Re: Outlook connectors

On 16. Nov 2005, at 15:49 Uhr, Ross Peoples wrote:
> After doing some research, I come to ask why OpenGroupware wants to  
> use a commercial connector for Outlook.

OGo doesn't "want" to use a commercial connector. It just happens  
that there is no free (and working) connector available (at least I  
don't know one).

 From an OGo point of view it would be best to have a fully  
OpenSource Outlook replacement instead of having a free connector to  
Outlook. Indeed its probably way easier to write an Outlook  
replacement than to write an Outlook connector from scratch.

> The only thing holding us back is that you have to have a  
> commercial connector.

Not sure why this is holding you back, after all you are also using a  
commercial client on a commercial OS.

> So back to the point...Would there be any way to use an open source  
> connector for Outlook with OpenGroupware?

Sure. Eg we suggest the GroupDAV protocol to make that work.

> I have found two projects that would work. One is called Brutus  
> ( http://www.omesc.com/ ).

Brutus is not an Outlook connector, its an Exchange connector. So  
exactly the reverse (to allow Outlook replacements access MS  
Exchange, not to allow Outlook access MS Exchange replacements).

> They have actually created a connector that uses MAPI and fully  
> supports Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000, and Exchange 2003. It doesn't  
> use OWA or WebDAV or any of that...pure MAPI. And the best part is,  
> it can be used on a Windows, Linux, BSD, or any other platform.

Brutus itself only runs on Windows which is a major drawback even for  
applications who want to use its functionality (it doesn't implement  
MAPI, it just uses the MAPI client library on Windows).

> Another alternative I found is called OpenConnector ( http:// 
> openconnector.org/ ). It appears to be written in Visual C++ and  
> doesn't talk about being cross-platform so I don't know if could  
> actually be used with OpenGroupware, since it is a Linux-based  
> project.

OpenConnector could be an option once it actually works. But its not  
in that state yet and still needs a _lot_ of development.

> If anything, I hope this could give the OpenGroupware developers  
> the "piece of the puzzle" they would need in order to create a  
> complete replacement for the Microsoft Exchange Server. Not to  
> mention that this would be the only open source project that would  
> offer this interoperability.

Honestly I have little hope for a free and working Outlook connector  
because its quite a complex thing to write and that time is IMHO  
better spend in writing/porting a full Windows client anyway.

But who knows what people come up with :-)

> I am not subscribed to this mailing list, so it would be much  
> appreciated if you could direct any feedback directly to my email  
> ( [email protected] ).

Nope. Subscribe the list you start discussions on.

Greets,
   Helge
-- 
http://docs.opengroupware.org/Members/helge/
OpenGroupware.org

-- 
OpenGroupware.org Discussion [email protected]
http://mail.opengroupware.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss