This guide details the process required to set up standard and shared Microsoft 365 (Office) POP/SMTP accounts in SmarterTrack using OAuth.
The SmarterTrack OAuth integration relies on an application that is currently published to the Azure Active Directory Enterprise Apps market, and can be approved during setup or beforehand by an administrator with access to those settings. This guide will be divided into two sections: standard OAuth account setup, and OAuth setup on shared mailboxes. Please note however that Microsoft/O365 does not support OAuth-based authentication to shared mailboxes for SMTP purposes, and authenticated SMTP is required to send ticket responses.
First, we’ll cover configuration of POP/SMTP on a standard user account on Microsoft 365 (Office) that includes Exchange service access. The account used in this example is
helpdesk@smartermonitor.onmicrosoft.com.
General Prerequisites
- You must have access to a full Organizational administrator account in Microsoft 365 (Office) that includes access to admin.microsoft.com.
- You must have access to the POP/SMTP service on the accounts you are looking to setup.
- Your SmarterTrack server must be able to reach the internet and Microsoft’s authentication servers.
- You must be running a version of SmarterTrack that supports OAuth based authentication.
Prerequisites - Standard Account Configuration
Prerequisites - Delegate Permissions (Shared Mailbox)
OAuth Setup – Standard Account
To begin, log in to SmarterTrack using an administrator account and navigate to Settings>Email>POP to set up the incoming account:
1. Click Add on the POP tab.
2. Change the Authentication drop-down menu to OAuth2.
3. Click Connect and use the pop-up window to authenticate with your Microsoft 365 (Office) account.
4. Click Accept on the permissions page to complete the OAuth process.
5. Select final POP account setup details such as import frequency, department, etc. and save the new account.
6. To setup the SMTP account you only to repeat these steps in Settings>Email>SMTP, though the OAuth token process will complete a little quicker due to SmarterTrack already having the authentication token stored.
OAuth Setup – Shared Mailbox
Before we begin, it is important to note once again that Microsoft’s current OAuth implementation only supports POP access to shared mailboxes. SMTP access to shared mailboxes will still require standard basic SMTP authentication which will need to be enabled explicitly for the required accounts, and requires the user/shared mailbox has been assigned an Exchange-capable license in Microsoft 365 (Office). It has been seen in some cases it is possible to set a password for shared mailboxes and then authenticate via OAuth directly to the shared mailbox, but Microsoft has explicitly stated this is not supported and may be removed in the future as it is unintended. Once the shared mailbox permissions are setup and Authenticated SMTP has been enabled for it, go ahead and log in to SmarterTrack as an administrator and navigate to Settings>Email>POP to get started:
1. Click Add on the POP tab.
2. Change the Authentication drop-down menu to OAuth2.
3. Click Connect and use the pop-up window to authenticate with the main (standard account) Microsoft 365 (Office) account that has Send As permissions for your shared mailbox .
4. Click Accept on the permissions page to complete the OAuth process.
5. Change the Email Address field to match your shared mailbox address.
6. Select final POP account setup details such as import frequency, department, etc. and save the new account.
Now, because SMTP is not supported on shared mailboxes we’ll need to set that up a little differently, though the basic concept is essentially the same. To do this, we’ll be setting up an SMTP account configured to authenticate with the primary account, but send email as the shared mailbox. The following permissions must be enabled for the shared mailbox in Microsoft 365 (Office):
To start, navigate to Settings>Email>SMTP and use these steps to complete the setup:
1. Click Add to create a new SMTP account.
2. Fill out the Server address (smtp.office365.com), Auth Username and Auth Password (primary account details),
3. Change the Email Address field to match the shared mailbox address.
4. Complete other fields and settings then save the new SMTP account.
5. Edit your department settings to use the newly created SMTP account.