asterisk users - Jun 2005 - Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization

We have a customer considering migrating from a large Nortel PBX with a 
third-party voicemail system to Asterisk but one of the features they 
really like is the automatic synchronization of voicemail between 
Exchange and their voicemail system -- delete a message from the 
voicemail system and it is deleted from their email inbox and vice versa.

Searching has not revealed anything like this being developed for 
Asterisk and yet it would appear to be a critical component needed to 
migrate customers used to fully integrated "Unified Messaging" systems
to Asterisk.

(a) Has anyone cracked this nut (or started on it)?

(b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?

-- 
George Pajari, netVOICE communications    604 484 VOIP (484 8647 x102)
Open Source VoIP/Telephony Specialists  1 877 NET VOIP (638 8647 x102)
                  www.netvoice.ca  www.ip-centrex.ca
      www.digium.ca www.grandstream.ca www.sipura.ca www.snom.ca

> -----Original Message-----
> From: George Pajari [mailto:George.Pajari@netVOICE.ca]
> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 10:19 AM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization
> 
> 
{clip}
> 
> (a) Has anyone cracked this nut (or started on it)?
I'm not aware of any proof of concept code, but I understand the discussion
to be in the direction of changing app_voicemail to use a maildir directory
format, thereby allowing the voicemail to be easily exposed and accessed by a
third party unix mail server program that is unaware of Asterisk (eg. Cyrus
IMAP).

Actually getting it synced directly into your Exchange server backend seems far
more challenging. We had been eagerly looking forward to an IMAP access method,
hence being able to add an IMAP account to Outlook on our workstations and
accessing voicemail that way (some people use the vm-as-attachment with the
Delete option at the moment, others just get new vm notices).

If you're looking at a large deployment client side integration would
quickly become a maintenance nightmare... Do you have any pointers as to how the
backend Exchange integration process actually works?

Kris Boutilier
Information Systems Coordinator
Sunshine Coast Regional District

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com 
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
> George Pajari
> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 10:19 AM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization
> 
> 
> We have a customer considering migrating from a large Nortel 
> PBX with a 
> third-party voicemail system to Asterisk but one of the features they 
> really like is the automatic synchronization of voicemail between 
> Exchange and their voicemail system -- delete a message from the 
> voicemail system and it is deleted from their email inbox and 
> vice versa.
> 
> Searching has not revealed anything like this being developed for 
> Asterisk and yet it would appear to be a critical component needed to 
> migrate customers used to fully integrated "Unified 
> Messaging" systems 
> to Asterisk.
> 
> (a) Has anyone cracked this nut (or started on it)?
> 
> (b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?
Good luck!

Back in the day, when we were on an Altigen system, we were using this
feature. It NEVER worked right. To be fair, it was not a feature that
had been extensively tested. Altigen's beta program appeared to made up
of paying customers. :( 
>From what I recall of the sessions with their engineers trying to debug
things, Exchange Server's behavior in the areas critical to supporting
this feature were poorly documented and seemed to change from one
service pack to the next. 

Things may well have improved, with regards to Exchange Server. It's
been a few years. To be sure, this would be a killer feature in
marketing * to MS Exchange Server shops. But I think I'll go hit myself
with hammer for a while instead. :)

-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.6.6 - Release Date: 06/08/2005

(a) Has anyone cracked this nut (or started on it)?


Been there, done that.

No, really. I was the architect on the Premiere Tech, no PTECH,
Orchestrate system. www.orchestrate.com (pardon the plug, but I am not
endorsing one way or the other.)

I also did the MAPI work for Persona, but that was a TTS and Speech Reco
that read email and faxes, but I digress.

Yes, your are going to go mad doing it. 

	First. 
	You need an email specialist. 
	He must know POP, SMTP, IMAP and MAPI. 
		MAPI is not a misspelling of IMAP; it is the Microsoft
Messaging API. 
	MAPI is how you can control the Exchange Server and Clients.

	You need to set up a "admin" account for the MAPI program to
have access to the Exchange server.

	That is the easy part.

	Then you create a program to watch all the mail coming through
the server. It will use the admin account and pass copies of messages to
Asterisk and insert messages from asterisk.
	
