Outlook Web Access (OWA) Integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007
Exiis Corporation IT Newsletter
Published November 18, 2007
TOPIC: Integration of OWA with SharePoint Server 2007
Bottom Line: There is no integration between Outlook Web Access 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.
Our Journey towards Integration
If you’re like most Microsoft integrators, you make every effort to understand the new releases of Microsoft Products and Technologies before they are ever released to the public—Exiis Corporation is no exception. Unfortunately, press releases, Microsoft seminars, and advanced training sometimes are not what they appear to be and can oftentimes be very misleading. Case in point: Microsoft announced that their very popular feature for Microsoft Exchange Servers, Public Folders, was going to be de-emphasized with the latest release of Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft’s position is that Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Document and List Libraries are a replacement for Public Folders. The emphasis in press releases, seminars, and advanced Microsoft Partner Training Classes was on the advanced features of Windows Sharepoint Services, especially SharePoint’s advanced search and indexing features. There were countless times during these events where Microsoft representatives and trainers assured classrooms of well over 100 integrators that SharePoint was the end-all solution for Public Folders. “Outlook integrates directly with SharePoint Services” was the resounding message throughout these events. Like many integrators, Exiis Corporation took Microsoft’s message to our clients, pronouncing the “Good News” about SharePoint services.
Outlook verses Outlook Web Access
Before the release of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, Exiis Corporation worked diligently with the Beta versions of the product. Working in small groups with Beta versions of MOSS installed in a test environment, Exiis Corporation performed many test scenarios—migrations, upgrades, new installations, working with Content Manager Server, to name just a few. When it came time for our Exchange 2007 Server Team to become involved with the testing phase, we installed the Exchange Server Beta Software into our test environment and began testing Outlook 2007 with SharePoint 2007. Initial internal results were perfect—the integration with SharePoint lists worked as expected and the sharing of contact lists went well. However, all this testing was primarily focused on the Outlook Client, not in Outlook Web Access. As later “candidate” releases became available, the integration with SharePoint became even tighter, proving Microsoft was on to something with SharePoint. With the knowledge that Public Folders should no longer be used, and that they were not supported with Outlook Web Access, Exiis Corporation waited to see the SharePoint integration alluded to in the training seminars, as time passed, the integration never occurred with the final Beta release. As any integrator knows, Beta software does not necessarily include all the functionality the final release will provide, and, may actually remove features included in Beta software. Knowing Beta software and the final release of the actual product may contain different features, Exiis Corporation waited for the “RTM” or “Released to Manufacturing” version of Exchange Server 2007.
Exchange Server 2007 Releases to Manufacturing
Microsoft Exchange Server was released to manufacturing the later part of 2006—sometime in November or December—the software was scheduled to be available in early January. By this time, Exiis Corporation already had dozens of clients waiting in the wings, standing by, for the next generation of Exchange Server 2007. Having tested migrations and new installations for nearly 9 months, Exiis Corporation was poised to deliver new Exchange installations to our clients. We were one of the first to order licensing for Exchange 2007, one of the first to download the server software (DVD’s were not even available as yet), and one of the first to begin moving clients to the latest release of Exchange Server 2007.
Outlook Web Access Integration Not Available
We are carefully making a clear distinction at this juncture: Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA), the Web-browser interface of Outlook, is the point of this discussion. As mentioned earlier, OWA and the Outlook Client behave completely differently from one another, for example, Public Folders are viewable and accessible from the Outlook Desktop Client whereas they are not available in Outlook Web Access (OWA).
After a successful move of thousands on end-users off a Apple-Macintosh mail server to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, our client was extremely pleased—Microsoft Exchange and Outlook Web Access had certainly lived up to their expectations (this is a large school district that is migrating away from Macintosh to Microsoft). After a few weeks, the superintendant contacted Exiis Corporation and requested staff, teachers, and faculty are able to create and share specialized mailing lists, or contacts, wherein the list may be changed depending on the requirements. Exiis Corporation provided SharePoint Services as the solution, sharing lists and calendars among the users; however, this was not what the superintendent had in mind. We soon discovered SharePoint Services did not integrate with Outlook Web Access, a serious problem because over 90% of the end users use OWA to communicate. After days of attempting to find the correct settings, looking for some sort of “switch”, and struggling with custom address lists (FYI, you cannot import existing mail lists into an Exchange address list—this is by design, so if you are attempting to do this with a large mailing list, it does not work), Exiis Corporation finally contacted Microsoft for the solution.
Microsoft Confirms there is no Integration or Migration Path Available
After a grueling 10-hour support call with Microsoft, examining all available options, making attempts at importing and sharing contact information, the bottom line is revealed: Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) has no integration with SharePoint Server Services; period. To make matters worse, since Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 has been segregated away from the Active Directory, any contact added in AD cannot be “Mail Enabled” without first being assigned the right through the Microsoft Exchange Management Console. Although you can create a contact in AD, you cannot automatically nor by script, make the contact “mail enabled”. If you attempt to import an address list into Exchange Server itself, which too, is not an option—all contacts must be manually entered, mail enables, and then added to your custom address list, which then becomes available in Outlook and Outlook Web Access.
Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2
The “solution” to everyone’s situation is to wait for Microsoft to release Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 which is due to release by the end of the year 2007. There are many enhancements in this latest service pack, the most interesting being the ability to share Public Folders, once again, in OWA. Microsoft’s position to de-emphasize Public Folders appears to have changed—at least for the time being. Although this is not necessarily a new or surprising announcement, it certainly causes integrators to ponder exactly what Microsoft is doing and where they are going when it comes to Exchange Products and Technologies. Obviously, Microsoft does not admit to any mistakes on their part, but it’s apparent they had enough back-lash from Corporate America that they specifically re-introduced Public Folder support and OWA interoperability.
The Future of SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange Server Technologies
While no one can predict the impact this mistake has made on Microsoft, it’s very obvious it was a huge mistake and an even more obvious Microsoft did not do their homework. Public Folders and their access in OWA is a dependency business organizations depend upon and use on a daily basis. During our extensive support call with Microsoft, we could not get anyone to confirm nor deny if SharePoint will interact with Outlook Web Access—our impression is it will likely not happen. Under these circumstances, Microsoft Exchange Server has taken a giant leap forward and a step or two backwards at the same time.
Closing Comments
There is an obvious trend on Microsoft’s side to get rid of Public Folders and to encourage end users to utilize SharePoint Services; this is not necessarily a bad move as SharePoint Services do offer many benefits over Public Folders, but the inability to function the same is a huge limitation. One also needs to wonder why Exchange Service Pack 2 didn’t expose SharePoint lists as opposed to exposing Public Folders—could it be the Exchange Database and SQL Databases are too incompatible? Or was this a situation where providing a small piece of code was a simpler, less-costly solution to provide a band aid fix to a obvious problem? Is it possible no-one at Microsoft saw this coming? These are some great questions and unfortunately we will likely never know the true answer to any of these questions.
Exiis Corporation is excited about the advances made in both Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and will continue to promote both products. Each product, by themselves are great solutions and the trend to integrate them even tighter is a great direction to take—we just wish the process was a little bit more complete and thought through.
In closing, we are sharing this information for other integrators that may be attempting to solve the same set of issues we encountered. We can live with Public Folders coming back into play—how about the import issue for mail-enabled contacts—how will that be solved?