Microsoft "de-emphasizing" all existing Exchange developer APIs

September 15 2005

The Microsoft Exchange team blog today reports that the following APIs will be "de-emphasized" in Exchange 12, the next release, with some disappearing altogether:

  • CDOEx (CDO 3.0)
  • WebDAV
  • ExOLEDB
  • Transport event sinks ("will not function correctly")
  • Web Forms ("will not function correctly")
  • The M: drive function introduced in Exchange 2000 (ExWin32 -- "Will not function correctly")
Could it be?  Has anyone ever heard of Microsoft doing a rip-and-replace before?  Should be really fun for products like Ximian, which accesses Exchange through WebDAV.  And fun for the few developers who actually tried to build Exchange apps.

At least they're leaving MAPI in place -- that was supposed to disappear at one point in the past, too -- for .NET framework apps, Microsoft recommends using WebDAV instead of MAPI.

Good thing for IT customers that there is one vendor in this space who respects the concept of investment protection and forward/backward compatibility.

Ed Brill Dublin, OH USA Category:  Microsoft  Add/View Comments [16]

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  1. 1  Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 9/16/2005 12:54:16 AM

    Thanks Microsoft... keep handing the ammo to me. And don't forget this comes after their admission (in so many words) that they can't fix the clustering problems in the current architecture, so out comes active / active clustering.

  1. 2  Philip Storry http://www.not-so-rapid.com | 9/16/2005 5:02:16 AM

    So let me get this straight...

    Microsoft recommended using WebDAV for Exchange access via .NET, then decided to deprecate that API?

    Mmm. I can almost smell the platform stability from here...

    What's their next master-stroke, I wonder?

    "PRESS RELEASE - Microsoft tweaks Exchange Architacture.

    Microsoft has moved to de-emphasize the mail routing, mail storage and calendaring functions of Exchange Server in future releases. There will be no replacements for these services, and developers and administrators should begin migrating their users away from business solutions involving these technologies. 'These technologies were mostly mis-used, and our implementation caused more problems than it provided solutions', said Steve Ballmer.

    To-do functionality will be migrated to Project Server, and the Note functionality will be moved to SharePoint Server. Contacts will remain unchanged.

    Microsoft hopes that this re-alignment will help Exchange Server excel at what they feel it has always done best - being a giant electronic corporate rolodex.

    At least, until Microsoft's CRM product takes off, at which point Exchange will be axed, with no easy upgrade path or import available between the two products.

    Finally, Microsoft would like to remind everyone that Exchange Server stores shared contacts in public folders, so you shouldn't count on replicating them reliably or quickly across multiple sites.

    So, in summary, if you want one big shared address book that can only be accessed reliably from one site, then Exchange Server is the industry leader.

    Until Microsoft replaces it.

    Steve Ballmer was quoted as later saying 'That'll stick in Google's craw! You think you can handle contacts? I'LL SHOW YOU ****ING CONTACTS! WE'LL KILL YOUR ****ING CONTACTS!', and then throwing a chair across the room."

    Must be fun, constantly chasing Microsoft's roadmaps...

  1. 3  Simon Barratt http://apps.fmc.com/blog.nsf | 9/16/2005 7:45:11 AM

    Nice one Philip.

    It's always good to start the day with a smile!

  1. 4  Rob Novak www.lotusdigerati.com | 9/16/2005 8:50:40 AM

    I dunno, I think it's entirely fine to recommend WebDAV. Given the history of upgrade %, I don't support E12 will see a lot of action for a while.

  1. 5  Rob Novak www.lotusdigerati.com | 9/16/2005 8:51:35 AM

    I meant "suppose" not "support". Jeez, this IM culture is affecting my typing.

  1. 6  William Lefovics http://msexchangeblog.com | 9/16/2005 8:11:13 PM

    Oh come on, Ed. Did you even read the blog post from the exchange team? You forgot to applaud Microsoft for this:

    "These de-emphasized API’s will be fully supported in E12 (i.e. existing applications will work unchanged), and will be supported for 10 years after E12 releases"

    Ximian is a great email client. Such quality suggests to me that 11 years (10 years after E12 releases) is sufficient enough time to allow them to leverage alternative data access methodologies, if they choose to.