	I suggest using the MAPI API to Exchange and a socket API,
POP/IMAP, to asterisk.

	I built the aforementioned system buy using an UNIX email server
to receive messages. All incoming messages were sent to the UNIX mail
server. It had mail queues that could be intercepted, like an interrupt
call back routine, messages would arrive, be put into queues, and sent
for processing; convert email to speech via TTS, convert email to fax
and such.

	The basic premises was that when the voicemail server, separate
program and server (there where 200+ voicemail servers), received a
voicemail it would create an email, put the voicemail file in it, or a
link to the voicemail file, to the UNIX email server that would note/log
the voicemail and pass it on to the exchange mail box. 

	When the user deletes an email in Exchange a MAPI Message is
sent back to the Exchange Server and watcher program will see the
Exchange server delete it. Depending on the rules, the watcher program
deletes the email or the voicemail or both, and so forth...

	You could create an addition to asterisk to act as the watcher
program.

	That is the general idea and it does work. If you plan on doing
TTS you are looking at 5 to 6 seconds of real-time to convert 1 sec of
email to 1 second of voicemail.
	

(b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?

	If anyone does take the bounty I am available to consult for
them. But I don't have time to create the entire work.
	
Race "The Tyrant" Vanderdecken


-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of George
Pajari
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:19 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization

We have a customer considering migrating from a large Nortel PBX with a 
third-party voicemail system to Asterisk but one of the features they 
really like is the automatic synchronization of voicemail between 
Exchange and their voicemail system -- delete a message from the 
voicemail system and it is deleted from their email inbox and vice
versa.

Searching has not revealed anything like this being developed for 
Asterisk and yet it would appear to be a critical component needed to 
migrate customers used to fully integrated "Unified Messaging" systems
to Asterisk.

(a) Has anyone cracked this nut (or started on it)?

(b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?

-- 
George Pajari, netVOICE communications    604 484 VOIP (484 8647 x102)
Open Source VoIP/Telephony Specialists  1 877 NET VOIP (638 8647 x102)
                  www.netvoice.ca  www.ip-centrex.ca
      www.digium.ca www.grandstream.ca www.sipura.ca www.snom.ca

_______________________________________________
Asterisk-Users mailing list
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http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

I don't see why it has to be Exchange specific. It should be able to work
for all IMAP servers.

The way I see it, it should be fairly simple to implement in the following
scenario:

1) Modify Asterisk source to:
a) when sending the notification e-mail - add a special X-Header that
contains an ID for the VM.
b) when deleting the msg - send a msg to a special e-mail address

2) On mail server have a procmail or sieve rule that when sent a special
msg containing the VM ID is able to find it by searching the X-Header and
delete it from the IMAP store.

Another possibility for 1b) is if the AstManager sends the fact that the VM
was deleted as an event. If this is the case then a client application can
"subscribe" to that event and do the necessary finding and deleting of
the
e-mail.

