Reports created by the Public Folder Analysis Toolbox are made using a background application (PFReportGenerator.exe). The generator needs a set of configuration details that describe the folder (or folders) to be collected, and the types of information to retrieve. The New Report Generator Wizard is used to create one of these configurations.
Once a report generator config is created, it can be used multiple times to create additional report instances. This provides the ability to capture changes in the metadata of folders over time, or to validate that changes being made are applied correctly.
The following will show and explain each of the wizard pages and their options.
Wizard Start
A connection to an Exchange server is required to proceed. This page of the wizard requires the selection of an Outlook profile that is used to make the connection.
It may be necessary to create a specific Outlook profile to connect to the environment desired. This can be done using the Windows Control Panel.
Note that if the selected profile has multiple mailboxes configured, only the primary/default mailbox in the profile is used.
Credentials are expected and needed so they can be saved into the configuration data. This information is encrypted before being saved.
The “Select Cached Credential” button allows for the secure storage of credentials that can only be used by Priasoft’s tools.
You can double-click on a selected credential to add it to the wizard dialog, or you can highlight it and click OK.
As seen to the right, there are also actions to add, remove, and edit stored credentials.
Note that the “Name/Server” element is not used by the Public Folder Analysis Toolbox. This value is cosmetic and used to simply identify the credential. Other Priasoft tools may use the value for other reasons.
Clicking “Next” on the wizard page will make a logon attempt using the selected profile and credentials.
Note that the Exchange logon process, especially for Office 365, can take several seconds to complete.
Folder Selection
This wizard page is used to add one or more folders for which information is gathered by the report generator.
Use the “Select Folder” button to visually select the folder to add to the config. By default, the checkbox to include subfolders is already checked and is indicated in the list by a ‘*’ character.
Folders added can be removed by selecting the folder from the list and clicking the ‘Remove Selected Folder(s)’ button.
At least one folder must be selected before clicking the “Next” button.
Note that folder paths use two backslashes “\\” to signify the root of the Public Folder hierarchy. Example: \\Sales\USA\2019.
Data Collection Options
There are several data collection options available. At least one option is required to be selected before continuing.
Collect Folder Permissions
This option will collect detail about every delegate listed on a folder, including the permissions for each, the email address for each, and the display name. Folder owners are included in this list.
Note that this option adds time to the report generator duration since each new delegate discovered also requires a data lookup in the Exchange Address Book (GAL).
Collect item modified dates
This option will enumerate all items in each folder in order to collect the modified times of the items. This deep analysis provide more accurate depictions of “recency” and use of a Public Folder.
In contrast, the “modified” time of a folder is misleading. This value is only updated if items are added or removed from a folder. If a user simply edits an existing item in a folder, the folder’s modified date does not change.
Note that this option will add considerable time to the duration of a report generator since each item has to be enumerated.
Collect item senders/authors
This option will enumerate and item in each folder in order to collect the sender’s information. This subsequently requires a lookup in the Exchange Address book (for local accounts) and adds considerable time to the duration of a report generator.
Consider the a public folder does NOT require an owner. In such cases, the sender/author may be the next best indicator of “who is responsible” for a given folder and its data.
Collect item sizes
As identified, this option will collect the sizes of items in a folder. This option adds some time to the duration of a report generator since the list of items in each folder has to be enumerated.
The information gathered is presented quantities of items across “bands” of time, such as “modified in the last 24 hours” and “…in the last 30 days”.
Collect attachment info
This option will enumerate and open each item in a folder in order to collect attachment info. For each attachment, the file extension, MIME type, and visibility state is collected.
This information is later presented by the list of file extensions found, how many folders contain attachments of the given type, and how many items with those attachments appear in each folder.
This is one of the slowest elements to collect and will and considerable time to the report generator duration.
Collect item types
This option will enumerate each item in a given folder and collect the item type value. Item types are string values such as ‘IPM.Appointment’, which signifies a calendar item. Common types are: IPM.Note, IPM.Appointment, and IPM.Task. There are many other types and even custom types that can be created by applications.
This option will add some time to the data collection since item information has to be enumerated in each folder.
Collect subject pattern occurrences
This deep analysis option allows for specifying one or more pattern matching elements that are compared against the subject of each item in a folder. A tally is kept of how many items match the given pattern(s).
This option can therefore provide high-level ‘search’ reporting to identify folders that contain specific types of information or conversations.
If this option is enabled, clicking next on the wizard will present a new page in which the patterns can be managed.
Collect body pattern occurrences
This option is the same as the subject pattern option, except that it operates upon the message body of each item.
If this option is enabled, clicking next on the wizard will present a new page in which the patterns can be managed.
Subject Pattern Occurrences
This page is only shown if the Collect subject pattern occurrences option is enabled on the previous page.
This page is used to add one or more Regular Expression (regex) patterns that are compared to the subject of each item.
Regular Expression pattern matching is a feature of Microsoft .NET (and PowerShell, using the -Match operator) and is a powerful pattern matching engine. It can be used to find complex text patterns more than with just simple wildcards.
For more information, refer to either:
Note that due to the nature of this task, it adds considerable time to the duration of a report generator’s data collection routines.
Body Pattern Occurrences
This page is only shown if the Collect body pattern occurrences option is enabled on the previous page.
This page is used to add one or more Regular Expression (regex) patterns that are compared to the body of each item.
Regular Expression pattern matching is a feature of Microsoft .NET (and PowerShell, using the -Match operator) and is a powerful pattern matching engine. It can be used to find complex text patterns more than with just simple wildcards.
For more information, refer to either:
Note that due to the nature of this task, it adds considerable time to the duration of a report generator’s data collection routines.
Report Name
Each new report generator created needs a unique name.
The name is used both in the generator’s name as well as the report instances’ names.
Once “Next” is clicked on this page, the configuration is saved and the wizard closes.
View the newly created config from “Report Generators” section of the main window.
