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date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 20:21:47 +0100,
group: microsoft.public.exchange2000.interop
back
Strange customer's request
A customer is asking me if it is possible at all (and how) to do the
following.
The customer has both an Exchange 2003 e-mail system and another mail system
which is accessible using IMAP4, its own proprietary (but documented)
network protocol and its own webmail interface; this other system has its
own mail folders (inbox, sent items and so on).
Currently, each user must separately connect to the Exchange server or to
the other server, using OWA and the other system's webmail, or Outlook with
an Exchange and an IMAP4 account, or another IMAP4 client with two different
accounts.
The customer's rquirement is to have the user connect to only the Exchange
server and see the other server's mail archive through it; the archive needs
to be read but not written, i.e. the users will only see it and be able to
open messages; ideally, the other system's folders should appear as
additional folders in the user's Exchange mailbox. Any outgoing mail will be
sent only by the Exchange server.
The customer *doesn't want* to dismiss the other system, and also *doesn't
want* it to forward e-mails to the Exchange server; also, the e-mail archive
should not be duplicated on the Exchange server. They want the Exchange
server to connect (in some way) to the other system and show its contents
under the Exchange user's mailbox.
Can this be done? Can Exchange connect (in real time, i.e. not downloading
the messages!) to another system and show its mail store as if it was part
of its own? What's the best place to find information about developing such
a connection?
I don't need technical details for now (even if I would appreciate some); I
only need to say to the customer if this is at all possible.
Thanks
Massimo
date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 20:21:47 +0100
author: Massimo
Re: Strange customer's request
Hi,
Exchange is not coded to download (or display) messages from any mailsystem
except when using a POP3 downloader.
Is sounds to me that what they really want is that the Client (Outlook?)
displays messages from both systems. I don't believe that Outlook can do
this natively but a plugin can perhaps be coded.
Best to try to publish this request in an Outlook ng.
Leif
"Massimo" wrote in message
news:udHajd$MGHA.1460@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>A customer is asking me if it is possible at all (and how) to do the
>following.
>
> The customer has both an Exchange 2003 e-mail system and another mail
> system which is accessible using IMAP4, its own proprietary (but
> documented) network protocol and its own webmail interface; this other
> system has its own mail folders (inbox, sent items and so on).
>
> Currently, each user must separately connect to the Exchange server or to
> the other server, using OWA and the other system's webmail, or Outlook
> with an Exchange and an IMAP4 account, or another IMAP4 client with two
> different accounts.
>
> The customer's rquirement is to have the user connect to only the Exchange
> server and see the other server's mail archive through it; the archive
> needs to be read but not written, i.e. the users will only see it and be
> able to open messages; ideally, the other system's folders should appear
> as additional folders in the user's Exchange mailbox. Any outgoing mail
> will be sent only by the Exchange server.
>
> The customer *doesn't want* to dismiss the other system, and also *doesn't
> want* it to forward e-mails to the Exchange server; also, the e-mail
> archive should not be duplicated on the Exchange server. They want the
> Exchange server to connect (in some way) to the other system and show its
> contents under the Exchange user's mailbox.
>
> Can this be done? Can Exchange connect (in real time, i.e. not downloading
> the messages!) to another system and show its mail store as if it was part
> of its own? What's the best place to find information about developing
> such a connection?
>
> I don't need technical details for now (even if I would appreciate some);
> I only need to say to the customer if this is at all possible.
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Massimo
>
date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 23:21:57 +0100
author: Leif Pedersen [MVP]
Re: Strange customer's request
>. . . they want the Exchange server to show those other messages, so any user which
>connects to Exchange (using any protocol) can see them. . .
You cannot do this. While, as you and Leif have discussed, a MAPI
provider could make the other message store viewable from MAPI client,
and sinks and web store modifications could potentially make the other
store viewable from a WebDAV client (although even this proposition
would require messages to at least be streamed temporarily into the
web store on the way to the client), you're not going to be able to
use simple clients like POP and IMAP4 against the Exchange store and
view messages that aren't physically in the store.
Not to mention that the requirements here don't seem too well-informed
on their part. What's this mysterious other mail system, anyway?
>I came up with two possible solutions: one, as I said above, is to customize
>OWA to display a "virtual" folder along with the user's ones, which actually
>would be a front-end to the other server (some good ASP developers can
>probably do this);
That's a good fine, but doesn't meet the requirements as stated, since
it requires OWA as the interface.