Matching can technically be done on the subject, but an X-Header seems less
dangerous.
> Message: 28
> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 11:23:33 -0700
> From: "Rusty Shackleford" <john97@flatline.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
> 	Synchronization
> To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
Discussion'"
> 	<asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID: <035701c56d20$58f2dee0$6402a8c0@bigdog>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="windows-1250"
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com 
>> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
>> George Pajari
>> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 10:19 AM
>> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
>> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization
>> 
>> 
>> We have a customer considering migrating from a large Nortel 
>> PBX with a 
>> third-party voicemail system to Asterisk but one of the features they 
>> really like is the automatic synchronization of voicemail between 
>> Exchange and their voicemail system -- delete a message from the 
>> voicemail system and it is deleted from their email inbox and 
>> vice versa.
>> 
>> Searching has not revealed anything like this being developed for 
>> Asterisk and yet it would appear to be a critical component needed to 
>> migrate customers used to fully integrated "Unified 
>> Messaging" systems 
>> to Asterisk.
>> 
>> (a) Has anyone cracked this nut (or started on it)?
>> 
>> (b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Back in the day, when we were on an Altigen system, we were using this
> feature. It NEVER worked right. To be fair, it was not a feature that
> had been extensively tested. Altigen's beta program appeared to made up
> of paying customers. :( 
>> From what I recall of the sessions with their engineers trying to debug
> things, Exchange Server's behavior in the areas critical to supporting
> this feature were poorly documented and seemed to change from one
> service pack to the next. 
> 
> Things may well have improved, with regards to Exchange Server. It's
> been a few years. To be sure, this would be a killer feature in
> marketing * to MS Exchange Server shops. But I think I'll go hit myself
> with hammer for a while instead. :)
> 
> Message: 28
> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 11:23:33 -0700
> From: "Rusty Shackleford" <john97@flatline.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
> 	Synchronization
> To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
Discussion'"
> 	<asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID: <035701c56d20$58f2dee0$6402a8c0@bigdog>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="windows-1250"
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com 
>> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
>> George Pajari
>> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 10:19 AM
>> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
>> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization
>> 
>> 
>> We have a customer considering migrating from a large Nortel 
>> PBX with a 
>> third-party voicemail system to Asterisk but one of the features they 
>> really like is the automatic synchronization of voicemail between 
>> Exchange and their voicemail system -- delete a message from the 
>> voicemail system and it is deleted from their email inbox and 
>> vice versa.
>> 
>> Searching has not revealed anything like this being developed for 
>> Asterisk and yet it would appear to be a critical component needed to 
>> migrate customers used to fully integrated "Unified 
>> Messaging" systems 
>> to Asterisk.
>> 
>> (a) Has anyone cracked this nut (or started on it)?
>> 
>> (b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Back in the day, when we were on an Altigen system, we were using this
> feature. It NEVER worked right. To be fair, it was not a feature that
> had been extensively tested. Altigen's beta program appeared to made up
> of paying customers. :( 
>> From what I recall of the sessions with their engineers trying to debug
> things, Exchange Server's behavior in the areas critical to supporting
> this feature were poorly documented and seemed to change from one
> service pack to the next. 
> 
> Things may well have improved, with regards to Exchange Server. It's
> been a few years. To be sure, this would be a killer feature in
> marketing * to MS Exchange Server shops. But I think I'll go hit myself
> with hammer for a while instead. :)
>

Race,
 
Good stuff. Thanks.
 
Here is a nutty idea: do you think a slightly insane individual could
create something whereby Asterisk talked to an IMAP4 client which then
logged-in to Exchange, inserted a message with a unique ID#, which it
would keep track of, so when the user deleted the VM via telephone, the
IMAP4 client would say, ut oh, I gots to get me that msg ID# back, so it
would fire up, log-in, find msg ID#, delete it.  Or, have I been using
too much compressed air lately?
 
Cheers.
 
Jason
 
 
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On 6/9/05, Iassen Hristov <ih.ng@databrokers.net>
wrote:
> I don't see why it has to be Exchange specific. It should be able to
work
> for all IMAP servers.
> 
> The way I see it, it should be fairly simple to implement in the following
> scenario:
> 
> 1) Modify Asterisk source to:
> a) when sending the notification e-mail - add a special X-Header that
> contains an ID for the VM.
> b) when deleting the msg - send a msg to a special e-mail address
> 
> 2) On mail server have a procmail or sieve rule that when sent a special
> msg containing the VM ID is able to find it by searching the X-Header and
> delete it from the IMAP store.
> 
> Another possibility for 1b) is if the AstManager sends the fact that the VM
> was deleted as an event. If this is the case then a client application can
> "subscribe" to that event and do the necessary finding and
deleting of the
> e-mail.
> 
> Matching can technically be done on the subject, but an X-Header seems less
> dangerous.
> 
This will work anyhow with any imap server as you say, however most
companies use Excahnge and Outlook as a client to Exchange using MAPI
and not IMAP or POP. However your idea is very solid as it would work
with Exchange and Outlook using MAPI as well.

