NOTE:  For an alternate configuration method, please see this post.

Community Central, Bamboo’s extension of SharePoint’s social capabilities, is a list-based application which is integrated with a wealth of new functions. Normally, after creating a new Discussion Board Plus, you will create a new Thread clicking the Add new discussion hyperlink. In this article, we will take a look at how to create a new Thread via Microsoft Outlook 2010.

SharePoint’s incoming email system allows lists to receive email directly from unique email addresses, translating them into new list items. Now, I will show you how to enable these settings within your farm, and to configure your lists to be able to receive emails. One of the benefits of creating a Thread receiving emails is that you can automatically store the messages and attachments and send to lists and libraries without having to open your SharePoint site and doing a manual upload. As an added benefit, this should help your organization move away from Public Folders.

Go to the Discussion Board Plus list which you just created to check Incoming e-mail settings in List Settings.

Take a look at the Communications group.  You will not see an  Incoming e-mail settings hyperlink:

To configure to show the Incoming e-mail settings hyperlink, you must complete the following steps:

Step 1:

I’m going to assume that your SharePoint farm already has the Mail Server configured (this is necessary before beginning the configuration in Incoming email settings for your SharePoint farm).

Step 2: Go to Central Administration -> Monitoring -> Select the Review job definitions hyperlink under Timer Jobs:

Select the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Incoming E-Mail hyperlink:

Select the Minutes radio button option and enter 1 in the textbox. Click Run Now. This is to run Timer Jobs faster.

You can set the schedule based on your requirements.  In this case, I set the schedule for every 1 minute.

Step 3: Go back the List Settings of Discussion Board Plus. Make sure that you will see the Incoming e-mail settings under Communications:

Click the Incoming e-mail settings hyperlink to configure. Enter E-mail address and select the following options:

Go back to the List Settings of Discussion Board Plus, you will see that the E-mail address will have appeared:

Now it’s ready to use Microsoft Outlook to send mail for creating the Discussion Thread in Community Central.

First, you should remember the email address on the List Settings above.

Next, open a new mail, enter the email address into the textbox, enter Title of the thread and Body of the thread in the email body and click the Send button to send the email:

Go to the Forum site to see that your new Thread has posted. Boom! It’s there! Quickly and simply, a new thread has been created via your Outlook 2010 mailbox. You can do the same thing when using the iPhone/Tablet email client. Happy mailing! 

See Also:

• Configure incoming e-mail (SharePoint Server 2010) [TechNet]
• How to Enable Incoming Email to a SharePoint List: or Library [All About SharePoint]

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