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Mail Channel

This Mail Channel Help file provides help for tasks you can perform directly in the Sun Java™ System Portal Server Desktop. This file does not provide help for using the mail application, which is invoked as part of a Web-based messaging solution after you click Launch Mail. Help for using the mail application can be found within the Help system for the messaging solution itself.

The Web-based messaging solution includes at least a mail application and an address book (or contacts) application, but could also include a calendar application depending upon the messaging solution used at your site.

The possible messaging solutions are the Sun Java™ System Messenger Express solution, IBM Lotus Domino WebMail solution, and Microsoft Outlook Web Access solution.

After you invoke the messaging solution—which is one of the tasks explained in the subsequent bulleted list—the application that is displayed is the mail application. Other applications are accessible as links in the mail application. Once in the mail application, you can read and respond to messages.

Tasks you can perform directly from the Portal Server Desktop in the Mail channel are:

Edit Mail Channel Settings

Edit Mail allows you to configure the mail server and customize the channel display settings. The configuration and display options available to you can vary from site to site, depending upon how Portal Server is configured at your site. In fact, you might not see an Edit Mail button at all. In which case, you will not need to edit any of the mail options. This could be the situation if the mail configuration settings and display options have all been pre-set. The options that follow are all of the options possible even though you might not have access to all of these options.

To edit the Mail channel settings

In the Mail channel, click the Edit Mail button. The Account Information windows is displayed.

The Account Information windows allow you to:

Configure the Mail Server

In the Configurations panel of the first Account Information window, you can enter the initial mail server configuration information or you can change the existing configuration information, if necessary. Contact your system administrator for any configuration information that you do not have.

For those who have access to their mail through a mobile device, you might see a link below the Configurations panel regarding mobile access. Click that link to bring up a new page where you can configure various mobile access options.

Server Name.     Enter the name of the mail server. For example, mailserver.siroe.com.

IMAP Server Port.     Enter the IMAP server port number. For example, 143.

User Name.     Enter your mail server user name.

User Password.     Enter your mail server user password.

SMTP Server Name.     Enter the name of the outgoing mail (SMTP) server. For example, mailserver.siroe.com. The name for Server Name and for SMTP Server Name are often the same.

SMTP Server Port.     Enter the SMTP port number. For example, 25.

Client Port.     Enter the port number providing web service. For example, 1080.

Mail Domain.    

For servers invoking the Microsoft Outlook Web Access messaging solution only. If your Mail channel invokes the Microsoft Outlook Web Access solution, you will see the Domain property. Enter the name of the domain for the messaging solution server.

Browser Display Settings

In the second Account Information window, you can change how the mail headers will be displayed in the Mail channel of your Portal Desktop by changing the information in the Browser Display Settings panel.

Modify the following information to customize the mail display options:

Number of Headers.     Enter the number of mail headers you want displayed on your Desktop by clicking in the Number of Headers field and typing the number. The maximum number of headers allowed is thirty.

Display Headers.     Click inside the check box to leave a check mark in the box, which indicates that mail headers will be displayed on your Desktop.

Initial Sort.    

  1. Click the sort order option currently visible in the Sort Order menu (this action displays all available options).
  2. Click the option of your choice.

The two sort order options available are:

Initial Folder.     From the drop-down menu, select a folder that you want opened when you log in to your mail. Inbox is selected by default.

Other Mail Settings

If you want to access your mail through a mobile device, you can configure mobile access options by clicking the Mobile Mail tab.

To Edit Mobile Mail Preferences

You can configure the mail server and customize the channel’s display settings using the Mobile Mail Preferences page and receive mails from different POP3 connections on your mobile.

  1. Click the Mobile Mail tab.
  2. The Mobile Mail preferences page displays.

  3. Under Pop Collections, click Add.
  4. The pop information page is displayed. Enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

Collection Name.     Type the name of the pop mail collection.

POP Server.     Type the name of the POP mail server. For example, pop.mailserver.com

POP Server Port.     Type the POP server port number. For example, 110.