On 6/9/05, support@sjobeck.com <support@sjobeck.com>
wrote:
>  
> Race, 
>   
> Good stuff. Thanks. 
>   
> Here is a nutty idea: do you think a slightly insane individual could
create
> something whereby Asterisk talked to an IMAP4 client which then logged-in
to
> Exchange, inserted a message with a unique ID#, which it would keep track
> of, so when the user deleted the VM via telephone, the IMAP4 client would
> say, ut oh, I gots to get me that msg ID# back, so it would fire up,
log-in,
> find msg ID#, delete it.  Or, have I been using too much compressed air
> lately? 
>   
On the asterisk side, we can have (again using the same idea) asterisk
run a command when a message is deleted, and in that case have the
command send an email to an address on the IMAP server that will be
responsible to delete that message from the users folder.
Also look at my other postings on this subject, it might be easier to
create a connector in Exchange to accomplish this, however that is
only for Exchange if we want it to work with everybody then using IMAP
is really the way to go.

The quote below is from an old discussion (2005-03-23) on this list re 
using IMAP as the backend storage for comedian mail.  Once such an 
abstraction is achieved I believe it would be relatively straightforward 
to store and retrieve messages from Exchange via MAPI.

More upfront work, yes, but it would provide a cleaner and simpler 
architecture in the long run, wouldn't it?  And the benefits can be 
shared by those using Exchange and those of us who prefer an IMAP server 
on the backend.

James


Kevin P. Fleming wrote:
 > There are discussions currently going about modifying the voicemail
 > system to use an abstracted storage layer that would allow for this sort
 > of thing to be easily done.
 >
 > If you are interested in helping (with code or sponsorship) email me
 > off-list and we'll get you into the conversation :-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of Tim
> Litwiller
> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 9:16 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange 
> Synchronization
> 
> 
> I'm not a programmer - but it sounds to me like you are all 
> making it to hard by transfer the voice files around etc. unless you 
> really have to have the messages stored in the mail server for some reason.
> 
> here is what I would picture
> a outlook plugin that creates the illusion of several folders
{clip}

This is good, but just the configuration management process quickly becomes
unrealistic for a larger office deployment of, say, 250+ clients. Similarly, a
larger organisaion running Exchange presumably has also architected their
hardware for it and would get better value from consolidating storage in that
hardware - consider someone running an Exchange Server cluster with a SAN behind
it...

Perhaps there really is a need for two tiers of solutions here - the large scale
Mailserver-as-backend-for-Asterisk concept presented earlier today by Craig Guy
and then a more generic Asterisk-as-backend-for-mail clients using IMAP, some
other mail protocol or even a per-mail client custom plug-in as you've
suggested.

Just my can$0.02

Kris Boutilier
Information Services Coordinator
Sunshine Coast Regional District

>(b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?
Post it and I'll see what can be done. I've been thinking about this and
a
watcher on the Exchange server, as Race suggests, is probably the way to go.
As to deleting the voicemail, probably scp or something like that would work
fine. I have good experience with MAPI and CDO; I've coded an Outlook Web
Access replacement for my company that works fine.

Make sure you are specific in the requirements, as there are probably a
couple of dozen ways this can be implemented.

If I could summarize where we are for a second, please, thanks, and
direct this conversation over to the wiki (ie: see URL below).

It is agreed upon that IMAP is the most universal way to go for maximum
interoperability.

Using a new agreed upon email header, like:

X-Asterisk-VoiceMail-ID=################

(ie: unique 16 character string)

... inserted in to the headers of the email that the IMAP client will
create and send to the destination mail server.

One Mr Craig Guy, haling from the great nation of Australia, has a large
amount of this framed-in already, it would make sense, with his
permission, naturally, to adapt that for this purpose which is an
Asterisk-wide implementation of this functionality. Craig, please
correct me if I am wrong as soon as possible, and if I am wrong, forgive
me & my terrible presumptions.

The (obvious) goal is to get to Kevin Fleming to get in CVS.

I am sure we will have this thing fully tested, judging by the interest
so far, in a week or two. 

Also judging from the interest so far we will be able to put up a nice
bounty right away for someone so inclined. 

This could be done by the end of next month.

I will offer all the time and energy I can in order to see this through,
doing whatever I can do (ie: perhaps testing & documentation), the only
problem is that I can not code my way out of a paperbag.

Who has the brain power to make this happen?

Please see this URL to post your contribution to the bounty:

http://tinyurl.com/d93bw

Peace. Love. Linux.

