Dan's WebDAV 101

EWS has "More Happy" now - EWS Managed API and EWSEditor.

Daniel — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:59:00 GMT

Want to make working with Exchange Web Services (EWS) much easier to work with? There is a new API and new tool which can help. No matter which way you are doing or going to be doing EWS calls, you should be familiar with both the Exchange Web Services Managed API and EWSEditor.

Exchange Web Services Managed API:

The Exchange Web Services Managed API makes life much easier since it wraps a lot of calling code and logic which is needed to successfully execute EWS calls. No matter how you are doing EWS calls (pure soap calls, using generated .Net proxies or a third party API that does EWS calls), you should become familiar with this new API which released on Monday with Exchange 2010. This API will work with both Exchange 2010 and 2007. This API is a lot easier to use than other coding methods and can reduce code to well under 30% of what’s needed with generated proxy code (my observation).

This is the go-forward API for working with mailbox content.

EWSEditor:

There is a tool called EWSEditor which is written by a member of my team and used by our entire support team. It’s based-upon the EWS Managed API and is helpful in showing how calls using this API can be used since you can get the source code. We have been using it since Matt started building his tool using the early Beta of the Managed API in order help diagnose issues on customer’s systems. Having source code samples when learning a new API is often invaluable, so be sure to get a copy of the source for EWSEditor to use as a reference. Please check-out Matt’s blog below for more information on his tool and source code.

Announcing EWSEditor 1.5!

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ewseditor

ExchangeWebServices Namespace (generated .NET proxies)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/exchangewebservices.aspx

Exchange Web Services Managed API

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c3342fb3-fbcc-4127-becf-872c746840e1

Introducing the Exchange Web Services Managed API 1.0

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd637749.aspx

Microsoft Exchange Web Services Managed API 1.0

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd633709.aspx

One thing which I would strongly suggest is that if you find that your code does not work, try using EWSEditor to see if you can reproduce the issue. If the operation you are trying to perform is not covered with EWSEditor, then try to see if the problem reproduces with the EWS Managed API. EWSEditor & the EWS Managed API have the ability to log off EWS calls being performed. You can use this logging feature to compare what EWSEditor/The EWS Managed API sends with what your application sends in order to determine where a problem is with your code.

Big kudos for…

The Exchange Development Team for creating the EWS Exchange Managed API.

Matt for building EWSEditor and getting it public!!!

My daughter wants "More Happy" also...

Daniel — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:22:00 GMT

For Christmas my daughter is already asking for a netbook with Windows 7... because she wants more "Happy". If little Kylie can handle publishing and emailing under Windows 7, then my 10 year old should also be able to. Her old clunker running XP needs to be retired, so I'm not totally against the idea of her getting an upgrade. I think that I'll have to think about this one... and perhaps run it by Santa.

Some of you may be wondering how well Windows 7 will run. Hmmm, there are many ways to describe Windows 7... "Happy" would be a good description. When our team was able to get the early Betas for Windows 7, we started switching over - overall performance and reliablity were big factors for the switch. Some of us started loading Win 7 on netbooks since we wanted to see how well it ran - we were quite surprised with how well it ran... it actually ran really, really well.... so, well that it almost seemed to run as fast as Vista our multi-core boxes. Myself, I just would have been "happy" to have far fewer pop-up boxes asking me if I really wanted to run stuff. I've been using Windows 7 on several machines (desktops/laptops) for several months with a lot of different types of software and different hardware configurations and the experience has left me quite impressed.... In fact, I would say that more than "Happy" is comming... its lots of "Very Happy" which is comming.

So... I think my daughter should get more "Happy" also...

HowTo: Create a mailbox for an existing user, Create a user in AD, List AD User info.

Daniel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:28:00 GMT

//======================================================================================================

// CdoexmMailboxUtil -

// Exchange Mailbox and user account creation sample.

// This sample demonstrates the following:

// Creating a user account in AD

// Mail Enable an existing user.

// List information on an existing user.

// Note: This code is provided as a sample only, so you need to test and take responsibility

// of the code and any of its possible actions before usage. Being a sample, its provided

// for educational purposes only and is not supported in any way.

