Microsoft Exchange Data Corruption

[jeff]

I've been doing some minor stuff with an Access Database that creates
an email, or a calendar item etc. for a couple of years now. I have
had no problem using the MAPI code and haven't had any reason to be
concerned about what I was doing. I was looking into direcly linking
somebody's sent item folder with my database but I wanted to see if I
could pull in the attachment with the table or at the least, create a
link to the file on my network. I have been unable to find anything
that allows me to do that, so I am not sure what I can do about that.
My boss, asked me to talk to our independant Exchange/Network guy. I
threw the question at him and he went completely bonkers, freaking out
that I might be corrupting the exchange files and hence would paralyze
my whole office's email some day. I've looked in this group and in
the exchange group and haven't found anything that would lead me to
believe that this is a problem. Would anybody know if I should be
worried about this?

Jeff
jm***@welchcapital.com

[Tony Toews]

jm***@welchcapital.com (jeff) wrote:

I've been doing some minor stuff with an Access Database that creates
an email, or a calendar item etc. for a couple of years now. I have
had no problem using the MAPI code and haven't had any reason to be
concerned about what I was doing. I was looking into direcly linking
somebody's sent item folder with my database but I wanted to see if I
could pull in the attachment with the table or at the least, create a
link to the file on my network. I have been unable to find anything
that allows me to do that, so I am not sure what I can do about that.
My boss, asked me to talk to our independant Exchange/Network guy. I
threw the question at him and he went completely bonkers, freaking out
that I might be corrupting the exchange files and hence would paralyze
my whole office's email some day. I've looked in this group and in
the exchange group and haven't found anything that would lead me to
believe that this is a problem. Would anybody know if I should be
worried about this?

Your network admin guy is an idiot. If you were dealing directly with the exchange
files under the hood so to speak, I'd agree with him. But you are using the standard
Microsoft interfaces so this isn't a problem. You are using the same interfaces that
Outlook and other software uses. So not a problem.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[Peter Miller]

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:02:38 GMT, Tony Toews <tt****@telusplanet.net>
wrote in comp.databases.ms-access:

Your network admin guy is an idiot. If you were dealing directly with the exchange
files under the hood so to speak, I'd agree with him. But you are using the standard
Microsoft interfaces so this isn't a problem. You are using the same interfaces that
Outlook and other software uses. So not a problem.

I'd second Tony's comments, but with a caveat.

Tony is absolutely correct about raw file i/o versus working through
Jet, but its important to add that just because you are using Jet for
accessing email rather than your own home grown raw file i/o doesn't
mean you're using Jet wisely, or in a fashion that could not result in
just the outcome this network guy warned against.

Let's take a simple example. You want to display header information
for sent messages, so you create a query that does what you want, and
use it as the data source for a given interface element. This is what
Outlook does anyway, so no problems, right? Well, what if Outlook
pulled in a snapshot, and created a separate transparent transaction
for editing, and you pulled back an editable recordset? You both get
the same results and functionality, except that if Exchange needed to
write new data out, it might be blocked by your program, but would
have been fine with the interaction of Outlook alone.

Just my 2c.

Peter Miller
__________________________________________________ __________
PK Solutions -- Data Recovery for Microsoft Access/Jet/SQL
Free quotes, Guaranteed lowest prices and best results
www.pksolutions.com 1.866.FILE.FIX 1.760.476.9051

[jeff]

Peter Miller <pm*****@pksolutions.com> wrote in message news:<pl********************************@4ax.com>. ..

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:02:38 GMT, Tony Toews <tt****@telusplanet.net>
wrote in comp.databases.ms-access:

Your network admin guy is an idiot. If you were dealing directly with the exchange
files under the hood so to speak, I'd agree with him. But you are using the standard
Microsoft interfaces so this isn't a problem. You are using the same interfaces that
Outlook and other software uses. So not a problem.

I'd second Tony's comments, but with a caveat.

Tony is absolutely correct about raw file i/o versus working through
Jet, but its important to add that just because you are using Jet for
accessing email rather than your own home grown raw file i/o doesn't
mean you're using Jet wisely, or in a fashion that could not result in
just the outcome this network guy warned against.

Let's take a simple example. You want to display header information
for sent messages, so you create a query that does what you want, and
use it as the data source for a given interface element. This is what
Outlook does anyway, so no problems, right? Well, what if Outlook
pulled in a snapshot, and created a separate transparent transaction
for editing, and you pulled back an editable recordset? You both get
the same results and functionality, except that if Exchange needed to
write new data out, it might be blocked by your program, but would
have been fine with the interaction of Outlook alone.

