The Microsoft Exchange Server Infrastructure

Microsoft Exchange Server provides application development capabilities within an easy-to-administer infrastructure for messaging and replicated databases. This infrastructure includes the following components:

• Microsoft Exchange Server ¾ Includes client and server software, including the directory service, information store, message transfer agent (MTA), and system attendant.
• Microsoft Exchange Client ¾ Includes clients for the MS-DOS®, Microsoft Windows® 3.1, Microsoft Windows NT Workstation, and Microsoft Windows 95 operating systems. These clients enable users to find the important information, structure it in a meaningful way, and build common information-sharing solutions without relying on the information services department.
• Microsoft Outlook Client ¾ Includes clients for the Windows NT Workstation and Windows 95 operating systems. The Outlook client is a desktop management system that integrates messaging, scheduling, contact, and task and file management into one environment.
• Microsoft Schedule+ ¾ Makes it easy to organize meetings, resources, tasks, and contact information. It provides a programmatic interface for integrating these capabilities into custom solutions.
• Microsoft Exchange Forms Designer ¾ A Microsoft Windows-based forms-design capability that enables users to develop forms-based applications for Windows without programming. It also generates Visual Basic source code for additional customization.
• Microsoft Exchange Server sample applications ¾ Provide examples and source code for three categories of applications:
  • Applications designed with the tools available in Microsoft Exchange Server
  • Customized Visual Basic-based applications integrated with Microsoft Exchange Server
  • Server applications that run as a service of Microsoft Windows NT Server and can be integrated with Microsoft Exchange Server
• The MAPI subsystem ¾ An open, widely used set of messaging application programming interfaces known as Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) on which Microsoft Exchange Server is built. MAPI enables developers to use tools such as OLE Messaging (an OLE Automation interface to MAPI) and OLE Scheduling (an OLE Automation interface to Schedule+).