Sebastopol, CA--Computers and devices are more connected now than ever before.
Collaboration techniques have become a vital responsibility for corporate
solution developers-changing not only the way we design systems, but the way we
work. People need to share information, and need to do it quickly, without
regard to the physical distance that separates us.
Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) is Microsoft's technology for building
messaging or collaboration applications or adding these capabilities to
existing applications. CDO enables Visual Basic applications to exchange not
only classic email, but in fact any information in a straightforward and easy
way. The Internet-sometimes seen as a barrier by developers-is turned into an
open pipe, ready to take your application's data around the world. Routing
documents and building email list servers is just the beginning.
CDO is a scripting interface to an existing Microsoft messaging model, the
Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI). MAPI is the cornerstone of
messaging on the Windows platforms, and profoundly influences the way
collaboration applications are written. Understanding CDO and MAPI lays the
foundation for adding effective collaboration capabilities to applications.
O'Reilly's latest release, CDO & MAPI Programming with
Visual Basic: Developing Mail and Messaging Applications ($29.95 US)
uncovers Microsoft's CDO and MAPI technologies that allow workgroup
collaboration, including and beyond email. The book also includes succinct
explanations of the types of useful messaging applications that can be written
in Visual Basic. "This book fills a gap in a relatively young, yet exciting and
popular technology that lacks adequate documentation," says author Dave
Grundgeiger.
"The connectedness of computers and networks is only increasing," he says.
"Messaging, collaboration, and workflow are no longer separate applications.
Every application that is to be successful must possess these features to some
degree. Today's applications must take the Internet into account as the global
medium of collaboration. CDO and this book provide programmers with easy entry
into this realm."
The bulk of the book focuses on Collaboration Data Objects (CDO), an
automation-compatible object model that wraps MAPI and is accessible from
Visual Basic as well as from scripted languages like VBScript. CDO enables
Visual Basic applications to access not only email, but any information in a
MAPI message store (such as contact or schedule information) in a
straightforward and easy way.
"CDO provides a rich interface to Microsoft's Messaging API (MAPI) in the form
of an object model, which is a programming concept especially familiar to
Visual Basic programmers," says Grundgeiger. "CDO is intuitive, but does have
some 'gotchas.'"
With O'Reilly's trademark no-nonsense, no-frills approach that focuses
concisely on what you need to know to use CDO effectively, CDO & MAPI
Programming with Visual Basic: Developing Mail and Messaging Applications
provides the in-depth coverage of an exciting and inadequately documented
technology that you'd expect from O'Reilly.
Online Resources:
CDO & MAPI Programming
with Visual Basic: Developing Mail and Messaging Applications
By Dave Grundgeiger
1-56592-665-X, 384 pages $29.95
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
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