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Creating the Add-In

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Applies To: Windows Server 2012 Essentials

A hosted email add-in must contain the following components:

  1. An add-in configuration file. The configuration file contains the basic information about the email host, such as the name of the host and the associated website. For more information, see How to: Create a Configuration XML File.

  2. An assembly that communicates with your hosted email service. Your assembly should expose those capabilities through the IHostedEmailAdaptor interface. For more information, see How to: Implement Basic Email Functionality.

    As part of this implementation, you will likely need to store administration passwords in a secure location. For more information, see How to: Store Passwords and Other Sensitive Data.

    In addition, you will need to implement error handling within your assembly, which you can do with the HostedEmailAdaptorException. For more information, see How to: Implement Adapter Error Handling.

In addition, you can also add in the following to your package:

  1. Customized UI’s that override the built-in UI’s. For example, you can modify the configuration and unconfiguration wizards, or override the built-in user management UI. For more information, see Modifying the UI.

    When modifying the UI, you will likely call your adapter for management and configuration information. For more information, see How to: Manage the Hosted Email Service and How to: Manage the Add-In.

  2. Additional UIs such as the Dashboard tab, the RWA add-in, a health add-in, and so on. For more information, see Understanding the Windows Server Essentials SDK.

Once you have created the adapter, you can then create a WSSX package for add-in deployment. This package is essentially the same as other deployment Windows Server Fundamentals packages; the main difference consists in where the deployment package is installed. For more information, see How to: Deploy the Add-In.

In This Section

How to: Create a Configuration XML File

How to: Implement Basic Email Functionality

How to: Store Passwords and Other Sensitive Data

How to: Implement Adapter Error Handling

Hosted Email XML Schema Reference