MAPI is dead, long live EWS!

As you probably know, Promodag Reports has been using MAPI to retrieve the information needed for its mailbox content reports since its inception in the mid-1990s.
Over the years, this method has become more and more complicated to use. There were several versions of MAPI that did not always work in the same way, the profiles created automatically were prone to corruption issues. From Exchange 2010, it was necessary to create these profiles manually - and to install Outlook. Account impersonation had become impossible, and it was even necessary for the Outlook version to match the Exchange version. In a word, using MAPI was becoming a source of hassle.

We therefore turned to another set of APIs to obtain equivalent data: Exchange Web Services. This solution has proven to be much easier to implement in the program and to configure in the interface.

How it works

The basic element of EWS configuration is a simple email address. It must be associated with a user account with impersonation rights – in other words, an account that has been granted the ApplicationImpersonation role. This enables applications to impersonate users in an organization to perform tasks on behalf of the user, i.e. allows Promodag Reports to open any mailbox in the environment to scan and analyze its content.

Where to set it up

The email addresses used for connecting with EWS can be set up in Tools > Options, in EWS Connection for on-premise Exchange and in Office 365 configuration for O365. If your environment is hybrid you will have to use two different email addresses.

Pros and Cons

The benefits of using EWS are many:

• This method allows you to retrieve about the same information as MAPI.
• It works both for on-premise Exchange and for Exchange Online.
• It also works if Promodag Reports is started in 64-bit mode.
• It is compatible with the installation of Microsoft Office 64-bit.
• There is no need to install additional programs.
• Due to the characteristics described above, it cannot conflict with other applications - which was not the case with the MAPI dll used by Promodag Reports.
• To top it all off, it is much easier to troubleshoot.

On the other hand, there is almost no drawback using EWS instead of MAPI apart from its incompatibility with versions of Exchange prior to 2007. This latest release is no longer supported by Microsoft, so Promodag Reports version 11 supports on-premise Exchange from Exchange 2010 onwards.

Conclusion

Replacing MAPI by EWS is a global improvement for our user community, both in terms of configuration and usability. We hope this article has offered you new insight on what is hidden under the bonnet of Promodag Reports. Download Promodag Reports for a 45-day free trial or upgrade to the latest version if you are an existing customer. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you wish to leave us a comment or contact our support.