IPM vs IPF

Question

IPM vs IPF

S-Soft 666

Hello,

I'm using a 3rd party SDK to read ost/olm files, no problem using it, just have a question about the general structure of such ole2 storages?

My 1st question: Found that there are IPF folders in addition to IPM inside PST file:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/exchange_server_protocols/ms-oxosfld/68a85898-84fe-43c4-b166-4711c13cdd61

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/developer/exchange-server-2010/bb891841(v=exchg.140)

Should I behave IPF items exactly like IPM counterparts?

ie, save using the same method for both IPM.CONTACT and IPF.CONTACT as contact file?

or IPM.NOTE and IPF.NOTE as message? the same?

My 2nd question would be that according to MS, IPM.Document is for DocumentItem, which can be ANY kind of file, even executable etc

Didn't find its IPF counterpart, but found IPF.DocumentLibrary / IPF.ShortcutFolder which I don't know what's that for? The same as IPM.Document?

KristianSmith-MSFT 451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-07T15:21:18.64+00:00

Hi SSoft-5594,

Thank you for your request. One of our team members will review this and follow-up with you soon.

Regards,
Kristian S
Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Open Spec Protocols
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-08T00:06:56.823+00:00

Hi @S-Soft ,

I'll look into your questions about IPM vs IPF and IPM.NOTE, CONTACT, Document, etc... wrt MS-OXOSFLD.
Are you implementing the code behind the questions or using the 3rd party SDK implementation only?

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support
S-Soft 666 Reputation points

2022-11-08T15:23:05.933+00:00
Hello,
Using 3rd party SDK implementation only, but however, to detect the item type, I just can get the MapiItemType (string) and have to compare it against known types as string to detect the real item type

ie if Mapi Item Type String StartsWith "IPM.NOTE"...
But what if it StartsWith "IPF.NOTE"... etc

If there is another property which indicates each item type, please let me know that so I can extract it directly?
Thanks again :)
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-08T19:12:44.257+00:00

To clarify, IPM.* is a message object class (e.g. an individual message or contact) and IPF.* is a container class (i.e. folder). So IPM.Note would be the class used for message objects, IPM.Contact for a contact, etc... IPF.Note is the container class for folders (such as Deleted Items, Sent Items, Inbox, etc...) that can contain message objects.
The behavior differences between IPM and IPF class objects is described in MS-OXCFOLD/MS-OXOSFLD and MS-OXCMSG/MS-OXOMSG. However, these documents are targeting implementers using the ROP (Remote Operations) interfaces that Exchange servers support. Since you are using a 3rd party SDK, it might interpret the objects and represent them differently.

Does this help?

Tom
S-Soft 666 Reputation points

2022-11-13T23:04:37.18+00:00

Hello and thank you very much for the info, very helpful, just do you have any idea if a folder is IPF.Note for example, possible to have different class objects in it? ie, IPM.Document inside a IPF.Note/IPF.Post etc or IPM.Note inside IPF.Post
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-14T18:19:10.81+00:00
@S-Soft ,

The IPM.POST class is for objects that extend the message object class. So they can be stored in IPF.NOTE folders, however...

In MS-OXOPOST 3.1.1, we specifiy:

A Post object extends the Message object.

A Post object is created in the folder chosen by the user.

and for IPM.Document, MS-OXODOC 3.1.1 states similarly:

The Document object is an extension of the Message object.

A Document object is created in the folder chosen by the user.

A Document object is placed in the Document Libraries folder of the site mailbox to have the attached file of the Document object uploaded to a shared location

I hope this helps,
Tom
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-14T23:33:29.877+00:00

@S-Soft ,

I also want to make clear that the answers I've given here are related only to the Open Specifications documents (e.g. MS-OXOSFLD) and implementing code based on these documents. I am not addressing the use of the 3rd party library or its supportability. Perhaps one of the folks supporting the Outlook and Exchange products (and related tags here) can elaborate on that topic.

