Separately, there has been a push in the enterprise towards Exchange 2010, as the Exchange Administrators are keen to make use of the CAS high availability and new Outlook Webapp amongst other features, the most obvious one being Outlook 2010

This blog post will take you through some of the things to note when migrating your mailboxes from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 and what the impact might be on your WorkSite user.

First the easy bit, the legacy WCS (SMTP) service that runs the filing via email address. There are no major changes to carry out here. The email filing functionality at the back end is still the same, with the SMTP service on the WCS picking up the incoming mail directed to it from your Exchange server using the mail connector The mail connectors from your Ex2003 environment will have automatically been migrated to your Ex2010 so things should pretty much remain the same, so any mail destined for yourworksitedomain.yourdomain.com will still go through. If you want to reconfigure the bounced email to be redirected to your new service account, (see below for why you need a new service account) you can make this change quite simply in the Communication Server Properties. A restart of the WCS service will be necessary, however the messages will queue during this time.

Things get a bit more interesting when it comes to the Email Filing Service (EFS). The EFS handles two of the main services, the FilingWorker (for Email Filing) & MarkingWorker (for Filing Folders). There are two key changes to be made within the EFS when the mailbox migration process begins.

First of all you need to review the Email Server Connection tab. Here you will have added the details of a Ex2003 service account which has relevant Send As/Receive As permissions. This service account field needs to be updated to a Ex2010 service account (a mailbox hosted within Ex2010). I guess you could also migrate the existing service account but I wouldn’t advise this, just so it doesn’t impact your current environment. Naturally, the Send As/Recieve As permissions need to be added for this account and should also have this access to the Ex2003 environment. In the Service Account/Server Name field you need to put in the name of your Ex2010 CAS name, whether this be a single server or an alias for the array and ensure you add this using the FQDN. All this can either be done manually or via the Email Filing Server Configuration Wizard, which will also change the local Outlook profile on the server to the new service account. If you use Trusted Login with the WorkSite administration account on EFS then you should ensure this has relevant NRTADMIN permissions in the database.

Secondly, depending on how many WCS’s you have and how they are individually configured, you may be filtering the Email Server Connection according to how you want each WCS to service Exchange. If this field was left blank, so the EFS could connect to any mailbox, then you can leave it like this. If however, you are using more than one WCS OR explicitly defining the Ex2003 mailbox stores, then you will need to add the same Ex2010 CAS name that you added into the Server Connection/Mailbox servers field. The benefit of explicitly defining what Exchange servers I want to filter on is it helps with troubleshooting and also keeps the WCS for the two Exchange environments separate. On the other hand you may wish to remain Ex2003/10 agnostic and want to leave it blank.

After you have saved the above settings you should run Test User Connections against both Ex2003 & Ex2010 users to ensure everything has gone through smoothly. Clicking on Marked Folder Management you should still see the listed of Filing Folders you had as before.

A subtle change to review is that any MarkingWorker or FilingWorker jobs carried over prior to migration will appear exactly the same in Folder Sync Monitor/Email Job Monitor lists. However, any new Filing Folders created or any new Filing jobs queued will have their mailbox entry prefixed by the Exch2010 CAS name.

So to summarise

• Have a new Ex2010 service account with relevant permissions
• Update the Email Server connection to use this account with the CAS name
• Consider how best you can use the Exchange filter, to help you with troubleshooting and splitting across multiple WCSs
• Set up a few test accounts with Filing folders, migrate, set up a few more and see how these differ in Folder Synch Monitor area. The same principle will apply in the Email Job monitor pane.

It’s about storage underneath WorkSite and a realisation that after six years of supporting the product I’ve never really needed to get to grips with the underlying file management of the product.

The question though is simple. For a single WorkSite library or database, can I have the physical documents stored across numerous shares? So for my Matters library could I have the documents stored on a matters1 share on say one array of disks and a matters2 on another?

At some point I’ve been led to believe not, but am I wrong?

