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Exchange

Motivation

In addition to the representation of a pure enterprise portal, the requirement frequently comes about to integrate appointments, contacts, tasks, and e-mails into the web interface of an Intrexx portal. For this task, United Planet has developed the Business Integration Adapter for Microsoft Exchange, the most broadly used platform for messaging, for your use. The adapter has been integrated completely into the Intrexx application framework. With it, new uses for the software can be realized, such as integrating elements from the Microsoft Exchange server with Intrexx processes.

Limitations

Although all elements on the Exchange server and the personal mailbox can be accessed with the Business Integration Adapter for Microsoft Exchange, the adapter should not be understood as “a second Outlook WebAccess”. Similarily, the adapter cannot be used to substitute for the use of Outlook itself. Both of these products have been adjusted over decades for the requirements of users, and their range of functions have been set up to serve optimally as messaging clients.

However, the user can access nearly all information in her personal mailbox, using handy applications that are provided as components of the adapter kit.

Construction of the Business Integration Adapter

Implementation of the adapter

The Business Integration Adapter for Microsoft Exchange can be implemented like an Intrexx foreign data source. The adapter puts you in the position of being able to create almost any application you wish with information from the Microsoft Exchange server. This allows you, for example, to show a table in your customer management system that accesses your personal mailbox, the Inbox folder, or sent mails, listing all mails that have the customer number of the currently selected customer in their subject line. You could also add a contact to your personal address box with a mouse click.

With the Business Integration Adapter for Microsoft Exchange, you will not work with copies of the data, but will rather access, in real time, your mailbox or the mailboxes to which you have assigned rights to the current user via Outlook.

Security

In order to use the MediaGateway with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 – 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, a functional Outlook Web Access (OWA) is required. This is normally prepared and activated by Microsoft Exchange. The security protocols in use (HTTPS, SSL) are also supported by MediaGateway. The communication between the MediaGateway and the server takes place via CORBA and is encrypted with the use of a PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) called RSA. Supported logon processes are Basic, Digest, and Kerberos. The security protocols in use in these processes (HTTPS, SSL) are also supported by MediaGateway, as long as these are installed.

Permissions

The access to data takes place exclusively using the permissions of the user logged onto the Exchange server. This means that any data access that a user executes using the MediaGateway can also be executed using OWA.

Via Microsoft Outlook, every user can make their mailbox accessible to other users, as well as restrict this access in multiple levels, such as only to read, or to read and write. In each case, this is enabled by the user herself.

Setup and administration of the adapter

The adapter consists of two parts:

MediaGateway

MediaGateway offers secure access to the Microsoft Exchange server. The MediaGateway can be installed on any server you wish and serves as an intermediate between Intrexx and the Exchange server. All queries will be forwarded from Intrexx to the Exchange server using the MediaGateway. Intrexx can be run in this way on a Linux system, for example, but still be able to access the Exchange server, which only supports Windows platforms. Therefore, Intrexx remains platform independent.

The MediaGateway can only be implemented on a Windows system and runs there as a regular Windows service. Using an easy-to-use setup, MediaGateway will now be installed on this computer.

Installation

First install the MediaGateway. To do so, proceed as follows: In the install directory adapter\microsoft_exchange, you will find the file exchange_applications.lax, which contains ready-to-use Exchange applications for your Intrexx portal. You can import this application package as usual.

Under programs in the program group Intrexx MediaGateway you will find a link to the Intrexx online update. As a user of the Business Integration Adapter for Microsoft Exchange you will be informed about existing updates and you can update your system here very comfortable.

Licensing

You need to purchase a license to use the Microsoft Exchange Adapter. Request the license from your partner, or from United Planet by sending an email toinfo@unitedplanet.de. The license key will be sent to you by email. Please start the Intrexx Portal Manager to unlock the Adapter. Open the License Manager from the Extras menu, by selecting License Manager.

Intrexx data source

Exchange Account

In order to set up the Intrexx data source, an Exchange account will be required. This must be an existing user account on the Microsoft Exchange Server. It requires no special permissions. The Intrexx Exchange Adapter will use this account to query meta-information from the Exchange server, which will then be available when creating applications and delivers information about data fields, field types, and existing tables.

Creating a connection

The Business Integration Adapter for Microsoft Exchange will be set up in the Integration module in Intrexx as a new data source



Create the new Microsoft Exchange data source via the context menu.