Topic: Moving from Exchange to SME - Address Book

[Gary]

Company never used the advanced colloboration features of Exchange so switching to SME is not a problem bar the fact that they'll miss the internal address book which consisted of just internal users anyway.
How can I get this functionality back? I think IMAP will confuse users what with having to purge deleted items & seeing two inboxes etc.
I assume using LDAP will do the trick but I can't get it to work with Outlook (2000).

Anyone any tips?

[Maggard]

Gary wrote:
>
> Company never used the advanced colloboration features of
> Exchange so switching to SME is not a problem bar the fact
> that they'll miss the internal address book which consisted
> of just internal users anyway.
> How can I get this functionality back? I think IMAP will
> confuse users what with having to purge deleted items &
> seeing two inboxes etc.
> I assume using LDAP will do the trick but I can't get it to
> work with Outlook (2000).

This is an oft-discussed subject here. Invest in some searches on the website, go back further then 30 days.

The short answer is that OL2K's LDAP support is only for fall-over queries, not pick-from-a-list type operation. You're not going to get the centralized corporate address book you're used to.

> Anyone any tips?

The easiest solution is to set up each user with a local "Company Address Book" contact folder then send out updates as needed using OL's own message format. For more alternatives take a look at:

http://slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm#other

[ryan]

Outlook Express (current version) works well with SME LDAP.  Set up LDAP account in OE.  Make sure you complete your advanced settings for dc=.....see your directory link in server manager for correct dc settings.  Check the simple search box.  Now you can click on find people people button in your address book.  I do an advanced search, select 'email' contains '@'...you can then create standard OE address book contacts from the LDAP search results without to much work.  Once they are in OE, you can export to csv.  

Keep an eye on IMP/horde development...I have read plans (or hopes) of shared contacts and possibly calendars using horde/turba.  IMP/horde is developing quickly so hopefully it will be an alternate to Exchange in the future.  You might look at Twiggi, but I dropped twiggi for Horde due to the fact that Twiggi only allows you to import contact data, not export.  In my opinion, a contact database should be portable or your stuck with it...like AOL.

ryan

[tishk]

'You're not going to get the centralized corporate address book you're used to'

This, and the lack of an integrated authentication system (NDS, Active directory equivalent) is why Linux still held back from mainstream back office use.

Otherwise, we could all 'abandon Microsoft'

Just MHO

[Boris Mann]

You can use LDAP and have it show up as a global address book  -- BUT -- you need this product from Bynari, the Insight LDAP Client:
  http://www.bynari.net/index.php?id=8

They are the same folks that make Insight Connector, a plug-in for Outlook that lets you store all of Outlook's items -- including Contacts, Calendars, Files, etc. etc. -- in an IMAP server:
  http://www.bynari.net/index.php?id=7

The catch being that you need to be running an IMAP server that supports ACLs, which at this point is only Cyrus:
  http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/imapd/

> This, and the lack of an integrated authentication system
> (NDS, Active directory equivalent) is why Linux still held
> back from mainstream back office use.

I agree with you 100%. Desktop-client integration for shared calendars and contacts (NOT web-based) is what clients are asking for.

Integrated authentication...well, the trouble being that you can't "share" user accounts between SME boxes. LDAP could be used for this purpose potentially.

-- Boris

[Alejandro Lengua]

How possible is to install Cyrus email server on SME??? and have it
working with Insight Connector?

[Alejandro Lengua]

BTW Which options of Insight connector would work and which doesn't
with SME IMAP Server?

[Boris Mann]

Alejandro Lengua wrote:

> How possible is to install Cyrus email server on SME??? and have it
> working with Insight Connector?

I don't know. In theory, Cyrus should be able to be installed on SME. Of course, getting it into "SME-mode" where it is all tied into templates, the user system, etc. etc. would be the difficult part. I'm not experienced enough with templates to attempt this at this point.

I *would* be interested in seeing this completed, though, and have expressed this to Mitel directly. Outlook integration is an absolute must-have for many business clients.

> BTW Which options of Insight connector would work and which
> doesn't with SME IMAP Server?

Since Insight Connector seems to work by installing on the client side and then wrapping all the Outlook-specific items into message containers and storing them on an IMAP server, it should work fine with the current IMAP server. HOWEVER, the big feature that many people want -- shared calendaring and contacts -- would not work: this relies on the ACLs (access control lists) that are part of Cyrus IMAP.

I will try and test this in the near future using a trial version of Insight Connector.

[Jon Roberts]

I have also recently been testing the Outlook, Bynari Insight connector, e-Smith combo.  Its true that for shared calendars & folders you need an IMAP server with ACL.

I downloaded and installed the trial version of Bynari's own Insight Server.  I needed to disable the relavent processes on the esmith first, but it worked fine.  Using Outlook with the Bynari Connector on the client side, I was able to share all outlook folders, including calendar & also use the free/busy for meeting.

That was the good part.  I must confess to still being a bit of a Linux novice.  As soon as the server was rebooted, the e-smith setting seems to take over and nothing worked any more until I rebuilt it.  

Any advice on how to permenantly disable services on the e-smith so they don't start again would be welcome.  In the mean time I'll continue searching the forums