To explain:

1. EDITOR: When an email is sent to the Help Desk folder, the DLL "edits" the email to create a ticket.
2. DOMAIN ADMINS: When the email is converted to a ticket, a notification message is sent to the names in the Automatic Notification list in the Five Utilities form in the Utilities folder. The DLL takes the FROM address of the email and puts it into the FROM of the notification message. The notification message will be seen as from the person who sent in the email. (However, the sent messages will be in the Sent Items of the user account that you use for the Event Sink.) The user account for the Event Sink therefore needs the Send As permission for any mailbox in the Exchange organization. This is granted by default to members of the Domain

Exchange 2000 and 2003 use Event Sinks to convert emails into new tickets. Event Sinks react to events in the Exchange public folders, such as the addition or deletion of a message. Event Sinks are compiled DLLs installed as a COM+ Components on the Exchange Server. They are faster and more efficient than the folder Agents and scripts that were used with the Microsoft Exchange Event Service in Exchange 5.5. We provide "OHD305ES.DLL" to convert emails to Help Desk tickets as part of the Outlook Help Desk program.

There are five steps to installing the Event Sink:

• A. Choose or set up User Account for running Event Sinks
• B. Install and register the DLL
• C. Create a COM+ Application
• D. Add Components to the COM+ Application
• E. Add an Event Registration to the Help Desk folder

For Troubleshooting the Event Sink after installation, see Appendix A

Using Email to create new Help Desk Tickets

Users can simply send an email to the Help Desk folder and the Event Sink will convert the email into a new Help Desk Ticket.

Accepting emails from inside the organization

For internal users, you can show the Help Desk in the Global Address List. Users either select it from the address list or just type "Help Desk" in the To: line. To allow your users to do this, you must show the Help Desk folder in the Address Book.

Accepting emails from outside the organization

External users can send to an SMTP address you set up for the Help Desk folder. To allow the folder to accept emails from external users, give Anonymous at least Contributor permissions to the folder. To set up an email address, open Exchange System Manager, find the Help Desk folder under Folders/Public Folders, go to Properties and check the E-mail Addresses tab for the SMTP address.

Using a Web form to generate emails

Outlook Help Desk comes with a full-fledged web application that offers users a way to enter and view tickets without using Outlook client. It runs on an OWA server and users must login with a Windows account.

Another way to use the Web is to create a simple Web form that users can fill out without logging in. When the form is submitted, a script creates an email out of the web form and sends it to the Help Desk folder. The Event Sink will treat this email like any other email and convert it into a new Help Desk ticket.

The advantage to this is that users do not need a Windows accounts. Anyone who can access your Web server can fill out a ticket. The web form can run on any web server. This is a good way to service outside customers by providing a "Send email to support" link on your web site. You can set up an Intranet link this way also.

INSTALLATION

A. Set up User Account and Permissions for running Event Sinks

Exchange 2000/2003 Event Sinks run out-of-process and therefore some form of authentication is required before the code in the DLL can execute. For the Event Sink to run correctly, you must specify a user account under whose security context the code will execute. This account is specified when setting up the Component in Step C below.

The code will always run with the permissions of this user account, regardless of who wrote the DLL or who installed it. Anything the account can do, the code can do, and conversely, anything the account is denied from doing, the code will be denied from doing. The account needs:

• Editor or above permissions on the Help Desk Folder
• To be a member of the Domain Admins group.