The new content is a number of video webinars on the IDOL worksite indexer deployment that are worth a look if you’re on or about to go to version 8.5. There is about 60+ minutes worth of flash video taking you through such topics as:

• Indexer Deployment
• WorkSite Indexer Components & Key Settings
• Initial Crawl vs. Maintenance Crawl
• How Indexing and Searching Works with Active Content
• Plus a number of other related topics

I think it’s a great way to spread the knowledge of this new indexer and as IDOL becomes a key part of WorkSite it is a much better than the traditional training methods Interwoven (and other vendors) have previously implemented for new products.

I’ve not had time yet to watch all the videos but colleagues have and have said they’re excellent. Once I’ve had chance to watch them I’ll post what I think in the comments.

Basically if you use FileSite then you have the ability to use the Advanced Search in Microsoft Outlook to search your folders/workspaces.

Just simply select Advanced Search:

Outlook Advanced Search

And then you can use the Browse to select folders etc from within the FileSite. The limitations of Outlook are the same as if you have a PST (archive file) attached, in that you can only search something in the Inbox OR FileSite but not both at once.

This feature is pretty useful for searching for emails as you can use the From: lookup to select email addresses to search for.

As far as I know this is available in v8.5 as well. That is it’s on page 28 of the User’s Guide (it probably is in the 8.2 Guide but being a techie I’ve never picked up the manual for the current version! I just dived straight in), I just haven’t used the feature in our v8.5 test environment yet.

Let’s start at the top. That green blob in Outlook under FileSite or the application called DeskSite on your desktop. The document management system (DMS) itself, think of this as your firm. In a paper world this is where everything is stored. DMS = Your firm

The Office = The DMS

Now inside your office or firm you can have many of Filing cabinets. This is the place where your documents are stored. In the DMS these are pretty much what are known as the libraries. Library = Filing cabinets

You can group these in logical ways just like filing cabinets, a row for Litigation, a row for Real Estate or maybe you just have a bank of cabinets for all the firms clients. It’s exactly the same for your libraries in the DMS. You might have one way of grouping them, you may have many. e.g. Litigation Library = Litigation filing cabinets

Filing Cabinets = Libraries in the DMS

Right what’s in the cabinets? Yes, files and typically lots of them! In the DMS this is known as a Workspace. Workspace = File

Workspace = Matter File

Your firm will probably have hundreds or thousands of these files. Some of which you’re working on, some of which are just stuck in the filing cabinets (let’s not touch on those in archive today!). How do you organise those you’re working on? This is where your desk comes in! Your desk, the place where you put your files. In the DMS this is like the list of files under “My Files” (you may have it labelled My Matters or My Woirkspaces). My Files/My Matters/My Workspaces = Your desk

My Desk = My Files/My Matters/My Workspaces

This list can be changed by removing files or adding new ones. Remember though you’re just using these files, they aren’t just yours. Update them and all the office can see the updates. To add these in the DMS you would use a search to find the workspace (file) and add it to your My Files, in the real world you would go and get it from the filing cabinet and put it on your desk. Same concept.

Back to the file. Within the paper file you can arrange the documents with tabs and/or folders. Within the workspace (file) in the DMS  you can do the same. Tabs = Tabs, Folders = Folders

Tabs and Folders

Within tabs you can store folders, within folder documents and emails.

Finally that thing called “Subscribe” what on earth is that? This is basically the ability to look at your colleagues desk and see their files!

For those that struggle with the concept of workspaces, hopefully that will make some sense. From here you can read on and learn about how you can apply security to these workspaces (files) (worksite security pt1 and worksite security pt2).

Following a question today I found a neat way of adding a shortcut to another folder from within your matter file. This is pretty straight forward when you think about it within WorkSite, but it’s worth noting as it’s always handy to be able to link to a folder of documents from within your electronic file (e.g. to link to common client documents within a client folder from within each matter file relating to that client).

