How Interaction Message Store works

Interaction Message Store uses the Mail Connector API to provide the following services:

• Access to stored messages

• Transmission of messages

• Limited address book lookup

Access to stored messages

The mailbox for CIC users on a system using Interaction Message Store is simply a file system directory, and the user's e-mail address contains a unique string that Interaction Message Store computes to find that directory. The string is actually computed into a path containing two single-letter directories. The path is completed by appending the Root directory (set in Interaction Administrator) to the front end, and the unique string itself (created automatically by the CIC administrator when a user is created) to the back end. For example, if the Root directory is \\BigServer\Mail and the unique string is My.Name, the message store is implemented as the \\BigServer\Mail\N\K\MY.NAME.

• Mailbox name: The format for the Interaction Message Store mailbox name is made up of two parts: a friendly name and a unique string. The friendly name is based on the display name and can change. The unique string is used to link that user to his or her mailbox and can never change. It takes the form:
  FBMC: <friendly-name> : <unique-string>

For example, the format of a Interaction Message Store address might be:
FBMC: Michael Cole:michaelc@site

Changing the user's friendly display name does not change the Interaction Message Store mailbox name displayed in Interaction Administrator.

• Message format: Interaction Message Store uses XML files to store the envelope and body information for the message as well as the textual body. Attachments are stored as separate files whose names are derived from the base name of the XML message file. Certain properties of messages are more heavily used by the CIC mail server than others, and have therefore been encoded into the XML file name, so that they may be accessed without having to load and parse the XML data itself. These properties are the receipt time, the content type, and the read/unread status.

• Message store catalog: Interaction Message Store controls all access to the storage, keeping a persistent catalog in each mailbox.

Transmission of messages

For the delivery of messages with Interaction Message Store—each message and recipient of the message—the unique string is extracted from the recipient's address, the string is hashed and the message store is located, and the appropriate files are written into the inbox folder of that store. After the files are in place, the message store's catalog is updated to increment the count of new messages.

Limited address book lookup

Interaction Message Store does not have a full population of users when CIC is installed. CIC users are created in Setup Assistant or Interaction Administrator, and Interaction Message Store must import users from CIC. The Interaction Message Store address book implements the minimum necessary functionality. It implements a search-by-address, simply resolving the given address into a reference to the associated message store.