>two, use a service to periodically download messages from
>the other server to the Exchange store, just like a POP3 connector does
>(this would probably be easier than partially re-writing OWA). The second
>solution could even be combined with event sinks to replicate message
>deletions from the Exchange to the other server.
But it also doesn't meet the requirements, since it does replicate the
messages en masse. If you did go this route anyway, you could use an
existing IMAP4 connector (POPBeamer and others support IMAP4) and
direct the messages to a secondary mailbox to which each respective
user has read-only access. That way, there's nothing to worry about
as far as pushing deletions _upstream_ to the other message store
(which would also have broken the requirements as stated). But
there's the question of how to make sure that deletions in the other
message store are propagated. My suggestion might be to find some way
of emptying the mailboxes on the Exchange side, and the UIDL cache,
before each one is synchronized. That way, each sync would bring the
latest full copy of the remote mailbox, including remote deletions.
You could also be talking about writing your own server-to-server
IMAP4 one-way sync utility. Yeah, that's pretty easy to write from
scratch. :) Seriously, the protocol is open-standard, and you only
have to code against one vendor's implementation, so in that respect
it's a little less terrifying. But I'd suggest that you also visit a
few of these sites and check out products in this area:
http://www.dataenter.com
http://www.ppedv.com/software/email/popconnect6.aspx
--Sandy
>
>Am I getting this right?
>
>
>Massimo
date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:49:36 -0500
author: Sanford Whiteman
Re: Strange customer's request
"Sanford Whiteman" ha scritto nel messaggio
news:roocv1h9kelgnn0ejkkcbknd0ole6lce62@4ax.com...
> You cannot do this. While, as you and Leif have discussed, a MAPI
> provider could make the other message store viewable from MAPI client,
> and sinks and web store modifications could potentially make the other
> store viewable from a WebDAV client (although even this proposition
> would require messages to at least be streamed temporarily into the
> web store on the way to the client), you're not going to be able to
> use simple clients like POP and IMAP4 against the Exchange store and
> view messages that aren't physically in the store.
Yes, agreed.
> Not to mention that the requirements here don't seem too well-informed
> on their part. What's this mysterious other mail system, anyway?
It's a message system gateway for mobile phones based on OpenWave Email MX;
the company wants to allow every Exchange user to see his mobile mailbox by
only logging on to Exchange. The other system exports its mailboxes as
IMAP4, webmail and proprietary APIs.
>>I came up with two possible solutions: one, as I said above, is to
>>customize
>>OWA to display a "virtual" folder along with the user's ones, which
>>actually
>>would be a front-end to the other server (some good ASP developers can
>>probably do this);
>
> That's a good fine, but doesn't meet the requirements as stated, since
> it requires OWA as the interface.
Yes, but the customer said they can be satisfied with only using OWA, if
nothing more can be done.
>>two, use a service to periodically download messages from
>>the other server to the Exchange store, just like a POP3 connector does
>>(this would probably be easier than partially re-writing OWA). The second
>>solution could even be combined with event sinks to replicate message
>>deletions from the Exchange to the other server.
>
> But it also doesn't meet the requirements, since it does replicate the
> messages en masse.
Of course; but it would work for all Exchange clients, so maybe they will
accept this, instead of being locked o only OWA clients. I don't know, I'll
suggest both solutions to them.
> If you did go this route anyway, you could use an
> existing IMAP4 connector (POPBeamer and others support IMAP4) and
> direct the messages to a secondary mailbox to which each respective
> user has read-only access. That way, there's nothing to worry about
> as far as pushing deletions _upstream_ to the other message store
> (which would also have broken the requirements as stated). But
> there's the question of how to make sure that deletions in the other
> message store are propagated. My suggestion might be to find some way
> of emptying the mailboxes on the Exchange side, and the UIDL cache,
> before each one is synchronized. That way, each sync would bring the
> latest full copy of the remote mailbox, including remote deletions.
>
> You could also be talking about writing your own server-to-server
> IMAP4 one-way sync utility. Yeah, that's pretty easy to write from
> scratch. :) Seriously, the protocol is open-standard, and you only
> have to code against one vendor's implementation, so in that respect
> it's a little less terrifying. But I'd suggest that you also visit a
> few of these sites and check out products in this area:
>
> http://www.dataenter.com
> http://www.ppedv.com/software/email/popconnect6.aspx
How to sync the stores is not the main concern at the moment, I only need to
point them to one or two solutions that *can* work; how to make them
actually work will be the concern of the developers that will become
involved in the project ;-)
Thanks for your answers, anyway.
Massimo
date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 07:46:08 +0100
author: Massimo
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