The purpose of this chapter has been to introduce you to CDO for NTS, the messaging library that is packaged with Internet information Server 4.0. CDO for NTS is suitable for providing quick and easy access to SMTP messaging from a web page, but it really begins to show up its limitations when you try to use it for anything more complex than routine tasks such as sending out acknowledgement messages, producing bulk mailings or sending marketing literature to subscribers to your web site.
If you want to build a web site which relies on messaging and workflow or which requires access to advanced messaging capabilities such as calendaring and scheduling, then you need something altogether more heavy-duty, like CDO 1.2. The full CDO 1.2 library is vast compared to its kid brother CDO for NTS and it really is beyond the scope of this book to take a detailed look at all the functionality that it opens up to you. Plus, CDO 1.2 is primarily designed for use with Exchange 5.5 and Outlook 8.03 (or higher) although it will provide limited functionality against any MAPI-compliant mail system. Probably the best place to find information on developing applications with Exchange 5.5, Outlook 8.03 and CDO 1.2 is the Exchange AppFarm. This is a cool site, packed with heaps of sample code, and can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/appfarm
But to give you a taster, here are just three of the things that you can do if you get round to installing Exchange Server 5.5 and Outlook 8.03.