General

About

Public folders are created to collect, organize and share information with others. Typically, public folders are used by project teams or user groups to share information on a common area of interest. The owner of a public folder can set privileges so that only a selected group of users have access to the folder, or the folder can be made available to everyone on the network who uses the same mail server. Privileges can have different levels – users can view, read, modify, delete files, create new folders (or delete existing ones) within the public folder they have access granted to etc.

On-server Setup

Selecting the Public Folders node – General tab presents a list of defined public folders.

public_folder_general_imap

Use the Delete button to delete a selected public folder.

Using the Add or Edit button will open the Public Folder dialog:

Public Folder Tab

pf_public_folder_tab

Field	Description
Folder name	The shared folder name as it will appear in a mail folder structure.
Account	Specify the account that will be a shared public folder. You can use the '...' button to open the Select Item dialog, allowing easy account search and selection.
Root IMAP Folder	Specify a folder name here. Only this folder and its subfolders will be shared to members. Use the '...' button to open the Select Folder dialog where you can select which folder you want to use from a folder tree view. (Only the mail type folders are shown here.) If this box is empty, the INBOX folder will be used as the shared folder by default. If the whole account should be shared, write the "." (dot) into this field. In this case, the next feature is disabled. NOTE that this field may contain also a hierarchical delimiter. E.g.: "Inbox\New"
The root mailbox is only a folder container and cannot be selected	Tick this box if you want to grant users access to the selected folder but restrict them from seeing items that this folder contains. In this case, these users are granted access to subfolders and can see/read items placed there.

Access Control List Tab

Selecting the ACL tab presents a list of folders – both groupware and IMAP ones:

pf_acc_control_list_tab

Field	Description
Set ACL	Click the button to set access rights for folder subscribers. The Access Control List dialog appears – see further.
Files Directory Mapping	The file type folders are integrated with real file directories. You can link a folder to a real directory and all files in this folder are accessible also using a file system. To define the appropriate directory, click this button (only in the case of selecting a file type folder, this button is enabled) and in the Path dialog, select the desired address. Unicode is fully supported so you can use any file names.
Set as GAL	Select a contacts type folder and click this button to set the folder as Global Address List. NOTE that this button is disabled here as the Files folder is not a contact type folder.

acl_new

Field	Description
Account/Access	List of individual members with their access rights.
Account	You can fill in an account into this field and add it into the Accounts list by clicking the Add button.
Add	Click the button to open the Select Item dialog where you can select accounts (both individual and group ones). For more details about this dialog, refer to the User Groups section. You can also fill in an account that is not in the Select Item dialog list into the Account field and click this button to add it directly. The Select Item dialog is not opened in this case.
Delete	Click the button to delete an account from the Account/Access list.
Access	Select the appropriate access rights. For detailed description of access rights in this pane, refer to the Access Rights section.
Select/Deselect all	Use this box to ease selecting desired boxes.
Inherit	Click the button to inherit access rights from the folder's parent. NOTE that if used for the root folder, no access is granted. NOTE that changing any access rights for a folder that has inherited its rights from its parent removes this inheritance.

Creating a Public Folder

Under GroupWare – Public Folders, click the Add... button.
In the Public Folder dialog, fill in the Folder name field, write or select the account that you want to share. (If this is not currently existing, you have to create it first under Domains and Accounts – Management – <domain>, right-click the Groups node and select the Add... – Group items.)
Select Share Mode.
In the Mailbox (INBOX) field, specify the folder that should be used instead of the Inbox one – if desirable.
On the Access Control List tab, select subscribers and their rights. You can also select a group as a subscriber. It is also possible to add users/groups from another server domains.
Optionally, you can link the Files folder with a real directory using the Files Directory Mapping feature and set any contact type folder as Global Address List.

NOTE that recommended way how to create a public folder is ticking the Create a public shared folder box when creating a group.

LDAP Synchronization

There is following kind of LDAP synchronization in IceWarp Server:

The GroupWare – Public Folders – LDAP tab is the place where GAL is synchronized to LDAP. This is used for email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, ...) query about the Address Book.