The OpenChange Project aims to provide a portable Open Source implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server and Exchange protocols. Exchange is a groupware server designed to work with Microsoft Outlook, and providing features such as a messaging server, shared calendars, contact databases, public folders, notes and tasks.
The OpenChange project has three goals:
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To provide a library for interoperability with Exchange protocols, and to assist implementers to use this to create groupware that interoperates with both Exchange and other OpenChange-based software.
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To provide an alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server which uses native Exchange protocols and provides exactly equivalent functionality when viewed from Microsoft Outlook clients.
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To develop a body of knowledge about the most popular groupware protocols in use commercially today in order to promote development of a documented and unencumbered standard, with all the benefits that standards bring.
There are two sources of documentation - text files in the doc/ directory, and API documentation generated from the source files using doxygen. You can create the API documentation yourself (using "make doxygen" at the top level) or you can refer to the copy on the OpenChange web site at http://apidocs.openchange.org/overview/index.html
doc/howto.txt contains instructions on how to install and set up client libraries, client utilities and the server / proxy parts of OpenChange. doc/man/ contains man(1) pages for several OpenChange utilities. Note that man pages for programming (i.e. the parts that would appear in man3) are generated by doxygen, and will be found in apidocs/ if you generate the documentation yourself. doc/doxygen/ provides static content used as part of the doxygen API documentation generation process. doc/examples/ provides programming examples for libmapi.
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bin/ This directory is created during the build process. It contains the binaries (executable programs) that are compiled during the "make" step. The source for most of these is in the utils/ directory, described below.
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doc/ This directory contains documentation - see description above (in DOCUMENTATION) for the various contents of this directory.
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gen_ndr/ This directory contains routines for handling the Network Data Representation (NDR) for various Exchange RPC calls. The contents of this directory are generated (using Samba's pidl IDL compiler) at build time. The main input file is exchange.idl (see top level directory).
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libexchange2ical This directory provides functionality for converting between Exchange calendar appointments and ICalendar (RFC2445 / RFC5545) format. Exchange -> ICalendar is fairly mature, ICalendar to Exchange is in work.
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libmapi/ This directory contains the main client-side library, called libmapi. libmapi closely reflects the underlying protocol operations (Exchange RPC) being performed between the client and the server. For more information, consult the API documentation (either build yourself, or online at http://apidocs.openchange.org/libmapi/index.html)
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libmapi++/ This directory contains C++ bindings for libmapi. It is not a replacement for libmapi, but is intended to provide easier access to many libmapi functions for C++ programmers. For more information, consult the API documentation (either build yourself, or online at http://apidocs.openchange.org/libmapi++/index.html)
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libmapiadmin/ This directory contains client-side library functions for administering OpenChange or Exchange servers. For more information, consult the API documentation (either build yourself, or online at http://apidocs.openchange.org/libmapiadmin/index.html). If you are looking for a program you can run, instead of library functions to write your own program, "openchangepfadmin" might be of interest.
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libocpf/ This directory contains library functions for the OpenChange Property Files (OCPF). This allows building of mail messages, address book entries, appointments and similar objects from text files. For more information, consult the API documentation (either build yourself, or online at http://apidocs.openchange.org/libocpf/index.html)
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mapiproxy/ This directory provides an Exchange RPC proxy. You can use this to provide transparent proxying, or to change / monitor connections between the client and server. For more information, consult the API documentation (either build yourself, or online at http://apidocs.openchange.org/mapiproxy/index.html)
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python/ This directory contains python scripts used to set up ("provision") the server side. They are not required for the client side.
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qt/ This directory contains Qt4 bindings (lib/ subdirectory) and a sample application (demo/ subdirectory). The sample application is intended for research and development use, not as a complete end-user application.
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samba4/ This directory will be created during the build process if you call "make samba" or execute the ./script/installsamba4.sh script. It is used to build samba4, if required.
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script/ This directory contains a range of scripts useful for development or use of OpenChange. [TODO: document the scripts - perhaps write script/README?]
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setup/ This directory contains data for setting up ("provisioning") the server.
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testprogs/ This directory contains developer test tools
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utils/ This directory contains the source code for a range of applications / utilities that can be used to interact with an exchange server. They include:
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utils/backup/ backup and restore tools
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utils/exchange2ical converts Exchange calendar into an ICal file
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utils/exchange2mbox two way conversion between Exchange mail and mbox
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utils/mapiprofile set up client side profiles (login information)
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utils/mapitest/ test tools for libmapi functionality
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utils/mapitrace/ test tool for tracing MAPI calls
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utils/openchangeclient command line client for Exchange RPC
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utils/openchangepfadmin Public Folders admin tools and administration of Exchange users (add/del)
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utils/schemaIDGUID For more information on these tools, refer to the man(1) pages in doc/man/man1