Amazon.com Review
Early sections explore the basics of Active Directory Service Interface (ADSI) for managing directories (including Active Directory and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol [LDAP] directories) and the Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) for managing Exchange Server (and other e-mail systems). Used together, these two APIs can give administrators control over the entire network.
The authors rely on examples to illustrate how to work with ADSI, while pointing out the VBScript code required to perform specific tasks (for instance, adding a user or changing a password). A Rolodex example shows how ADSI manages the administration of users in Windows NT, while CDO takes care of mailbox management and distribution lists. A second example allows the administration of all network resources--whether domains, files, or e-mail messages--transparently across the network. This "library project" starts out by explaining how to authenticate users and then tells you how to build a Web page that can enumerate all the objects in a network through ADSI/CDO. Subsequent enhancements include the ability to change and save e-mail messages and to move users, mailboxes, and messages between computers.
Later chapters look at finding network objects, including searching files and messages. One example shows how to use the CDO Rendering Library for displaying calendar information within HTML. Another useful example is a scheduling application used to book rooms. Final sections discuss security issues and list all ADSI and CDO objects. In all, this title is a truly worthy resource for mastering the considerable powers of ADSI and CDO. --Richard Dragan
