Chapter Summary

Public folders are repositories for all kinds of information, and they are available to all imaginable applications, including standard Win32 programs that can access these repositories via ExIFS. Public folders are primarily managed using Exchange System Manager, but users may also use their client programs for their creation and administration. The actual public folder repositories are maintained in public stores.

Public folder access relies on two elements: the public folder hierarchy and the public folder content. Public folders may also have recipient objects, even though they may be hidden from the Global Address List by default. Exchange 2000 Server supports multiple hierarchies, which gives you better administrative control and flexibility over workgroup and workflow solutions. Public stores on different servers may refer to the same hierarchy, in which case the hierarchy is automatically replicated between them. At least one server holding the default public store for the MAPI-based public folders tree must exist within an administrative group.

When you open a public folder, your client program will send an open request to your home server. If the server has the contents, you will get access. If it doesn't, it returns a referral list to the client. Based on the information from this list, the client will connect to a server within the local or remote routing groups. If all target servers are inaccessible for some reason, you will receive an error message that the folder content could not be located.