Recommendations for Accessing Exchange Server

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The Starter Kit uses the Outlook object model extensively, which you might want to avoid if performance is a concern for your dashboard. The following recommendations will help you build dashboards that perform very well with Exchange data sources.

• Use the databinding controls whenever possible. You'll want to take advantage of the Outlook Databinding control when you need to display calendar or task information and you don't need a way for the user to drag and drop information contained in the HTML. The Databinding control streams information quickly into the page and eliminates some of the overhead of using the Outlook View control when displaying Outlook information. If your users require interaction with the data in a robust way, however, you'll want to use the View control in your application.
• Use CDO whenever possible. CDO is very good at accessing Exchange data, both online and offline, quickly, so try to use it wherever possible to access, update, or create information in your dashboard. If you need to interact with certain types of information in Outlook such as tasks or contacts, you'll want to use the Outlook object model or the View control. Both of these technologies expose a much richer interface to data types like tasks or contacts.
• Be smart about client-side scripting. Too much client-side script can slow your dashboard to a crawl. If possible, leverage ASP or some form of server component to display or retrieve data.
• Use COM add-ins. If you're going to host your dashboard in Outlook 2000, you won't want to forget about COM add-ins. By offloading some work to the add-in, you can take advantage of the speed with which the compiled code in the add-in can run. Plus, your add-ins can perform work during an entire Outlook session, which makes your dashboard performance even better. For example, in your dashboard, your add-in could synchronize with an OLAP cube in the background rather than in the foreground.
• Don't be afraid of ActiveX controls. If you're going to be hosting your dashboard in Outlook, this is especially true. Why spend countless hours tweaking HTML when you could write an ActiveX control that creates a better layout or has more functionality than you could provide in a Web page? Let your VB skills loose and write ActiveX controls when it makes sense for your dashboard. The benefit is that you can leverage these controls in other scenarios as well. The only drawback is deploying the controls and securing them. You can deploy your controls from a Web page, and if you use ActiveX control signing, you shouldn't have a problem with security.

What About Exchange 2000?

We're going to cover Exchange 2000 in much more detail in a later chapter. However, I wanted to point out that any of the nuggets you generate in Exchange 5.5 will work in Exchange 2000. This means the Outlook View control, the Databinding control, and the CDO and Outlook object model code you write will work in Exchange 2000. You can enhance your dashboard with Exchange 2000 technology because it offers richer security, Outlook Web Access, and new workflow capabilities.