1.3 Overview

  • Article

An address book is a collection of Address Book objects. There are many types of objects in an address book, many of which can be added as an addressee to an outbound message. Every object in the address book has various properties, and the values of these properties contain information that is used by messaging clients to route the message correctly or to display information about the Address Book object to a messaging user.

The address book also contains one or more address book containers, each of which describes an address list. An address list is a collection of Address Book objects that can be rendered in a table to be browsed by a messaging user. A collection of address book containers, each representing an address list, is arranged in an address book hierarchy table.

The address book can be stored remotely on an address book server and accessed as follows:

  • Through NSPI calls by using either of the NSPI protocols, as described in [MS-NSPI] and [MS-OXNSPI].

  • Through the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) Extensions for HTTP, as described in [MS-OXCMAPIHTTP].

Alternatively, the address book can be stored locally on the client computer as an offline address book (OAB) by using the OAB Format and Schema Protocol, as described in [MS-OXOAB]. An OAB is obtained by using either the OAB Web Retrieval protocol, as described in [MS-OXWOAB], or the OAB Public Folder Retrieval Protocol, as described in [MS-OXPFOAB]. The Address Book User Interface Templates Protocol, as described in [MS-OXOABKT], is used to render information about an Address Book object to a messaging user.

This protocol defines the properties on each of the Address Book objects and defines how they interrelate with one another.