We have also released an update for Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition. The update requires that the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2 (12.2.0) or later be installed first. Download them both from Mactoptia or simply select the Check for Updates command from the Help menu in any Office 2008 application.

This release is a cumulative patch. A fresh installation of Office 2008 would require installation of:
•    Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.0
•    Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0)
•    Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.6 Update

Entourage users who are updating for the first time to the Web Services Edition of Entourage should install the Office for Mac 12.2.6 update first and then apply the Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition upgrade. Those users who are already running the Web Services Edition need only apply the 12.2.6 update.

MacBU has also released an update for Office 2004 and the Description of the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.6.0 Update can be accessed at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2284171

We also updated the Open XML File Format Converter to version 1.1.6, with security enhancements. Description of the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.6 can be retrieved from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2284179

Introduction:

In this blog I have explained an issue where we see some discrepancies when we use sync services to REPLACE, REPLACE, MERGE data from iCal to Entourage.

Before we start I would also like you to visit http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/sync_services_basics.html for Basics of How Sync Services Works.

Issue Description:

When calendar items are created in iCal in Mountain Time and synched with Entourage EWS set to Mountain time (US&Canada) the items are displayed in Entourage one hour earlier between March 14, 2010 to November 7, 2010 (during DST).

Steps to identify the issue:

-Set your Mac OS TimeZone to MST – Denver USA

-Set the default time zone for new events in Entourage calendar preference to GMT -07:00 Mountain Time (US & Canada)

-Turn on TimeZone support in iCal and set it to America/Denver (You can enable TZ in iCal from the advance tab in iCal preferences)

-Enable sync services for calendar

1. Create a recurring meeting in iCal. In my case I have created it starting today 1th March 2010 till 31th March 2010.

2. Enable Sync Services in Entourage.

Select the appropriate option for synchronization your data in the above dialog box

Outcome in Entourage after data sync

Workaround of this issue

At this point in time the only workaround I can think is to recreate the meeting after DST change.

Any folders, which are created with “leading” or “trailing” spaces, will not synchronize to server. While creating such folders we don’t see such error messages but if we look at the “Error log” we see below error message.

Error: Could not synchronize record: “Folder Name” to Exchange server.

Explanation: The folder save operations failed due to invalid property values.

Error: -19918

Steps to identify this issue:

Create a folder with ending spaces. In our case I have created a folder by name “Test  “ which has 2 spaces at the end as shown in the below picture

Once Entourage EWS tries to synchronize this folder to Exchange we see a error as mentioned in the below picture.

Error Message Window

Conclusion & Workaround for this issue:

This is a known issue in Entourage EWS. Users have to make sure that they don’t any folders with leading or trailing spaces.

Update1:

This issue is addressed in Exchange 2007 SP2 RU3. To resolve this issue please install RU3 for Exchange 2007 SP2.

You can download this update from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c781326a-7b81-444d-9836-760fa1e3a28a&displaylang=en

In this blog I have explained an issue which cropped up recently and broke the EWS (Exchange Web Services) version of Entourage to send a meeting invite with an attachment.

The error only appears if the user is using the EWS version of Entourage. Entourage 2008 (WebDAV) is still working fine. The issue started after installing RU2 (Roll Up update) for Exchange Server 2007 SP2.

Issue:

Entourage EWS users unable to send a meeting invite with an attachment. In addition to this the Entourage users will get an error with error code “-19813”

Steps to identify the issue:

1. Draft a new calendar event along with an attachment and sent it to someone in your org or outside the org. Shown in picture below.

2. Send this calendar invite and Entourage EWS user will get an error message.

Error: “The send or update operation could not be performed because the change key passed in the request does not match the current change key for the item”

Explanation: Mail could not be sent. Account name: “your account name”

Error Code: -19813

Workaround for this issue:

At this point in time the only workaround I found is to remove the roll-up update 2 for Exchange 2007 SP2. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972076

Important Points:

1. The issue only happens with Entourage EWS. If you try to send a calendar invite with an attachment using Entourage 2008 (WebDAV), it just works fine.

2. The issue cropped up after installing RU2 for Exchange 2007 SP2

Conclusion:

It looks like the Rollup Update 2 for Exchange Server 2007 SP2.

More Info:

If you enable EWS Logging (Entourage EWS Client side log). You can see the following error in the log file.

<m:ResponseMessages>

<m:UpdateItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Error">

<m:MessageText>The send or update operation could not be performed because the change key passed in the request does not match the current change key for the item.

</m:MessageText>

<m:ResponseCode>ErrorIrresolvableConflict</m:ResponseCode>

<m:DescriptiveLinkKey>0</m:DescriptiveLinkKey>

<m:Items />

</m:UpdateItemResponseMessage>

</m:ResponseMessages>

If you enable TCPFlow on the Mac. You can see that Entourage EWS tried sending the calendar invite twice and got an error from the server

<m:ResponseMessages>

<m:UpdateItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Error">

<m:MessageText>The send or update operation could not be performed because the change key passed in the request does not match the current change key for the item.