Jason Sjobeck
icq:5579183
fwd:253266

I would be willing to Pay $500 for a good Asterisk / Exchange
Integration 


 
----
Dan Levine
dan@cytexone.com
 
CYTEXONE | Your Technology Specialists R
877.CYTEXONE x 810
212.477.0990 x 810
212.208.6889 FAX
502 Laguardia Place, Suite 2B
New York, NY 10012
http://www.cytexone.com 
 
-----Original Message-----
 

From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Colin
Anderson
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 12:53 AM
To: 'George Pajari '; 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
Discussion '
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization

 >(b) Anyone interested if we post a bounty?

Post it and I'll see what can be done. I've been thinking about this and
a watcher on the Exchange server, as Race suggests, is probably the way
to go.
As to deleting the voicemail, probably scp or something like that would
work fine. I have good experience with MAPI and CDO; I've coded an
Outlook Web Access replacement for my company that works fine.

Make sure you are specific in the requirements, as there are probably a
couple of dozen ways this can be implemented.  
_______________________________________________
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On Friday 10 June 2005 02:15, Dan Levine wrote:
> I would be willing to Pay $500 for a good Asterisk / Exchange
> Integration
What do you consider "good" Asterisk and Exchange integration?  More
than a
handful of words, please.

-A.

I would like to support these plans for exchange/outlook integration with at
least $250 as well.

Please have a closer look at http://www.click-and-call.com/ .
Mediastreams has developed their product e-phone, which we could test a
couple of months ago. Their Outlook Integration is really great:
- see missed calls in inbox
- right click a contact or missed call entry to dial
- starting outlook, registers the extension in the system (on
asterisk-server ?!)
- incoming call pops up, transfer it with one click to voicemail or other
extension
- Managing Call Groups within outlook
- Managing voicemail
- Recording of calls
...
But if you also have a closer look on their prices... ;-(

If the community would be able to develop such a "killer-app",
Asterisk
could really become the leading telephone application, perhaps world-wide!
Developers like Thorben Jensen did a realy good job, to get things work on
the client side. Perhaps, these guys with the power to code things well,
should work - more - together on an Outlook Integration.
My experiences with asterisk in short are, that the server-apps are running
really stable, many features are developed, tested and made there way to the
stable version.
But what's really missing, are GUIs that "normal" users can work
with. They
have to accept them and should "love" to work with them. If we
can't provide
users with these GUIs, the powerfull features within Asterisk are only
something for "techies"  like us.

Now, this is my 2cts to this discussion.

Nice weekend to all and let's make Asterisk a more powerfull application

Guido Hecken
 
gwsNetTech
Guido Hecken

Quirrenbacher Str. 36
53639 K?nigswinter
Germany

fon     +49(2244) 870663
fax     +49(2244) 870664
mobil  +49(179) 1267353
web     http://www.gwsnettech.de
mailto:guido.hecken@gwsnettech.de

))))))))))) Please see comments inline.

 
> >From my perspective, not sure I would want Exchange (Which 
> is difficult enough to manage) to be cluttered up with
> potentially large voicemail files,
 
That's a concern, especially since bugs in current Asterisk versions
require
you to use uncompressed WAV files to get acceptable volume levels.
However,
this *is* a common configuration for other products.  

))))))))) I do not worry about this.  It is 'only' storage space.


We used to have a
CallXpress system that used Exchange as a message store.  It stored
voice
messages in people's Exchange mailboxes, and could even read email
messages
over the phone via text-to-speech.  The interface with Exchange was kind
of
kludgy, though, and not entirely reliable.  It actually used a copy of
Outlook on the voicemail server to talk to Exchange.
 
)))))))))))))) We are not now thinking about using this type of design,
no client running on the Exchange server nor on the laptop.

> I would have thought that most Exchange clients are most likely to be
> Outlook based, who could use pst & IMAP (or POP3 if asterisk 
> could auto
> forward and then delete voice mail) to retrieve voicemail via 
> email without
> having to worry about central Exchange issues.
 
IMAP is no good.  Outlook, at least in older versions, cannot handle
both an
IMAP account and an Exchange account at the same time.  (They can do
POP3
and Exchange together, though.)

