Changes from Exchange Server 2000

We'll look next at the differences between Exchange Server 2000 and Exchange Server 2003 ” specifically , the technologies that have been removed or are no longer supported in Exchange Server 2003.

M: Drive Removed

The M: drive is disabled by default. However, you can turn it back on through registry settings. The training application in Chapter 15 does that so that it can copy files using file copy to the drive if necessary. However, you should not use the M: drive to perform administrative work on Exchange. The following is the code from the sample that enables the M: drive. You must recycle the Exchange store in order for the changes to take effect.

 Sub EnableWSSDrive() 'Enable the M Drive    Dim strWSSDrive As String    strWSSDrive = "M"    SetKeyValue "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EXIFS\Parameters", _                "DriveLetter", strWSSDrive, REG_SZ    Shell App.Path & "\cycle.bat", vbNormalFocus    MsgBox "The application is now stopping and restarting SharePoint " & _           "Portal Server for the change to take effect. Please click " & _           "ok when the services are done restarting.", _           vbInformation + vbOKOnly, App.Title End Sub 

Instant Messaging Removed

The IM server support has been removed from Exchanger Server 2003. Instead, you should use the real-time collaboration capabilities in Windows Server 2003. Exchange IM is based on the Rendezvous RVP protocol. The new Windows Server IM server is based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). In Chapter 19, I'll cover the IM controls included with the Exchange SDK, which use RVP, as well as programming Windows Messenger, which supports SIP.

Create Index No Longer Supported

In Exchange Server 2000, you can create indexes programmatically. In Exchange Server 2003, this capability is removed. As a result, the Create Index function, which is part of the ADO commands you can send to Exchange, is no longer supported.

CDOHTML Removed

If you install a clean build of Exchange Server 2003, you will not find the CDO 1.21 Rendering Library (CDOHTML) on the server. CDOHTML does not ship with Exchange Server 2003. This means you have to install Outlook Web Access 5.5 to get CDOHTML. You cannot install OWA 5.5 on an Exchange Server 2003 server, so if you want to use CDOHTML, it must be on a server that isn't running Exchange Server 2003. The only time you will use CDOHTML is in ASP or ASP .NET for authorization impersonation and rendering. Using CDOHTML for rendering is the least common usage.

FrontPage WSS Form Authoring Tool No Longer Supported

The FrontPage tools to build WSS forms are no longer supported because they built on the M: drive capabilities of Exchange. WSS forms are still supported ”just not this authoring tool.

Anonymous Access to Metabase Removed

Starting with Service Pack 3 of Exchange 2000 and Exchange Server 2003, CDO can no longer access the metabase using an anonymous account. Therefore, when you attempt to send messages in CDO without setting the way to send the message ”for example, using the IIS pickup directory or by using a SMTP port ”CDO will fail. You must explicitly designate the CDO configuration object, which we will look at in Chapter 15, as the way to send messages via CDO.

What About Exchange Server 5.5 Applications?

You might wonder what will happen to the Exchange Server 5.5 applications you've written using MAPI, CDO, ADSI, or even the Event Scripting Agent. Have no fear ”those applications should continue to run without modification, except for some cases that I'll describe here.

MAPI, CDO 1.21, and the Event Scripting Agent are all supported by Exchange Server 2000. Event Scripting Agents are not supported by Exchange 2003. CDO 1.21 is supported against Exchange 2003 servers. Outlook 2003 uses MAPI, so you know that MAPI continues to work well against Exchange because Outlook continues to work well against Exchange.

If you've written applications that use the Directory API (DAPI), you must rewrite your code to use ADSI because Active Directory replaces the Exchange Server directory. If you've written administration extensions to the Exchange Server administration program, you must rewrite these extensions to the MMC because this is the way you administer Exchange servers.

The major hurdle of moving your Exchange Server 5.5 applications to Exchange Server 2003 is the conceptual differences between the two versions of Exchange Server. You can continue to run your Exchange Server 5.5 applications as is on Exchange Server 2003, but you should at least look at the features of Exchange Server 2000 and 2003 to see where you can enhance your existing applications. For example, if you have an Outlook forms-based application, you might want to extend it using the new server events in Exchange Server to add workflow or other functionality.