Exchange Web Services (2007) – Part One

I was recently asked to create a windows service to interface with the client’s Exchange Server 2007. As I had never done that, I did some research and came across the Exchange Web Services. Basically, Exchange servers 2007 and later expose several web services to enable 3rd party tie-ins to the data. In my case, the client wanted all pdf’s in a certain folder to be downloaded along with the original email as they arrived.

It broke down into the following steps:

  • Reference the Web Service
  • Connect to the Exchange server
  • Start a subscription to the exchange service
  • Polling the exchange server
    • On poll, if the exchange servers reports new events, get items
    • Get attachments for items
    • Save attachments to a local folder

Referencing the Web Service

In order to use the Exchange Web Services, you must create a Web Reference that points to your Exchange Server. Right click on your project and select Add Service Reference from the context menu. Now, since I’m working with 2007, I have to do a few extra steps to make it work correctly – just adding a regular service reference does not work.

Click the Advanced button on the bottom left of the popup, then click the Add Web Reference button on the bottom left of that popup. Now you can actually enter the address of the Exchange Service:

https://my.exchange.server/EWS/services.wsdl

Connecting to the Exchange Server

To connect to the Exchange Service, you create an instance of the ExchangeServiceBinding class, providing it with the URL and login credentials for the Exchange Server.

ServiceBinding = new ExchangeServiceBinding();
ServiceBinding.Url = Url; // https://my.exchange.server/EWS/Exchange.asmx
ServiceBinding.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(Username, Password, Domain);

Starting a Subscription

After setting up the ServiceBinding object, in this case I wanted to create a subscription so that I could get updates as messages came in to the Exchange server. There are two types of subscriptions – push and pull. A push subscription requires an additional service to be running that the Exchange server can call as subscribed events occur. As my application did not require live updates, I went with a pull subscription.

Using a pull subscription, you periodically request any new subscribed to events that have occurred on the server. The events are specified when setting up the subscription. The folders you are paying attention to are also specified during this time.

SubscribeType request = new SubscribeType();

// Setup the request:
// Create a PullSubscription object
PullSubscriptionRequestType subscription = new PullSubscriptionRequestType();

// Indicate to what events to subscribe
subscription.EventTypes = new NotificationEventTypeType[1];
subscription.EventTypes[0] = NotificationEventTypeType.NewMailEvent;

BaseFolderType folder = GetFolderByPath(ServiceBinding, folderPath);

// And on which folder to subscribe for these events.
subscription.FolderIds = new BaseFolderIdType[1];
subscription.FolderIds[0] = folder.FolderId;
subscription.Timeout = 5;

request.Item = subscription;

Next, we will actually make the Subscribe request on the ServiceBinding object created previously, then check to make sure it succeeded.

// Call the Subscribe EWS method
SubscribeResponseType response = ServiceBinding.Subscribe(request);

// Extract the first response message that contains the information we need. This
SubscribeResponseMessageType responseMessage = response.ResponseMessages.Items[0] as SubscribeResponseMessageType;

this.ThrowOnError("CreatePullSubscription", responseMessage);

As this post is already getting a bit long, I’m going to break it up over a few posts. Hopefully this contained some information that helped you understand how to connection to an Exchange Web Server. The next post will cover getting notifications from the ServiceBinding.

Getting the Current Directory

Sometimes you need to know what directory an application is actually running in – to load a config file for example. The code below finds the current directory of the application, sets it as the current directory, then loads a config file relative to that.

String path = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
path = Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(path);

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(@"config.xml");

Branding in SharePoint 2010

On Thursday afternoon I was asked to help a colleague out with an all day SharePoint 2010 training on Friday.  As I’m new to SharePoint I was uncertain how I could be of help, but was somewhat relieved when I was asked to do a segment on branding.  The audience was a group of 5 developers who (as I found out) had no SharePoint experience and were just sponges soaking up whatever bits of wisdom we gave them.  The short presentation I gave is below.

Getting Certified: The First Steps

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This series will track some of the issues and questions I run into as I learn and attempt to become a SharePoint Developer.  My new job knows I am not a SharePoint developer and want to help me grow into one – I’ve now been developing and working with SharePoint 2010 for a month.  One of the steps involved in this process is taking SharePoint 2010 Application Developer exam and getting certified (list of certifications).

The first one I’ll be going after is TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development.  A direct overview from the exam description:

A Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) in Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development should be able to perform the following tasks:
  • Write code that extends SharePoint 2010 (ok …)
  • Add and support code to an existing project (sure!)
  • Write code for and test custom features in a SharePoint solution such as a Visual Web Part or Event Receiver (no problem!)
  • Implement a solution designed by lead SharePoint Developer (easy!)
The candidate should also have the following experience:
  • 12 months with ASP.NET 3.5 with Visual Studio 2008 (or later) (nope …)
  •  6 months develop with SharePoint 2007 or later (nope again …)
  •  3 months with SP 2010 and VS2010 (includes beta releases) (nope a third time…)

The tasks sound easy enough considering they are amazingly generic.  Given that I have nothing resembling that amount of experience however, I’m hoping to make it up through sheer hard work, my blazing intellect, and an organized approach!  I’m definitely going to make use of the practice exam on MeasureUp.com, with the overall goal of taking the certification exam in about a month’s time from now.