Microsoft Exchange Server provides an application design environment, including Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) and the Microsoft Exchange Server Forms Designer, that is ideal for rapidly changing business requirements. These tools enable all users, from novices to skilled programmers, to create custom applications to improve efficiency and communication. They provide a scalable design environment that makes it easy to modify those applications quickly and in a cost effective manner. They also offer reliable, versatile options for connecting to the Internet and X.400 systems to distribute those applications to users virtually anywhere.
In this appendix, you will learn how to develop custom Microsoft Exchange Server solutions to make business communications easier. The Microsoft Exchange Server Forms Designer and sample applications are provided with the Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit, Second Edition compact disc in the Samples\Efd directory. For more information on CDO, see Chapter 9, "Collaboration."
The following topics are discussed:
Applications range from those that can be created by novice users who are modifying existing sample applications, to complex groupware applications that are developed with high-end development tools such as the Microsoft Visual Basic programming system and the Microsoft Visual C++ development system.