How to Install and Run the Solution (all configurations for MS Exchange or Office 365)¶
Tip
Also see this Connect(ME) blog article for an overview of solution installation procedures
Note
If you are a local administrator rolling out LinkPoint Connect(ME) for multiple users in your organization, you can make use of Add-In mass deployment procedures.
I. LinkPoint Connect(ME) Add-In Installation¶
1. Installing LinkPoint Connect(ME) Outlook Add-In (standard web/cloud installation)¶
LPC Outlook Add-In follows a standard pattern for MS Outlook cloud addins installation:
● In MS Outlook Desktop, click File in the top pane then click Manage Add-ins at the bottom of the Account Information window that opens. On the outlook.office.com Add-ins management page that will be opened in your browser, click Find more add-ins for Outlook at AppSource…, enter LinkPoint Connect(ME) in the Search AppSource search box and select LinkPoint Connect(ME) for Salesforce.
● Alternatively, install the Add-In via Outlook on the Web:
1. Log in to http://outlook.com or Outlook on the Web with your credentials
2. Select any email in MS Outlook’s and click the ••• (More actions) icon in the upper right corner above viewed email’s body, as shown in the steps 1-4 of this Microsoft article
3. In the menu that appears, scroll down and click Get Add-ins
>>> Click to see an animation <<<
4. Enter LinkPoint Connect(ME) in the Search add-ins input box on the upper right corner of the “Add-Ins for Outlook” dialog window and click Add under LinkPoint Connect(ME) for Salesforce in search results
5. Next, you need to confirm installation by clicking Continue in the following dialog
Tip
Also note that LinkPoint Connect(ME) for Salesforce (the Web (Cloud) implementation) can also be installed from an .XML Outlook Add-In manifest file or URL provided by your local LPC Admin or linkpoint360.com, refer to this article for more information
Note
After you install the Add-In for an email account, it becomes available in MS Outlook running on other configurations and devices compatible with Outlook on the Web, Outlook for Mac, iOS, or Android with the same account logged in
Important
Before using LinkPoint Connect(ME) in MS Outlook Desktop on Windows, please make sure that you have the latest version of MS Edge installed, since it is used to render LinkPoint Connect(ME) Sidebar in MS Outlook
Installing the Desktop (.MSI) Implementation¶
Important
Note that Desktop (.MSI) implementation will be deprecated based on Microsoft technical updates. See this article for more information
Unlike the default Web (Cloud) LinkPoint Connect(ME) implementation installed for most end users, the custom LinkPoint Connect(ME) Add-In Desktop implementation option is usually reserved for Enterprise customers with special requirements, it is installed from an .MSI file and runs only on Windows OS. It is applicable in the following cases:
1. for customized Enterprise LPC configurations
2. to work with MS Exchange 2013 mail server
3. to use Delegated access (shared calendar) scenarios
4. to use LinkPoint Connect(ME) in a virtual machine environment, e.g. Citrix XenApp. This Add-In installation method is only available for MS Outlook 2013, 2016, 2019 (Desktop) for Windows. Also refer to this article for a detailed comparison of the two implementations.
To download the .MSI (Desktop) implementation, you should send a corresponding request to our Support team.
To install the Add-In, run the downloaded.MSI package and complete the simple three-step installation procedure. LinkPoint Connect(ME) will be installed in the ‘%systemdisk%\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\linkpoint360.com\LinkPoint Connect(ME) Add-In‘ folder, taking around 28-40 Mb of HDD space.
Preconditions for installing the .MSI package:
- having admin permissions on your workstation including system disk write permissions
- MS Outlook 2013-2016 installed on your system
The essential differences between the web/cloud and .MSI versions deployment are summarized in the below table. For a full list of differences refer to this article.
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Web/cloud Add-In Installation |
MSI Add-In Installation
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Supported platforms
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Can be installed in different systems and configurations: MS Outlook for Windows, MS Office 365 in a browser, Outlook.com in a browser, MS Outlook for Mac, MS Outlook for iOS, MS Outlook for Android. | Can only be installed in MS Outlook Desktop running on MS Windows. |
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Deployment method
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Is rolled out via MS Exchange / Office 365 add-ins management panels. | Is installed using mass-deployment tools by the local administrator with a single customization set for all users. |
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Updates installation
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Instant version updates from the cloud.
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Centralized updates rollout by the local administrator.
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Important
Before using LinkPoint Connect(ME) in MS Outlook Desktop on Windows, please also make sure that you have the latest version of MS Edge installed, since it is used to render LinkPoint Connect(ME) Sidebar in MS Outlook.
II. LinkPoint Connect(ME) Logon¶
Note
LPC logging on is not instant: depending on the number of email messages in your mailbox and items in your calendar it may take several minutes to log on, since on logging on LPC needs to match all your existing correspondence and calendar items with your Salesforce records. That is only performed once per account.