This is what you end up with (where Client Documents is located in another file, i.e. the shortcut):

Shortcut to a folder within a matter workspace

To do this all you need to do is the following:

• Right Click on the Tab (Matter Management in the above example)
• Select Add Shortcuts

How to add a shortcut to a folder from within a matter workspace

• In the resulting pop up, browse to your required folder.
• Then single click on the folder (i.e. highlight it, not go into the contents of it)
• Click Select
• That should be it, the shortcut should be added 

Given the relevant access rights (see explanation of WorkSite security here and here) you can also add shortcuts to folders at a Workspace as well as Tab level.

• Use categories : rather than have one long list of shortcuts to matters, use categories to organise them into logical units (e.g. clients etc). This is a simple to do, right click on My Files and select New>Category. In the example below I have a “Group” workspaces category and then a list of my workspace shortcuts and another category which has all the IT workspaces.

One of the annoyances of the FileSite app is the inability to remove >1 shortcut at a time, to tidy up for example. But there is a way to do this:-

• To quickly remove shortcuts from My matters, rather than doing the right click delete many times, choose Add shortcuts…  From here you can go into your My Files and multi‐select shortcuts within this dialog, then delete all old workspaces in one go.

Each item in WorkSite can have a default security. This applies to everyone accessing the folder, document etc. This the the “Shared As” option in properties.

You can set the “shared as” to:

• Private – setting to this means by default any one but the creator/author won’t be able to see the workspace, folder, document etc
• View – you can see it but access would be read only as would any property information/meta-data on the item
• Public  – you can see the workspace, folder, document etc and edit them and their property information/meta-data

The easiest way to maintain security is to simply secure at this level. However there may be occasions where you need to secure at more advanced levels for different groups/people etc

This is where the ACL (Access Control List) comes in.

This is additional security information to the basic default security “shared as” setting above. And for the groups/people named in the ACL it will override the default “shared as” setting (e.g. if the document default “shared as” security is “View”, but I am added to the ACL with Read/Write access. Everyone else will be able to get read only access apart from me who will have write access – the author/creator will of course still have write access too)

In the ACL you can add individuals or groups of individuals and assign the following access levels (remember these will supersede the default level for those individuals/groups!)

• Full Access – This allows full access to the document and full control over properties/meta-data and also the security (including for the folder, workspace etc)
• Read/Write – full access  to the document, but limited control on properties/meta-data and no ability to change security (including for the folder, workspace etc)
• Read – as it says, just allows to read documents, properties/meta-data etc
• No Access – again as it says (remember unlike Windows where you could see the folder even if you couldn’t gain access to it, in WorkSite No Access = it’s invisible)

There are a few things worth pointing out about Groups and Individuals in terms of adding to the ACL.

• Groups are extremely useful for workspaces that contain hundreds of documents and have security that changes regularly. This is because you can amend the security without having to refile everything (the refile action has to go through each document, folder etc and change the properties and security. On a large file this takes time!)
• However the downside of Groups is that users of the FileSite or Desktop clients cannot add or remove people from them. This has to be done using the database administration tool.

So before you determine your security think carefully about the following to help determine the best security to apply:

• potential size of the file (number of folders, documents etc)
• frequency of change of individuals access requirements
• degree of control the end user will need in maintaining the security

————–

OK now you hopefully understand a bit more about the default security and ACL. Let’s step back to how folders and documents inherit security from the parent folder, tab or workspace. Basically what we’re going to look at is limiting or opening up security within the workspace.

So remember the option to inherit or not?

Limiting access to sub folders or documents is easy. 

You set the top level (e.g. your workspace) as open a security setting as is acceptable e.g. Public (remember this is the “shared as” default security, not in the ACL).

You can then uncheck the inherit security on the folders you wish to secure more tightly, then either change the default “shared as” security (e.g. to “View”) or add a specific ACL to those folders.

However the real difficulty is when you want to apply a more open security to sub folders. i.e. opening access to wider audience in a sub folder that at the levels above.

So say your top level (e.g. your workspace) is Private (again remember this is the “shared as” default security, not in the ACL) and maybe it is also secured in the ACL to a group or individual. In WorkSite you can only open sub folders or tabs to people specifically listed in top (i.e. workspace) ACL!

