Most of you have realized by now that Exchange 2007 doesn't include MAPI "in the box". We're supporting two ways to put MAPI on an Exchange 2007 server:
Some of you have noticed as well that with Exchange 2007, you don't have to have a Public Folder store. What happens when you try to connect to an Exchange 2007 server that doesn't have a Public Folder store?
With Outlook 2007, you connect with no problem. Earlier versions of Outlook get this error:
"Your Exchange Server administrator has blocked the version of Outlook that you are using. Contact your administrator for assistance."
MAPI applications will get the error MAPI_E_FAILONEPROVIDER if they're using any version of MAPI except the version supplied by Outlook 2007.
So what's a developer to do? Are you locked in to Outlook 2007's MAPI? Why did we provide a MAPI download if it won't even work?
Introducing CONNECT_IGNORE_NO_PF
Exchange 2007 blocks all MAPI providers earlier than Outlook 2007 when Public Folders are not available. This is because all of the earlier clients assume Public Folders will be available and will experience failures if allowed to connect. For customers whose code does not depend on Public Folders, a new flag has been made available to allow this check to be bypassed.
Right now, the only version of MAPI which supports this new flag is the MAPI download.
Details on the new flag:
#define CONNECT_IGNORE_NO_PF ((ULONG)0x8000)
This is set in the PR_PROFILE_CONNECT_FLAGS property on the global profile section.
The global profile section can be accessed by calling OpenProfileSection with pbGlobalProfileSectionGuid, which is defined in edkmdb.h.
When this flag is set, Exchange 2007 will not check if public folders are available when logging on. Use of this flag can be demonstrated with MAPI Editor:
Caveats
Update - 4/17/07 Removed inadvertent assertion that there is a build of Exchange 2003 MAPI that understands this flag. If such a build does become available I'll update again.
Steve,
Can you disclose how exchange is verifying the outlook version?
Could we as developers change the version in the profile to be 2007 and remove the public folder provider from the profile?
For that matter, why can't we just remove the PF provider and have downlevel clients work?
I agree that the default for older clients is to have a PF provider in the profile, but it seems unfair that no check is made to determine if a PF provider even exists before failing on the profile.
Regards,
Eriq
Outlook on an Exchange Server?
Steve, maybe i am misinterpreting your comments.
In previous releases it was strongly cautioned against deploying Outlook on an exchange server because of the mapi stub.
Is this no longer the case? Can outlook 2007 be installed on a 2007 exchange server without issue?
-Eriq
That we support putting Outlook 2007 on an Exchange 2007 server should be in the release notes. Dave blogged about it here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/dgoldman/archive/2007/02/27/installing-outlook-2007-on-an-exchange-2007-server.aspx
The version number that Exchange gets is actually the version of the emsmdb32.dll binary, so you won't be able to "set" it.
which methods will return MAPI_E_FAILONEPROVIDER in case of the version mismatch? Is it on the first call that causes an RPC?
Dmitry - Good question - it's on OpenMsgStore. If you play around with this, you'll probably see that AB access still works.
Does 'the MAPI Download' still use the 'stubbed' approach as previous versions?
The MAPI download installs Exchange's MAPI32.dll directly into system32 - it does not use the stub.
speaking of versions, versions of Outlook prior to 2007 used to set the PR_PROFILE_SERVER_VERSION in the global profile section.
I don't think Outlook 2007 does that anymore in neither cached nor online mode.
Is the Exchange server version still stored somewhere?
Following up on my previous article on CONNECT_IGNORE_NO_PF , I had a customer recently who claimed MAPI
Dmitry - there IS a new prop (in the same place as the old one), but it's not documented (yet). I'm sure you'll be able to find it. :)
We have an EDK based MAPI connector with Exchange 2000/2003. How do you use it on Exchange 2007 ? Can i use it or no ?
Any help is appreciated...
You can't - but you don't need to either. Exchange 2007 has a much simpler mechanism for building connectors. See the documentation on Foreign Connectors: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996779.aspx
Hi,
The download MAPI works fine for the 'old-format' PST but does not work for Outlook 2003/2007 format. IMsgServiceAdmin->ConfigureMsgService() returns MAPI_E_EXTENDED_ERROR. I read in some other blog that Exchange 2007 SP1 will provide functionality to export/import also the new PST. Is this anyhow related with the standalona MAPI and will this be enhanced to support new SPT format too?
The download is Exchange's MAPI, which only includes an ANSI PST provider. What you're looking for is the Unicode PST provider - don't hold your breath waiting for it to show up in the download.
What else has to happen to the profile? I am creating a brand new profile and now when OpenMsgStore() is called, I receive a unconfigured profile error (8004011C) instead of the 011D.
Even if I stop my program and manually update the profile in the middle I will get this error.
It seems like the profile isn't getting fully saved before the update happens. I'm just not sure what is wrong, the code works with Ex2007 with public folders, Ex2003, Ex2000, even 5.5.
Do you have any sample code to show the process of updating the PR_PROFILE_CONNECT_FLAGS?