KB: Provisioning harmon.ie for SharePoint

This feature is available in harmon.ie Enterprise Edition only.

This article explains the steps required to centrally and remotely provision harmon.ie for SharePoint.

What can be centrally provisioned?

  1. SharePoint options:
    1. SharePoint sites.
    2. Document options: select content type, warn on missing properties, ask to check in files.
    3. Visible columns.
  2. Favorites.
  3. People options: social server, show people information and My Site, show extended profiles, disable social server auto-selection, reference only direct messages in the Recent view.
  4. Advanced options: prompt to replace attachments, drag files and not links, move e-mails instead of copy to SharePoint, e-mail header mapping, number of allowed followed locations, activities interval.
  5. Custom search scopes.
  6. My Links in sites and favorites.

An administrator can:

  1. Set default startup values, that the user can later change.
  2. Force values for the user, which disables them in the harmon.ie Options dialog, preventing the user from changing them.

How is provisioning done?

Provisioning is done by adding keys to the harmon.ie registry tree. There are 2 methods to do that:

  1. By centrally updating registry keys. Windows provides a few methods for that. Read Distributing Registry Changes to learn how.
  2. By adding the keys to an MSI transform file (for instance, using Orca) and bundling it with the installation. Read Centrally installing harmon.ie to learn how.

Setting default values

harmon.ie root key:

The root key under which the administrator should add the harmon.ie keys is:

  1. For provisioning the product for the current user only: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mainsoft\Prefs\.
  2. For provisioning the product for all users on the machine, the exact location is different for each operating system, as shown in the table below:
Operating system Key
32-bit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Mainsoft\Prefs\
64-bit running 32-bit Office HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Mainsoft\Prefs\
64-bit running 64-bit Office HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Mainsoft\Prefs\

harmon.ie registry keys

The table below lists the optional registry keys that can be added to set default values for the users.

