OTRS integration with MS Exchange (only MAPI enabled)

[holden]

Hi all,
I know that OTRS can talk to any mail server (MS Exchange included) with POP3/IMAP and SMTP and not via MAPI. That's clear but in my case I cannot help using MAPI since the other protocols will not be enabled on MS Exchange. That's a big issue since I have not been able to find any solution to integrate OTRS 3.0.1 on Ubuntu and MS Exchange 2003 through MAPI. I searched a lot but it does not appear to be a straightforward documented solution anywhere. Is there anyone that managed to get this integration working? Please not that we already discarded the idea to forward the company mails to an internet mail server (to be interfaced to OTRS).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
BR/Dario

[Wolfgangf]

how about forwarding the mail from exchange to an useraccount on your OTRS machine?

[holden]

Hi,
thanks for your answer. Actually what we do now is this: we use a VBA Macro in Outlook that allows to forward one or more selected mails to one account on the Linux machine that in turn (through postfix and dovecot) talk to OTRS. The account in Outlook used to forward the mails is the same defined on the Linux machine and not the default account (userid) since the rules set on MS Exchange do not allow to forward mails to addresses that are not in the same domain. This way we can get the incoming support requests in our Outlook mailbox go to OTRS. The problems still open are:

1) This way of working is not fully automated: we need to forward the mails running a macro (we added a command button to the toolbar)
2) W cannot fully use OTRS since we cannot reply to support requests straight from OTRS and we are still very much depending on Outlook and that causes additional work

I understand that MAPI is a MS proprietary protocol but it would be nice if OTRS might be able to talk even that language. Frankly, I am not an expert to suggest technical solutions but, maybe, given the results of the openChange project, the integration might be possible without huge efforts. This could really benefit a lot of people and offer a solution that nobody can claim...

[Wolfgangf]

and what about convincing Exchange guys to open POP3 or IMAP for you?

[jojo]

MAPI is not an open Standard. POP3 and IMAP are. So if you need to fetch mails from exchange have the Exchange Guys open it for this user.