Forum Discussion

BruGuy's avatar
BruGuy
Level 6
12 years ago

How can I programatically retrieve archived mail items as msg files?

Hello,

I'm writing a program which needs to save archived mail items as .msg files. What's the standard way of doing that please? Can I use a http GET, or do I need to use EV APIs? Any examples out there?

I have access to stub and its shortcut data. Environment is Exchange 2003/2010 and EV904.

Thanks,

- Alan.

Enterprise Vault
Information Governance
Tip-How to
  • JesusWept3's avatar
    JesusWept3
    12 years ago
    OK so through download.asp you will need an account to have read access on the mailbox and then use EVPM to give READ access to the archive itself. However, this is probably inefficient because you're going to start hammering IIS with individual requests, possible like 30,000 requests to retrieve items. plus if any errors occur, you're just going to know that the item couldn't be downloaded, but not why, but if you use the API you can see what the last error was. For the API stuff, it absolutely has to be the EVAdmin without giving extra permissions to archives, but the API is really easy to program for, the only draw back may be if you wanted end users to be able to run the app themselves, then it will fail as for the STEP program, it's not free and is a sizeable amount, but is aimed at third party app developers such as GlobaNet, TransVault, BlueSource etc
  • JesusWept3's avatar
    JesusWept3
    Level 6
    12 years ago
    from http it would be download.asp and then saving out the msg file you can find the format of download.asp by looking at the URL that is used in the view original item banner, or view message button from search.asp The better option is to use the API It will need to be run on a machine that has either EV or the EV API installed and it has to use the EV Admin credentials, else the calls will fail An example posted by Wayne Humphreys can be found here: http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/fetch-mail-andor-mail-entryid-ev-sdk In order for whatever you make to be distributed publically i believe you will have to be a member of the STEP Program by symantec, that also gives you access to the API documentation which hasn't been distributed with EV since version 2007 i believe. It will also give you the ability to contact API support, and without the STEP membership, you will not be able to get any support for API related issues
  • BruGuy's avatar
    BruGuy
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    Thanks very much - the ASP page sounds like it will do what I need.

    Never heard of this STEP program but I suppose it's not free? It would just be an in-house util so no public distro needed. 

    Regarding using the EV admin account and the APIs, if in Exchange I give a new service account read-only access to all mailboxes, then that should be carried through to EV archives. Wouldn't that be enough to retreive archived items?

    Thanks again.

  • JesusWept3's avatar
    JesusWept3
    Level 6
    12 years ago
    OK so through download.asp you will need an account to have read access on the mailbox and then use EVPM to give READ access to the archive itself. However, this is probably inefficient because you're going to start hammering IIS with individual requests, possible like 30,000 requests to retrieve items. plus if any errors occur, you're just going to know that the item couldn't be downloaded, but not why, but if you use the API you can see what the last error was. For the API stuff, it absolutely has to be the EVAdmin without giving extra permissions to archives, but the API is really easy to program for, the only draw back may be if you wanted end users to be able to run the app themselves, then it will fail as for the STEP program, it's not free and is a sizeable amount, but is aimed at third party app developers such as GlobaNet, TransVault, BlueSource etc
  • BruGuy's avatar
    BruGuy
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    Well we sync mailbox perms with EV perms so won't I get away without using EVPM?

    This is a utility that I'm thinking of coding to help in-house iPhone users retrieve archived items. That's a fairly small number so the number of queries wouldn't be huge (I know there are expensive third-party solns for that).

    If the APIs require EVadmin access, to be honest I'd be too scared to use it. Pity. Plus the cost would be an issue anyways. And yes it would be the end-users that run it to retrieve their own archived items.

    Thanks for all your advice. I'll look into the ASP pages, that sounds promising for the simple util that I need.

  • JesusWept3's avatar
    JesusWept3
    Level 6
    12 years ago
    Honestly mate, you may want to just wait it out, there is an imap client coming out that the iphone will be able to use as for using the API stuff, you dont need to pay anything to develop it its just you wont have the documentation or support for it, but waynes script will work without any extra licensing requirements
  • BruGuy's avatar
    BruGuy
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    Yeah you're right. I'll give it a whirl and see how far I get. I think the ASP pages are good enough. And Wayne's script looks like it has all the detals I need. Cheers for that.

    Imap client? Jeez everyone uses Exchange Activesync, why on earth would anyone do imap.

  • JesusWept3's avatar
    JesusWept3
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    why do imap? Because the protocols have long been established, you can use iOS devices (ipod, iphone, ipad), Android devices (tablets, phones), can use macs using iMail, Entourage, Outlook, Thunderbird, or windows with Windows Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express... you can hook it in your hotmail account to pull imap there, or gmail, yahoo mail etc, anywhere that can accept an imap client It makes absolute 100% sense and its a great decision imo!

  • JesusWept3's avatar
    JesusWept3
    Level 6
    12 years ago
    oh an ActiveSync is a licenseable API, so like Google and Apple both license the AS API code, so symc would have to license it too
  • jasmith4's avatar
    jasmith4
    Level 2
    12 years ago

    I tried to run Wayne's script, but the CreateObject("EnterpriseVault.ContentManagementAPI") line fails, obviously because I have no reference in Tools/References to the right library.

    I tried every DLL in C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVClient, but none was the correct one, even after displaying hidden members.

    What library do I need?