Key Name (Default) Value Data Description
SharePoint options:
Sites Each key under this node is a provisioned site, where the key name is the Site Name.
Sites\<site title> <URL> Site root URL. This value is mandatory. See directions for provisioning URLs.
Sites\<site title>\IntegratedSecurity True to use the user's Windows credentials. Controls the authentication against the site. If not defined, the user is prompted for credentials the first time he opens the site in harmon.ie.
This key cannot be defined together with the BrowserAuthentication key.
Sites\<site title>\BrowserAuthentication True to delegate authentication to Internet Explorer. Controls the authentication against the site. If not defined, the user is prompted for credentials the first time he opens the site in harmon.ie.
This key cannot be defined together with the IntegratedSecurity key.
Sites\<site title>\SubSitesHidden True to hide subsites, or
False to show subsites. 		Controls the visibility of SharePoint subsites and workspaces in harmon.ie.
Sites\<site title>\UseOWA True to open supported documents in Office Web Apps, or
False to open them with Microsoft Office. 		Controls the editing of Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote).
Sites\<site title>\Hidden * True to hide the site from the sites list, or
False to show it.
Controls the visibility of this site in the sites list. Define this key to hide a site that was previously provisioned. Users cannot add a hidden site.
HideLimitedOrNoAccessSites * True to hide sub-sites with limited or no access, or
False to show them. 		Controls hiding sub-sites for which the user does not have access permissions.
UseDefaultView True to show the default view of the current document library, or
False to show no view. 		Controls the displayed view when navigating.
VisibleColumnList\<column name> Place holder for column name (the name you define here is not displayed).
VisibleColumnList\<column name>\Name <column name> The Display name of the column that you want to display.
ExcludeFoldersFromEmptyGroup True to show folders that do not belong to a group at the beginning of the document list, or
False to show them in an empty group. 		Controls showing folders when displaying views with Group By settings.
ShowGroupFieldName True to show the group field name before each group, or
False not to show. 		Controls showing the group field name when displaying views with Group By settings.
PromptForContentType True to prompt the user to select a content type, or
False to automatically select the default content type. 		Controls the selection of content type when uploading to a document library with multiple content types.
WarnOnMissingRequiredProperties True to be warned on missing required properties, or
False not to be warned. 		Controls issuing warnings when you leave a library after uploading documents, if required properties are not filled in.
WarnOnFailingValidationRules True to be warned on failing validation rules, or
False not to be warned. 		Controls issuing warnings when you leave a library after uploading documents with properties that do not pass validation rules.
OpenPropertiesWindowEveryUpload True to open the properties window each time a document is uploaded to SharePoint, or
False not to open it. 		Controls opening the properties window when uploading documents to SharePoint.
AutoCheckInDocuments Ask to prompt the user to check in, or
Always to automatically check in the documents, or
Never to leave them checked out. 		Controls automatic check in of uploaded documents.
MarkUploadedMessage * True to mark e-mails that were uploaded to SharePoint using the Save Message button, or
False not to mark. 		By default, e-mail messages uploaded using the Save Message button are marked with a special icon and the Category [SharePoint] You saved this message in … is added.
ExcludeLibraryByNameFilterKey * A comma separated list of library names to hide. Define this key if you want to hide SharePoint libraries from the documents list.
Favorites:
FavoriteList Each key under this node is a favorite location.
FavoriteList\<name> A name for the favorite location (the name is not visible for the user).
FavoriteList\<name>\FullUrl <URL> Full URL for the SharePoint location. This value is mandatory. See directions for provisioning URLs.
FavoriteList\<name>\Title <Title> Title for the SharePoint location. This value is mandatory.
FavoriteList\<name>\Follow True to receive updates for changes made to documents in this location, or
False not to. 		Controls following this location by receiving updates in the People tab > Updates view. This value is optional.
FavoriteList\<name>\FollowSubFolders True to receive updates for changes made in subfolders as well, or
False not to. 		Controls receiving updates for subfolders of the specified location. This value is optional.
People options:
Sites\<site title>\DefaultSocialServer True if this site is the default social serve, or
False if it’s not. 		To set if this site should be used as the social server. Only one social server can be defined, so this value can be true only for one configured site.
ShowMySite True to add My Site to the list of configured sites, or
False not to add. 		Controls showing My Site in the sidebar.
ShowPeople True to show people information, or
False not to show. 		Controls showing people information in the sidebar.
ShowExtenededProfiles * True to show status updates in the Recent view, or
False not to show. 		Setting to True increases the network traffic to the server, as full profile queries are always sent.
DisableSocialServerAutoSelection * True to disable the automatic resolving and selection of social servers, or
False to enable. 		By default, harmon.ie tries to automatically resolve the social server from the list of added SharePoint sites. Define this key to disable this feature.
OnlyDirectEmails * True to restrict the Recent people list to include only people you interacted with by direct e-mails (i.e. not in the CC and Bcc fields), or
False to include all e-mail recipients and senders. 		Controls who can appear in the Recent view of the People tab.
ShowOnlyPcCall * True to show only PC call option, or
False to show all call options. 		Hides all OCS / Lync / Cisco call options except for PC call in the Call menu and Presence Awareness context menu.
Advanced options:
DragFilesInsteadOfLinks True to drag physical files, or
False to drag links to the file. 		Controls dragging files from harmon.ie sidebar to Outlook.
MoveEmailOnDrag * True to move e-mails to SharePoint, or
False to copy. 		Controls moving/copying e-mail messages to SharePoint. If set to True, e-mail messages are deleted from the e-mail folder after being uploaded to SharePoint.
PromptToReplaceAttachmentsWithLinks True to prompt the user to save the attachments to SharePoint and replace them with links, or
False not to prompt the user and send the attachments as are. 		Controls the default action when sending an e-mail with attachments.
PromptToSaveEmailOnSend Always to prompt the user to save the e-mail to SharePoint when sending it, or
Never not to prompt the user to save the e-mail, or
Remember to remember the user's last selection. 		Controls whether to prompt the user to save e-mails to SharePoint when sending.
MailHeaderMappingList Controls mapping of e-mail headers to SharePoint metadata.
MailHeaderMappingList\<e-mail header> <SharePoint field 1>;<SharePoint field 2>;<SharePoint field 3>;…
list of candidates to be mapped to an e-mail header. The first that exists in the library will be taken. 		Key name is any e-mail header you want to map to SharePoint, such as CC, Date, and From.
NumFollowAllowed * # of allowed followed locations, or
0 to disable this feature. 		Restricts the number of allowed followed locations to reduce network traffic, or disables this feature.
ActivitiesInterval * # of minutes between fetching the activities updates from the SharePoint server. Sets how often the Updates view updates.
Language * en for English or
fr for French or
de for German or
empty to use Outlook's display language 		Sets harmon.ie's display language.
DefaultContentType * Sets a default content type for all SharePoint libraries.
DefaultContentType\Email * <Mail content type name> Sets the mail content type name that will be assigned to all uploaded e-mail messages.
SidebarInitialState * 0 to load harmon.ie in the last state, or
1 to load harmon.ie minimized, or
2 to load harmon.ie miniminzed and open the sidebar once it is fully loaded. 		Controls the default state harmon.ie will load when Outlook starts.
Search scopes *:
SearchScopeList Each key under this node is a search scope.
SearchScopeList\<scope name> SharePoint scope name Scope name as defined in the SharePoint search scope rule
SearchScopeList\<scope name>\Active True if the given scope is the active one, or
False if it is not. 		Only one custom search scope can be defined as the active scope. If none is defined as active, Search All Content will be set as active.
SearchScopeList\<scope name>\DisplayName Display name in harmon.ie The name given here will be displayed in the harmon.ie search scope list. If this key is not defined, the displayed name will be the SharePoint scope name.
My Links:
SyncSitesWithMyLinks True to add all the sites defined in My Links to the sites list, or
False not to add, or
comma separated list of groups (Group1,Group2 ...) to add sites from these groups. 		Sets which links from My Sites to add to the sites list.
SitesDropDownVisibleItemCount <number> Sets the number of items to display in the Sites dropdown before a vertical scrollbar is added.
SyncFavoritesWithMyLinks Document Libraries to add the links defined in the Document Libraries group of My Links to the favorites list, or
an empty value not to add anything to favorites, or
comma separated list of groups (Group1,Group2 ...) to add favorites from these groups. 		Sets which links from My Sites to add to the favorites list.
ConnectToOutlookMenu * True to show the option, or
False to hide it.
Shows/hides the Connect to an Outlook Folder option.

