Working with MAPI and Other Providers

MAPI service providers of any kind must follow certain guidelines to work with other MAPI components. Each service provider must:

• Use the proper provider and logon objects for initialization.
• Return a dispatch table of provider entry points to the messaging system upon initialization.
• Register a MAPI status table row for each resource owned by the provider and call the IMAPISupport::ModifyStatusRow method at appropriate times.
• Use the IMAPISupport::NewUID method to obtain valid unique identifiers (UIDs).
• Support the common MAPI interfaces on objects it returns.
• Use the MAPI memory allocation functions to allocate memory returned to client applications and to release memory allocated by other parts of the MAPI subsystem.
• Maintain a profile section, if necessary, to store credentials to the underlying messaging system.
• Use the IMAPISupport::RegisterPreprocessor method to register any message preprocessing functions.
• Include the proper header files (including MAPISPI.H) that define common constants, structures, interfaces, and return values.
• Follow address format conventions for common address types.