[openmapi.org devel] Methods to administer user accounts

[Dr. Wolfgang Socher]

Hello Mr. Engels,

I have to answer to your user admin ideas.

1) MAPI methods: There is no definition for MAPI methods to administer
user accounts.

2) Public Folders with contacts:

Also this is not a real good idea.

+ The standard implementation of a MAPI store normally will use the user
definitions stored in a directory server (LDAP). It will be highly
inefficient to map dynamically a LDAP based tree of user definitions to
a MAPI contact folder (Think e. g. about LDAP referrals, different
access rights to different branches or MAPI push.)

+ You cannot be sure that there exist contact folders at all.

+ The use of public folders is depreciated by Microsoft. You have to
make special stunts to get them in Exchange 2007.


The general trend to administer user accounts is to do this in a
directory server and to use it via LDAP for all other systems and
applications. The private user management in Exchange 5.5 (anno 19xx) or
teamXchange is only a work around if there is no directory server
available. We should not try to establish MAPI as a competing directory
server technology.

Maybe the wish of user data in contacts means, that you want to access
the addresses of the internal users via MAPI. This can be done by the
new address book interface which is available in teamXchange release
2.4.1.


Best regards,

W. Socher