Is this possible?

ruby-talk
1

I asked this on the #ruby-lang IRC and got referred to the Ruby ML.
What I am looking to do is cross-reference some SQL data with Contacts
listed in Microsoft Exchange for a CRM app I'm developing. What I can't
seem to get a handle on is how to pull in the Exchange data. On IRC
people suggested using win32ole to connect to Outlook. But I am not
looking to launch Outlook sessions on a server. I am looking to
directly connect to the Exchange mailbox to get into the Contacts.

Is this possible using win32api? I tried googling around and didn't see
much about this in terms of Ruby. I will try to start putting time into
deciphering the hydra that is Microsoft API. I am assuming MAPI? Am I
wasting my time if this isn't possible using Ruby's win32api? Or would
I have to create my own MAPI extension in Ruby?

2

Hi,

* gregarican wrote (2005-08-13 16:26):

I asked this on the #ruby-lang IRC and got referred to the Ruby ML.
What I am looking to do is cross-reference some SQL data with Contacts
listed in Microsoft Exchange for a CRM app I'm developing. What I can't
seem to get a handle on is how to pull in the Exchange data.

Our Exchange offers contact data via LDAP.

Thorsten

ยทยทยท

--
Whenever there is a conflict between human rights
and property rights, human rights must prevail.
    - Abraham Lincoln

3

Thorsten Haude wrote:

Our Exchange offers contact data via LDAP.

Thanks for the tip. I will have to see about our Exchange box. It's
v5.5 and I know v2003 offers that as a connector option. If I can use
LDAP that would make things a snap.

Thanks again!

4

gregarican wrote:

Thanks for the tip. I will have to see about our Exchange box. It's
v5.5 and I know v2003 offers that as a connector option. If I can use
LDAP that would make things a snap.

My Exchange 5.5 box did offer the LDAP connector out of the box. But
it's only for the Directory Services portion of the server. The
Contacts are located in the Information Store so unfortunately I cannot
access them through LDAP to couple together with SQL data for my CRM
app. There are other ways I suppose, as alluded to in this article I
googled...
http://www.mail-archive.com/perl-ldap@perl.org/msg00033.html\.

If I am able to pull this things off it should be quite a hodge-podge.
A Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 wifi client using xmlrpc to connect to a
Windows-based host that in turn would use DBI to connect to a MSSQL
database for customer purchasing history as well as would use LDAP (now
possibly CDO?) to connect to a Microsoft Exchange Information Store to
pull corresponding Contact details. Starting to get a headache :slight_smile: At
least the fact I am trying to do this using Ruby makes the project seem
more fun!