Question
The ACL (Access Control List) extension of IMAP permits mail folders to be retrieved and manipulated through the IMAP protocol. As GMS supports ACL’s, any ACL-aware e-mail client should be able to query shared mailboxes and ultimately make them accessible to the user.
Answer
Firstly, you will need to assign a user account that will act as the global user account. Users accounts can be setup in the normal manor through the GMS admin interface. For this example the global account will be named "staff-rota".
Next you will need to check that ACL’s have been enabled on the GMS server so navigate to Mail > Incoming > Access Control from the administration interface.
| Setting | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Folder Prefix | Shared | The name of the top-level folder for individual mailbox sharing. |
| Public Folder Prefix | GlobalSharedAccount | The name of the top-level folder for global mailbox sharing. |
| Public Folder Account Name | staff-rota | The name of the newly created global shared account. |
GMS has a special in-built account called "everyone" which encompasses all users within the same domain as the everyone account.
Therefore if you wish to grant everyone in your domain access to the newly created global account (staff-rota), you will need to login as this account and publish (grant) the share.
When logged into the administration interface as user staff-rota, expand "Account > Sharing". Select "Folders" and proceed to share a mail folder by defining appropriate permission levels you wish to grant. Now select the option "Everyone in domain". If this is missing you will need to make a simple profile alteration. As the administrator, find the profile that "staff-rota" is assigned to and then navigate to "Privileges > Sharing – May share with everyone and enable this".
Now any user on your domain using an ACL-aware email client such as Outlook, Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail etc… should be able to access the Inbox of the global "staff-rota"account. You may need to reset your mail client folder listing and subscribe to these newly discovered shared mail folders. Make the mail folders visible and attempt to download the new folders if given the choice.
Keywords:anyone everyone IMAP ACL Access Control List global share shared