Tom
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-15T00:44:56.63+00:00

@S-Soft ,

And another clarification, I'm not specifically addressing the OST/OLM files that you mentioned in your opening sentence. Although there are similarities to PST, those file are not in scope for the Open Specifications and are cache files direct access to which is not described in our Open Specifications. Again, I'll let others from Outlook and Exchange product and dev support comment further on product supportability of those.

Tom

Your answer

KristianSmith-MSFT 451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-07T15:21:18.64+00:00

Hi SSoft-5594,

Thank you for your request. One of our team members will review this and follow-up with you soon.

Regards,
Kristian S
Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Open Spec Protocols
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-08T00:06:56.823+00:00

Hi @S-Soft ,

I'll look into your questions about IPM vs IPF and IPM.NOTE, CONTACT, Document, etc... wrt MS-OXOSFLD.
Are you implementing the code behind the questions or using the 3rd party SDK implementation only?

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support
S-Soft 666 Reputation points

2022-11-08T15:23:05.933+00:00

Hello,
Using 3rd party SDK implementation only, but however, to detect the item type, I just can get the MapiItemType (string) and have to compare it against known types as string to detect the real item type

ie if Mapi Item Type String StartsWith "IPM.NOTE"...
But what if it StartsWith "IPF.NOTE"... etc

If there is another property which indicates each item type, please let me know that so I can extract it directly?
Thanks again :)
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-08T19:12:44.257+00:00

To clarify, IPM.* is a message object class (e.g. an individual message or contact) and IPF.* is a container class (i.e. folder). So IPM.Note would be the class used for message objects, IPM.Contact for a contact, etc... IPF.Note is the container class for folders (such as Deleted Items, Sent Items, Inbox, etc...) that can contain message objects.
The behavior differences between IPM and IPF class objects is described in MS-OXCFOLD/MS-OXOSFLD and MS-OXCMSG/MS-OXOMSG. However, these documents are targeting implementers using the ROP (Remote Operations) interfaces that Exchange servers support. Since you are using a 3rd party SDK, it might interpret the objects and represent them differently.

Does this help?

Tom
S-Soft 666 Reputation points

2022-11-13T23:04:37.18+00:00

Hello and thank you very much for the info, very helpful, just do you have any idea if a folder is IPF.Note for example, possible to have different class objects in it? ie, IPM.Document inside a IPF.Note/IPF.Post etc or IPM.Note inside IPF.Post
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-14T18:19:10.81+00:00

@S-Soft ,

The IPM.POST class is for objects that extend the message object class. So they can be stored in IPF.NOTE folders, however...

In MS-OXOPOST 3.1.1, we specifiy:

A Post object extends the Message object.

A Post object is created in the folder chosen by the user.

and for IPM.Document, MS-OXODOC 3.1.1 states similarly:

The Document object is an extension of the Message object.

A Document object is created in the folder chosen by the user.

A Document object is placed in the Document Libraries folder of the site mailbox to have the attached file of the Document object uploaded to a shared location

I hope this helps,
Tom
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-14T23:33:29.877+00:00

@S-Soft ,

I also want to make clear that the answers I've given here are related only to the Open Specifications documents (e.g. MS-OXOSFLD) and implementing code based on these documents. I am not addressing the use of the 3rd party library or its supportability. Perhaps one of the folks supporting the Outlook and Exchange products (and related tags here) can elaborate on that topic.

Tom
Tom Jebo 2,336 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2022-11-15T00:44:56.63+00:00

@S-Soft ,

And another clarification, I'm not specifically addressing the OST/OLM files that you mentioned in your opening sentence. Although there are similarities to PST, those file are not in scope for the Open Specifications and are cache files direct access to which is not described in our Open Specifications. Again, I'll let others from Outlook and Exchange product and dev support comment further on product supportability of those.

Tom

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IPM vs IPF

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