Applications that use Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 can access configuration settings and data through many different programming technologies. The topics in this section describe how to apply each technology in Exchange collaborative applications.

ADO. Applications use Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) to access data stored in the Exchange store using familiar database programming techniques.

ADSI. Applications use Active Directory® Service Interfaces (ADSI) to access information stored in Microsoft Active Directory® programmatically.

CDO. The Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) group of Component Object Model (COM) objects is the primary way that applications access and control configuration settings, users, messages, and other information in Exchange Server 2003.

ExOLEDB. Applications use the Exchange Server 2003 OLE DB provider on the local server to access the items stored in the Exchange store.

LDAP. Exchange Server 2003 supports accessing data stored in Active Directory programmatically using the Internet standard LDAP.

MAPI. Exchange Server 2003 supports e-mail and collaboration clients that use MAPI. MAPI uses remote procedure call (RPC) networking for client-to-server connections.

Schema. The Exchange store is designed to hold both data items and properties that describe the items. Designing and managing the Exchange store schema is a significant part of creating an effective Exchange collaborative application.

Search. The Exchange Server 2003 content indexing and search functions support full-text and property search queries over information in the Exchange store.

Store Events. Collaboration and workflow applications can receive automatic notification when events occur in the Exchange store. You can register code that will be executed when the triggering event occurs.

WebDAV. Remote client applications can use the WebDAV protocol to access items and property information in the Exchange store.

Web Forms. Exchange Server 2003 Web forms allow an application to register a Web page as the default for rendering an Exchange store data item. The registered Web page determines how to display the data item when it has been requested through HTTP.

WMI Providers. Exchange Server 2003 includes five data providers for the Microsoft Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface. WMI provides a uniform way to access system management information with any programming language that is compatible with COM. Management applications can use the WMI providers to obtain Exchange Server 2003 operational status.