// Note: Because CDOEX is used, you must run this on the Exchange server being accessed.

// Note: Because this code uses CDOEXM, it will not run on an Exchange 2007 server. For Exchange 2007,

// you should use PowerShell instead.

// To compile:

// Set references to CDOEXM and CDOEX:

// CDOEX can be reference as this COM component: "Microsoft CDO for Exchange 2000 Library"

// Note: Setting a reference to CDOEX will generate the "CDO" and "ADODB" interops.

// If there is a preexisting ADODB interop, its usually best to remove it and let the

// referencing of CDOEX generate the ADODB interop.

// CDOEXM can be referenced as this COM component "CDO for Exchange Management"

// Note: Setting a reference to will generate the CDOEXM iterop.

// ActiveDS can be referenced as this COM component "Active DS Type Library"

// Note: Setting a reference to will generate the ActiveDS iterop.

// Last changed 8/19/2009

//======================================================================================================

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using CDOEXM;

using CDO;

using ActiveDs;

using System.DirectoryServices;

using System.EnterpriseServices;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ExchangePfUtil

{

class CdoexmMailboxUtil

{

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// TestCreateNewUserAndCreateMailbox – Create a new account, then independantly create the mailbox for it if the account was created.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

public static bool TestCreateNewUserAndCreateMailbox()

{

bool bRet = false;

string sFistName = "FirstName";

string sLastName = "LastName";

string sSamName = "firstlast";

string sCreateUserBaseContainer = "LDAP://CN=Users,DC=171751dom,DC=net";

string sCreateMailboxBaseContainer = "LDAP://DC=171751dom,DC=net";

string sHomeMDB = "CN=Mailbox Store (AP1-109028),CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore," +

"CN=AP1-109028,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=First Organization," +

"CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration," +

"DC=171751dom,DC=net";

string sError = "";

string UserId = null; // "Administrator";

string Password = null; // "xxxx";

bRet = CreateUser(sSamName, sFistName, sLastName, sCreateUserBaseContainer, sHomeMDB, out sError);

if (bRet == true)

{

bRet = MailEnableUser(sHomeMDB, sSamName, sCreateMailboxBaseContainer, UserId, Password, out sError);

}

return bRet;

}

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// TestCreateMailBoxForExistingUser – test existing account created in Active Directory Users and Computers – with no mailbox.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

public static bool TestCreateMailBoxForExistingUser()

{

bool bRet = false;

string sSamName = "firstlastExisting";

string sCreateMailboxBaseContainer = "LDAP://DC=171751dom,DC=net";

string sHomeMDB = "CN=Mailbox Store (AP1-109028),CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore," +

"CN=AP1-109028,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=First Organization," +

"CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration," +

"DC=171751dom,DC=net";

string sError = "";

string UserId = null; // "Administrator";

string Password = null; // "xxxx";

bRet = MailEnableUser(sHomeMDB, sSamName, sCreateMailboxBaseContainer, UserId, Password, out sError);

return bRet;

}

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// CreateUser()

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

private static bool CreateUser(string sSamName, string sFistName, string sLastName, string sBaseContainer, string sHomeMDB, out string sErrorMessage)

{

bool bRet = false;

string sError = "";

try

{

DirectoryEntry oCont = new DirectoryEntry(sBaseContainer);

IADsContainer oDSCont = null;

IADsUser oUser = null;

oDSCont = oCont.NativeObject as IADsContainer;

oUser = oDSCont.Create("user", string.Format("CN={0} {1}", sFistName, sLastName)) as IADsUser;

oUser.Put("sn", sLastName);

oUser.Put("givenname", sFistName);

oUser.Put("samaccountname", sSamName);

oUser.SetInfo();

oUser.AccountDisabled = false;

oUser.SetInfo();

bRet = true;

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

sError = ex.Message;

Console.WriteLine("Failed to create user");

Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

bRet = false;

}

sErrorMessage = sError;

return bRet;

}

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// MailEnableUser

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

private static bool MailEnableUser(string sHomeMDB, string sSamName, string AdLdapPath, string AdUserId, string AdPassword, out string sErrorMessage)

