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                   Viewpoint for Exchange Web Services
                http://github.com/zenchild/Viewpoint/wiki
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This program attempts to create a client access library for Exchange Web
Services (EWS) in Ruby.

!!!CAUTION!!!  This is currently BETA code and has changed dramatically from
the original version of Viewpoint which was based on Soap4r.  This version
has essentially been gutted and written on top of Handsoap.  Development
has been much more flexible, but the interface to Viewpoint has changed
quite a bit.  I have tried to write good code comments and I will keep
enhancing this.  I will also try and post examples on my blog as I write
them or they are asked for.

BLOG:  http://distributed-frostbite.blogspot.com/
Add me in LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/danwanek
Find me on irc.freenode.net in #ruby-lang (zenChild)

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MAJOR CHANGES TO THE FIRST VERSION:

New SOAP backend
  Viewpoint now uses Handsoap as its back-end instead of soap4r.  While
  soap4r does some very nice things for you automatically, it ends up
  making your code base fairly large and it complicates any customizations
  that you might want to make.  One example is adding custom headers. Soap4r
  required you to create a subclass to use as a sort of hook. I can do the
  same thing in Handsoap with a one-liner in the services #on_create_document
  method.

Models are completely rewritten
  The models are completely new and not backward compatible with the old
  version of Viewpoint.  Some of the methods still exist, but don't count
  on them.  I've tried to make this version much more extensible than the
  last.

Delegate access is supported
  One thing that was often asked for, but missing from the previous version
  was delegate access to mailboxes and calendars.  This is now supported via
  the 'act_as' parameter to the GenericFolder::get_folder method. For example:
  ofolder = Folder.get_folder(:inbox,'otheruser@test.com')
  If your user has delegate access to the Inbox for otheruser@test.com this
  operation will retrieve their inbox and allow you to manipulate it as you
  would with your own Inbox.

  There is also some support for manipulation of delegate access itself via
  the methods MailboxUser#add_delegate!, MailboxUser#update_delegate!, and 
  MailboxUser#get_delegate_info.

Misc other changes
  Since it's a complete rewrite there are tons of other changes that you'll
  notice.  I've tried to keep the code comments coming so stay tuned to the
  API docs for library information.  I'll also be posting more examples to
  my blog.

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TO USE:
require 'rubygems'
require 'viewpoint'
# See REQUIRED GEMS below

REQUIRED GEMS:

# Handsoap (Thanks jrun for pointing me this way!)
gem install -r handsoap
# Nokogiri XML Parser
gem install -r nokogiri
# HttpClient
gem install -r httpclient
# NTLM Library
gem install -r rubyntlm

# iCalendar (still forthcoming in this release)
gem install -r icalendar

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DESIGN GOALS/GUIDELINES:

  1. The SOAP back-end should not know about the Model.
    I went around and around on this one for awhile.  There are some
    simplicity advantages to creating Model objects within the SOAP
    responses, but I ultimately decided against it so that one could use
    the SOAP back-end without the Model.  Essentially the SOAP classes
    pass back a Hash that the Model uses to create its own objects.

  2. The use of Hashes is not a crime.
    While some people decidedly do not like Hashes and believe complex
    hashing should be in the form of objects, there are some instances
    where hashing is just plain simpler and flexible.  To that end, I use
    hashes pretty extensively in Viewpoint, both for objects being passed
    to the SOAP back-end and returned from it.

  3. Follow EWS naming conventions where it makes sense.
    I try and follow the naming conventions of the Exchange Web Service
    operations as much as it makes sense.  There are some things howerver
    where they do not and I have deviated somewhat.  For example,
    an instance method named delete_folder doesn't make much sense, but
    an instance method named delete! is pretty clear what it deletes.

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DISCLAIMER:  If you see something that could be done better or would like
to help out in the development of this code please feel free to clone the
'git' repository and send me patches:
git clone git://github.com/zenchild/Viewpoint.git
or add an issue on GitHub:
http://github.com/zenchild/Viewpoint/issues

Cheers!
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