IT Pro: How To Install and Configure Xink Exchange Connector (1/2)

You use the Xink Exchange Connector to configure the integration between Xink Cloud and your local on-premises Exchange server when you want to keep email signatures updated.

  • Mobile devices sending emails through your Exchange server
  • OWA (Outlook Web App or Outlook Web Access depending on Exchange Server version)

The Xink Exchange Connector is installed on one of your servers. It connects to Xink Cloud and pulls down users and signatures to a local SQL Server. From your local SQL Server, you can access the signatures from Exchange.

Check out below infographic and Exchange Connector FAQs.


Install Steps

You basically need two installs:

  1. Xink Exchange Connector (this will pull the users and their signatures from Xink to a local SQL Server database referred to as the settings database)
  2. Xink Transport Agent (this will install a transport agent on your Exchange Server, hence allowing to add the signature when the email is being sent from mobile devices)

Need help? Schedule meeting (45 min. remote support)  


1. ) First Install Xink Exchange Connector

 Download the Xink Exchange Connector installer here.

Install the file, you need to give permission for the package to be installed.
Once installed launch the program called "Configure Xink Exchange Connector" from 'Start' Menu:

The Configuration program will start elevated so you need to approve the program to start.
Windows will ask you for this permission.

This will start the main menu of the Xink Exchange Connector Configuration:



2.) Connect to the settings database

The SQL database is always referred to as the 'settings database'.

If you do not have a local SQL database, you need to create a NEW database on a local SQL Server.

This is easy - just use this SQL create script to create it the SQL Database and then you just need to write the connection string.

If you're using eMailSignature 'classic' already, you just need to find your existing connection string to the current SQL database.
Then copy the connection string to the setup program as shown below:

SQL 2012 and older use this connection string: Replace the SQLSERVERNAME

Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=SQLSERVERNAME;Initial Catalog=eMailSignature;User Id=eMailSignature_Superuser;Password=changemenow;


SQL 2016+: Replace the SQLSERVERNAME

Provider=MSOLEDBSQL.1;Data Source=SQLSERVERNAME;Initial Catalog=eMailSignature;User Id=eMailSignature_Superuser;Password=changemenow;

Enter the connection string in "Connect to the settings database"  and click “Test” ´to test the connection as shown below:

Click “Save” to save and exit to the main menu. You have now established a connection to your local SQL Server. You need to make sure that your Exchange Server has access to this SQL Server. 


3.) Connect Exchange connector to Xink Cloud

The next step is to connect to Xink Cloud so the Xink Exchange Connector can pull your users and signatures from your Xink Cloud account to your local settings database. To do so you need to create an API user in Xink:

  1. Go to http://app.xink.io and sign in with your administrator credentials.
  2. Go to the settings menu (the gear wheel at the top-right corner) and choose “Admins”.
  3. Click “API Users” in the list to the left.
  4. Create a new API user by clicking the “+” button at the top right.
  5. Assign permissions to the newly created API user. To do so click 'Admins' and choose the 'API Users' folder. Select the API user you just created and click the gear and choose 'permissions'. Now choose the correct permissions for this API user:

Now that you have created an API user you are ready to connect to Xink Cloud.

In Xink Exchange Connector enter the username and secret/password of your API user. Click “Test” to test the connection and “Save” to save your settings and exit to the main menu.


4.) Start downloading Users and Signatures from Xink Cloud to the local database

After you are done with the configuration it is time to import users in Xink Cloud to the local SQL database (LgdaUsers table).

To start downloading users from Xink Cloud to the local SQL database, locate the file 'XinkExchangeConnector.exe' in the install directory for Exchange Connector. If you have not changed this during installation, it will be in your program files folder(see screenshot below) under the subfolder "Xink Exchange Connector".

Important: You should schedule a 'Windows scheduled task' to run the job at least once or twice a day depending on how frequently you update your signature templates to keep the users synchronized on a regular basis.

In the command prompt, change the directory to Xink Exchange Connector folder then type XinkExchangeConnector.exe -v and hit enter.



Xink Exchange Connector will only work on machines on your domain and it must run in the context of a user that is allowed to look up users in the Active Directory.
It is necessary to run in the context of an AD user with those permissions because the Xink Exchange Connector needs to look up the SAMAccountName in your Active Directory. If it cannot look up the SAMAccountName in Active Directory it will not work.

Note that Xink Exchange Connector will always overwrite whatever is in the local database with data is imported from Xink Cloud.


View Sync Log

The Status Monitor will show you all users imported from Xink Cloud.

If there are few errors then most users were imported successfully, it is probably not a problem
If all users sync with errors, click 'View Sync Log' and select  'Show errors only' and fix the errors.

You search for specific users by entering a search text and hitting 'Enter' or clicking 'Search'.


What's next?

Since iPhone's built-in mail app by default send email in Plain Text format, make sure you create a Plain Text version before starting to test OK.

Simply select and copy from HTML designer and paste in Plain Text - Done:

  • Plain Text does not support images and formatting in any way. 

  • Validate that the field 'owasignature_txt' is updated in the table 'lgdaUsers' in the settings database when you sync.


Then what?
Continue to Step 2 - Install and Configure Xink Transport Agent.

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