Exchange Server 2003 SDK

The Exchange Server 2003 SDK is available for download from MSDN at http://msdn.microsoft.com/exchange. It is composed of a set of specialized Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), sample code, sample applications, utilities, and documentation covering all aspects of Exchange integration.

Because Exchange is a complex product and applications based on Exchange can involve a wide spectrum of technologies and development languages, the SDK has been reorganized to make it easier to select the correct interface to use when creating an application.

The SDK documentation contains new sections on how to select the best Exchange development technologies for the project you have in mind, as well as some of the advantages and trade-offs for different programming interfaces (that is, Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange, WebDAV, MAPI, and so on). This makes it much easier to determine what SDK components you need to use to deliver a specific application.

In addition to the updated documentation, a Technology Evaluation spreadsheet is available with the SDK and installed under C:\Program Files\Exchange SDK\SDK\Samples\Technology Evaluation\TechEval.xls (where C: is the drive where you have installed the SDK files).

The spreadsheet, shown in Figure 12.1, is macro driven and allows you to select from four areas of criteria, including the following:

• Functional Criteria

• Development Criteria

• Security Criteria

• Deployment Criteria

Figure 12.1. You can use the Technology Evaluation spreadsheet from the SDK to find the best programming interface for your application.

Then you select from a number of different Exchange development technologies and view a summary sheet that contains information about the different technologies, how they are used, what types of applications can be created using the interface, licensing and security implications, and so on.

After you have determined which development method you want to use, you can then find the APIs, sample code, and documentation that refer to that method.

In the following sections, we are going to look at some of the types of applications you can create using the Exchange 2003 SDK and what has changed in the related integration methods.