))))))))))) Again, no need for IMAP client on the laptop, just ordinary
Outlook connected directly to its Exchange Server or connected to its
IMAP server. Yes, you're correct, old versions of Outlook didn't allow
use of Exchange Server connection & IMAP connection inside the same
Outlook profile, but that is hopefully not a concern for too many folks
& if it is, argh, I don't know what to suggest, other than moving to new
emailer or new version of their emailer.
 
A voicemail app that used an IMAP server as its message store would
still be
a nice feature, though.  It might even work with Exchange, which can act
as
an IMAP server.

)))))))) Yes, Exchange Server would be the IAMPd. We can simultaneously
connect to Exchange via any protocol, as many times, per machines, per
user, etc (to the machines limits).

Please post your bounty to http://tinyurl.com/bf64x


Please also let us keep this on the task of only voicemail-to-email
integration. I know that as soon as someone sees the words Outlook, they
go crazy, wanting everything under the sun, the reason I know this is
that I am that person too, but we will never get all that, let's get the
voicemail synchronization done, it will be huge, it will benefit
everyone, it will be huge step in the right direction. The issue of
tying Outlook all up ought to be a second issue & as such I have created
a second bounty for that. DavidB, you may or may not want to pony up for
that one here:

http://tinyurl.com/8wmrb

> -----Original Message-----
> From: support@sjobeck.com [mailto:support@sjobeck.com]
> That's a concern, especially since bugs in current Asterisk versions
> require
> you to use uncompressed WAV files to get acceptable volume levels.
> However,
> this *is* a common configuration for other products.  
> 
> ))))))))) I do not worry about this.  It is 'only' storage space.
Yes, but Exchange storage space is expensive.  The "small business"
and
"standard" versions of Exchange have a 16 gigabyte storage limit.  If
you
want to exceed that, you have to shell out about $4,000 extra for the
"enterprise edition."

Actually I think that has changed to 75gb now (or about to change).

Cheers,
Dean

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
> bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of David Brodbeck
> Sent: Friday, 10 June 2005 3:59 PM
> To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
Synchronization
> Sensitivity: Private
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: support@sjobeck.com [mailto:support@sjobeck.com]
> 
> > That's a concern, especially since bugs in current Asterisk
versions
> > require
> > you to use uncompressed WAV files to get acceptable volume levels.
> > However,
> > this *is* a common configuration for other products.
> >
> > ))))))))) I do not worry about this.  It is 'only' storage
space.
> 
> Yes, but Exchange storage space is expensive.  The "small
business"
and
> "standard" versions of Exchange have a 16 gigabyte storage limit.
If
you
> want to exceed that, you have to shell out about $4,000 extra for the
> "enterprise edition."
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
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>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

I entirely disagree.

I have been using Mulberry (including the Linux version) with an Exchange
server for years without a hint of a problem. Actually I would say
everybody else in the company (using Outlook) has had problems, not me with
Mulberry.

The IMAP implementation of Exchange is fine AFAIK. I seriously doubt that a
Linux client implementation will not work properly.
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 23:49:45 -0400
> From: "Race Vanderdecken" <asteriskusers@codetyrant.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
> To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
Discussion'"
> 	<asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID: <00b801c56d6f$75831710$6a01a8c0@PressonMobile1>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
> 
> IMAP vs. Exchange
> 
> I would be very weary of using IMAP against an Exchange Server. I have
> not touch it for years but IMAP and Exchange did not play together
> really well back then.
> 
> Has anyone actually used real IMAP to talk to an Exchange server from a
> Linux client lately? 
> 
> If your Linux client can play nice then IMAP with exchange might work.
> 
> The trick is getting Exchange to talk to you if you are not a MAPI
> client.
> 
> Just some thoughts, if you can get it to work that would be great and I
> think people would buy it.
> 
> Race "the tyrant" Vanderdecken

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 10:03:04 -0400
> From: David Brodbeck <DavidB@mail.interclean.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
> To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'
> 	<asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID:
> 
<C823AC1DB499D511BB7C00B0D0F0574CC411CD@serverdell2200.interclean.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> IMAP is no good.  Outlook, at least in older versions, cannot handle both
> an IMAP account and an Exchange account at the same time.  (They can do
> POP3 and Exchange together, though.)
Does this matter? All we are saying is that Exchange supports IMAP and we
would use IMAP as the protocol to delete the message from the user's
mailbox. How does the user access his mailbox is his choice.

