9. Removing a public folder
Removing a simple public folder is easy. From EAC, select the
folder and click the wastebasket icon. Confirm when prompted, and the
folder and any subfolders will be removed. The equivalent EMS command
is something like this:
Remove-PublicFolder –Identity "\Countries\Italy"
Removing
a mail-enabled public folder is slightly more complicated because it
exists in Active Directory and in its host public folder mailbox. A
two-step process is needed. First, you disable the mail-enabled folder.
Second, you remove the public folder. To remove a mail-enabled public
folder by EMS, you run these commands:
Disable-MailPublicFolder –Identity "\Departments\Administration" –Confirm:$False
Remove-PublicFolder –Identity "\Departments\Administration" –Confirm:$False
When a public folder is deleted, it is moved to a hidden system folder under the root \Non_IPM_Subtree\Dumpster_Root,
where it is kept until its deleted retention period expires (normally
30 days). While it is still available, you can recover a deleted public
folder by moving its path back to its original point in the public
folder hierarchy. For instance, to recover the folder deleted by the
commands previously shown, you can search the system folder to locate
the identity of the folder you want to restore:
Get-PublicFolder –Identity "\Non_IPM_Subtree\Dumpster_Root" –Recurse | ? { $_.Name –eq "Administration" } | Select IdentityThe identity returned will be a value such as “\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\Dumpster_root\cd0788e8-ae5b-432c-a2a6-9095580bbc2d\Administration”. You can use it to recover the public folder with:
Set-PublicFolder –Identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\Dumpster_root\cd0788e8-ae5b-432c-a2a6-9095580bbc2d\Administration" –Path "\Departments"
The commands are straightforward if not obvious. Hopefully, you will not have to use this procedure often.
All the client protocols Exchange supports to enable mobile
devices to synchronize (POP3, IMAP4, or ActiveSync) focus exclusively
on user mailboxes and take no account of collaborative resources such
as public folders or site mailboxes. If users need to access content
from these repositories on their mobile devices, they have to copy
information from the repository to a folder in their mailbox and then
synchronize that folder. The exception is the Outlook Web App for
Devices app, first released for iOS in July 2013. This app is scheduled
to support public folders in a future version.
11. Organizational forms library
An
organizational forms library is a repository for electronic forms
associated with public folders that need to be accessible by all users.
Public folders have used electronic forms since their inception to
enable users to enter and access data that is stored in items in the
folder. For example, a form might be used when someone wants to request
the creation of a new mailbox. A single organizational forms library
can be created for each language used in the organization. The language
is identified using the standard locale codes as in en-us for U.S.
English, fr-fr for French, and so on. Most organizations attempt to use
just one language for electronic forms because this simplifies form
creation and maintenance.
Exchange 2013 does not include an
organizational forms library. If you need to use one, it has to be
created using EMS as follows:
Create the new public folder to contain the organizational forms library.
Note
that the public folder is created under Non_IPM_Subtree, meaning that
it is intended for system use and will not be listed alongside other
public folders.
New-PublicFolder –Name "Organizational Forms Library" –Path "\Non_IPM_Subtree\Eforms Registry"
Set the proper locale for the new public folder. In this instance, you set the locale to be U.S. English:
Set-PublicFolder -Identity "\Non_IPM_Subtree\Eforms Registry\Organizational Forms Library" –EformsLocaleID en-us
Add access rights to the organizational forms library.
General
users need to be able to read the forms held in the folder; those who
maintain the forms need permission that is more elevated. This command
assigns the Author role to the members of a security group:
Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity "\Non_IPM_Subtree\Eforms Registry" -User 'Forms Developers' -AccessRights Author
Repeat to create the organizational forms library for other languages as required.
