Exchange integration?

Exchange integration?

[William M. Perry]

Anybody out there given any thought to integrating Gnus with Exchange 
server?  With all the work done lately to make KDE's mail / calendar 
clienst use the WebDAV interface exposed by Outlook Web Access, we 
should be able to make something happen.  There is preliminary WebDAV 
support in the latest URL packages.

We are getting ready to make the jump to owa2k at work, and I would hate 
to have to use something other than gnus to get my email from that 
account just to make scheduling easier.

-bp

Re: Exchange integration?

[Mark A. Hershberger]

"William M. Perry" <wmperry@aventail.com> writes:

> Anybody out there given any thought to integrating Gnus with Exchange
> server?

Yes.

It would be nice to have this documented somewhere.  A lot of stuff
is already taken care of already (if IMAP is enabled on Exchange),
but it'd be good to have more.

Mark.

Re: Exchange integration?

[Jake Colman]

>>>>> "MAH" == Mark A Hershberger <mah@everybody.org> writes:

   MAH> It would be nice to have this documented somewhere.  A lot of stuff
   MAH> is already taken care of already (if IMAP is enabled on Exchange),
   MAH> but it'd be good to have more.

Why do you say "a lot of stuff is already taken care of"?  If Exchange is
configured for IMAP then, yes, you can easily use gnus and nnimap to process
your email.  But that's it.  You can only access Exchange as an IMAP Server.
I, for one, sorely need the ability to handle my Outlook Calendar through
gnus but, currently, cannot.  I am forced to keep Outlook running for the
sole purpose of accepting message invitations and updating my calendar.

Is it true that Exchange has a published interface that allows non-Outlook
clients to hook into the other server features?

-- 
Jake Colman                     

Principia Partners LLC                    Phone: (201) 209-2467
Harborside Financial Center                 Fax: (201) 946-0320
902 Plaza Two                          E-mail: colman@ppllc.com
Jersey City, NJ 07311                 www.principiapartners.com

Linux is not The Answer. Yes is the answer. Linux is The Question. - Neo

Re: Exchange integration?

[William M. Perry]

Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:

> Why do you say "a lot of stuff is already taken care of"?  If Exchange is
> configured for IMAP then, yes, you can easily use gnus and nnimap to
> process your email.  But that's it.  You can only access Exchange as an
> IMAP Server.  I, for one, sorely need the ability to handle my Outlook
> Calendar through gnus but, currently, cannot.  I am forced to keep
> Outlook running for the sole purpose of accepting message invitations and
> updating my calendar.
>
> Is it true that Exchange has a published interface that allows
> non-Outlook clients to hook into the other server features?

With Outlook 2k if you install the 'Outlook Web Access' (OWA) feature
it exposes a whole bunch of stuff via WebDAV.  This is why the IE
version of OWA is so much spiffier than on netscape - they actually
download an ActiveX control that uses the webdav extensions while any
other browser is stuck with the stock HTML stuff.

The last I looked this was how the Exchgange Connector for Evolution
and the KOrganizer plugin worked - they just talk WebDAV.  The ximian
page still says owa is required, so I would say this is still true:

- Before using Ximian Connector you must have
    * Ximian Evolution 1.4 or higher
    * An account on a Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
    * OWA (Outlook Web Access) active on the Exchange 2000 Server

We couldn't look at the ximian source, but the korganizer stuff should
be usable as a reference.

-bp
-- 
Ceterum censeo vi esse delendam

Re: Exchange integration?

[Jake Colman]

So all of this is only true with Exchange 2000?  We are still stuck in the
ice age with Exchange 5.5.

>>>>> "WMP" == William M Perry <wmperry@gnu.org> writes:

   WMP> Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:
   >> Why do you say "a lot of stuff is already taken care of"?  If Exchange is
   >> configured for IMAP then, yes, you can easily use gnus and nnimap to
   >> process your email.  But that's it.  You can only access Exchange as an
   >> IMAP Server.  I, for one, sorely need the ability to handle my Outlook
   >> Calendar through gnus but, currently, cannot.  I am forced to keep
   >> Outlook running for the sole purpose of accepting message invitations and
   >> updating my calendar.
   >> 
   >> Is it true that Exchange has a published interface that allows
   >> non-Outlook clients to hook into the other server features?

