Communicator 2007 R2 Integration
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Integrating Office Communicator 2007 R2 and Microsoft Office 2007 Suites provides Microsoft Office users with in-context access to the instant messaging (IM), enhanced presence, telephony, and conferencing capabilities of Office Communicator.
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 users can view a record of Office Communicator 2007 R2 conversations in the Office Outlook 2007 Conversation History folder. Additionally, users can view the availability of contacts and access the messaging capabilities of Communicator and Outlook from an Office Word or Office Excel document with smart tags enabled, or from a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server page.
The following figure shows how the enhanced presence button and its associated menu appear in an Outlook 2007 e-mail message.
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The following topics are discussed in this section:
Planning for integration between Communicator 2007 R2, and Outlook 2007 and other Microsoft Office applications
Exchange Server interfaces that are used by Communicator 2007 R2 and Outlook 2007 to access and update shared information
Group policies that can used to control the level of Communicator 2007 R2 integration
Communicator integration with Office SharePoint Server, Office Word, and Office Excel
Suggestions for preventing common Communicator integration issues
Planning for Communicator 2007 R2 Integration
Review the following configuration issues to ensure that you have everything required for integration between Communicator and other Microsoft Office applications:
Configure integration between Office Communications Server and Exchange Server. For more information, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147178.
Review the integration features which can be configured during Communicator 2007 deployment by using group policies. See “Controlling Integration” later in this topic.
Deploy the Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook. For more information, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=146038.
In organizations with multiple versions of Communicator or Microsoft Office installed, review the compatibility tables in Client Compatibility.
Review the list of suggestions for preventing common integration errors in “Common Communicator and Outlook Integration Issues” later in this topic.
Integration and Exchange 2007
To support Communicator 2007 R2 integration, both Communicator 2007 R2 and Outlook 2007 read and write information directly to the Exchange 2007 server. This section discusses the Exchange Server interfaces used by Communicator and Outlook.
To display information about a contact in an e-mail message, Outlook first looks for the contact’s SIP address locally, and then makes an RPC call to the Exchange 2007 server if required. During a single Outlook 2007 session, the number of RPC calls decreases as more SIP addresses are cached.
In Communicator 2007 R2, integration features that use either MAPI or Exchange Web Services calls directly to the Exchange 2007 server are as follows:
Access Conversation History and missed calls
Play back voice mail message
Display Free/Busy information and working hours
Display meeting subject, time, and location
Display Out of Office status and note
Note
Outlook 2007 makes RPC calls to resolve SIP addresses only if the Display online status next to a person name option is selected. To view this option in Outlook 2007: from the Tools menu, select Options, select Other, and then look under Person Names.
Exchange 2007 Communication Interfaces
The following table describes the communication interfaces used by Communicator 2007 R2 to access and update features shared with Outlook 2007.
Exchange 2007 communication interfaces used by Communicator 2007 R2
| Communication Interface | Function |
|---|---|
Outlook Object Model |
Send E-mail message Schedule Meeting Receive seed information for EWS Open voice mail folder Open Missed Conversation folder Find Previous Conversations |
MAPI |
Create Conversation History folder Write Call Logs Write Missed Calls Read Contact Information Voice mail Notifications Missed Conversation Notifications |
Exchange Web Service |
Read My Free Busy Time and Office Hours Read My Out of Office note |
Publishing Free Busy Information
A Communicator 2007 R2 user cannot access another user’s availability and schedule directly, so Free/Busy and Out of Office details are published as part of a contacts extended presence information. This works as follows:
On User A’s computer, Communicator 2007 R2 uses Exchange Web Services calls to determine the user’s own Free/Busy and Out of Office status.
Communicator 2007 R2 then updates User A’s enhanced presence data with this information.
Other Communicator 2007 R2 and Office 2007 users can now view User A’s schedule details and Out of Office status, if applicable.
The availability of Free/Busy and Out of Office information about a contact is also controlled by a user’s Access Level settings. For more information about presence and access levels, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=147177.
Note
Free/Busy times and Out of Office information are obtained through MAPI—rather than through EWS— for client-server combinations other than Communicator 2007 R2 and Exchange 2007.
Controlling Integration
All the Outlook 2007 integration features are enabled by default, but can be controlled individually from within Communicator 2007 R2 or through Group Policy settings.
By default, users can control which integration options are set using the Office Communicator 2007 R2 dialog box shown in the following figure.
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The following table lists the registry settings that administrators can use to enable or disable individual integration features, either during deployment, or later as part of a maintenance or upgrade cycle.
For more information on Communicator 2007 R2 Group Policies, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=146075.
Outlook integration options registry settings
| Policy | Description |
|---|---|
CallLogAutoArchivingPolicy |
Enables or disables saving of call logs. When this policy is present, the corresponding Options dialog box setting is unavailable. |
DisableCalendarPresence |
Disables the loading of free or busy data from Outlook 2007. |
DisableFreeBusyInfo |
Prevents Communicator from displaying Outlook 2007 information about free or busy states to other contacts. |
DisableMeetingSubjectAndLocation |
Prevents Communicator from publishing the subject and location information of a meeting. This value is not used if DisableCalendarPresence is set, or if the Update my status based on calendar data option on the Personal tab is not set. |
DisablePresenceNote |
Prevents users from selecting or clearing the check box labeled Automatically retrieve Out of Office settings from Outlook on the Personal tab of the Options dialog box. |
DisableSavingIM |
Prevents Communicator from saving instant messages. |
IMAutoArchivingPolicy |
Enables or disables saving of instant messages. When this policy is present, the corresponding Options dialog box setting is unavailable. |
Integration with Office SharePoint Server, Office Word, and Office Excel
As soon as you have successfully configured integration between Communicator and Outlook, users of Office SharePoint Server, Office Word, and Office Excel can also view extended presence information about a contact, and access the combined messaging capabilities of Communicator and Outlook.
Office SharePoint Server
In both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server, users must have Office 2003 or Office 2007 installed to view extended presence.
To display the presence button and menu, SharePoint uses a Microsoft Office ActiveX control called name.dll. The ActiveX control makes calls directly to the Office Communicator API, and then Communicator makes MAPI or Exchange calls—if required—to supply the requested information.
For more information about how presence is displayed in an Office SharePoint Server page, see this SharePoint developer blog entry on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147181.
Word and Excel
For the presence button and menu to appear next to (or above) a contacts name in Word or Excel, smart tags must be enabled.
For instructions on how to enable smart tags from within Word or Excel, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article 300950, “How to troubleshoot custom Smart Tags in Office,” at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147183.
For information about how to do large-scale customization of end-user settings in your organization by using Office 2007 group policies, see the Office 2007 Resource Kit at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147185.
Common Communicator and Outlook Integration Issues
This section lists some common configuration issues which might prevent Office Communicator integration with Outlook from working as expected.
In organizations with both Office 2003 and Office 2007 installed, ensure that you have deployed the most current version of the Office 2003 and Office 2007 Compatibility Pack. For more information, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147186.
Check that end-user integration settings in both Outlook and Communicator—normally enabled by default when Communicator is installed—are correctly set:
In Outlook, ensure that the Display online status next to a person name option is selected. To view this option in Outlook 2007: From the Tools menu, select Options, select Other, and then look under Person Names.
In Communicator, ensure that Microsoft Office Outlook is selected under Personal information manager on the Personal options page. To view this option in Communicator 2007 R2: On the Presence menu, click Options. The Personal options page is displayed.
For other configuration issues to consider, see Common Issues with Sign-in and Discovery and Common Issues with GPO and Registry Settings.