Exchange email adress policies are used to generate addresses since the early days of Exchange. Email address policies are used to automatically generate addresses for various protocols (SMTP, FAX, CCMAIL, MSMAIL). These overall use of address policies is well documented, but there is still some odd behaviour of the policies when it comes to language specific character handling.
The following list describes the common parameters:
- %s = Surname (Last Name)
- %g = Given Name (First Name)
- %i = Middle Initial
- %d = Display Name
- %m = Exchange Alias
- %rxy = Replace all subsequent characters x with character y
- %rxx = Remove all subsequent characters x
All language specific characters and other non RFC 821/822 compliant characters are either translated or removed.
| Source character | Target character in SMTP address |
|---|---|
| Space | Hypen |
| A – Z | a -z | A – Z | a – z |
| Ä, Ö, Ü | ä, ö, ü | Ae, Oe, Ue | ae, oe, ue |
| ß | ss |
| áàâ | ÁÀÂ | a | A |
| éèê | ÉÈÊ | e | E |
| íìî | ÍÌÎ | i | I |
| óòô | ÓÒÔ | o | O |
| úùû | ÚÙÛ | u | U |
| § | S |
| µ | M |
| ” ( ) ´ [ ] : . < > , ; | Omitted |
Example 1
User without any language specific characters
Given Name: JohnLast Name : DoeAlias : JohnDoe
Email address policy results
%g.%s@mcsmemail.de = John.Doe@mcsmemail.de%m@mcsmemail.de = JohnDoe@mcsmemail.de%1g_%s@mcsmemail.de = J_Doe@mcsmemail.de
Example 2
User with German language specific characters
Given Name: MichaelLast Name : MüllerAlias : Michael Mueller
Email address policy results
%g.%s@mcsmemail.de = Michael.Mueller@mcsmemail.de%m@mcsmemail.de = Michael-Mueller@mcsmemail.de%2g%s@mcsmemail.de = MiMueller@mcsmemail.de
Example 3
User with Scottish language specific characters
Given Name: IanLast Name : O'ConnellAlias : IanOConnell
Email address policy results
%g.%s@mcsmemail.de = Ian.O'Connell@mcsmemail.de%m@mcsmemail.de = IanOConnell@mcsmemail.de%3g%5s@mcsmemail.de = IanO'Con@mcsmemail.de
Problem
As you might have noticed, the apostrophe is not handled as a special character but an RFC compliant character. The address policy is applied without any issues at all.
But a SMTP address containing an apostrophe leads to email transport errors and must be removed.
Solution
You can use the replacement parameter to strip all apostrophes from the surname by using the following email address policy.
%g.%r''%s@mcsmemail.de = Ian.OConnell@mcsmemail.de
This example will only remove apostrophes from the surname (%s) as the replacement parameter is placed in front of the surname parameter.
Links
- How to customize the SMTP e-mail address generators through recipient policies, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/285136
- RFC 821, https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc821
- RFC 822, https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822
