Program's architecture

CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients is a tool that lets you centrally manage signatures for multiple email clients including: Outlook, OWA (2007 / 2010 / 2013 / 2016), Google Apps (G Suite) and Office 365. Furthermore, the program's architecture is based on three components:

• Administration Panel
• Central Updating Service
• Client Applications

The diagram below shows how the program's components update signatures defined in policies on all available email clients (Fig. 1.):

Fig. 1. A diagram showing how the program's components update signatures on email clients.

Administration Panel

It is the management console of the program where all types of policies along their deployment methods are configured (Fig. 2.). Once the policy is created and the deployment method defined, the Administration Panel handles the policy over either to the Central Updating Service or Client Applications (depending on the policy type created) to process the policies and update created signatures on email clients. The Administration Panel gives the direct access to policy deployment settings, the licensing program and collects diagnostic files that can be reviewed if the program deviates from its standard behavior. Additionally, you can also import settings to make use of the already existing set of policies or export your policies to apply them on another installation of CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients Administration Panel. Furthermore, as the policy update time using Central Updating Service may take up to 15 minutes, you can force the update time running the program in the advanced mode.

Fig. 2. Administration Panel of CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients.

Central Updating Service (CUS)

The Central Updating Service is responsible for the automatic central update of the signatures included in the created policies on email clients. It is configured and managed directly in the Administration Panel and doesn't require any intervention by the end-users. Its operation is based on obtaining the policy update tasks from the Administration Panel, which it pushes then to email clients embraced by those policies to apply the signatures. Note that CUS can only be used to update policies in regards to OWA 2010/2013/2016, Office 365 and Google Apps policy types. The advantage of updating signatures via the Central Updating Service is that the end-user on the client machine doesn't have to install any app for getting their signatures updated on their email client as the updating process is done centrally.

Client Applications

The Client Applications (Fig. 3.) are responsible for the automatic update of policies on email clients. Unlike CUS, the Client Applications cannot be centrally managed via the Administration Panel, therefore they need to be distributed and installed on each client machine to update policies on email clients embraced by these policies. Note that the Client Applications can only be used to update polices yet apply the defined signatures in regards to Outlook and OWA 2007 policy types. The advantage of using Client Applications is that the end-user on the client machine can see the actual status of updating the signature on the Client Application installed on his/her machine and view the applicable log files if necessary.

Fig. 3. Client Application.

The Client Application's window is divided into three sections:

• Outlook / OWA 2007 update status - displays status of the connection to the Exchange Server.
• License info - shows information about the license of the program. If the software is running in the trial mode, the number of remaining days will also be visible.
• Policies' processing info - provides details about the recently updated, active policies.

The Client Application also offers additional options available via right-clicking the Client Application's icon located in the left upper corner of its window (Fig. 4.). Using the context menu that shows up, you can, e.g. exit the Client Application or view its log files.

Fig. 4. Client Application.

See next:

Installation and system requirements - this article contains information about the supported operating systems and additional components required for the proper operation of the program. Additionally, you will also learn here about the process of installation in regards to the Administration Panel and the Client Applications.