2 Questions

[dhanford]

Does this plug-in require that Outlook be running on the HomeSeer machine?

Does this plug-in work with Exchange?

Thanks,
Dave

[completelyhis]

Followup question: what functionality via/with Maestro could this provide? (Ie, calendar in main screen, events showing in the events area of Maestro, etc...This (and Maestro supporting Media player and HSPhone) has been on my short wish list for a while!!!!!!!


I figured Dave may be considering the same thing, which is why he is asking....eh, Dave?

[dhanford]

I plead the 5th...

[pjcolley]

Hi dhanford

Yes at the moment Outlook has to be on the same machine, the method of communication I use was originally supposed to support this via DCOM but I believe this is now frowned on for security reasons even by Microsoft themselves nowadays. I do plan on looking at another method to get around the Outlook security messages which may possibly allow this.

I've not tried this with Exchange myself but I'm currently working with Rick Tinker on trying to get this working.

Phil

[pjcolley]

Hi completelyhis

Sorry have to admit I've not really looked at Maestro.

The support for Mainlobby uses the excellent MLHSPlugin which links to the devices created and maintained by my plug-in in the normal way, I'm not talking to the ML half of the MLHSPlugin directly. So if Maestro can use the same devices then everything should work as per ML.

I also supply several ASP pages in compact form which gives better two way communication between ML and HS that use the Weblobby add-on, so could Maestro make use of this functionality.

Along with the actual devices the plug-in also exposes sufficient routines to obtain the Appointments/Tasks and email information form Outlook.

Hope this helps, if not ask away.

Phil

[jackpod]

Outlook needs to be installed on the hs machine, but does not have to be running unless you want to use the email feature of the plugin. In my case I am only using the Appointments and Tasks portion of outlook. I only start outlook to add / modify tasks and appts, then I shut it down. The plugin does not require Outlook to be running to get tasks and appts

[dhanford]

Phil,
Thanks for the details. I got your e-mail as well.

Jackpod,
Thanks for the info.

Completelyhis,
In the abscense of a Maestro module that supports Outlook integration (for now).. It seems like it would be easy enough to provide a custom button to pull up the ASP pages.

Thanks,
Dave

[completelyhis]

Can't wait to get home and try it out! I use Outlook on my Laptop...would I be able to copy my outlook data file from the laptop to the HS computer, say, weekly, and not run outlook on the computer, or does outlook have to actually be installed and configured?

[pjcolley]

completelyhis

Someone else mentioned getting all the information from the Outlook PST file but when I looked into it I found that the PST format is proprietory to M$ so that was a non starter.

However you got me thinking, so I've just tried using Outlook's Export function on my appointments to a csv file and that works niceley, so I could quite easily write an import routine to read this file. We could have an HS event call the plug-in to check for the export file on a regular interval and auto import it.

Phil

[completelyhis]

That would be very cool!

[pjcolley]

Ok I'll see if I can add this real soon, just got to get my other plug-ins ready for the updater. So probably do this over the weekend.

Phil

[kuntakintay]

I have exchange running, and cant get the default virt devices to update based upon my outlook data, so would expect it doesnt support it (BIG BUMMER!!!). Any ETA on when the plugin will support exchange?

[kuntakintay]

sorry to hijack, but off topic question, you noted that you cant get around the popup message asking to allow connectivity unless you start charging for the plugin (in the pdf guide). Not trying to be a jerk, but I still get it, and looks like this plugin is $39.95 now???

[pjcolley]

[kuntakintay]

Phil,

Happy to help test on integration with exchange. Let me know what you need me to do and how to acquire the test files/installs.

Regarding the security warning, I was just giving you a "friendly" jab. I had the clickyes running on my laptop some time ago to get around some other application integration (I think with some ipod integration) and it works, but I hate to keep adding additional shareware apps to my hs server. It will work for the time being though.

I am pretty excited about the ability to integrate into exchange, and suspect there are many of us outlook guys that use it. I use the Jon000 email stuff now, but am limited to my pop based email accounts only. In addition I have a PPC-6700 pdaphone that ties into the exchange system, so it would be really sweet to be able to have everything synced, create a task or schedule on the road, and have hs be able to tts alert me to these...