Writable Contact Lists With Outlook and LDAP?

Snafoo asks: "Ximian Evolution allows users to set up LDAP-based shared contact lists, to which multiple users can read and write. However, my company uses MS Outlook 2002, which doesn't support writing to LDAP directories. Currently, we use a kludgy PHP front-end to the LDAP directory for entering new addresses. Short of buying Exchange, is there anything we can do to share write-enabled contact lists with LDAP and Outlook?"

Comments

Re:Mozilla?

[Bazzargh]

I just got moz-exchange LDAP access to our server working. Dunno if its write access, but generally its the company address book we share, not personal address books.

This tip really helped.

I downloaded and started up the Softerra LDAP browser, typed in the name of my server and asked it to search for base DNs (I assume this is what the 'find' button is for in the moz setup that is never enabled). I used my normal login name and password for the domain as the User DN and password (no 'DOMAIN\User' nonsense), and took the default for everything else. Bingo! A nice listing of our directory.

Taking this across to Mozilla (1.4b), I used the base DN that softerra had discovered and left the bind DN blank. In Preferences...Adressing I told it to use this LDAP server to complete addresses, and turned off my local addressbook, for testing. I started to compose a mail and was prompted for a password. I typed my password, and hey presto a list of names appeared.

I know this isn't quite what the original poster was asking, but google comes up with lots of unanswered posts asking 'how do I connect my moz addressbook to exchange' when I've searched on this in the past, and this solution actually works.

-Baz

Re:Write a plugin for Outlook

[nasdaq]

Kj0n your sig points to you! You need to check yourself! Please allow me to enlighten you all on the Monopolistic capabilities of Microsoft. I am a developer of a CRM Web Based Application, and have done extensive r&d on this topic. We need to create an addin for outlook that will synchronize our product with Outlook. Microsoft has (they say due to viruses) implimented an Outlook security model that blocks access to relevant items ie: email addresses, message senders, the address books, from programatic access via the outlook object model api. Any access to these items and more cause a macro security dialog box to popup saying that another potentially harmful application is trying to access Outlook, and requests input from the user. The key here is that outlook has no idea what program is the accessor. Once the user agrees to the action during that action (or time frame that was allowed up to 10 mins) any application can access outlook without further warnings! This completely negates the security in my eyes because any virus can run at that point. Further more, to get to the Monolopy part of this rant, To allow any addin to run with out warning You MUST distribute a security proifile from an Exchange server. They are futher locking it down with 2003 "... with the additional object model blocks that are added in Outlook 2003, there are tasks that independent software vendors (ISV) need to handle, that do not have any simple workarounds. " After talking with Mirosoft the way around this is to learn c/c++ and mapi store programming (and the MS changes to it) to access Outlook from an addin with out exchange and endless Security dialogs. The say that in a non-Exchange enviornment with 2003 they will be "Trusted by default" but with MSCRM I bet that it will change... In the mean time brush up on your c.

Pointer & Suggestions

[maggard]

Slipstick.com is an invaluable Outlook/Exchange site. It has a good-sized page of alternatives to Exchange for address book sharing and another page just about LDAP.

As I see it there are a two obvious solutions:

• Use a central locked-down PAB everyone has read-access to. Updates & additions are created by users as standard address book entries and sent to a designated in-house address. Every so often in the off hours all of those files are collected and dropped into the master file (can be scripted.) Benefits are the address-book entries contain all of the Outlook set of details, will work with 3rd-party add-ins.

• Or instead of using a "kludgy PHP front-end" use a better-quality one like Twiki or Horde. If with this you move your mailboxes over to IMAP you'll have also gotten a great remote-client solution. On their desktops they can use Outlook, away from them log into the webmail client, and also use it for those shared address-book updates.

By the way, a good utility for exporting from Outlook/Exchange to vCard and vCalendar files (individual files or multiple-entry files) is the free Outpod. Written for exporting to Apple iPods it is also an easy way to transfer around address books to many applications.