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Entourage EWS beta available now

Ready, set, download! We told you a couple of weeks ago it's coming, and the day is here: the Entourage Exchange Web Services (EWS) beta is available today. Go to Mactopia to apply to be a part of the beta.

What does Entourage EWS beta bring you? If you're on Exchange 2007 SP1, it brings you a world of awesome, including:

  • support for attachments in Exchange calendar events
  • synchronisation of Exchange notes
  • synchronisation of Exchange tasks
  • synchronisation of Exchange categories
  • improved autodiscovery of your Exchange settings
  • improved performance
  • availability of logging for diagnostic purposes

After you have backed up your database, downloaded the beta, and installed it, play around with it. If you run into an issue, go back to the Microsoft Connect website and use the form there to tell us about it. Likewise, if you've got a suggestion, use the form to tell us about that too. You can comment here as much as you want to, but that's not going to resolve anything. Putting it into MS Connect is a much better thing to do -- Connect is hooked up to our internal tracking system, so we can easily get stuff out of Connect and into our system for further investigation.

To use Entourage EWS beta, you must connect to an Exchange 2007 SP1 server. The Entourage EWS beta will not work with Exchange 2003 (unless you are connecting to it through IMAP. If your server is a POP or IMAP server, you can check out the beta if you want to, but you won't see anything different -- our IMAP and POP implementations have not changed.

Also, to use the Entourage EWS beta, you must already have Office 2008 Special Media Edition or Office 2008 Standard Edition. If you have Office 2008 Home and Student Edition, you will not be able to install the Entourage EWS beta.

Please remember: this is beta software. It is unsupported. It could call down the wrath of the gods upon your head. If you are not comfortable with the potential of the wrath of the gods raining down upon your head, you should not download the beta. We don't think that there's anything still lurking in the corners that might call the wrath of the gods to come raining down upon your head, but the nature of beta software is such that it could still be there. If you're going to try out the beta, make sure that you have a fresh backup of your Entourage 2008 database before starting. If the wrath of the gods does rain down upon your head, or you have second thoughts about inviting such a thing, having a fresh back up of your Entourage 2008 database means that you'll be able to go back.

Personally, I've been using pre-alpha versions of Entourage EWS for months. So join the party!

Edited on 17 August 2009: The final version of Entourage for Web Services is now available, so you should update!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2009
    Is there a way to tell in Entourage what version of Exchange server it is connected to?  It's not always easy to get IT to tell us these details.

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2009
    bassclef - In Entourage 2008, open the Tools menu, then select "Out of Office".  If the resulting screen looks like the shot on this page: http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/archive/2007/09/05/office-2008-enterprise-series-oof-coming-to-entourage.aspx then you're on Exchange 2007.  However, that won't tell you if you're at the exact correct version of Ex2007.  Your Exchange 2007 server needs to be on Service Pack 1, Rollup Update 4 or later.  You'll probably need to check with your IT guys regardless.

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2009
    nadyne: Thanks for the clever way to tell Ex2007 from 2003 (or earlier).  It might be a usabulity thing for the next release to allow Entourage to query the detailed information?  (and since I apparently am on 2003 I don't need to query IT after all). Actually, I had a look at Outlook Web Access and in the help pages it identifies itself as Exchange 2003.  No patch level there either.  But that's another place to look.

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2009
    bassclef - I'm honestly not sure if Exchange exposes any way for a client to know the exact version.  It's pretty rare for the end-user to care abot which version they're on, but it might be something that we could bury somewhere.

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    Been waiting well over 24 hours and we are still listed as pending in the connect status. Has this been released to anyone yet? Really excited to try it!

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    mikeruoc - We're manually approving applications because of the very specific Exchange requirements.  As the survey says when you complete it, it'll take us 24-48 hours.  We're working on getting applications approved, but you're not the only one excited about it.  :)  

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    mikeruoc - We'll get there!  :)  We want to get this out into as many people's hands as soon as possible, so we're cranking through the applications.

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    Cortig - Exchange 2207?  Wow, you're 200 years ahead of the rest of us! ;)

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    I didn't get any confirmation email that my status had changed from pending to accepted (as I normally do for betas) but I happened to log into my Connect Dashboard and it had updated. So I am now running EWS Beta and everything working fine and dandy!!! And my tasks are now appearing in Entourage and OWA - very happy so far!   Thanks MS!!

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2009
    It's been about 44 hours now and no reply. I woke up early to see if we have a beta yet. Waiting and hoping it will be soon.

  • Anonymous
    January 29, 2009
    I just published a new post at Mac Mojo

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2009
    Safari is getting full support for Outlook Web Access!

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2009
    Update Tuesday has security updates for Office:Mac 2008 and 2004

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2009
    Wanna know what OWA for Exchange 2010 looks like?

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2009
    Do not install the Office:Mac 2008 12.1.7 with the Entourage for Exchange Web Services bet