Now having said that, obviously we can't delete the message from the local
store of the POP3 client after it has been already downloaded, but we are
not talking about that, are we?

<Jumping in very late to this thread...>
 
Is the solution not to change the voicemail system to enable it to utilise other
entities as the store, e.g. a pop3 server or an imap server rather than just
flat files on disk (which should remain an option).
 
That way it doesn't matter where they listen to them or delete them from?
 
Steve
 

________________________________

From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com on behalf of Race Vanderdecken
Sent: Sat 11/06/2005 12:52
To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Re: Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization



Aye, there's the rub.

"Now having said that, obviously we can't delete the message from the
local store of the POP3 client after it has been already downloaded, but
we are not talking about that, are we?"

1. Thou shall not require any brain cells on the part of the end-user.
2. Thou shall not require any settings to be set on the user's
equipment.
... More rules to follow.

Rule #3
        Thou shall not require the user to delete voicemail messages
stored in their email account program by the voicemail server after they
have deleted it from their voicemail account, unless they have told the
administrator that they will do it, because the user thinks all of their
messages (voice, email, fax, paper, phone) are all stored in ROM
somewhere on the internet...

You will drive your users nuts if they can't delete it from their
message from one place. They will not understand they have to delete the
same message twice, trust me.

Race


-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Iassen
Hristov
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 7:18 PM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Re: Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 10:03:04 -0400
> From: David Brodbeck <DavidB@mail.interclean.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
> To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'
>       <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID:
>
<C823AC1DB499D511BB7C00B0D0F0574CC411CD@serverdell2200.interclean.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;     charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> IMAP is no good.  Outlook, at least in older versions, cannot handle
both
> an IMAP account and an Exchange account at the same time.  (They can
do
> POP3 and Exchange together, though.)
Does this matter? All we are saying is that Exchange supports IMAP and
we
would use IMAP as the protocol to delete the message from the user's
mailbox. How does the user access his mailbox is his choice.

Now having said that, obviously we can't delete the message from the
local
store of the POP3 client after it has been already downloaded, but we
are
not talking about that, are we?

_______________________________________________
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http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
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   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users


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All I am saying it that it won't work if the user is using POP3. I don't
think it is at all possible to overcome this. And as I said before this is
not the use case we are talking about.

The solution simply does not work for users retrieving e-mail via POP3 and
I don't see a way that it would. After all we are talking about an
enterprise environment here. It will work for everybody using Exchange and
Outlook w/ the native Exchange protocol, as well for all other IMAP servers
and IMAP clients.

I don't see a problem with this approach. Simply if you want this feature
you need to be using IMAP, not POP3.

I should think POP3 is very obsolete by now in corporate environments
anyhow.
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:52:24 -0400
> From: "Race Vanderdecken" <asteriskusers@codetyrant.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Re: Voicemail and MS Exchange
> 	Synchronization
> To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
Discussion'"
> 	<asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID: <00d101c56e17$77529090$6a01a8c0@PressonMobile1>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
> 
> You will drive your users nuts if they can't delete it from their
> message from one place. They will not understand they have to delete the
> same message twice, trust me.
> 
> Race

On 6/10/05, Dean Collins <Dean@collins.net.pr>
wrote:
> Actually I think that has changed to 75gb now (or about to change).
> 
> Cheers,
> Dean
> 
> 
Really? any links to support that? Since when is Micro$oft so easy on
giving up on licensing fees?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: C F [mailto:shmaltz@gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 11:28 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange 
> Synchronization
> 
> 
> On 6/10/05, Dean Collins <Dean@collins.net.pr> wrote:
> > Actually I think that has changed to 75gb now (or about to change).
> > 
> Really? any links to support that? Since when is Micro$oft so easy on
> giving up on licensing fees?
I'm curious, too.  If this is true it might save us a lot of pain, upgrade
wise.  We've been looking at moving away from Exchange entirely because of
that damn 16-gig limit, and Exchange Enterprise Edition is just too
expensive.