</m:MessageText>

<m:ResponseCode>ErrorIrresolvableConflict</m:ResponseCode>

<m:DescriptiveLinkKey>0</m:DescriptiveLinkKey>

<m:Items />

</m:UpdateItemResponseMessage>

</m:ResponseMessages>

</m:UpdateItemResponse>

</soap:Body>

<m:ResponseMessages>

<m:UpdateItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Error">

<m:MessageText>The send or update operation could not be performed because the change key passed in the request does not match the current change key for the item.

</m:MessageText>

<m:ResponseCode>ErrorIrresolvableConflict</m:ResponseCode>

<m:DescriptiveLinkKey>0</m:DescriptiveLinkKey>

<m:Items />

</m:UpdateItemResponseMessage>

</m:ResponseMessages>

</m:UpdateItemResponse>

</soap:Body>

In this blog I have explained issues with spaces being added or removed when an email is sent using Entourage 2004 or 2008 against Exchange Server 2003.

The error depends on the characterset used and it occurs with 2022-JP, GB2312 and UTF-8 in subject line. The issues, workarounds when these charactersets are used are described in detail.

Issue1: 2022-JP

Let’s take the first scenario where I tried sending an email with 2022-JP characterset in the subject line.

ISO-2022-JP is a widely used Japanese encoding character.

Steps to indentify the issue:

1. Draft an email and translate the subject line to 2022-JP characterset. You can do this by selecting the Japanese translation from the reference tools in Mac Office. This process is shown in the pictures below:

Picture1:

The Translate option shown in the above picture is selected by right clicking on the subject line.

Picture2: This picture shows that the language selected is Japanese.

Picture3: The subject line is translated into Japanese.

Picture4: Now you can see the Japanese subject line is copied as the subject of the email.

2. Send this message to an Entourage user.

3. The receiver will see an additional space in the subject line.

Picture5: The additional space is highlighted in the picture below:

Workaround for this issue:

The workaround is to dump the local Entourage cache. The steps are mentioned below:

1. Right click (click by holding down the control key) on your Inbox and select folder Properties.

2. Select Empty under Empty Cache in the General tab.

This will dump the local cache for the emails in your inbox and will fetch fresh set of data from the Exchange Server. This fresh data will not have this issue and the email will now look like this:

Picture6:

Issue2: GB2312

Now let’s talk about the other affected combinations we found.

GB2312 is the registered internet name for a key official characterset of the People’s Republic of China, used for simplified Chinese characters.

Steps to identify the issue

1. I followed the similar steps (as mentioned in Issue1) to reproduce this issue. I drafted an email and this time translated the subject line to GB2312 characterset (simplified Chinese) and sent it to an Entourage user.

Picture7:

The picture shows the selection of the Chinese subject line.

2. To ensure there are no errors I checked the email in sent items

Picture8:

It can be noticed from the above screenshot that the message does not have any space errors

3. However, when checked in the receiver’s Inbox there was a space error.

Picture9:

The above screenshot shows that the intended additional space was deleted. If the sender sends 2 spaces in the end of the subject line then the receiver gets 1 and if he sends 3 then the receiver only gets 2.

Note: This issue does not have any solutions or workarounds.

Issue3: UTF-8

The third error occurs when UTF-8 is used with 2022-JP. UTF-8 encodes each character (code point) in 1 to 4 octets (8-bit bytes), with the single octet encoding used only for the 128 US-ASCII characters.

Steps to identify the issue

1. Draft an email and change the characterset to UTF-8 using Entourage toolbar.

Picture10:

The screenshot shows selection of UTF-8 from Entourage Tools menu.

2. Now use the same 2022-JP characterset in the subject line. All the steps after this are similar to that of identifying Issue1

3. Send this message to an Entourage user.

4. If you look at the message at the receiver’s end, you can see similar behavior what we saw in GB2312. Email without space at the end comes out fine, but if you have a single space at the end of the subject line this space gets washed out when we receive the same in Entourage. If the sender sends 2 spaces in the end of the subject line then the receiver gets 1 and so on.

Important Points:

1. The issue is only happens with an Entourage client. If you try to access the same email from Outlook, everything looks good.

2. The issue only happens when you configure a WebDAV Client (in our case it’s Entourage) to an Exchange 2003 Server. While investigating we realize that the issue no longer exists when the user’s mailbox on Exchange 2007 server.

Conclusion

This issue is seen only when we connect to an Exchange 2003 mailbox whereas with Exchange 2007 it works fine.

Recommendations

My recommendation is upgrade to Exchange 2007 because the issue only happens when the user’s mailbox is on Exchange Server 2003.

References:

If you would like to know more about:

2022-JP characterset, you can visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_2022 or http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1468.txt.