* harmon.ie 3 and above.

Forcing values for users

To force a value for the users, and disable it in the harmon.ie Options dialog, add a new value to any of the harmon.ie keys listed above:

Key Name Value Name Value Type Value Data
< any > Force DWORD 1

Note: To force a favorite location, define the Force value in the key FavoriteList\<name>. Defining the Force value in its subkeys has no effect.

Provisioning URLs

We expect this URL format for provisioning a SharePoint site:

  • http://<server>/<site>

If a document library or folder name is specified, they are trimmed from the URL.

We expect this URL formats for provisioning favorite locations:

  • http://<server>/<site>
  • http://<server>/<site>/<document library>/
  • http://<server>/<site>/<document library>/<folder>

Notes: Do not specify aspx pages or query parameters.

Tip: You can open the SharePoint location using harmon.ie, right-click it and select Copy > Address to get the exact URL.

Combining administrator and user preferences

To build the list of sites available in the harmon.ie sidebar each time Outlook starts, the SharePoint sites defined in the registry are combined with the sites that the user configured via the harmon.ie Options.

This is true for building the favorite locations list as well.

Administrator preferences, set in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, do not take precedence over user preferences, unless the administrator defines forced values. Specifically, if the user changed his preferences, and the administrator provisioned the product afterwards, the user preferences are not replaced.

Administrator preferences set in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, do replace the preferences set by the user. Unless the administrator defined forced values, the user can overwrite the preferences using the harmon.ie Options dialog.

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