[Spambayes] Exchange integration

[Tim Peters]

[Brad Clements]
> I'm thinking about running spambayes inside Exchange 5.5 (or
> Exchange 2000).
>
> At first, I thought I'd use the Event service, but in 5.5 it's
> async and MS even says "don't use this to filter all your messages".
>
> In Exchange 2000 apparently there's a synchronous event service,
> but I don't have Exchange 2000.

I've got no version of Exchange at all, and neither does Mark Hammond, so
you're pretty much on your own wrt the people here.  Jump in <wink>.

> So it looks like I need to create some kind of MAPI hook or
> preprocessor or mailbox assistant.. I'm not sure which.
>
> Anyone know? And, can I do this all in Python via COM or do I
> need some "real C to hook in?

Study the project's Outlook2000 directory.  There's a quite sophisticated
Outlook 2000 addin there, written in Python + MarkH's win32 extensions.  It
uses a mix of MAPI and the Outlook object model.  It used to use CDO too,
but I think Mark found ways to get rid of all that (CDO isn't installed by
default for IMO Outlook installs, so it required the user to dig out their
Office CD and install CDO first).

> Finally, why does MS make it so hard to find the info you want?

They don't -- they only make it hard to find the info *you* want.  You must
have done something to piss off Bill.  Beyond that, MAPI is a massive and
excruciatingly low-level API.  The MSDN SDK MAPI docs are extensive, and so
are web resources trying to make sense of it all (e.g., expect to spend a
lot of time staring at <http://www.slipstick.com>).