Introducing NRT Filing (Near Realtime Filing)


In our Skunkworks, we affectionately refer to this feature as NRT Filing (Near Realtime Filing), although technically, it should be NRT Indexing. However, that can be a bit confusing.


The Problem(s) Addressed (Based on Real-Life Scenarios)


  • Delayed Message Visibility: With numerous filing locations and folders, the traditional indexing process starts from the top and works downwards. This often leads to significant delays, resulting in new messages taking a very long time to appear.

  • New User Indexing: For new users with a fresh index, the search may appear empty because the index is still building, rendering ExMail less useful during this stage.

  • Multiple Device Usage: Users accessing their accounts from different devices (e.g., desktop and laptop) face delays in message visibility due to dependence on the crawling indexer.

  • Metered Filing Locations: In locations like SharePoint, where crawling is slow to comply with throttling limits, our approach will greatly enhance performance by indexing only when a message is filed.

  • Under-Resourced Filing Locations: Resource-constrained systems like MFiles with Firebase DB face challenges with aggressive crawling. Our approach reduces strain by indexing messages only upon filing.



Real-World Implications


Consider an office environment with ten users. Currently, when I file a message, others may not see it in their search until the indexer eventually crawls that location—potentially hours later or even the next day. Under our proposed process, filing a message instantly notifies all authorized users of the location, ensuring nearly instant visibility in their searches (with a slight delay for indexing).