[Asterisk-Users] Re: Voicemail and MS Exchange Synchronization

[Iassen Hristov]

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 at flatline.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
> 	Synchronization
> To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'"
> 	<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID: <035701c56d20$58f2dee0$6402a8c0 at bigdog>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="windows-1250"
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com 
>> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at 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 at flatline.com>
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Voicemail and MS Exchange
> 	Synchronization
> To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'"
> 	<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID: <035701c56d20$58f2dee0$6402a8c0 at bigdog>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="windows-1250"
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com 
>> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at 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. :)
>