    Rip and replace? Hardly.

  1. 7  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 9/16/2005 8:13:37 PM

    @6 sure, I read that. I think they are talking out of both sides of their mouth, since there are so many specific things that "will not function correctly". So either they will or won't work unchanged. Which is it?

    The "ten years of support" thing sounds great from a marketing perspective, but that doesn't mean there will be any new innovation for these APIs, some of which were just introduced a few years ago -- and widely trumpeted. To stabilize the whole line of 'em and then start over, all at once, seems like shock to the system.

  1. 8  Bob http://www.bobcongdon.com/blog | 9/17/2005 12:34:07 AM

    Ed,

    The APIs that are listed as "will not function correctly" are in a document that has a narrow focus: it's talking about .NET application development with Exchange 5.5/2000. At the bottom of the table it says "All of the components that are listed in the table are fully supported in unmanaged Visual C++". So existing applications that use these APIs will continue to function just fine.

    E12 will deprecate but fully support the CDOEx, WebDAV and

    ExOLEDB APIs.

    By the way, since you linked to the Exchange Team blog, it would be good to mention that lots of development teams at Microsoft have blogs. And these aren't just for released products. WinFS, IE7, WinFX, etc. all have blogs. Not to mention the great developer interviews that Robert Scoble does on Channel 9.

    SO here's a question for Ed and IBM: How come there aren't IBM bloggers talking about Domino, Hannover, Workplace, Workplace Client, Activity Explorer, Workplace Designer, etc.? Not marketing. Technical stuff. Written by developers on these teams. Not filtered. Real blog content.

  1. 9  Ben Poole http://www.benpoole.com | 9/17/2005 3:57:47 AM

    Bob asks a very good question :o)

    > SO here's a question for Ed and IBM: How come there aren't IBM bloggers

    > talking about Domino, Hannover, Workplace, Workplace Client,

    > Activity Explorer, Workplace Designer, etc.? Not marketing. Technical

    > stuff. Written by developers on these teams. Not filtered. Real blog

    > content.

  1. 10  Subhan http://slate.blogspirit.com | 9/17/2005 5:01:23 AM

    With all the migrating birds, probably no ones left to run such blogs.. LOL

    Opps, dat was for Ed to comment.

  1. 11  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 9/17/2005 7:42:27 AM

    It's a good question and one I don't really know the answer to. IBM has encouraged IBMers to blog for several months now. There are several new IBMers blogging in that time -- Susan Bulloch ( { Link } ) comes to mind as a techie Notes/Domino blog -- but not as much as I might like.

    Funny thing is, in case the answer is cultural, Bob is really in a good position to answer his own question. Bob was blogging while he still worked at IBM...but didn't write about his own projects. It's probably a softball question to ask, but why not? Expected answer: Culture didn't support it. Well, we need to change that culture. There are a whole slew of techie blogs from other parts of IBM on developerWorks, no reason we can't have Workplace and Lotus techies blogging there, too.

  1. 12  Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 9/17/2005 11:23:34 PM

    Exchange application? Ha! To bad, I can't increase the font size on the "Ha". Yes, we tried building an Exchange app for a client. Hmm, let's see they need some sort of mechanicism that "triggered" on new mail, based on the context of the mail perform some action, send out some response, etc.,etc. Oh and some other "scheduled" stuff. Oh, sounds like Domino "Agents". Anyone ever try to mimic agent functionality in Exchange? It's a total nightmare. Create a service they say, create a stub dll they say ha. It was to funny. The story ends by a terrified client buying a Domino app server to do the work.

    Guys, Exchange app programming is very similar to filling the grand canyon with moon sand and only a teaspoon...

