Rant: Exchange, ActiveSync & the death of the PPC

[Mark Johnson]

:soapbox:
RANT WARNING
OK, brace yourself for a foaming-at-the-mouth, what-could-they-possibly-have-been-thinking?!, just-how-stupid-is-this-anyway?!, "meltdown from the mind of Mark" here. Anyone who's tried to sync with an Exchange Public Folder will understand...

So I've got a client who owns a small business. They've got XP desktops, a Windows 2003 server, and he uses an Axim x50v. He bought every piece of equipment exactly like I recommended because he's a good little client and I recommended each Microsoft product because I'm a good little certified Microserf. (Most of the time this makes for happiness in all of our worlds, we "just do it Bill Gates' way" and "get the job done" and have found this is normally fairly cheap and painless. But not today...

Good little client tells me a couple weeks ago: "I've GOT to have my secretary be able to see/change my Outlook contacts and calendar! Make it happen!" Yessirboss! sez I. Deploy Exchange 2003 on Windows 2003 Server, no problemo. Make Public Folder called Shared Contacts and set him and her with permissions to edit, same with Shared Calendar. Here's your bill. Client happy. Life is good...

Now client tells me: "Hey! New contacts and calendar event I and/or my secretary are adding don't sync with Axim! Fix it NOW!" Yessirboss! And today I beat my head against this wall for HOURS to ultimately find: Uber-stupid design can't do it, end of story. Look for third-party solution, good luck to ya...

For about 5 minutes back in like 2002 Microsoft makes (and then ends development on) Microsoft Pocket Contacts Synchronizer which will pull Exchange contacts folder into local Outlook contacts folder, then ActiveSync, but this does ZERO for the shared calendar problem. Doesn't even exist for Outlook 2003!

Vonken Pocket Lookout did this but won't work on ActiveSync after 3.8 and News section of their site has as it's last entry:
June, 2004
No support
Due to internal reasons, all activities of Pocket Lookout have been stopped.
...OK, Just great...

Odyssey Pocket OnSchedule is last hope. Puts an entirely second PIM on the PPC and syncs that with the Public Folders. Does work. Looks/works completely different. Client is just gonna have to live with that. Because... Wait for it... There is NO solution from Microsoft to get Public Folder calendar/contacts from Exchange to the PPC! Arrugh! So client looks at me like I'm a moron because they (quite seriously) cannot begin to wrap their minds around the FACT that the several thousand dollars worth of Microsoft stuff they've bought just CANNOT be made to work together without some obvious third-party kludge. Funny thing is I don't blame them at all. The client is being perfectly reasonable to think that this stuff all ought to work together... It's ALL from MICROSOFT!!!!

So I'm totally embarrassed/humiliated in front of these people, they genuinely doubt my skills now because it seems (to the layperson) that being unable to sync a Microsoft Exchange Public Folder with a Microsoft PocketPC just means I don't know what I'm doing.

And all of this is actually just leading up to my real thought on this post which is:

The PocketPC platform is the unloved stepchild of Microsoft. Their only real goal for it was to make it good enough to beat Palm, they've accomplished that, and now "filling in the potholes" in the platform isn't worth their time. They might as well hang a "we ain't EVER gonna get around to making PPC work the way you need it to and you are better off jumping ship to Origami as fast as you can guys." Because that's exactly what I've learned from this experience.

Forget this anemic little "I wanna be Windows someday when I grow up" platform! Give me REAL Outlook on a portable device! Something that can be a DIRECT Exchange client in the first place! Give me REAL Access databases and Word Documents! We've GOT to stop accepting the definition that there are PC's and PocketPC's. What we need are PC's that are largish (and cheap) and PC's that are really small (and cost a bit more) but can fit in your pocket! That's what a "PocketPC" really SHOULD mean! A device that fits in your pocket and DOES the same core things you do with your PC!!!!

I've had it. The emperor has NO clothes! The best possible thing that can happen to the PocketPC is to rip Windows Mobile out of it and make it Origami/XP based. Keep the NAME "PocketPC" (it's a good name and has way more recognition than Origami) but KILL the OS (relegate it to smartphones) and switch PocketPC to XP code NOW!

Maybe I can talk my client into a OQO...

[End foaming-at-the-mouth-rant]

[Mark Kenepp]

Why not just give your client's secretary permission to access his/her Exchange mailbox and load it up on his/her Outlook? Then the secretary can access the default contact, calendar and task folders and then there is no problem with syncing.

The bigwigs in my company all have their Exchange mailboxes accessible by their assistants.

You could selectively give permission only to the contacts, appointments and tasks if you don’t want the secretary reading the bosses email.

[Brad Adrian]

You could selectively give permission only to the contacts, appointments and tasks if you don’t want the secretary reading the bosses email.
And remember, there are differing levels of access. It can range from no access to view-only, to create-only, etc. And, you can get really creative by automatically sending/copying items to special folders, to which customized access can be granted. That way, for example, you can allow people to read, copy, forward, etc. without giving them access to the original items themselves.

[Janak Parekh]

Why not just give your client's secretary permission to access his/her Exchange mailbox and load it up on his/her Outlook? Then the secretary can access the default contact, calendar and task folders and then there is no problem with syncing.
Yup, this is the de facto way to do it. (BTW, you can automatically make others' mailboxes available in Outlook -- when you set up the account, there's a tab that lets you specify others' mailboxes. The folders then appear in the tree, assuming the permissions have been set, and you can create shortcuts to them.)

In fact, it's more accurate to say Public Folders are unloved (see this (http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2005/up050609.htm), this (http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2005/up050804.htm) from Slipstick and this (http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/02/20/419994.aspx) from a MS Exchange blog). Microsoft's long term strategy (circa Exchange 13) will be to ditch them and replace it with SharePoint.

Neither of these facts eliminate your argument, which is valid and for which we've ranted on about for years, but you may be able to find some workarounds that work. Good luck!

--janak

[Mark Johnson]

Outstanding!!! Once again I bow before the wisdom of the PocketPC Thoughts community!

Since this was a situation where only one person/PPC needed to sync with the data, this workaround is completely satisfactory to the client. (If this was a case where multiple employees needed to sync, I assume I'd be back to my original problem, but fortunately it's just the boss who needs it.) Hopefully by the time the organization (or some other client) needs multiple people syncing to a shared folder Microsoft will have gotten ActiveSync fixed, or Origamis will have gotten cheap.

So as a final note, it seems only fair that since I got the workaround for a paying client here, I just signed up for a PPCT subscription. I mean this crosses the line from hobby to work now. I figure you can rant all you want if you aren't getting paid, but now that my rant actually has produced a way for me to do something that I'll be charging someone for it's time to chip in. I mean, sure you can rant, but you can't rant AND mooch right? :wink:

Thanks a lot guys!

[Janak Parekh]

So as a final note, it seems only fair that since I got the workaround for a paying client here, I just signed up for a PPCT subscription.
Congrats on solving the problem, and thanks for your support! On behalf of the PPCT team, it's much appreciated. :)

--janak

[Sven Johannsen]

I mean, sure you can rant, but you can't rant AND mooch right? :wink:

I'd like to get that on a bumper sticker. Good solid rant, BTW.