The MAPI Programmer's Reference is written for C and C++ developers with a wide range of needs and experience with messaging. For those developers who want to use MAPI to augment their nonmessaging applications with messaging features, no specific prerequisite knowledge is required. However, for developers intending to use MAPI to create full-scale workgroup applications or drivers for specialized messaging system services, a background in messaging and a familiarity with the Component Object Model (COM) used with OLE is recommended.
Before beginning serious development work, you need to consider the following information about using the MAPI Software Development Kit (SDK), the logon process, and how profiles and message services are created and configured. Client application developers need to consider how to choose between the four client APIs (MAPI, Simple MAPI, CMC, and the Active Messaging Library) and how to create a client application that takes advantage of more than one client API.