Article
09/29/2014

Using Autodiscover to get domain settings

Last modified: October 13, 2012

Applies to: EWS Managed API | Exchange Server 2010

Note: This content applies to the EWS Managed API 2.0 and earlier versions. For the latest information about the EWS Managed API, see Web services in Exchange.

You can use the Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS) Managed API to obtain the configuration settings for a domain. The Autodiscover service returns only the requested configuration settings.

The following table lists the configuration settings that the Autodiscover service can return.

Configuration setting	Description
ExternalEwsUrl	The external URL of EWS.
ExternalEwsVersion	The version of the Exchange server that hosts the EWS URL.

To get the domain settings

Use the GetDomainSettings method to generate the request that retrieves configuration information for the domain, as shown in the following example.

AutodiscoverService autodiscoverService = new AutodiscoverService("domain.contoso.com");
autodiscoverService.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("User1", "password", "domain.contoso.com");

// Submit a request and get the settings. The response contains only the
// settings that are requested, if they exist.
GetDomainSettingsResponse domainresponse = autodiscoverService.GetDomainSettings(
    "domain",
    ExchangeVersion.Exchange2010_SP1,
    DomainSettingName.ExternalEwsUrl,
    DomainSettingName.ExternalEwsVersion);

Parse through each of the elements in the returned collection and display the name and value of each key value pair, as shown in the following example.

// Display each retrieved value. The settings are part of a key value pair.
foreach (KeyValuePair<DomainSettingName, Object> domainsetting in domainresponse.Settings)
{
    Console.WriteLine(domainsetting.Key.ToString() + ": " + domainsetting.Value.ToString());
}

Alternatively, you can obtain the value of a specific element. In the following example, the ExternalEwsUrl setting is to be displayed.

// Display a specific setting, such as ExternalEwsUrl.
Console.WriteLine(domainresponse.Settings[DomainSettingName.ExternalEwsUrl]);

Example

The following example shows how to create an AutodiscoverService object, and uses the GetDomainSetting method to obtain and display the configuration settings.

AutodiscoverService autodiscoverService = new AutodiscoverService("domain.contoso.com");
autodiscoverService.Credentials = new WebCredentials("User1", "password", "domain.contoso.com");

// Get the domain settings.
// Submit a request and get the settings. The response contains only the
// settings that are requested, if they exist.
GetDomainSettingsResponse domainresponse = autodiscoverService.GetDomainSettings(
    "domain",
    ExchangeVersion.Exchange2010_SP1,
    DomainSettingName.ExternalEwsUrl,
    DomainSettingName.ExternalEwsVersion);

foreach (KeyValuePair<DomainSettingName, Object> domainsetting in domainresponse.Settings)
{
    Console.WriteLine(domainsetting.Key.ToString() + ": " + domainsetting.Value);
}

The following example shows the XML request that is sent by the client to the server when the client submits an Autodiscover request.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:a="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/Autodiscover" 
        xmlns:wsa="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" 
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
        xmlns:soap="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Header>
    <a:RequestedServerVersion>Exchange2010</a:RequestedServerVersion>
    <wsa:Action>https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/Autodiscover/Autodiscover/GetDomainSettings</wsa:Action>
    <wsa:To>https://autodiscover.exchange.microsoft.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.svc</wsa:To>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <a:GetDomainSettingsRequestMessage xmlns:a="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/Autodiscover">
      <a:Request>
        <a:Domains>
          <a:Domain>domain</a:Domain>
        </a:Domains>
        <a:RequestedSettings>
          <a:Setting>ExternalEwsUrl</a:Setting>
          <a:Setting>ExternalEwsVersion</a:Setting>
        </a:RequestedSettings>
        <a:RequestedVersion>Exchange2010_SP1</a:RequestedVersion>
      </a:Request>
    </a:GetDomainSettingsRequestMessage>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The following example shows the XML response that is returned by the server after it parses the request from the client.

<s:Envelope xmlns:s="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" 
        xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing">
  <s:Header>
    <a:Action s:mustUnderstand="1">https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/
          Autodiscover/Autodiscover/GetDomainSettingsResponse</a:Action>
    <h:ServerVersionInfo xmlns:h="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/Autodiscover" 
          xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <h:MajorVersion>14</h:MajorVersion>
      <h:MinorVersion>1</h:MinorVersion>
      <h:MajorBuildNumber>160</h:MajorBuildNumber>
      <h:MinorBuildNumber>4</h:MinorBuildNumber>
      <h:Version>Exchange2010_SP1</h:Version>
    </h:ServerVersionInfo>
  </s:Header>
  <s:Body>
    <GetDomainSettingsResponseMessage xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/Autodiscover">
      <Response xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
        <ErrorCode>NoError</ErrorCode>
        <ErrorMessage />
        <DomainResponses>
          <DomainResponse>
            <ErrorCode>NoError</ErrorCode>
            <ErrorMessage>No error.</ErrorMessage>
            <DomainSettingErrors />
            <DomainSettings>
              <DomainSetting i:type="DomainStringSetting">
                <Name>ExternalEwsUrl</Name>
                <Value>https://failover.exchange.microsoft.com/ews/exchange.asmx</Value>
              </DomainSetting>
              <DomainSetting i:type="DomainStringSetting">
                <Name>ExternalEwsVersion</Name>
                <Value>14.01.0085.000</Value>
              </DomainSetting>
            </DomainSettings>
            <RedirectTarget i:nil="true" />
          </DomainResponse>
        </DomainResponses>
      </Response>
    </GetDomainSettingsResponseMessage>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Compiling the code

For information about compiling this code, see Getting started with the EWS Managed API 2.0.

Robust programming

Write appropriate error handling code for common search errors.
Review the client request XML that is sent to the Exchange server.
Review the server response XML that is sent from the Exchange server.
Set the service binding as shown in Setting the Exchange service URL by using the EWS Managed API 2.0. Do not hard code URLs because if mailboxes move, they might be serviced by a different Client Access server. If the client cannot connect to the service, retry setting the binding by using the AutodiscoverUrl(String) method.
Set the target Exchange Web Services schema version by setting the requestedServerVersion parameter of the ExchangeService constructor. For more information, see Versioning EWS requests by using the EWS Managed API 2.0.

Security

Use HTTP with SSL for all communication between client and server.
Always validate the server certificate that is used for establishing the SSL connections. For more information, see Validating X509 certificates by using the EWS Managed API 2.0.
Do not include user names and passwords in trace files.
Verify that Autodiscover lookups that use HTTP GET to find an endpoint always prompt for user confirmation; otherwise, they should be blocked.

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