Microsoft Exchange Server Development Technologies

Key Technologies

• ACL COM Component to manage permissions; a sample application with a version of Acl.dll compiled for Windows NT is available at aclasp.zip. You can also download it from Microsoft's FTP site. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work; see PRB ACL Outlook 2000 Doesn't Properly Read ACL Settings.Samples:
   
  • Folder Permission Viewer Application
  • ACLASP: Modifying ACLs from an ASP Application.
  • Sue Mosher's MEC 99 Pre-conference Workshop sample code includes a sample application to set the default permission for the Calendar folder in selected mailboxes  to Reviewer.  
  • Check calendar folder Permissions
     
• ADSI
• Collaboration Data Objects (CDO)
• MAPI
• Microsoft Exchange Forms Designer - no longer supported
• Outlook Web Access
• Rule COM Component to manage rules; a sample application with a version of Rules.dll compiled for Windows NT is available at ruleasp.zip. Also see:
   
  • RuleASP: Modifying Rules from an ASP Application
  • [FrontPage Scheduled Image Component]PRB Sender and Body Lost When Using EDK Rule Component to Forward Message
     
• Scripting and Routing (Exchange 5.5)

Other interfaces:

• ActivePython interface to Exchange documentation

Exchange 2000 & 2003

Additional technologies used in Exchange 2000 & 2003 (see Microsoft Exchange 2000 - Developing Applications):

• Web Storage System
• Web Forms
• ADO 2.5
• CDO for Exchange (CDOEX)
• CDO for Workflow (CDOWF)

Online documentation

• Exchange 2003 SDK December 2004
• Exchange 2000 SDK December 2004

Current Exchange SDK, tools, and samples:

• Exchange 2003 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2004
• Exchange 2000 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2004
• Microsoft Exchange SDK Development Tools June 2003
• Workflow Designer for Exchange 2000 and 2003
• Exchange SDK Workflow Application Template
• Writing Managed Sinks for SMTP and Transport Events Online
• SMTP Event Sinks - A window into Exchange integration (Part 1)
• Exchange 2003 Auto Accept Agent -- store event sink to process meeting requests for resource mailbox calendars

More information:

• HOWTO Send HTML Mail with CDO for Windows 2000 and the Local Pickup Directory
• Content Filtering and Scanning Script
• HOW TO Create a Catchall Mailbox Sink for Exchange 2000
• Exoledb Script Host Event Sink Debugging and Troubleshooting
• Using Web Storage System Forms
• XCCC Description of the Command to Retrieve Free-Busy Information From a Calendar Public Folder

Security provisions in Exchange 2000 SP3 may cause problems with CDOEX or CDOSYS applications that send mail via SMTP. See Read Access to the Everyone Group Is Removed After You Install Exchange 2000 SP3 for details. 

Also see:

• Support Policy for Microsoft Exchange APIs with .NET Framework Applications
• Working with Store Permissions in Microsoft Exchange 2000 and 2003

Discussion

• microsoft.public.exchange.applications newsgroup on the msnews.microsoft.com server

Samples

• Exchange Applications Farm -- MAPI, ASP, and Exchange Forms Designer samples dating back to 1997
• Exchange Code Exchange
• SAMPLE SUGGEST.EXE, a  Microsoft Exchange Server Custom Agent (installs through Agents tab, but more robust than an event service script)
• Building Collaborative Applications with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange -- presentation by Sue Mosher using a sample application that combines contacts and appointments with multiple levels of access
• Microsoft Exchange 5.5 SDK Final Version -- samples no longer included in Platform SDK
• Attachment Archiving to a File Server Script -- Script to run on Exchange 2000 Server to archive mailbox item attachments as system files and replace them in the original items with a text link to the archived file
• HOWTO Send HTML Formatted Mail Using CDO for Windows 2000 and a Remote SMTP Service
• HOWTO Programmatically Get the Size of Mailboxes on Exchange Server -- Extended MAPI, CDO, ADO, WebDAV
• Managing Microsoft Exchange 2000 Calendars with XML Web Services

• Search Inbox Data Using Smart Tags in Word 2003 -- Uses WebDAV to search an Exchange mailbox

Tools

More Information

• Exchange Applications -- Lessons and notes on developing scripting and workflow applications for Exchange 5.5, with SQL connections.