How does email signature synchronization work?

About this article

In this article, we will explain how email signature synchronization works to propagate the updates to the end-users.

Prerequisites

How does the synchronization work in general?

Templafy Email signature Manager runs an hourly job that checks for updates and pushes any new HTML to MS Azure Blob storage and to Gmail API depending on what is being used for the setup:

• For Microsoft Office:
  • Blob storage for the Outlook VSTO Add-in
  • Blob storage for the Outlook Web Add-in
  • Blob storage for the Email Signature Server,
• For Google Workspace: Gmail (web application on browsers): 
  • Gmail API to collect the signatures
  • Blob storage for the email signature images

Then, each setup will get synchronized with the related Blob Storage to finalize the propagation of the signature to the end-users.

How to check the signature synchronization status and run it manually?

In this section we will be focusing on the Synchronization between the Email signature Manager and the related storages depending on the provider.

For Microsoft Office

For Microsoft Office 365, the data flow is between the Email signature Manager and the related Azure Blob Storages:

Below the steps to get the Synchronization Menu:

1. Navigate to the Admin Center
2. Click on the Email signatures section
3. Click on More options in the ellipsis menu
4. Click on Settings
5. Select the Synchronization tab

From this page, the synchronization status for each solution used will be presented:

By clicking on Synchronize now a manual synchronization could be triggered for all the configured setups.

For Google Workspace

For Google Workspace,  the data flow is between the Email signature Manager and Gmail API as well as Azure Blob Storage:

Below the steps to get the Synchronization Menu:

1. Navigate to the Admin Center
2. Click on the Email signatures section
3. Click on More options in the ellipsis menu
4. Click on Settings
5. Select the Synchronization tab

From this page, the synchronization status for each solution used will be presented:

By clicking on Synchronize now a manual synchronization could be triggered for Gmail signatures.

How does the synchronization get propagated depending on the setup?

In this section we will be focusing on the Synchronization between the storages and their related setups depending on the provider.

For Microsoft Office

For Microsoft Office 365, the data flow is between the Azure Blob Storages and the related setups:

Email signature server

There is no additional propagation needed for the email signature server since it's actively using the Azure Blob Storage to stamp the emails

Microsoft 365 Outlook (Web Add-in)

The propagation of the email signature for Microsoft 365 Outlook is instantaneous since it's making live API calls to the Azure Blob Storage relying on the SAS link.

Outlook for Windows (VSTO Add-in)

The synchronization runs based on the following triggers:

• Outlook application startup (PC or Outlook application restart)
• Midnight local time
• Triggered manually by clicking on Edit Email Signatures button from the ribbon and click on Done like below

Below are the actions performed during the synchronization:

1. the VSTO calls an endpoint that returns a set of SAS links
2. VSTO run them to download, unpack, name, and store the signatures locally in the signature folder of Outlook
3. Update the default signature settings in Outlook based on the signatures functionality

For Google Workspace

For Google Workspace,  the data flow is between Gmail API, Azure Blob Storage, and Gmail Web application:

The propagation of the email signature for Gmail is instantaneous since the final signature will be living in Google Workspace and the image will be also called live by HTML from the related Blob Storage since they are referenced into the email signature and not attached.

Related articles