 29.15. You can allow users to Quick Flag a message for follow up and even enable them to create their own views to show only replies to their messages.

Figure 29.15. A typical message board public folder might look something like this.

Creating an Unmoderated Message Board

It is, of course, simpler to create an unmoderated message board. You simply create a new public folder, configure access permissions, and inform your users how they can access the public folder. You might want to configure some rules on your message board to delete messages with questionable content or to reply to posters with an email thanking them for their post, but the setup is otherwise no different from setting up any other public folder. If you want all users to have the same permissions to the public folder, use the Default permission object. A permission that you might want to restrict is the ability to edit or delete someone else's items. A typical permission level for a user of a message board is Author. The Author permission enables a user to create new items and read all items, but the user can edit and delete only her own items. You might also want to consider preventing all users other than owners from being able to delete even their own posts. If you're creating a message board to serve as a technical support resource for your company, even when a question has been asked and answered, you might want to preserve that information for other users to read later.

Creating a Moderated Message Board

A moderated message board requires one or more moderators to approve posts before they appear in the public folder. If you want to set up a moderated message board, you have to assign a moderator (or several moderators) who will be responsible for approving posts sent to the public folder.

Assigning a Moderator

To configure a folder moderator, use the following steps:

1. Right-click the public folder and choose Properties.

2. Choose the Administration tab of the Properties dialog box and click the Moderated Folder button to display Figure 29.16.

   Figure 29.16. You can designate multiple moderators for a folder and configure a reply to new posts.

   

3. Check the box marked Set Folder Up As a Moderated Folder.

4. Click the To button to display the Forward New Items To dialog box and choose a location to receive all forwarded items. This address is usually the moderator for the folder. You can add more than one moderator. Click OK when you've added your moderator(s) to the Add box. You can also add the address of another public folder to this dialog box. It can be helpful to configure an additional public folder to which only the moderators have access to serve as a temporary storage place for pending items. This can prevent a moderator's inbox from becoming overloaded with pending items.

5. If you want to configure a standard reply to all new items, check the box marked Reply to New Items With. You can choose a standard response, as shown in Figure 29.17, or configure a custom response using an Outlook template.

   Figure 29.17. The standard response to a post in a moderated public folder is sent to the original sender of the post.

   

6. If you choose to configure a custom response, Outlook opens a blank new message window. You can enter a subject and message body for your custom response and even enter a CC or BCC address to receive your response. For example, you might want to BCC an individual on your response so he knows a new item has been posted in the folder. When you're done configuring the custom response, choose File, Save and Close to save your template.

   For more information about creating Outlook templates, see "Using Templates," p. 483.

   
   

7. Although it might seem a bit redundant, you must also list the moderators in the Moderators box in the lower portion of the Moderated Folder dialog box. Click Add to display the Select Additional Moderators box and choose your moderators again. Click OK when you've finished selecting moderators.

8. Click OK to complete the moderated folder setup.

NOTE

It's necessary to specify your moderators in both the Forward New Items To box as well as the Moderators box. For example, you could enter only the address of a public folder in the Forward New Items To box. Any moderators listed in the Moderators box would then be allowed to approve those items and send them to the public folder.

To approve a post sent to you in a moderated public folder, simply drag the post from your Inbox or from the public folder designated as the holding folder directly to the moderated public folder.

Productivity Applications

You can configure a wide variety of other application types that work well within a public folder. Any application that needs to store information in a central location and have others edit, reply to, or view that information is a good potential candidate for a public folder application.

Help Desk Systems

A typical public folder application for a company is a help desk system. If your company is larger than five people (or five computers), chances are the IT department can get a little busy. Creating a help desk system within an Exchange public folder can help the IT department manage its help requests and keep on top of problems. A typical help desk application might consist of a customized task form, some rules, and a custom response form. A help request form might look something like Figure 29.18. Fields are included for the originating user, the user's telephone extension, the application he's having problems with, problem details, and a severity level. A troubled user can navigate to the Help Desk folder, create a new help request, and know that the IT department will receive the request.

Figure 29.18. A help request form can contain any relevant information for the problem.

When the IT department technician opens the request, she can post a reply with a resolution to the problem, or mark the item as pending and go to the user's computer to solve the problem. After the problem has been resolved, the original help request can be marked complete and hidden from the default view. Figure 29.19 shows a typical view of a help desk public folder application.

Figure 29.19. The Help Desk public folder contains requests and responses.

NOTE

The "Improving Your Outlook" section at the end of this chapter shows you how to create a basic public folder application for a sales force automation system used to obtain pricing for custom picture frames.