Basic Overview
Lotus Notes and Outlook store messages and calendar items in different formats.
In Lotus Notes emails / calendar items / contacts and any other document is stored as a "Note" in the email file. There are then views and a folder structure layered on top of that.
For example "Inbox" is a folder but "All Documents" and "Sent Items" are views. This means that email can show in multiple places in Lotus Notes. Also email and calendar items can be in an email file and not show anywhere although usually the "Notes" are all shown in "All Documents".
In Outlook there is no default equivalent for the Lotus Notes "All Documents" view.
The migration system will move items to the relevant folder in Outlook as long as the items have a valid folder reference in Lotus Notes. Items that only show in "All Documents" or have invalid folder information or do not have a correct email type are moved to "Unfiled". This is the folder that is created to be the equivalent of the Lotus Notes "All Documents" view that Outlook does not have.
Also the migration system tries to ensure that nothing is lost so anything that is not correct in Lotus Notes will be added to the "Unfiled" folder. This includes private folder items as the migration system cannot read the folder names.
Technical Overview
A Notes database is not relational so all documents are stored as individual rows without any table structure. The mail template then displays each note based on the data type and if necessary default views and forms.
The stored Notes (documents) can have any fields present on them. The Notes do not actually have to conform to the Form that they are created with and for that matter do not even have to be created with a Form at all. Data fields can be added and removed from a Note without having to process the Form.
When opening a Form in Notes (eg Memo) that itself is just a view of the underlying Note which can have fields missing or even have additional fields that would not be seen.
The folders are much the same with the email template relying on several hidden views to display mail in the correct folder.
Ordinarily in a standard mail template (post R5) a good way to check what folder an item would be shown in is to check All Documents. That has a column that will display the folder information for received mail. Sent items and drafts would not have that information as those are views, not folders, unless a sent item has been added to a folder.
Calendar items are the same, they will show in the inbox until processed into the calendar. There is an additional complication with these in that the users do have the option to either "Remove from view" or "delete from database". Items that have only been removed from a view such as calendar acceptance notices will only show in All Documents.
Outlook behaves differently with regards to its data storage and items can only be in one folder. As such the migration system has to create a folder to mimic the Notes All Documents view to migrate items that are not actually filed in any folder in Notes.
This Unfiled folder is used for any "Note" that is processed that does not have valid folder information or valid form information or only appears in All Documents or does not appear at all. Private folders will be processed this way as the Migration account cannot read the folder names.
The "Unfiled" check performed by the migration system actually operates below the level of the mail template. This is done to ensure that nothing is missed during the migration. It can pick up on documents that the users do not even see in the Notes client due to missing field information.
This check will also pick up on any documents that are filed in Private Folders. The reason for this is that the Migration Notes account (ID) would not have access to read the folder names and as such cannot create corresponding folders in Outlook to add the documents into. There is a button email built into the Notes MIgrator system that can be sent to users to "de-privatize" the folder design elements and this should be used. One point to note on private folders is that the Notes MIgrator audit cannot read these items either so the button should be used for all accounts.
The migration process does rely on the Notes client to provide the folder structure and that query relies on the standard Notes template being in place and the documents being correctly identified by the Notes client as being members of a folder. If the documents are not added correctly to a folder originally or were added with non-standard email template code then the Notes client may not return results for folder membership correctly and the documents will migrate to Unfiled.
To ensure that the email template is correct any custom template (or pre R6.5 template) should be replaced with the standard IBM template (either R8.5 or R9). Simply replacing the design is not sufficient to ensure that the personal folder design elements are updated though. This requires a Domino console command to complete. The command to be used is "Load convert -u mail\emaildatabase.nsf * mailtemplate.ntf" to ensure that the personal folder design elements are also replaced.
Standard compact, fixup and updall commands should also be run from the Domino console.
The migration system cannot support custom email template code as there is no way for the system to process unknown design elements. The migration administrator should ensure that the mail database is in a healthy state, has the standard IBM email template and that all documents are correctly filed in Lotus Notes in the folders they expect the data to migrate into.
Also email documents that were created in R4 and R5 versions of Lotus Notes will not have fully valid folder information unless the mail files were correctly upgraded with the original system upgrades. This would have required correct conversions options to have been used. Load convert -u will normally resolve this type of issue and is most common on very old archive email databases.
Additionally there are Form types in Lotus Notes that do not exactly match to Outlook data types. These are cases where there is no Form present on a Note or items such as Phone Messages or Return Receipts. The migration system will in these cases apply the Memo form to migrate the documents as email items for Outlook. It is very common in these cases for the folder references to be incorrect in Lotus Notes (or not present at all) and as such these items will be migrated into "Unfiled".
The migration system will not "fix" invalid or missing data but will attempt to ensure that all documents in the Notes email file are migrated. This includes items that only show in the "All Documents" view in Lotus Notes.
A known issue was reported to IBM where the FolderReferences property would not have been populated when document is moved to folder before the FolderReferencesEnabled property had been enabled on a database.
One point to note is that the folder name that is used for the "Unfiled" migration items can be altered in Notes Migrator. Also the option to migrate "Unfiled" items can be disabled. These can be found in the Settings in Notes MIgrator on the Other Settings tab.
From the Notes Migrator log the documents can be found in the Lotus Notes email file by using the NoteID that is recorded for items in the Unfiled section of the log.
To summarize
1. Unfiled is a migration of All Documents in a mail file that have not been located and migrated in any of the existing (non private) folders, calendar or contacts. Outlook does not have an equivalent view unless search folders are created. Examples of valid folders
Inbox
Sent
Drafts
Calendar
Contacts
Journal
Personal Folders
If the message can only be found in the All documents view, the Sametime Chat History view, or Private folders (which cannot be accessed by anyone other than the owner), then the documents contained in these views can only be found in the All documents view by the migration account, so they are migrated to the 'Unfiled' folder.
If a user were not to use personal folders, and removed every message from their 'Inbox' after reading it, these messages would only exist in the 'All Documents' view.
2. The Unfiled migration option can be disabled in Settings for Notes Migrator or the folder name can be changed.
3. The migration system relies on the standard IBM mail templates and custom templates (eg Open NTF) modifications are not supported.
4. The migration system will not perform source mail file repair options for bad data. This should be completed in Domino prior to migration to ensure that documents can be located in folders correctly.
5. End users can check the Unfiled folder and compare items in that folder to the source Notes mail file and delete items they do not require.
6. The migration administrator can check the Notes MIgrator log to find the documents by NoteID to determine what the document is in the source mail file.
7. For SSAM (local archives) the archive database should be replicated to a Domino server if maintenance tasks are required.
© 2024 Quest Software Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Feedback Terms of Use Privacy Cookie Preference Center