Rules vs. Download Headers Only

[Scott Kelley]

I have a rule set to notify me when I receive a message from a specific
person. I also have Outlook configured to download only emails of under 20k
in size (to avoid huge download delays when picking up email in areas where
I must access via a slow connection).

Although the Header has been downloaded, and the rule is based only on
header (From information, it still will not run until the message has been
downloaded. The result is that I am not aware of arrival of important email
from this person.

Has anyone come up with a way to get rules to work on headers only?

Thanks,
Scott Kelley

 

[AndreZ]

the search to my knowledge is only done on the subject of the header till
the body is downloaded .. can you ask you person to tag the subject
*KEYWORD* then flag the rule ..

maybe there's a better way, that's just a thought.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

you need to download the full message for rules to kick in. can you raise
the size a little to catch most messages from this person?

 

[Scott Kelley]

No, the typical file from him is FAR larger than would make any sense for
this rule. And this person is only one example. I use the same rule with
my business partners and specific employees. Every time they send an email
with a substantial attachment, I do not get notified.

As an MVP, do you understand why Microsoft has not dealt with this?
Certainly they are aware that it is a problem... And certainly it can't be
that difficult to set up a specific type of rule that would apply to
header-only information.

In the meantime, the question posed is;
Has anyone come up with a way to get rules to work on headers only?

In other words, has anyone come up with a work-around?

Scott

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Outlook uses ExtendedMAPI (a requirement for Exchange support) and one
limitation of it is that it needs full messages, not just readers. OE uses
simple MAPI and can do much more with headers as a result.

 

[Scott Kelley]

Too bad Outlook isn't made by a company that has the resources to have the
underlying code modified in whatever way necessary to make this work . . .
I guess that's what I get for trying to get by on the cheap.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

it's called OE.

Too bad Outlook isn't made by a company that has the resources to have the
underlying code modified in whatever way necessary to make this work . . .
I guess that's what I get for trying to get by on the cheap.

 

[Scott Kelley]

I use Outlook mostly because, in general, it has far more powerful rules.
This is the one thing that has constantly cropped up as a problem for me,
and has been giving people problems for years (search this forum, for
instance).

Beyond that, doesn't it seem odd that you would have to tell someone "our
high end product won't do that - you'll need to use our freeware" . . . ?

And, if you were in that position, wouldn't you want to at Least be able to
say "it will be in our up-coming release" ?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

It's not going to be in the upcoming release and probably won't be in the
one after this one. Microsoft is well aware that people want to do more
server-level rules processing so who knows what the future will bring - if
they can do it without losing Exchange connectivity (or by changing Exchange
connectivity), they will - but it won't be in the upcoming version.

Extended MAPI is a requirement for Exchange connectivity and it has
limitations in how it handles things, including rules and we have to live
with the limitations of ExMAPI for at least another version (probably
more) - they tried two modes of Outlook, one for Exchange and one for
everyone else and it was very confusing to many people, with some features
only available in one of the modes.

ExMAPI is generally the more powerful mail API, but can't do everything
simple MAPI can (and simple MAPI can't do everything ExMAPI does). One of
the differences is how it processes messages: full messages need to be
downloaded before most features work. This affects not only your intended
usage but also means it doesn't work "like OE does" for people who use
catch-all mailboxes and want to download only mail sent to specific
addresses or delete unwanted email from the server without downloading.

If you require rules process the mail before ExMAPI downloads them, you'll
need to use OE or another client that does not use ExMAPI. There may be 3rd
party tools (that use simple mapi) you can use to process messages at the
server and push the mail you need into outlook.