Design Issues for MAPI Clients

MAPI provides a consistent way for developers to work with and use different messaging systems in a seamless fashion. For BackOffice clients, using MAPI ensures that your application can efficiently access data from MAPI applications and servers, as well as use the broad functionality associated with MAPI.

Important design issues to consider when developing MAPI client applications include:

• Accessing public folders. For most purposes, applications access public folders the same way they access private folders in private mailboxes using the MAPI interface. Subject to access restrictions, an application can browse the folders and items in the public store; read, delete, modify, and search for items; and create new public folders in the public folder hierarchy. Because they are addressable objects, public folders allow users to send messages directly to them. To develop applications that access public folders, you will use MAPI, Microsoft Exchange Server directory access functions, or Microsoft Exchange Server developer documentation public folder functions.
• Using custom forms for applications. Custom forms are an important part of many applications that run in the Microsoft Exchange Server environment. When creating forms-based applications for Microsoft Exchange Server, the developer can interface with forms using MAPI. These interfaces offer the ability to define custom forms, install them in forms registries, and supply them to Microsoft Exchange Server users.
• Extending the Microsoft Exchange Client. The basic Microsoft Exchange Client is included in the Windows 95 operating system as the core mail client. When drivers are loaded that set up the Windows 95 client to communicate with a Microsoft Exchange Server system, functionality specific to Microsoft Exchange Server clients is added to the Microsoft Exchange Client by making use of the client's extensibility interfaces.

For more information about using MAPI to extend your client application, see the "Database and Messaging Services" section of the Microsoft Platform SDK.