Current development technologies for Exchange
Published: July 16, 2012
Learn about the development technologies that you can use to build applications that work with Exchange 2013.
Applies to: Exchange Server 2003 | Exchange Server 2007 | Exchange Server 2010 | Exchange Web Services (EWS) Managed API | Exchange Server 2013
In this article
EWS Managed API
EWS
Mail apps for Outlook
Outlook object model
Exchange Management Shell
VSS backup and restore
Exchange transport agents
In this section
Additional resources
This article provides an overview of the primary Exchange development technologies that you can use to create custom applications for Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010, or Exchange 2013. While other development technologies are also available, we recommend that you use these technologies if possible because they are more current and easier to use.
The articles in this section provide evaluation criteria that you can use to determine which development technology is right for your project.
The Exchange Web Services (EWS) Managed API provides an intuitive interface for developing client applications that use EWS. The API enables unified access to Exchange resources, while using Outlook–compatible business logic. The EWS Managed API communicates with the Exchange Client Access server by means of EWS SOAP messages.
If you're using the .NET Framework, and you want to connect to your Exchange mailbox, we recommend that you use the EWS Managed API. The object model is much easier to use than raw XML or the autogenerated .NET Framework class library to access EWS.
You can use the EWS Managed API to access EWS in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and later versions of Exchange, including Exchange Online.
For more information, see Explore the EWS Managed API.
Exchange Web Services (EWS) provides an XML messaging interface that enables you to manage Exchange store items and access Exchange server functionality from client applications.
EWS was introduced in Exchange 2007. Subsequent product releases introduce new EWS features. The following table lists the versions of Exchange that include EWS and the major features that were introduced in each version. You can use this information to determine what features are available when you are running your code against multiple versions of Exchange, or to determine what server version you need to be running for a scenario that requires certain features.
Product version | Features |
|---|---|
Exchange Online | Includes all the features in the current version of Exchange in addition to any new features that are added for online clients. |
Exchange 2013 | Includes all features introduced in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010. The following features were introduced in Exchange 2013:
|
Exchange 2010 SP2 | Includes all the features introduced in Exchange 2010 SP1. The following features were introduced in Exchange 2010 SP2:
|
Exchange 2010 SP1 | Includes all the features introduced in Exchange 2010. The following features were introduced in Exchange 2010 SP1:
|
Exchange 2010 | Includes all features introduced in Exchange 2007 SP1. The following features were introduced in the initial release version of Exchange 2010:
|
Exchange 2007 SP1 | Includes all the features introduced in Exchange 2007. The following features were introduced in Exchange 2007 SP1:
|
Exchange 2007 | The following features were introduced in the initial release version of Exchange 2007:
|
For information about how to create client applications that use EWS, see Web services in Exchange 2013.
Mail apps for Outlook provide a single web standards–based interface and programming model that you can use to create a custom email experience for your users; for example, you can use mail apps to display a window with a map of an address that was found in the body of the message. You can create mail apps that are simple or complex, and that use data from an Exchange server or from any service on the web. Your mail apps can fully integrate with both Outlook Web App and Outlook 2013. For more information, see Mail apps for Outlook.
You can use the Outlook object model (OOM) to create client applications that programmatically access contacts, messages, calendar items, meeting requests, tasks, and Outlook configuration information from the Exchange store. For more information about OOM, see Outlook Object Model Overview.
You can create rich client and web applications that call Exchange Management Shell commands to manage your Exchange server organization.
The applications that you create by using the Exchange Management Shell extend and complement the command-line scripts and commands in the Exchange Management Shell. You can run Exchange Management Shell applications that you create on any Windows computer that has Windows PowerShell 2.0 installed.
To learn how to create management applications for your Exchange organization, see the Exchange Management Shell in Exchange 2013.
Exchange provides features that you can use to help to keep stored data secure and available. Database Availability Groups (DAGs) enable off-site data redundancy and help ensure that Exchange customers won't lose data. Many disaster recovery plans will continue to include more traditional backup and restore methods and systems.
To create backup, restore, and recovery systems that use Exchange and Windows Server operating system technologies, see the Backup and restore for Exchange 2013.
Exchange provides a library of classes that support the extension of the Exchange transport behavior and enable the reading, writing, and converting of content types.
You can create Exchange transport applications by using the concepts and classes described in the Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Transport Agents SDK.
Date | Description |
|---|---|
July 16, 2012 | Initial publication |
