As you may have guessed from some of my recent posts, I am working on an API that allows an OpenEdge developer to interact with a Microsoft Exchange Server. From the API you will be able to do things like create, update, and delete e-mails, appointments, tasks, and contacts. You will also be able to get attendee availability, and some of the clever stuff that you can do today in Outlook from an OpenEdge application.

The intention is that this API will be accessible from any ABL session (whether character, GUI, GUI for .NET, AppServer or WebSpeed). Obviously, this means that you will need to be able to program against the API and that's where this survey comes in. 

The survey ran between May 7th, 2010 and May 14th, 2010. I received a total of 83 responses. Although I do not consider the survey extremely scientific, it gives a good indication.

The first question asked which version of OpenEdge respondents would be satisfied working with. 68% of respondents said 10.2B. The others said 10.1A, B,C, or 10.2A.

The second question asked what impact it would have if OpenEdge 10.2BSP1 was required as a minimum version, bearing in mind that this would be primarily for an AppServer. 53% said they are already using it, 26% said they would upgrade the AppServer, and the remainder said they could not move as they are tied to their existing platform.

Based on these responses, 85% of the respondents would be OK with using 10.2BSP1 for the ABL client that calls the API. Frankly, that surprised me. I had expected that number to be closer to 60%.

The next question asked about database version and only 2 respondents of the 83 are still tied to V9. That means that more than 97% of respondents can work with the 10.0 restriction on the database. Unfortunately, only afterwards did I realize that Int64 only came in in 10.1. So I am a little skewed on this one, but given the response to the client version question, I think there is probably a close correlation between those who are using 10.1A or later on the client and those who are using the same version on the server.

When it comes to the functionality, everyone (and I mean all 83 respondents) want the E-mail API. 76% are interested in the Calendar API. I was a little surprised that only 30 of the 83 respondents (36%) care about the .NET control.

I was also surprised at how many were interested in the Contacts API – 55%. After I wrote up the survey, I realized that I had left something important out of this. The Contacts API does not refer to contacts in the Active Directory. It refers to Contacts in the user's Contacts folder or shared contacts folders. So I am not sure how that number would change if that was a known factor.

The question on the API style was another interesting one. 72% of respondents said that they would prefer an OO style API. I was surprised that the OO was such a high number. I expected closer to 60%.

What really surprised me was the response to the next question which asked about the OO style API and how people would feel working with it. No one said they were against it. Only 3 respondents feel it would be tough and are having a hard time with persistent procedures. 19% said that if it wasn't OO they wouldn't use it, and 77% told me that they are willing to try as long as it is well-documented.

The error handling question was also surprising, because 60% of people pretty much don't care or don't know anything about the new error handling. The rest want me to use the new error handling.

Finally, I got more interest about the open source question than I thought I would. 15% of people said they were willing to help me with the code. 15% said they would not change the code themselves so they did not expect to contribute and 70% said that they would contribute if they modify the core code. Someone pointed out that I needed a question somewhere between "I'll give you the code if I change it" and "Sign me up!" They suggested that I might want something that didn't require pulling an all-nighter! 

I got some terrific individual responses that indicated that this is something that OpenEdge developers are really interested in. Some of the quotable individual responses went like this:

A easy to use, maintain, modify API into Exchange is moving up our TO-DO list quickly!

I think this is a great idea, and very ambitious. Please keep us posted!

I'm very excited about this. You seem to be putting a lot of time into it.

Needless to say, I'm excited, too, and I will definitely keep you all posted.