   WMP> With Outlook 2k if you install the 'Outlook Web Access' (OWA) feature
   WMP> it exposes a whole bunch of stuff via WebDAV.  This is why the IE
   WMP> version of OWA is so much spiffier than on netscape - they actually
   WMP> download an ActiveX control that uses the webdav extensions while any
   WMP> other browser is stuck with the stock HTML stuff.

   WMP> The last I looked this was how the Exchgange Connector for Evolution
   WMP> and the KOrganizer plugin worked - they just talk WebDAV.  The ximian
   WMP> page still says owa is required, so I would say this is still true:

   WMP> - Before using Ximian Connector you must have
   WMP>     * Ximian Evolution 1.4 or higher
   WMP>     * An account on a Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
   WMP>     * OWA (Outlook Web Access) active on the Exchange 2000 Server

   WMP> We couldn't look at the ximian source, but the korganizer stuff should
   WMP> be usable as a reference.

   WMP> -bp
   WMP> -- 
   WMP> Ceterum censeo vi esse delendam

-- 
Jake Colman                     

Principia Partners LLC                    Phone: (201) 209-2467
Harborside Financial Center                 Fax: (201) 946-0320
902 Plaza Two                          E-mail: colman@ppllc.com
Jersey City, NJ 07311                 www.principiapartners.com

Linux is not The Answer. Yes is the answer. Linux is The Question. - Neo

Re: Exchange integration?

[William M. Perry]

Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:

> So all of this is only true with Exchange 2000?  We are still stuck in
> the ice age with Exchange 5.5.

Correct - 2k only.  I'm stuck with 5.5 for now as well, but this is
actually the driving force behind upgrading at work.

-bp
-- 
Ceterum censeo vi esse delendam

Re: Exchange integration?

[William M. Perry]

mah@everybody.org (Mark A. Hershberger) writes:

> "William M. Perry" <wmperry@aventail.com> writes:
>
>> Anybody out there given any thought to integrating Gnus with Exchange
>> server?
>
> Yes.
>
> It would be nice to have this documented somewhere.  A lot of stuff is
> already taken care of already (if IMAP is enabled on Exchange), but it'd
> be good to have more.

The big problem with using the IMAP frontend is that all the exchange
specific goodies get nuked.  Depending on what version of exchange you are
using the appointment locations and times don't come down if you use IMAP.
Eeek!

-bp
-- 
Ceterum censeo vi esse delendam

Re: Exchange integration?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

"William M. Perry" <wmperry@aventail.com> writes:

> Anybody out there given any thought to integrating Gnus with Exchange
> server?  With all the work done lately to make KDE's mail / calendar
> clienst use the WebDAV interface exposed by Outlook Web Access, we
> should be able to make something happen.  There is preliminary WebDAV
> support in the latest URL packages.

Over on gnu.emacs.gnus somebody was talking about MAPI extensions to
NT-Emacs... 

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: Exchange integration?

[William M. Perry]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen wrote:

>"William M. Perry" <wmperry@aventail.com> writes:
>
>  
>
>>Anybody out there given any thought to integrating Gnus with Exchange
>>server?  With all the work done lately to make KDE's mail / calendar
>>clienst use the WebDAV interface exposed by Outlook Web Access, we
>>should be able to make something happen.  There is preliminary WebDAV
>>support in the latest URL packages.
>>    
>>
>
>Over on gnu.emacs.gnus somebody was talking about MAPI extensions to
>NT-Emacs... 
>  
>
Holy cow lars... that was an old message. :)

I have actually been spending way too much time lately looking at the 
internals of outlook web access 2000.  It is almost a pure WebDAV 
server.  Internet Explorer actually uses an ActiveX control and 
javascript to talk webdav to it so its a pretty sexy UI and can do some 
pretty nice things.

I have a test owa2k server in my house now so I could let people have 
access to it if anyone wants to hack on it.  Maybe using something like 
cadaver in a subprocess (I'm not sure the webdav stuff in the url 
package is up to the task).

-bp

-bp