is it possible: exchange databases to be programmed directly?

8 May 2009 12:15 PM

Fritz Theiss

hallo,

i am selling an application to be used for project management. therefore
appointments like in outlook calendar are stored.

i may now have an order to develop an interface to outlook/exchange server.
meaning: every appointment stored in my app should be synchronized with
outlook calendar. however - according to customer - we should avoid to roll
out to every client (like an add-in to install). instead i am thinking about
the idea to develop exchange (server 2003) database(s) directly.

questions:
- is this possible?
- if not, is there an api documentation existing (and where)?

i am not an exchange guru, therefore my questions. for personal interest
purposes: where are the database files phyically stored on exchange server? i
believe to remember that .edb was used with exchange 5.5.

--
thanks in advance / danke im voraus, fritz
--
Fritz Theiss

11 May 2009 8:04 AM

Fritz Theiss

anybody please? please note: a "no - using exchange server that way is not
possible" is also a valid answer ;-).

--
thanks in advance / danke im voraus, fritz
--
Fritz Theiss

Show quoteHide quote

"Fritz Theiss" wrote:

> hallo,
>
> i am selling an application to be used for project management. therefore
> appointments like in outlook calendar are stored.
>
> i may now have an order to develop an interface to outlook/exchange server.
> meaning: every appointment stored in my app should be synchronized with
> outlook calendar. however - according to customer - we should avoid to roll
> out to every client (like an add-in to install). instead i am thinking about
> the idea to develop exchange (server 2003) database(s) directly.
>
> questions:
> - is this possible?
> - if not, is there an api documentation existing (and where)?
>
> i am not an exchange guru, therefore my questions. for personal interest
> purposes: where are the database files phyically stored on exchange server? i
> believe to remember that .edb was used with exchange 5.5.
>
> --
> thanks in advance / danke im voraus, fritz
> --
> Fritz Theiss

11 May 2009 8:03 PM

DamageJackal

Hi,

You can't work directly with the Exchange databases for many reasons.

If I understand correctly, you want your app server to sync the meetings
from your app users or database to the calendars in mailboxes in Exchange.

If so, you'll need to run your app as a user that has access to all
mailboxes. I suggest this user to be very secure since it can get into
any mailbox.
Once you have that user, you can write an app that uses MAPI to access
all mailboxes and create the meetings in their calendars.

If you're using managed code, then you can download assemblies from
MSDN. CDO 1.2.1 (
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2714320d-c997-4de1-986f-24f081725d36&displaylang=en)

All in all, what you're trying to do is definitely possible, just not by
working directly with the Exchange databases.

DJ

Fritz Theiss wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> anybody please? please note: a "no - using exchange server that way is not
> possible" is also a valid answer ;-).
>

11 May 2009 3:20 PM

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

Fritz Theiss <FritzThe***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> hallo,
>
> i am selling an application to be used for project management.
> therefore appointments like in outlook calendar are stored.
>
> i may now have an order to develop an interface to outlook/exchange
> server. meaning: every appointment stored in my app should be
> synchronized with outlook calendar. however - according to customer -
> we should avoid to roll out to every client (like an add-in to
> install). instead i am thinking about the idea to develop exchange
> (server 2003) database(s) directly.
>
> questions:
> - is this possible?
> - if not, is there an api documentation existing (and where)?
>
> i am not an exchange guru, therefore my questions. for personal
> interest purposes: where are the database files phyically stored on
> exchange server? i believe to remember that .edb was used with
> exchange 5.5.
>
> --
> thanks in advance / danke im voraus, fritz

Exchange 2003 uses .edb and .stm files - one of each, per database. I'm not
sure how to answer your question - you might have more luck in
microsoft.public.exchange.applications or ....development.