GB2312 characterset, you can visithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GB_2312.

UTF-8 characterset, you can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8.

In the above diagram my CAS and Mailbox servers are on 2 independent boxes.

Issue

Using Entourage for Mac (2004 or 2008) while connecting to an Exchange 2007 mailbox running on a Windows 2008 server, user cannot connect to their exchange account.

Cause

Entourage (2004 or 2008) is a WebDAV client; to connect it sends a request to the Exchange Virtual Directory available inside DWS (Default Web Site) in IIS on Windows CAS server (recommended). The Exchange Virtual Directory on the CAS (Client Access Server) redirects this request on the Exchange Virtual Directory on the Mailbox Server. If we don’t have the correct permissions installed on the Mailbox Server Entourage fails to connect. These permissions are not installed by default if you have a dedicated mailbox role running on a Windows 2008 Server.

Resolution

As Entourage connection request talks to the IIS on the Mailbox server, we have to make sure that we have Basic Authentication and Windows Integrated Authentication installed. Along with this we also need ISAPI Extensions to be installed on the Mailbox Server.

Steps on How to install Security Role Services on Windows 2008 Mailbox Server.

1. On the taskbar, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.

2. In the Server Manager hierarchy pane, expand Roles, and then click Web Server (IIS).

3. In the Web Server (IIS) pane, scroll to the Role Services section, and then click Add Role Services.

4. On the Select Role Services page of the Add Role Services Wizard, select ISAPI Extensions under Application Development and Basic Authentication & Windows Authentication under Security, and then click Next.

5. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.

6. On the Results page, click Close.

After running this command, you don't need to restart any services on server, just run the command and ask your Entourage users to see if the issue has been resolved for them, at the most you can ask them to re-launch Entourage.

More Info

If you are running into this similar issue then you may experience all this behaviour

On the Mac Client

You use Automatic Setup Assistant to configure your mailbox in Entourage. The setup assistant asks for your account information and you entered your Domain details, your Account ID (AD alias) and your password (left screen shot) and even after providing the correct credential the account still shows as Not connected (right screen shot). At the same time OWA on the same Mac machines works fine.

IIS Trace Sample from the CAS

2009-07-25 08:37:41 172.22.243.17 PROPFIND /exchange/jond/ - 80 GingerCorpjond 10.171.86.230 Entourage/12.20.0+(Intel+Mac+OS+X+10.5.7) 503 0 0 234

2009-07-25 08:37:41 172.22.243.17 GET /exchange/ - 80 GingerCorpjond 10.171.86.230 Entourage/12.20.0+(Intel+Mac+OS+X+10.5.7) 503 0 0 31

IIS Trace Sample from the Mailbox

2009-07-25 07:10:02 172.22.243.21 PROPFIND /exchange/jond/ - 80 - 10.171.86.230 Entourage/12.20.0+(Intel+Mac+OS+X+10.5.7) 401 2 5 0

2009-07-25 07:10:02 172.22.243.21 GET /exchange/ - 80 - 10.171.86.230 Entourage/12.20.0+(Intel+Mac+OS+X+10.5.7) 401 2 5 0

TCPFlow Trace Sample

010.171.086.230.56838-172.022.243.017.00080: PROPFIND /exchange/jond/ HTTP/1.1

Host: WIN-2K8CAS

From: XX.XXX.XX.XXX

User-Agent: Entourage/12.20.0 (Intel Mac OS X 10.5.7)

Accept: */*

Accept-Language: en

Content-Type: text/xml; charset="utf-8"

Brief: t

Depth: 0

Translate: F

Cookie: sessionid=b89cbc13-598a-49b1-8872-c27892fec29f; cadata="4XhWohyWZGlfUKWuGMfb30DJc1V5COWSXGkP0mNkHNuVw3+afuMtv9NqEdzLz5CiyQa09IP3y18O3IrRI"

Content-Length: 293

Accept-Encoding: gzip

Connection: Keep-Alive

010.171.086.230.56838-172.022.243.017.00080: <?xml version="1.0"?><D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:hm="urn:schemas:httpmail:" xmlns:r="http://schemas.microsoft.com/repl/"><D:prop><hm:inbox/><hm:outbox/><hm:contacts/><hm:calendar/><hm:sentitems/><hm:deleteditems/>
<hm:drafts/><hm:sendmsg/><hm:junkemail/><r:repl-uid/></D:prop></D:propfind> XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX.00080-XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX.56838: HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable

Content-Type: text/html

Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.0

Set-Cookie: OwaLbe={F20A247E-87A4-4F73-905B-ECDB4FCEBE5C}; path=/

MS-WebStorage: 08.01.10240

X-Powered-By: ASP.NET

Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:30:53 GMT

Connection: close

The service is unavailable.

<body><h2>HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable</h2></body></HTML>tf-8">