Techniques for integrating an ASP.NET intranet app with the Outlook calendar

Question

I can ignore the braying of my users no longer. They want a task scheduling system and at some point I have to deliver. I was thinking of making my own (can't be hard), but then users would have two side-by-side task managements systems since they already use Outlook for the same thing.

In terms of Outlook calendar / task integration, two possible approaches occurred to me:

1) Use JavaScript and Automation

I seem to remember it's possible to do automation in JavaScript.

PROS:

• I've done automation before.

CONS:

• Automation is horrible!
• Some persistence (Outlook entities) is the responsibility of client-side code, and the rest the responsibility of server-side code. This feels horrible.
• Possible security concerns /
  blocking from IT dept.

2) Use some .NET API to interact with Exchange Server directly

The intranet uses single-sign on, so hopefully that should make security issues easier.

PROS:

• All persistence code would be server-side.

CONS:

• I don't even know that such an API exists.

As ever, I like to stand on the shoulders of giants. Can anyone who has trodden this path before give me some guidance?

Answer 1

We recently did same kind of integration for our intranet application using the Exchange Web Services Managed API. That would be one way of going about for the second option. I have never tried the same using JavaScript, so no idea on that.

With regards to the query for comment 1: You would need a single AD user whom you will be using to impersonate and work on the other users account. Please refer to the example below:

Lets say I have an Active Dir account named fabrikam\myappname with password Fabi$Gre@t2010

void CreateFolder(string targetUserEmail) {
    string appName = "myappname";
    string appPassword = "Fabi$Gre@t2010";
    string emailDomain = "fabrikam";
    string appEmail = string.Format("{0}@{1}.com", appName, emailDomain);

    ExchangeService service = new ExchangeService();
    service.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(appName, appPassword, emailDomain);
    service.AutodiscoverUrl(appEmail);

    service.ImpersonatedUserId = new ImpersonatedUserId(ConnectingIdType.SmtpAddress, targetUserEmail);

    Folder newFolder = new Folder(service);
    newFolder.DisplayName = "TestFolder1";

    newFolder.Save(WellKnownFolderName.Inbox);
}

Do check the article Configuring Exchange Impersonation to make Impersonation working.

Hope that helps.