Outlook Web Access
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
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| Operating system | Cross-platform (web-based application) |
| Type | MAPI based Webmail, calendar, address book. |
| Website | microsoft.com/exchange |
Outlook Web Access (OWA) originally called Exchange Web Connect (EWC), is a webmail service of Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 and later. The web interface of Outlook Web Access resembles the interface in Microsoft Outlook. Outlook Web Access comes as a part of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and previous versions of Exchange.
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[edit] Uses
OWA is used to access e-mail (including support for S/MIME), calendars, contacts, tasks, and other mailbox content when access to the Microsoft Outlook desktop application is unavailable. In the Exchange 2007 release, OWA also offers read-only access to documents stored in Microsoft SharePoint sites and network (UNC) shares. Microsoft provides Outlook Web Access as part of Exchange Server to allow users to connect remotely via a web browser. Some of the functionality in Outlook is also available in this web "look-alike". The most important difference is that Microsoft Outlook allows users to work with e-mail, calendars, etc., even when a network connection is unavailable, whereas OWA requires a network connection to function. OWA can be used from Internet cafes and any other location that provides connectivity to the Web.
[edit] Functionality
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This article contains weasel words, vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (July 2009) |
Functionality of the OWA is partly bundled with the use of a Microsoft client operating system and the Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). The OWA interface available in Exchange 2000, Exchange 2003, and Exchange 2007 is available in two flavors. The so-called "Premium" user interface is rendered for Internet Explorer 5 (for the 2000 and 2003 releases) and Internet Explorer 6 SP1 and later for the 2007 release. The "OWA Light" user interface (UI) is rendered for other browsers. While the basic interface did not support search with Exchange Server 2003, the UI has been reworked for Exchange Server 2007 and OWA Light now supports search for mail items, and managing contacts and the calendar has also been improved.[1][2] Since there is no current IE installer available for Mac OS X and no official installer at all for Linux, Linux and many Apple users can only use restricted functionality.
Many argue this is deliberate protectionism in favour of Microsoft Internet Explorer - there is no technical reason why any browser should not be able to render the full OWA client.
[edit] Technology
The first component to allow client-side scripts to issue HTTP requests (XMLHTTP) was originally written by the Outlook Web Access team. It soon became a part of Internet Explorer 5.0. Renamed XmlHttpRequest and standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium,[3] it has since become one of the cornerstones of the Ajax technology used to build advanced web applications.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access". Microsoft Corporation. 2007. http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/code/OWA/index.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-27.
- ^ "Client Features in Outlook Web Access". Microsoft Corporation. 2008-03-14. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997437.aspx. Retrieved on 2009-05-27.
- ^ "The XMLHttpRequest Object". W3C. 15 April 2008. http://www.w3.org/TR/XMLHttpRequest/. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
