Summary

This chapter explored the mail services provided by the .NET Framework. It reviewed key concepts and protocols related to mail services, such as SMTP, POP, and IMAP. It reviewed sending mail messages with attachments programmatically. The chapter also looked at building server forms as a means to streamline collaborative communication within the enterprise. Because the .NET Framework offers functionality only for sending and not receiving messages, the chapter looked into using the CDO object library to tap into Outlook services. Finally, you put all of these elements to work to build out the mail services infrastructure in the IssueTracker application.

The next chapter takes a close look at business process automation and how you can quickly add it to an enterprise application with the help of Microsoft BizTalk Server. BizTalk Server provides tools that simplify process definitions that span across multiple applications and execute for weeks. You can implement these processes using either the built-in BizTalk Server tools or the .NET managed code that is plugged in as an integration component.