Article
08/21/2009

Outlook Web Access Evaluation Criteria

Topic Last Modified: 2008-08-07

Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access provides a rich messaging environment for use with Exchange that can be accessed over the Internet. The components that make up the Outlook Web Access display can be reused in other applications, and new features can be added. In addition, you can create custom display and data entry forms by means of the Outlook Web Access forms registry.

Caveats

Support and documentation for customizing Outlook Web Access and reusing Outlook Web Access components is available from Microsoft. Microsoft improves and adds features to Outlook Web Access with new releases of Exchange, and the Outlook Web Access internal workings and architecture may change without notice.

Functional Criteria

Criteria	Outlook Web Access
Application Domain	Modifications to Outlook Web Access are typically minor stylistic or graphical modifications to the display theme. Developers and customers can use URLs to access Outlook Web Access Web parts inside other Web-based applications, consoles, or portals. Developers can also register custom forms to handle custom content types, add navigation bar icons to access custom applications, and add items to the New Item drop-down menu.
Major Objects	Outlook Web Access does not expose COM objects, or provide an object hierarchy. Instead, you can obtain the components of Outlook Web Access by using a URL. You register forms and user interface extensions using XML configuration files.
Data access model	Outlook Web Access returns data in various forms, including HTML and XML, depending on the capabilities of the client browser.
Threading Models	Not Applicable.
Application Architectures	Outlook Web Access is a Web client application.
Remote Usage	Outlook Web Access configured to use SSL/TLS and basic authentication can be used on an intranet as well as over the Internet.
Transactions	Outlook Web Access does not support transactions.
Management Capabilities	Outlook Web Access as a development technology does not provide any management features to the application. The Exchange administration and the individual user can access Outlook Web Access and other Outlook Web Access configurations.
Availability	Outlook Web Access is a core component of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007. However, Outlook Web Access features and internal architecture may change without notice.

Development Criteria

Criteria	Outlook Web Access
Languages and Tools	Outlook Web Access components are only available by means of the HTTPS GET and POST methods.
Managed Implementation	Outlook Web Access is not an API and does not provide components for use in a managed or unmanaged development environment. However, you can use the HTTPRequest and HTTPResponse managed classes to access Outlook Web Access programmatically.
Scriptable	It is not possible to directly access Outlook Web Access components by using a script. It is possible to use an HTTPRequest or similar object to retrieve information from Outlook Web Access.
Test/Debug Tools	No tools are available for debugging calls to Outlook Web Access, because the internal architecture is not available for debugging, and the URL calls required to access Outlook Web Access programmatically are not documented or supported.
Expert Availability	Outlook Web Access customization and component reuse is not supported by Microsoft.
Available Information	Little or no information is available about customizing Outlook Web Access or reusing Outlook Web Access components and commands.
Developer / Deployment Licensing	Outlook Web Access customization and component reuse is not supported by Microsoft.

Security Criteria

Criteria	Outlook Web Access
Design-Time Permissions	Outlook Web Access customization and component reuse is not supported by Microsoft.
Setup Permissions	Outlook Web Access customization and component reuse is not supported by Microsoft.
Run-Time Permissions	Outlook Web Access customization and component reuse is not supported by Microsoft.
Built-in Security Features	Outlook Web Access by default uses SSL/TLS and basic authentication.
Security Monitoring Features	None.

Deployment Criteria

Criteria	Outlook Web Access
Server Platform Requirements	Customization and component reuse of Outlook Web Access for Exchange 2007 is supported by Microsoft.
Client Platform Requirements	Customization and component reuse of Outlook Web Access for Exchange 2007 is not supported by Microsoft.
Deployment Methods	Customization and component reuse of Outlook Web Access for Exchange 2007 is not supported by Microsoft.
Deployment Notes	When you deploy Outlook Web Access customizations, ensure that all Client Access servers that are available to your users have the same customizations.