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Microsoft Exchange Definitions
• 5 min read
If you’ve ever gotten a little lost diving into Microsoft Exchange docs, you’re not alone (that’s why we built Nylas, to help make integrating with Exchange accounts a breeze).
Given its long history, Exchange has countless additions and qualifications to keep track of within the infrastructure of the Exchange family. You might be creating a plan of action with assumptions about how certain components of Exchange work only to discover unexpected twists and turns that leave you wondering where you are amongst the Microsoft product ecosystem.
To aid you as you embark on your Exchange journey, we’ve put together an Exchange encyclopedia with terms and definitions to help guide you. Let’s first get a big-picture view of broader Exchange and Microsoft products.
Microsoft has unified all of their Exchange documentation at the official Microsoft Docs site. You may occasionally encounter references to the legacy portal TechNet, which once contained general documentation for Exchange, or the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) which has since been transformed into the landing page at developer.microsoft.com.
Here are the important terms to know for the Microsoft Exchange product ecosystem.
If you’re looking to build an app that integrates Exchange accounts, our guide on how to use Exchange Web Services to authenticate user accounts.
Exchange Web Services is a protocol designed to enable developers to integrate data and functionality from Exchange into their app. EWS is the best option for developing feature-rich client and server applications because it exposes many properties that aren’t available with EAS.
Here are a few key terms you should know:
To learn more about all of this, take a look at Microsoft’s guide to get started with EWS client applications, or you can head over to the reference documentation for a deeper dive.
Exchange ActiveSync was introduced in 2003 as a proprietary binary protocol that was designed specifically to sync Exchange with mobile clients. It introduced a lightweight, idempotent procedure for data synchronization and was ideal for when working with high-latency, low-bandwidth connections, such as messaging applications that run on mobile devices.
Since EAS was designed to sync mobile, at minimum, you need to understand the different responses to the Sync command, and common status codes. You should also read through the Exchange Server protocol documentation to get a lay of the land before writing any code.
There is really only one key term you need to know for EAS:
Not sure if you need EAS or EWS? Read Microsoft’s guide to help make the decision.
The Nylas Communications Platform integrates with 100% of email, calendar, and contacts providers, including Exchange, Office365, and Outlook. With Nylas, you can build a full email, calendar, and contacts integration in a fraction of the time it would take to build a direct integration with Exchange.
Nylas Hosted Auth is the quickest and easiest way to setup user authentication for your app. Simply redirect users to a Nylas login page and we’ll handle the rest including auto-detection of third party providers and managing token exchanges with providers like Microsoft.
Head over to the Nylas docs to learn more about Nylas Hosted Auth.
Building an integration with Exchange can be a big commitment in terms of time and money. Our ROI calculator computes that building a direct integration with Exchange on your own would take around 19,642 hours. With Nylas, it would take one developer as little as 18 days to build a full email, calendar, and contacts integration. If you’d like to try out the Nylas Communication Platform, create a free developer account and start building your integration today.
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Ben is the Developer Advocate for Nylas. He is a triathlete, musician, avid gamer, and loves to seek out the best breakfast tacos in Austin, Texas.