Web services in Exchange 2013

EWS is a SOAP-based web service API that you can use to communicate with Exchange. EWS uses HTTP POST requests to send commands and data to the service endpoint. This surfaces functionality that enables you to work with Exchange mailbox data. EWS was introduced in Exchange Server 2007 and is available for both Exchange Server and Exchange Online. You can use EWS to create applications that are located on the Exchange server, on intranets, or on the Internet.

You can use EWS to access the following features in Exchange:

• Email messages, contacts, appointments, tasks, folders, and attachments

• Electronic discovery (eDiscovery) and search

• Delegate access

• User availability and Automatic Replies (Out of Office) settings

• Mail app management

• Inbox rules

• Mail tips

• Mailbox event notifications

• Synchronization

• Name resolution and distribution list expansion

For more information about the Exchange features that you can access via EWS, see Current development technologies for Exchange.

The REST EWS service, introduced in Exchange Server 2013 and Exchange Online, enables you to retrieve a user's photo from either Exchange or Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). You can use this service instead of the GetUserPhoto operation that the SOAP-based EWS service provides.

The "plain old XML" (POX) Autodiscover service enables applications to automatically configure user settings. Before the service was introduced in Exchange 2007, users manually configured client applications, which introduced the potential for error. You can use the Autodiscover service to determine client settings without user input. The POX Autodiscover service provides configuration information for many different client access protocols, including Exchange ActiveSync and EWS.

You can use the POX Autodiscover service to configure client applications that target versions of Exchange starting with Exchange 2007. Note that the POX Autodiscover service does not enable you to specify which settings are returned in a response. We recommend that clients that target versions of Exchange starting with Exchange 2010 use the SOAP Autodiscover service, because it provides for more granular control over requested settings.

For more information about the POX and SOAP Autodiscover services, see Autodiscover for Exchange 2013.

The SOAP Autodiscover service was introduced in Exchange 2010. If you are targeting a version of Exchange starting with Exchange 2010, we recommend that you use the SOAP Autodiscover service, rather than the POX Autodiscover service, to get client configuration data from Exchange. Like the POX Autodiscover service, the SOAP Autodiscover service provides configuration information, but it allows for more granular control over the requested settings. This reduces the amount of unnecessary data that is sent to the client. The SOAP Autodiscover service also provides additional information about the federated status of an organization.

For more information about the POX and SOAP Autodiscover services, see Autodiscover for Exchange 2013.

The Unified Messaging (UM) web service was introduced in Exchange 2007. It provides a set of operations that enable a client to access UM functionality such as initiating and managing phone calls that play mailbox items (including voice mail messages) on telephony devices, UM PIN reset, enabling missed call notifications, turning on voice Out of Office (OOF) greetings, and getting UM settings. You can also use the UM web service operations to access Outlook Voice Access.

The following are some tasks that you can perform by using the UM web service:

• Enable voice mail OOF greetings when the email OOF response is set.

• Enable client access to voice mail.

• Enable dictation of content located in a user's mailbox.

• Reset a user's UM PIN.

• Initiate an Outlook Voice Access session on a phone.

Starting with Exchange 2010, EWS provides some of the same functionality that the UM web service provides. EWS provides UM configuration information and the ability to use the play on phone feature to access mailbox items. For all other functionality, such as PIN reset requests, you have to use the UM web service.

For information about the UM web service operations, see Unified Messaging web service reference for Exchange 2013.

For more information about UM, see Unified Messaging on TechNet.

• Create EWS and web service solutions for Exchange 2013 – Contains conceptual information about the web services that are included in Exchange.

• Web services reference for Exchange 2013 – Contains reference information for the EWS, Autodiscover, and Unified Messaging web services.

• EWS wsdl.exe autogenerated reference for Exchange 2013 – Contains the EWS auto-generated proxy object reference set.

  Note
  The autogenerated proxy reference is deemphasized. We recommend that you use the EWS Managed API instead of an autogenerated proxy to develop EWS solutions. For more information, see EWS Managed API.

• Developer roadmap for Exchange

• Explore the EWS Managed API

• Exchange 2013 101 Code Samples