Confluence 4.1 : How do I use the mail archive?

Mail Archiving Features are Now Optional

Confluence Mail Archiving is an optional feature from Confluence 4.1 onwards. This means that the Mail elements in the Confluence interface as mentioned on this page will not appear in the user interface by default.

Mail archiving features are now contained in a bundled plugin. To activate mail archiving features in Confluence, activate the plugin from Confluence Admin > Configuration > Plugins > Show System Plugins > Confluence Mail Archiving Plugin.

The user interface and functionality of the feature have not changed.

Some suggested scenarios include:

Project-related conversations

Say you are using a Confluence space to organise a project. The project lead and the customer have a long conversation (via email) clarifying the project's goals and requirements. Rather than have that conversation lost in their individual mailboxes, if they CC'ed their mail to a POP box being monitored by Confluence, all that information will be archived alongside the rest of the project's documentation.

Customer Support Tracking

All incoming and outgoing sales and support email is diverted (at the mail-server) to be read by Confluence. Staff can then use Confluence's features to find all previous communications with particular customers.

And?

Of course, the real fun will come from seeing how this feature can be put to other uses.