Configuring IMAP access

You can allow users to access IBM SmartCloud® Notes® from third-party email clients using IMAP. IMAP access is disabled by default, but you can enable it for all users or only for specific users.

Before you begin

To allow IMAP access on a per user basis, you add the text item SaaSAllowIMAP=value to the user's Person document in the Domino® Directory on a server that you synchronize with the service. There are a number of ways you can do this. For example, you can add a field to the Person document, or you can add an item element to a note.

If you are unfamiliar with the methods used to add a text item to a form in the Domino Directory, see the information about customizing the Domino Directory template in the Reference section of the Domino 8.5.3 documentation.
Note: Users who have Author rights to their Person document can enable IMAP for themselves by setting the field SaaSAllowIMAP to 2. To prevent this, on the Advanced tab of the Field Properties dialog for the SaaSAllowIMAP field, set the Security Options to Must have at least Editor access to use.

About this task

After you enable IMAP access, service users can configure their mail clients for IMAP access using information provided by the service. The following IMAP clients are supported:
  • Apple Mail
  • Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007
    Note: IBM® mail support for Microsoft Outlook is available for Microsoft Windows users who use later versions of Outlook.
  • Thunderbird

Procedure

  1. Log on to the service as an administrator.
  2. If your account also has the User role, click Admin > Manage Organization.
  3. In the System Settings section of the navigation pane, click IBM SmartCloud Notes.
  4. Click Account Settings and then click IMAP Email Access.
  5. Select one of the following, and then click Save:
    • Enable IMAP for all users. If you select this option, you do not need to complete any further steps.
    • Enable IMAP for specific users only. If you select this option, you have enabled IMAP access for your organization. Continue to the next step to customize your on-premises Domino Directory so that you can specify IMAP access for individual users.
    • Disable IMAP for all users. If you select this option, no users have IMAP access and you do not need to complete any further steps.
  6. From the Domino Administrator client, open the Domino Directory, on an on-premises Domino server whose directory you synchronize with the service.
  7. For each user you want to specify IMAP access, add a TYPE_TEXT item named SaaSAllowIMAP to their Person document with either of the following values:
    • "2" -- to allow IMAP access. If you later change access from specific users to all users, no additional steps are needed to allow these users to continue to have access.
    • "3" -- to deny IMAP access. A user who is denied access using this value will be denied access under all circumstances. If you later change access from specific users to all users, this user will continue to have no access.

    An example of an agent that assigns the value "2" is FIELD SaaSAllowIMAP := "2"

    Note: If you have enabled IMAP access for all users, any value other than "2" or "3" defaults to allowing access.

Results

If you enabled IMAP for all users, then service users can set up their IMAP clients for IMAP access to SmartCloud Notes mail.

If you added the text item to the Domino Directory, during directory synchronization, the servers in the service are updated with the new information. Users cannot enable IMAP access and set up their IMAP mail clients until the synchronization is complete.