{

string sError = "";

bool bRet = false;

DirectoryEntry oDirectoryEntryServer = new DirectoryEntry(AdLdapPath); //, null, null, AuthenticationTypes.Secure);

try

{

DirectorySearcher oDirectorySearcher = new DirectorySearcher(oDirectoryEntryServer);

oDirectorySearcher.Filter = "(SAMAccountName=" + sSamName + ")";

SearchResult LDAPresult = oDirectorySearcher.FindOne();

DirectoryEntry oDirectoryEntry = LDAPresult.GetDirectoryEntry();

ActiveDs.IADsUser oUser = (IADsUser)oDirectoryEntry.NativeObject;

//IMailboxStore oMailBox = null;

bRet = CreateMailbox(oUser, sHomeMDB, out sError);

bRet = true;

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

sError = ex.Message;

Console.WriteLine("Could not get directory entry for user.");

Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

bRet = false;

}

sErrorMessage = sError;

return bRet;

}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// CreateMailbox

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

private static bool CreateMailbox(IADsUser oUser, string sHomeMDB, out string sErrorMessage)

{

string sError = "";

bool bRet = false;

IMailboxStore oMailBox = null;

try

{

oMailBox = (IMailboxStore)oUser;

oMailBox.CreateMailbox(sHomeMDB);

oUser.SetInfo();

bRet = true;

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

sError = ex.Message;

Console.WriteLine("Could not create mailbox.");

Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

bRet = false;

}

Marshal.ReleaseComObject(oMailBox);

sErrorMessage = sError;

return bRet;

}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// UserInfo

// Display info on a user account in AD.

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

public static bool UserInfo(string sSamName, string AdLdapPath, string AdUserId, string AdPassword, out string sErrorMessage)

{

string sError = "";

bool bRet = false;

DirectoryEntry oDirectoryEntryServer = new DirectoryEntry(AdLdapPath); //, null, null, AuthenticationTypes.Secure);

try

{

DirectorySearcher oDirectorySearcher = new DirectorySearcher(oDirectoryEntryServer);

oDirectorySearcher.Filter = "(SAMAccountName=" + sSamName + ")";

SearchResult LDAPresult = oDirectorySearcher.FindOne();

DirectoryEntry oDirectoryEntry = LDAPresult.GetDirectoryEntry();

ActiveDs.IADsUser oUser = (IADsUser)oDirectoryEntry.NativeObject;

//IMailboxStore oMailBox = null;

//Console.WriteLine(string.Format("distinguishedName: {0}", LDAPresult.Properties["distinguishedName"] ));

Console.WriteLine(string.Format("FullName: {0}", oUser.FullName.ToString()));

Console.WriteLine(string.Format("FirstName: {0}", oUser.FirstName.ToString()));

Console.WriteLine(string.Format("LastName: {0}", oUser.LastName.ToString()));

Console.WriteLine(string.Format("EmailAddress: {0}", oUser.EmailAddress.ToString()));

Console.WriteLine(string.Format("ADsPath: {0}", oUser.ADsPath.ToString()));

Console.WriteLine(string.Format("AccountDisabled: {0}", oUser.AccountDisabled.ToString()));

bRet = true;

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

sError = ex.Message;

Console.WriteLine("Error trying to find user.");

Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

bRet = false;

}

sErrorMessage = sError;

return bRet;

}

Here are some related links:

XADM: The CDOEXM IMailboxStore::CreateMailbox() or IMailboxStore::MoveMailbox() Method Fails

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317234/

How to set Exchange Server 2000 and 2003 mailbox rights at the time of mailbox creation

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304935

How to programmatically create a mailbox for an existing user in the Active Directory by using CDOEXM

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327079

How to create a mailbox-enabled recipient by using Visual C#

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313114

HOWTO: Using CDOEXM in ASP.NET (.NET Framework 2.0 Walkthrough)

http://blogs.msdn.com/mstehle/archive/2007/05/11/howto-using-cdoexm-in-asp-net-net-framework-2-0-walkthrough.aspx