MAIL

Configuring the IMAP service to allow shared access to mail files
In addition to providing access to a user's personal mail folders, the IMAP service supports the NAMESPACE extension, which permits controlled access to shared mail files. By default, when the IMAP service is installed, NAMESPACE support is enabled so that clients accessing the service can view and open their personal mail files, as well as any other mail file on the server that they have permission to use -- for example other users' personal mail files to which they have been delegated access, and any public mail files that you set up as IMAP public folders.

As with personal mail files, an IMAP client can access Public and other users' mail files only if they reside on the same server as the IMAP service. In addition, the IMAP service must be able to authenticate the user from an entry in a configured directory on the server.

To configure namespace support on the server, enable NAMESPACE support so that IMAP users can view other users' and public mail files to which they've been granted access, and then do one or both of the following:


For information about using the IBM® Lotus® Notes® client to delegate access to a mail file, see the topic Delegating mail access if you have installed Lotus Notes Help. Or, visit the Documentation Library in the Lotus Developer Domain at http://www.lotus.com/ldd/doc to download or view Lotus Notes Help.

Note To provide IMAP users with access to other users' mail files, you must use a IBM® Lotus® Notes® client or IBM® Lotus® Domino™ Web Access client to delegate mail file access. You can not delegate access by adding names to the ACL of the mail file. To enable IMAP access to other users' mail files, the IBM® Lotus® Domino™ Administration Process (AdminP) must process an IMAP delegation request, which is only generated in response to a user setting delegation preferences from a Notes or IMAP mail client.

About IMAP namespaces

Typically, most users have a personal mail file to which they alone have access. The IMAP service considers messages in a personal mail file to exist in a hierarchy known as the personal namespace.

In addition to the personal namespace, messages can also exist in other hierarchies. For example, if a user is granted access to another user's mail file, such as when a secretary has been delegated access to a manager's mail file, messages in that mail file become available under an additional hierarchy, the other users' namespace.

Other mail files for example, mail-in databases that are intended to be shared amongst users, do not exist within a single user's namespace at all, but are intended for public access. Messages in these mail files exist only in the shared or public namespace.

See also