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Red star Indicates important rule

  1. Exchange Server should have an option to use a SQL Backend Red star
  2. Connect to Exchange Server from SQL Management StudioRed star
  3. Record a Script for DeploymentRed star
  4. Problems caused by Special Characters
  5. Exchange Server should allow easier cluster configuration.
  6. Please keep public folders.
  7. Daily Agenda Email
  8. Add "Include Subfolders" option to the Search form in OWA
  9. Help me get nice URLs

  1. Exchange Server should have an option to use a SQL Backend Red star

    We are aware that there are a lot of difficulties in doing this from all the performance issues of converting a hierarchical database to a relational one, but the performance issues that need to be fixed. This allows us to do a few things.

    Also, the SQL Database that Exchange Server will use should be visible. We want to be able to query it and not want to learn a new API. In fact, you should be able to query Exchange Server through Query Analyzer.

     

  2. Connect to Exchange Server from SQL Management StudioRed star

    We want to be able to use Exchange Server as easily as we use SQL Server. We want to be able to use a gui to write a query in Outlook/SQL Management Studio against exchange server to find out useful data for the company. e.g. How many important items there are in a users inbox. are in my inbox

  3. Record a Script for DeploymentRed star

    Exchange should be able to record a script to create a folder so that it can be used to deploy on other computers (like Reporting Services scripts - using that in SQL Management Studio)
    Recording a script
    Figure: SQL Management - Record Script

  4. Problems caused by Special Characters

    Exchange Server 2000 has a problem when special characters (such as: !@#$%^&*()") are used in the message subject line. OWA displays errors such as "Page cannot be found, HTTP 404 error messages as a result from these special characters.

    This problem does not occur with any Outlook clients (2000 or XP), and only in OWA and only if you have the special characters in the subject line. If you type the special characters in the body of the message, you will be able to view the message just fine.

    Different versions of IE (5.0-6.0) and Netscape browsers have been tested, however the same thing happens. The problem has been encountered by users for some time and the latest service packs have done nothing to overcome this problem.

    Note: there is no known work around that we know of. Microsoft posted a KB Article on the problem.

  5. Exchange Server should allow easier cluster configuration.

    I DO MIND having to worry about learning Exchange clustering (and worrying about hardware) to be able to have some redundancy if one box goes down.

    I have a dream that I can setup the cluster for Exchange as easy as how it works for SQL Server 2005 SP1. The Wizard is so simple to follow that my mum could run it. And it doesn't require specific hardware. So a solution for the Exchange Team is to move the backend to SQL Server and then you can use SQL Server's mirroring feature.

    Sorry for the repetition, I must have mentioned this many times over the past 5 years.

  6. Please keep public folders

    Public Folder is a very useful and cost effective way to share information on Exchange Server. I really dont concur with the phasing out of this feature unless there is a very good reason.

    This will affect many of my clients who are currently using SSW eXtremeEmails! and I think there are many others on the market as well.

  7. Daily Agenda Email

    Google Calendar has a setting where your daily agenda is emailed to you every morning at 5am. It's a simple feature but extremely useful.

    Google Calendar
    Figure: Google Calendar allows you to get your Daily Agenda emailed to you every morning

    SSW will possibly add this feature to Team Calendar in the future.

  8. Add "Include Subfolders" option to the Search form in OWA

    OWA can only search the items in the current folder, but not including the subfolders. It will be better to add a check "Include subfolders" to fulfil this common requirement.

    Figure: This is the option I was expecting

  9. Help me get nice URLs

    URLs are part of the UI, the Exchange Team should play with MVC and experience the nice URLs.

      To Reproduce:
    1. Go to your OWA inbox
    2. Right click on the "Sent Items" folder and "Open in New Window"
    https://mail.ssw.com.au/owa/?ae=Folder&t=IPF.Note&id=LgAAAADJ0hRZtBi8QpIgbESL70L1AQBZOBJtTQ9HQbOWNqsTETIFAAADTk8xAAAB
    Figure: Bad Example - Amazingly this is the Sent Items URL
    https://mail.ssw.com.au/owa/SentItems
    Figure: Good Example - This should be the URL

    Note: We also have a similar suggestion for the URLs in SharePoint

Acknowledgements

Adam Cogan