When you think about it this is logical as if you have no access to the top level you couldn’t see the workspace, so how could you expect to see a folder within it?

This isn’t so bad, but the big gripe is that it only lists Groups, not people contained in those Groups!  i.e. the workspace is secured to View in the ACL to the IT group, then you want to allow me to have read/write access to a sub-folder. Unless I am named in the ACL as an individual as well you won’t be able to pick me at a lower level even though I’m in the IT Group!

Individual documents though are a little different. These can be opened up to either Groups or Individuals that are not listed in the top level (i.e. workspace) ACL. I guess this is logical as you could search for the document by it’s document number?!

  ————–

Finally a quick note on Roles, just for completeness. These though really aren’t essential to understanding security from a WorkSite user perspective. So if your brain is full or fried stop reading now!

In the background your WorkSite administrator will assign users of the WorkSite system to “roles”. These are settings that basically allow some overriding “security” to be applied that a user cannot amend. It will always apply to all workspaces, tabs, folders and documents etc. So your actions available within the system will depend on the role you are placed in.

Roles apply to more specific functions, like the ability to actually create a workspace or be able to physically delete documents etc. An example of a role setting is shown below:

First off a quick recap of the main components of WorkSite:

• At the “top” level you have your Workspace – think of it as your fliing cabinet for the matter
• Below that you can have tabs – think of the logical dividers in that cabinet to split up your content
• Either below a tab or in a workspace are folders – think paper folders full of a specific type of paper document in your cabinet
• Then in the folders are your documents, emails etc

In WorkSite you can add “meta data” to your workspace (this is data that describes the workspace, so typically your client number, matter number, practice group etc). You can also secure a workspace to individuals or groups of individuals.

The tabs, folders or documents in the workspace can inherit that security (this can be changed for individual folders or documents if required).

If you know that some documents have had security changed and you want to re-apply the security from the workspace downwards then you use what WorkSite calls a “refile” action.

"Refiling" – applies the profile and security information downwards to folders and documents from the workspace (you can also refile from a tab or folder level if required)

As mentioned above you can set up folders not to inherit security. This is done with a simple checkbox on the properties of the folder (see below)

So when you refile either a workspace or tab you would get the following message. This allows you to avoid replacing security information for folders you set up not to inherit.

So if you do not want to pass the security down to folders set not to inherit, then leave the checkbox unchecked.

You can also chose to refile from the folder level downwards. For folders you get a similar option to pass down the security, but also an additional option asking whether you want to “re-inherit” the security from the above tab/workspace (see below).

So if you do not want to pass the security down to sub-folders set not to inherit, then leave the first checkbox unchecked.

If this folder does not inherit security and you do not want it to change to inherit. Then leave the second checkbox unchecked.

Part Two will be published tomorrow…

How do I search for a folder in a WorkSite workspace?

I received a query recently from a colleague, wanting to know how they could find a folder within a workspace (using FileSite). The workspace in question had grown to have 100’s of sub folders.

Using a document search was not an option as a common template had been used to create the majority of documents and thus they all happened to have names that were too similar.

What was needed was a way to find the holding folder, which was specifically named and thus could be easily identified.

We were close to concluding that the only option was to create all the holding folders as workspaces, until we came up with the following:

Start by right clicking on “My Shortcuts” (just below your My Files/Matters/Workspaces) and from the menu selecting “Add Shortcuts…” (you could do this on other levels, but as you’ll see this is more logical).

You then get the enhanced search dialogue, from here you can select to Search for a folder.

Selecting this brings up a dialogue where you can pick your “database” (i.e. worksite library) where your workspace is located and add some further search terms, example below:

This will return you a result list of matching folders, you can then highlight the required folder and click Select. A shortcut to that folder will be placed in your My Shortcuts for you to access your documents from etc.

Once you’ve finished working with the folder you can leave the shortcut there or just delete it.

It’s not perfect I know, but it does the trick. Let me know if you know of a simpler method?

Final point: it is much easier to search for folders in WorkSite Web, but for us most fee earners and support staff work in either FileSite in Outlook or through the MS office integrations.