Seafile Outlook plugin

Hello,

Some products have an Outlook plugin, which allows to send an attached file and track if it has been opened.
It is possible to do so manually by generating a seafile link, but to have it directly into outlook would be extremely handy.
The products I am referering to are “Adobe Send & Track”, and Oodrive sharing product.

Does anyone have a feedback on this idea ?

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If I’m not mistaken, any plugins designed for Outlook have to be approved by Microsoft… And they probably charge money… Many moons ago, I worked for a company where we wanted to add a plugin to a Microsoft product that our programmers planned to write… Microsoft said no. They may have changed their position on that by now, for that was over 15 years ago.

However, there are alternate methods of tracking whether or not something has been opened, but it would depend upon the receiver of the email having remote content unblocked in order for the tracking to work. I know YesMail allows you to track whether an email has been opened, and it works by sending a small image file in the email. When the user opens the email, you’ll basically get a return receipt.

However, most email proggies have remote content turned off by default.

Hello,
I am not sure I have been very clear for my feature request.
I don’t need to know if the user opened his e-mail or not.
The idea is to :

  • Ease the process of sending (big) files via e-mail, by using a Seafile share link
  • Check if the linked files have been downloaded
    And all of this through an Outlook plugin.

Sorry I misunderstood. I read the following statement as you wanted to send an email through Outlook with an attached file and track to see if the email had been opened.

As for using Seafile share links, yes, you can do that. I haven’t tried this, but you can go into the WebUI, choose the file, and click the share icon. Then, choose download link. You can also create it from Windows by right clicking a file and then seafile, then create download link. Then, you might try looking at the history inside Seafile to see if it shows where someone accessed it. There are other options while creating a download link, such as adding a password. You might try those things to see if it gets reported in history when someone downloads or opens it. Honestly, I don’t know right off hand.

However, as for Outlook, I don’t know that it would be even possible. Microsoft, like Apple, has been very particular with plugins and mods to their software. Unless something has changed in the last 10 or 15 years, it may require some kind of payment, approval, red tape process in order to pull it off.

No problem my friend :wink:

I know that we can generate links from the contextual menu or from the web interface, and that we are already able to see if the download link has been used (and how many times).
But it would be much handier to do it directly from Outlook.
As for the cost, it is probably not free… I know that, for instance, if you want to create a software working with VMWare, you have to enroll to a 5k$/year program…

Once again, as some competitor already do it, it can be done.

I’ll agree… It can be done. But, if it costs money, then I doubt the programmers would want to do it, unless they put something like that in the professional edition of the program. Though I’ve done some programming in my time, I’ve never done any plugins for major programs, so I wouldn’t even know where to start. Would probably have to begin with an SDK for Outlook, if one exists.

I just checked the Microsoft Development Center. They actually detail how to create add-ins and API’s for Outlook. It depends upon javascript. Seafile is in python, but I’m certain an interface could be built between the two. It just depends upon the programmers and demand, I suppose.

Sure, that’s why I am suggesting this idea, to know if it can interest someone else.

Regarding the professional version, it is not a problem for us… we have a subscription and we are hosting the professional version for end users.

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Then, it may be a possibility for the future. A unique feature request, but I could see how it would be handy.

If you are not bound to outlook you could use thunderbird with filelink:

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Hello and thanks for the post.

It is not a matter of being stuck with Outlook. It is just that in an office environment, many people are using Outlook and some competitors are offering a plug-in for Outlook.
This feature request is not for a personal use, but for a best market coverage in a professional use.

Have a nice day

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+1 I totally agree with you, other competitors offer these plugins too.

It looks as if someone from haiwen started an Outlook plugin on their github site - https://github.com/haiwen/seafile-outlook

However, at present it looks like a stub to add menus to Outlook but without any functionality.

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The project seems to be asleep… :cry:

Just in case, someone finds/reads this post, here’s an update.

There is a Seafile Outlook add-in. More info here in the forum: New Seafile Add-In for Microsoft Outlook ready-for-testing

Great news, thanks !