After the LinkPoint Connect(ME) Add-In was installed in your MS Outlook Desktop or On the Web, you need to open the Sidebar and log on to the Add-In.
Before you start, please make sure that you have your login credentials for your Salesforce and MS Exchange or Office 365 services at hand.
1. Open the Sidebar¶
- click the Open LinkPoint Connect(ME) button in MS Outlook Desktop ribbon
- or, if you are using Outlook.com or Office.com, refer to this article to learn how to open the Sidebar.
2. Logging on to LinkPoint Connect(ME)¶
Note
Note that your data transferred via LinkPoint Connect(ME) as well as your service access credentials are secured and are never shared or stored anywhere, according to Connect(ME) Privacy and Security principles.
Next, log on to LinkPoint Connect(ME) using ordinary Salesforce logon, Salesforce Sandbox logon, or My Customer/Partner Community logon.
Tip
In the latest product updates, for Enterprise LPC customers this step can also be performed for multiple end users in bulk, by the local LPC Admin. See this article for more information.
2.1. Ordinary Salesforce account logon:
2.1.1. Click the Connect to Salesforce button. A browser window with Salesforce OAuth page will be opened.
2.1.2. Enter your Salesforce credentials on the page or select a previously saved account’s username and click Log In.
In the screenshot above, a standard Salesforce login window is shown. Note that this OAuth window may look slightly differently, according to your Salesforce customization.
Note
At this point you may also need to confirm this access via Salesforce 2-factor authentication.
2.2. To log on with Salesforce Sandbox (an isolated environment with Salesforce data used for CRM system tests, learning how to use Salesforce, or experimenting with its features):
2.2.1. Click the Connect to Salesforce Sandbox button. A browser window with Salesforce OAuth page will be opened:
2.2.2. Enter your Salesforce Sandbox credentials on the page or select a previously saved account’s username and click Log In to Sandbox.
2.3. To log on with your Salesforce Customer/Partner Community (under More options v):
Note
This logon method is also used to log on with Single Sign-On (SSO) (the recommended method), if it is configured in your Org. Besides, in some configurations OAuth 2.0 and SSO authentication methods are combined; OAuth 1.0 protocol is not supported by LinkPoint Connect(ME).
2.3.1. Click My Customer/Partner Community.
2.3.2. Enter your community access URL or your special access link in the box and click the button My Customer/Partner Community below the box.
2.3.3. Enter your community logon credentials or select a previously saved account’s username and click Log In on the community OAuth page that opens in your web browser or perform a Single Sign-On logon according to your SSO provider’s procedure.
In the screenshot above, a standard Salesforce login window is shown. Note that this OAuth window may look differently, depending on your Salesforce configuration.
2.3.4. Next, you need to accept granting LinkPoint Connect(ME) permissions to work with Salesforce data by clicking Allow in the following dialog window:
Tip
in addition, from this logon page you can access a test LinkPoint Connect(ME) environment prefilled with sample data. Refer to this article for more information.
In the latest LinkPoint Connect(ME) updates logging on will be followed by a dialog window for authorizing LPC Add-In’s access to MS Exchange data, this way allowing to skip setup stage III: Authorizing Mailbox Access for LinkPoint Connect(ME) Add-In (see below).
3. Activate LinkPoint Connect(ME) synchronization¶
Set up LinkPoint Connect(ME) synchronization by authorizing it to access your MS Exchange / Office 365 data. Follow the steps described in this article to do that.
Important
If you are using several different email boxes for your correspondence (not aliases), make sure to authorize LPC Sync for the same email box as one for which you installed the Add-In, otherwise the Sync engine functions will work incorrectly even though LPC Sync will appear to be running.
Tip
Refer to this article to learn what emails and calendar items you have in MS Exchange/Office 365 will be auto-saved in Salesforce if you enable the corresponding settings (calendar items auto-sharing, emails auto-sharing) after setting up LinkPoint Connect(ME) synchronization.
Important
Please note that if step ( 3 ) is skipped, you will be able to run and use LinkPoint Connect(ME), except for the key functions carried out by LPC Sync.
III. (Admins only) Install the Managed packages in Salesforce¶
To enable the full scope of features offered by LinkPoint Connect(ME) several minor adjustments must be made in your Salesforce Org’s configuration; installing the Connect(ME) managed package and Invisible Suite managed package allows to accomplish that quickly and effortlessly. Follow the above links for complete information about the packages.
Note
LinkPoint Connect(ME) is based on the following fundamental principle: one email account is connected to a single Salesforce account. Therefore, no more than one business email account can be connected to a Salesforce account; for the same reason, several Salesforce accounts cannot be connected to a single email account via LPC.
However, if such scenario is required, as a workaround you can set up your email accounts each connected to a separate Salesforce account within the same Org.
Also note that LPC can automatically recognize and match different MS Exchange/Office 365 alliases used for the same email account.
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