Just my 2c.

Peter Miller
__________________________________________________ __________
PK Solutions -- Data Recovery for Microsoft Access/Jet/SQL
Free quotes, Guaranteed lowest prices and best results
www.pksolutions.com 1.866.FILE.FIX 1.760.476.9051

Peter and Tony, thanks for the response. But let me clarify. The
four things I am doing are:

Creating a new email which obviously would be specific to the person
running the code.

Creating a new calendar item in a public folder.

Creating a new task item in a users private task folder.

Lastly, I have linked a sent items folder with my database, using the
wizard. I just realized I could link any Exchange folder as well
using the wizard, darn, sometimes they make this sooooo easy. (Not
that I have thought how I would use this yet, but would youz two be
against it?)
It's the last one that I think my guy was most worried about and I
think Peter warned against. I obviously don't need to edit anything
in my sent items folder thru my database so is there away I could make
it uneditable, if it isn't already and would that be enough to avoid
any problems?

[Peter Miller]

Jeff,

On 22 Apr 2004 05:38:27 -0700, jm***@welchcapital.com (jeff) wrote in
comp.databases.ms-access:

Peter and Tony, thanks for the response. But let me clarify. The
four things I am doing are:

Creating a new email which obviously would be specific to the person
running the code.

Creating a new calendar item in a public folder.

Creating a new task item in a users private task folder.
These are all totally fine, and many custom Access apps do these sort
of things.
Lastly, I have linked a sent items folder with my database, using the
wizard. I just realized I could link any Exchange folder as well
using the wizard, darn, sometimes they make this sooooo easy. (Not
that I have thought how I would use this yet, but would youz two be
against it?)
It's the last one that I think my guy was most worried about and I
think Peter warned against.
Yes.
I obviously don't need to edit anything
in my sent items folder thru my database so is there away I could make
it uneditable, if it isn't already and would that be enough to avoid
any problems?

Well, instead of linking the folder, how about simply making a query
that pulls back the fields you're after, then when you are happy with
it, just grabbing the underlying sql statement and using it in code
whenever your program needs the contents of the folder (ie, results of
the query), making sure that any recordsets used are of the snapshot
type. The original query could be deleted.

Peter Miller
__________________________________________________ __________
PK Solutions -- Data Recovery for Microsoft Access/Jet/SQL
Free quotes, Guaranteed lowest prices and best results
www.pksolutions.com 1.866.FILE.FIX 1.760.476.9051

[jeff]

Peter Miller <pm*****@pksolutions.com> wrote in message news:<sf********************************@4ax.com>. ..

Jeff,

On 22 Apr 2004 05:38:27 -0700, jm***@welchcapital.com (jeff) wrote in
comp.databases.ms-access:

Peter and Tony, thanks for the response. But let me clarify. The
four things I am doing are:

Creating a new email which obviously would be specific to the person
running the code.

Creating a new calendar item in a public folder.

Creating a new task item in a users private task folder.

These are all totally fine, and many custom Access apps do these sort
of things.

Lastly, I have linked a sent items folder with my database, using the
wizard. I just realized I could link any Exchange folder as well
using the wizard, darn, sometimes they make this sooooo easy. (Not
that I have thought how I would use this yet, but would youz two be
against it?)
It's the last one that I think my guy was most worried about and I
think Peter warned against.

Yes.

I obviously don't need to edit anything
in my sent items folder thru my database so is there away I could make
it uneditable, if it isn't already and would that be enough to avoid
any problems?

Well, instead of linking the folder, how about simply making a query
that pulls back the fields you're after, then when you are happy with
it, just grabbing the underlying sql statement and using it in code
whenever your program needs the contents of the folder (ie, results of
the query), making sure that any recordsets used are of the snapshot
type. The original query could be deleted.

Peter Miller
__________________________________________________ __________
PK Solutions -- Data Recovery for Microsoft Access/Jet/SQL
Free quotes, Guaranteed lowest prices and best results
www.pksolutions.com 1.866.FILE.FIX 1.760.476.9051

thanks Peter, obviously a little more difficult than just using the
wizard but I shouldn't have too many problemst. I forwarded your
responses to my IT guy, hopefully they'll suffice. I did edit the
part out about him being an idiot though.

Jeff

[Tony Toews]

jm***@welchcapital.com (jeff) wrote:

I forwarded your
responses to my IT guy, hopefully they'll suffice. I did edit the
part out about him being an idiot though.

