Who is this article for?

Administrators who needs to establish a centralised system for auto-discovering locations rather than having each client manage it individually.

1. Introduction

Rather than every client discovering filing locations this solution provides a method of auto discovering locations using a single machine and a scheduled task that creates collection files and saves them in a specified folder. Client devices are then configured to use collections instead of auto discovery.

1.1. Pro's

• Reduces the load on systems by using a single instance of auto discovery instead of running on every client device.
• Reduces the need to throttle or slow down the discovery process.
• Discovery intervals can be matched to suit the system capabilities.
• Increases reliability e.g. locations not being discovered (when client discovery takes more than 10 minutes to complete).

1.2. Con's

• Scheduled task needs to run with the enough permissions to discovery all locations.
• All locations are visible to all users, whether they have permissions to access the locations or not.
• Filing errors will occur when filing to a location they don't have access to e.g. access denied.
• Unable to index and search locations they don't have access to.
• Any manual changes to the collection files will be lost after the next scheduled task has run.

2. How it works

A dedicated Windows machine periodically runs a schedule task that discovers filing locations. On completion, the discovered locations are written to collection files. Client devices are setup via the Collections.txt file, to update their filing locations soon after the collection files have been updated. 

3. Initial setup

1. Identify or create a Windows machine (with high up time) that will run the scheduled task.
2. Install Mail Manager on to the machine (Outlook is not required)
   Alternatively, you could save the Mail Manager applications to a shared drive.
3. Navigate to the Mail Manager installation folder: ...\x64 folder i.e.
   C:\Program Files\Mail Manager\x64
   or
   %localappdata%\Mail Manager\x64
4. Double click the file called: MailManager.AutoDiscoveryLocations.exe 
    
5. Create a sub-folder called: CentralAutoDiscovery in the x64 folder
6. In the CentralAutoDiscovery folder create a sub-folder called: SharePoint or FileSystem or ProjectWise to match the auto discovery protocol to be discovered.
7. Copy your tested discovery pattern files (AutoDiscoverySharePoint.txt or AutoDiscoveryFileSystem.txt) into the appropriate folder.
   For more information about creating discovery patterns see: Creating a Mail Manager AutoDiscovery pattern using the Setup Builder

4. Creating a configuration file

1. Create a new file called: appsettings.json into the CentralAutoDiscovery folder.
2. Copy the appropriate example text below into the appsettings.json file.
   Note: Only one protocol type can be used with each installation.

Shared Configuration protocol = SharePoint

Auto Discovery protocol = SharePoint

{
"General": {
"Minimised": false
},
"SharedConfig": {
"Protocol": "SharePoint",
"DocLibId": "id",
"Folderid": "id"
},
"AutoDiscovery": {
"CentralMode": true,
"Protocol": "SharePoint"
}
}

Shared Configuration protocol = SharePoint

Auto Discovery protocol = File System

{
"General":{
"Minimised":false
},
"SharedConfig": {
"Protocol": "SharePoint",
"DocLibId": "id"
},
"AutoDiscovery":{
"CentralMode":true,
"Protocol":"FileSystem"
}
}

Shared Configuration protocol = File System

Auto Discovery protocol = SharePoint

{
"General": {
"Minimised": false
},
"SharedConfig": {
"Protocol": "FileSystem",
"Directory": "Path"
},
"AutoDiscovery": {
"CentralMode": true,
"Protocol": "SharePoint"
}
}

Shared Configuration protocol = File System

Auto Discovery protocol = File System

{
"General":{
"Minimised":false
},
"SharedConfig":{
"Protocol":"FileSystem",
"Directory": "Path"
},
"AutoDiscovery":{
"CentralMode":true,
"Protocol":"FileSystem"
}
}

5. Update configuration file

The file contains 3 sections:

• "General" - Determines whether the application is run in minimised mode or not - True/False (default = False).

• "SharedConfig" - Specifies the folder or document library where the collection files will be saved to - Required.
  SharePoint: (refer to How to obtain a SharePoint entity id for more details)

  "DocLibId": "id"

  "Folderid": "id"

  File System:

  "Directory": "Path" - Where the path is specified as a drive or UNC using double backslashes e.g.

  "P:\\Software\\Mail Manager\\Mail Manager Config"

• "Auto Discovery" - Details of the discovery protocol - Only update when using ProjectWise e.g.

"TargetFolderName": "Emails",

"DescriptionLevel": 3,

"DataSource": "prj02-pw.bentley.com:prj02-pw-01",

"CollectionName": "Clients",

"RequiredPath": "Documents"

6. Test configuration

1. Navigate to the Mail Manager ...\x64 folder i.e.
   C:\Program Files\Mail Manager\x64
   or
   %localappdata%\Mail Manager\x64
2. Double click the file called: MailManager.AutoDiscoveryLocations.exe.
   If prompted enter suitable credentials that will be able to discover all filing locations and create collections in the shared config folder.
3. Auto Discovery will begin running.
4. On completion the collections will be created/updated in the specified folder or document library.
5. Open the Mail Manager Locations tool and check that your locations have been created/updated.