Integrating Oulook/Exchange Tasks with Linux-based Rails

Question

Is it possible to integrate MS Outlook/Exchange tasks with Rails? I know how to send emails with Rails, but that isn't using anything "special" about exchange, just pointing it at the server.

What is "special" about an Outlook Task and how I can I create/read/update/delete them from Rails. (Even a subset of CRUD would be great.)

PS. I am on a linux based rails system, so solutions that rely on a windows-only function won't work for me.

Answer 1

WebDAV might be the way to go, if you'd like to do it in Ruby. There is a ruby gem call rexchange that can do the trick. However, MSFT is phasing out WebDAV and replacing it with the Exchange Web Services, which is Zoredache suggested. Unfortunately, MSFT only provides API in C# (technically, it's SOAP stuff that is language-agnostic, some Java developers seem to sucessfully build some stuff using EWS, but I have yet known anyone has done this in Ruby.)

Answer 2

If you are running Exchange 2007 you should also look at Exchange web services to manipulate things.

Answer 3

I am in the process of building a MS Exchange client access library in Ruby that uses MS Exchange Web services. The code is GPL'd so have at it. Please let me know what kind of issues you have and what other features you'd like to see. It's pretty heavy in development at this point.

http://github.com/zenchild/Viewpoint

Cheers,

Dan Wanek

Answer 4

Assuming that the tasks are stored in Exchange, you should be able to access the tasks through WebDAV.