POP User ID.     Type your POP server user name,

Password.     Type your POP server user password.

Delete Messages From Server.     Click inside the check box if you want the mails removed from the POP server after downloading to your mobile device.

Finished.     Click this button to save the display options.

Cancel.     Click this button to return to the Desktop without saving the changes.

To Edit POP Server Information

  1. Select a POP collection and click Edit
  2. The POP server information page is displayed.

  3. Edit the POP server information.
  4. Click Finished to save the changes you made, or Cancel to return to Desktop without saving the changes.

To Delete a POP Collection

  1. Select a POP collection from the list.
  2. Click Delete.

Customizing Mobile Mail Views

You can manage the mobile mail views in the following ways:

Other Mobile Mail Preferences

The following mobile mail preferences are also available:

Read Messages

To read a message directly from the Mail channel without clicking the Launch Mail button—available only with iPlanet Messenger Express as the mail server—click the Subject link of the message you want to read. Messenger Express is invoked and the message is displayed. If the subject of a message is not a link (but is in plain text), then this option is not available to you, and you will need to invoke the application by clicking Launch Mail in order to read the message.

Invoke the Messaging Solution

To invoke the Web-based messaging solution, click the Launch Mail link. The messaging solution is invoked and your mail Inbox is displayed. For the IBM Lotus Domino WebMail solution and the Microsoft Outlook Web Access solution, you will first be prompted to re-enter your credentials (your User ID and password).

Reply to a Message

To reply to a message that is displayed in your Mail channel, the best option is to invoke the messaging solution and reply to the message from within the mail application.

It is possible to reply to a message without invoking the messaging solution, by clicking the From link.

However, this action does not invoke the Mail Channel’s Web-based mail application but invokes a mail application from your computer, assuming that you have a mail application on your computer and that it is properly configured. Once invoked, that mail application displays a compose message window with the sender’s email ID in the To field. If a mail application doesn’t reside on your computer or it is improperly configured, clicking the From link will result in an error message or the application simply will not respond.

Resize the Mail Channel

The Mail channel contains three different buttons in the channel’s tool bar for resizing the channel. Only two of these buttons are visible at any given time.

Minimize.     Click this button to collapse the channel, which leaves only the channel’s tool bar remaining. Minimizing a channel collapses the channel but it might not collapse the entire row unless it is the only channel in the row or unless the other channels in that row have been minimized, too. After you click the Minimize button, it changes to the Normalize button.

Maximize.     Click this button to expand the channel horizontally across the page and to remove other channels from the page. After you click the Maximize button, it changes to the Normalize button.

Normalize.     Click this button to return the page to its normal state: the state it was in before the Maximize or Minimize buttons were clicked. After you click the Normalize button, it changes back to the Minimize or Maximize button, whichever button was previously replaced by the Normalize button.

Detach the Mail Channel from the Desktop

The Detach Mail option separates the Mail channel from the Sun Java™ System Portal Server Desktop and allows you to view the channel in a separate popup window.

To separate the Mail channel from the Desktop

Click the Detach Mail button in the Mail Channel tool bar.

Attach the Mail Channel to the Desktop

The Attach Mail option integrates the detached Mail channel back into the Sun Java™ System Portal Server Desktop.

To attach the Mail channel back into the Desktop

Click the Attach Mail button (at this point, the Mail channel will be detached from the Desktop) in the Mail channel tool bar.

Remove the Mail Channel from the Desktop

The Remove Mail option removes the Mail channel from the Sun Java™ System Portal Server Desktop.

To remove the Mail channel

Click the Remove Mail button in the Mail channel tool bar.

Restore the Mail Channel to the Desktop

The removed Mail channel can be restored to the Sun Java™ System Portal Server Desktop.

To restore the Mail channel

  1. Click the Content header on your Desktop. The Content window appears.
  2. Click inside the Mail channel check box to leave a check mark in the box, which indicates that the Mail channel will be displayed on the Desktop.
  3. Click Finished to save the changes or click Cancel to close the window without saving the changes.


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