Exchange Developer: Exchange Web Services – Best Practices (Part 1)

Mid April, the Windows Server and Exchange Interoperability teams hosted an Open Specifications Plugfest event. The event was held in Redmond on the Microsoft campus for protocol developers implementing Exchange and Windows open specifications. I am planning to add couple of sessions related to Exchange and its developer…

In this session, my peer Matt Stehle (Sr. Consultant) provided guidance when you work with Exchange Web Services and mailbox data; he also covers reading, writing, searching, backup and restore.

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Open-Specifications-Plugfests/Windows-Identity-and-Exchange-Protocols-Plugfest-2012/Exchange-Web-Services-Best-Practices-Part-1/player?w=900&h=500

Enjoy!!

Part 1 : Developer Roadmap – Development Technologies for Exchange Server 2010

This two part article is targeted for the developer audience, if you’re the developer who want to create a develop custom application for Exchange Server 2010 or already has custom application designed for previous versions of Exchange Server 2010.

Some Exchange programming technologies that are available in versions of Exchange earlier than Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 are obsolete and have been replaced with other technologies. Per MSDN article, the programming technologies and APIs stated below have either been removed from Exchange 2010 or earlier versions of Exchange, are no longer supported for use with the current version of Exchange, or are no longer the recommended API to use to access Exchange.

• Active Directory Services Interface still exists, but we do not recommend that you access Exchange data in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) by using ADSI.

Recommendation: We recommend that you use Exchange PowerShell commands to administer Exchange configuration data.

• Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange (CDOEX) is not included in Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate your applications that use CDOEX to Exchange Web Services.

• Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange Management (CDOEXM) is not included in Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate your applications that use CDOEXM to use Exchange PowerShell commands.

• Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange Workflow (CDOWF) is not included in Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate your applications that use CDOWF to use Windows Workflow Foundation Services.

• Collaboration Data Objects for Windows 2000 (CDOSYS) is included in current versions of Windows. The functionality in CDOSYS is now available in the Microsoft .NET Framework.
• Collaboration Data Objects for Windows (CDOSYS) SMTP/NNTP Event Sinks are included in current versions of Windows.

Recommendation: Notification-based applications that work with Exchange 2010 should use transport agents.

• Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) version 1.2.1 is available for download for applications that continue to require it. CDO 1.2.1 is a de-emphasized API, and support is only available under an Extended Support agreement.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate any CDO 1.2.1 applications to use Exchange Web Services.

• Exchange Incremental Change Synchronization (ICS) is a MAPI-based interface, and is still supported against Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: To ensure continued future compatibility, we recommend that you consider migrating your ICS applications to use Exchange Web Services notifications.

• Exchange OLE Database Provider (ExOLEDB) is not included in Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate applications that use ExOLEDB to use Exchange Web Services.

• Exchange Rules DLL is part of the sample code that shipped with the Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000 SDKs.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate applications that use the Exchange Rules DLL to use either MAPI or Exchange Web Services notifications.

• Exchange Store Event Sinks are not available in Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: Where possible, we recommend that applications that use Exchange Store Event sinks be migrated to use either transport agents or Exchange Web Services notifications.

• Exchange Streaming Backup and Restore API is not included in Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate backup and restore applications that use streaming backup to use the Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

• Exchange WebDAV is not included in Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate applications that use Exchange WebDAV to use the Exchange Web Services.

• Exchange WebDAV Notifications are not included in Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate applications that use Exchange WebDAV notifications to use Exchange Web Services notifications.

• Exchange Web Forms is not included in Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate applications that use Exchange Web Forms to use either Windows SharePoint Services, or Active Server Pages.

• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) still exists, but accessing Exchange data in AD DS by using LDAP is not recommended.

Recommendation: We recommend that you use Exchange PowerShell commands to administer Exchange configuration data.

• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Providers are not included in Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010.

Recommendation: We recommend that you migrate applications that used WMI to use the Exchange PowerShell commands.

Happy Programming!!