S/MIME items work significantly differently from other message types. This section describes some of the effects of this type of content on ELOxc EWS and how best to handle it in an ELO environment.

The contents of S/MIME messages cannot be altered substantially. This affects the ability of programs like ELOxc to edit an object's subject, body, addresses, or attachments.

ELO recommends taking the following actions if S/MIME items are processed in ELOxc EWS:

1: Process S/MIME items in action trees separate from action trees for other types of Exchange items.

2: Adjust the processing order of the action trees so that the S/MIME items are processed before other actions are performed.

In ELOxc EWS, message items with S/MIME content are filed to the repository with an attachment named smime.p7m. This occurs regardless of whether the message contains an "actual" attachment.

This has various effects on how S/MIME items can and should be processed by ELOxc EWS. For example, a filter for messages that contain attachments will always return true for S/MIME content items. Special care should also be taken with these types of items with the Stubbing action, Match & Replace action, and others.