  1. 13  Bob http://www.bobcongdon.com/blog | 9/18/2005 1:57:02 AM

    Ed,

    In my opinion, it's cultural. Having corporate blogging guidelines is fine but it takes more than guidelines. You have to make it okay for developers to say what's on their minds. Not just say it's okay, show that's okay by example. And I don't mean blog posts that just say "everyone I work on is just so cool". I mean admitting when something is broken. Frankly I'm not sure that it can happen at IBM.

    So maybe your new challenge is to prove me wrong. ;-)

  1. 14  Philip Storry http://www.not-so-rapid.com | 9/23/2005 4:11:50 AM

    Oh, I wish I'd thought of that!

    Hang on...

    DR GIMME ANAPI,

    DIRECTOR OF MESSAGING PRODUCTS,

    REDMOND WA

    DEAR SIR/MADAM,

    I AM A DIRECTOR OF MESSAGING PRODUCTS FOR A PRESTIGIOUS SOFTWARE COMPANY IN AMERICA.

    I HAVE BEEN TASKED BY MY SUPERIORS TO FIND A RELIABLE COMPANY OR INDIVIDUAL FOR WHOM WE CAN TRANSFER US$209.9 (TWO HUNDRED AND NINE MILLION, NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS).

    THIS SUM AROSE FROM THE NEED FOR POSITIVE PRESS COVERAGE ON OUR APIS AND STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS FOR MESSAGING PLATFORMS, AFTER RECENT RE-ARRANGEMENTS WHICH ARE LEADING TO AN UNEXPECTED PRODUCT BEREAVEMENT.

    YOU HAVE BEEN RECOMMENDED TO US AS A RELIABLE AND INDEPENDENT PERSON, WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE EASILY BOUGHT.

    WE HAVE ALREADY PUT IN MOTION THE MEANS TO TRANSFER THIS MONEY TO YOU, AND CAN BEGIN TRANSFERRING MONEIES AND SHIPPING PRESS RELEASES THE MOMENT WE HEAR FROM YOU. IT HAS BEEN AGREED BY MY COLLEAGUES THAT YOU WILL RECIEVE THE FULL SUM, MINUS A SMALL TRANSACTION FEE OF 10%, WHICH IS NEEDED FOR TAX PURPOSES AND TO REPLACE THE MANY BROKEN CHAIRS IN OUR OFFICES AT PRESENT.

    THE NATURE OF YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYMENT IS NOT RELEVANT, AND PRIOR EXPERIENCE IN PRODUCING PRESS RELEASES, PRODUCT REVIEWS, MANAGEMENT REPORTS AND ANALYST REPORTS IS NOT NECESSARY, AS ALL MATERIALS WILL BE PROVIDED BY OUR PR DEPARTMENT. WE ARE CONCERNED ONLY THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD NAME AND ARE WILLING TO PLACE IT ON OUR MATERIALS.

    WE PROVIDE EVERY ASSURANCE THAT THERE IS NO RISK IN THIS TRANSACTION. MINIMAL PRESS SCRUTINY WILL BE INVOLVED, AS IN THE PAST MANY LARGE NEWS ORGANISATIONS HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO SIMPLY REPRINT OUR PRESS RELEASES AS NEWS WITHOUT ASKING QUESTIONS.

    PLEASE IF THIS PROPOSAL IS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU, INDICATE BY RETURN COMMENT. SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTION, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK US FOR A PRESS RELEASE OR PRODUCT BROCHURE. INCLUDE YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER, FAX NUMBER, HOTMAIL E-MAIL ADDRESS (*NO GMAIL ACCOUNTS PLEASE!*) WHEN REPLYING.

    I EXPECT YOUR RESPONSE.

    BEST REGARDS,

    DR GIMME ANAPI

    Ed, your blog sure does keep me amused. Sorry about this, but I just *couldn't* resist...

  1. 15  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 9/23/2005 5:41:37 AM

    well I deleted the spam comment that you responded to, but I'll leave your reply -- too funny.

  1. 16  Philip Storry http://www.not-so-rapid.com | 9/23/2005 10:41:23 AM

    I figured that would be the case. Thanks for leaving my comment there, though. I might mail it to myself later, to see if it traps off any spam filters... ;-)