Awwww. <smile>

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[david epsom dot com dot au]

1) It's his job to make sure the mail works. If you mess it up,
he could get fired.

2) For every time I've seen Jet database corruption, I've seen
100 examples where someone deleted the wrong record, or overwrote
the data. I've got applications with elaborate security to
prevent users getting directly at the data. And now you are
suggesting that you are going to just go in and play with his
data?

I don't have a problem with the technology, but I've got a
lot of sympathy with him as a database administrator.

(david)

"jeff" <jm***@welchcapital.com> wrote in message
news:8a**************************@posting.google.c om...

I've been doing some minor stuff with an Access Database that creates
an email, or a calendar item etc. for a couple of years now. I have
had no problem using the MAPI code and haven't had any reason to be
concerned about what I was doing. I was looking into direcly linking
somebody's sent item folder with my database but I wanted to see if I
could pull in the attachment with the table or at the least, create a
link to the file on my network. I have been unable to find anything
that allows me to do that, so I am not sure what I can do about that.
My boss, asked me to talk to our independant Exchange/Network guy. I
threw the question at him and he went completely bonkers, freaking out
that I might be corrupting the exchange files and hence would paralyze
my whole office's email some day. I've looked in this group and in
the exchange group and haven't found anything that would lead me to
believe that this is a problem. Would anybody know if I should be
worried about this?

Jeff
jm***@welchcapital.com

[Tony Toews]

"david epsom dot com dot au" <david@epsomdotcomdotau> wrote:

1) It's his job to make sure the mail works. If you mess it up,
he could get fired.

But when I read the term "completely bonkers" that meant to me the IT admin person
overreacted just a bit. Well, a lot. If the IT admin had asked some questions about
what was going on that would be much more reasonable.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[jeff]

Well I do have sympathy for him, and I do appreciate his concerns, if
he isn't concerned in general then we've got a bad adminsistrator. I
was still surprised at his response which was probably due to my
ignorance on the issue but at the same time he doesn't know much about
what I'm doing either, he's just concerned about it, but it is his ass
on the line. Suffice to say, both of us are reasonably ignorant on
this issue.

Peter suggested for prudence's sake that instead of directly linking
to Exchange I should write a query, take out a snapsnot and then do
what I want with it. My administrator still seemed to be concerned so
if anybody else who has had experience in linking to exchange and can
talk about the risks of data corruption and how to avoid it, it would
be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

[david epsom dot com dot au]

Important note for your admin guy: although in some incarnations the
Access Wizard refers to 'Exchange', it DOES NOT talk to Exchange. It
talks to MAPI, the MS local client interface. The use of the word
'Exchange' was just a marketing decision: a form of advertising for
another MS product, which at the time had serious completion from
Lotus Notes etc.

--------

I've never heard of or seen corruption of exchange data associated
with the use of a mail client (which is what you are talking about).

--------

I've seen problems from Exchange configuration, Windows configuration,
and Security Settings. In a more general sense, I've seen 'problems'
where test email landed in a production system, problems with email
client 'viral' email, and problems associated with multiple addressing
and invalid email addresses.

In his position, I would want direct supervision of SMTP mail and
direct file drop mail (or anything that directly talks to the Exchange
Server). I'd only want to be notified about use of alternative mail
clients, mail client automation, and alternative use of the mail
client interface, like with Access.

Also, If you automate bulk mail generation, he has a legitimate
interest in the form of the mail message (and may have an opinion
about addressing, size, content, return address and from address).
For example, if you generate multiple mail messages with 12MB
inclusions, there is nothing WRONG with what you have done, but
it has the potential to be a continuing irritation to him, including
a change to his programmed maintenance schedule and notification
protocols, and with possible resource implications.

(david)
"jeff" <jm***@welchcapital.com> wrote in message
news:8a*************************@posting.google.co m...

Well I do have sympathy for him, and I do appreciate his concerns, if
he isn't concerned in general then we've got a bad adminsistrator. I
was still surprised at his response which was probably due to my
ignorance on the issue but at the same time he doesn't know much about
what I'm doing either, he's just concerned about it, but it is his ass
on the line. Suffice to say, both of us are reasonably ignorant on
this issue.

Peter suggested for prudence's sake that instead of directly linking
to Exchange I should write a query, take out a snapsnot and then do
what I want with it. My administrator still seemed to be concerned so
if anybody else who has had experience in linking to exchange and can
talk about the risks of data corruption and how to avoid it, it would
be greatly appreciated.

Jeff