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Inbox Rules in Exchange 2010

Last modified: September 30, 2010

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007 | Exchange Server 2010

The Inbox rules feature of Exchange Web Services enables Exchange client applications to retrieve, create, delete, and update Inbox rules on a computer that is running Microsoft Exchange Server.

Inbox rules are sets of conditions and associated actions that enable clients to automatically organize, categorize, and act on messages as the messages are delivered to a mailbox. For example, a rule can be created to require that any incoming mail that contains a certain string in the subject be automatically moved to a predetermined folder.

Inbox rules are server-side rules and are handled by the messaging server.

Inbox Rules Operations

The Inbox rules subsystem includes the following operations:

  • GetInboxRules

  • UpdateInboxRules

GetInboxRules Operation

The GetInboxRules Operation gets the rules collection from the specific mailbox store. This operation requires the SMTP address of the user for whom Inbox rules are to be retrieved, and returns a rules collection that contains the authenticated user's Inbox rules. The client can obtain each rule in the rules collection by iterating through the collection. After obtaining the Inbox rules for the mailbox store, the client can add new rules, edit existing rules, or delete rules from the rules collection.

When a rule is returned as part of the rules collection, the rule elements are available to the client.

UpdateInboxRules Operation

The UpdateInboxRules Operation enables you to create, delete, or modify an Inbox rule.