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Inside Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Web Services, by David Sterling, Ben Spain, Michael Mainer, Mark Taylor, and Huw Upshall
Reviewed by Victoria Thulman, Content Project Manager, Microsoft Press
This book started out at half the length when Microsoft Press originally envisioned it, but the authors—five highly skilled and committed members of the Exchange Server 2007 Web Services design team—quickly realized that 450 pages weren’t nearly enough to cover all aspects of Exchange Web Services in depth and provide loads of practical, cool code that readers could use and reuse in their own applications. So, Microsoft Press is excited to offer over 900 pages of strategies and insights directly from the Exchange Web Services decision makers.
Before the Exchange Web Services, developers had access to a vast array of application programming interfaces (APIs) to use when programming against Microsoft Exchange Server, but many of these APIs had limitations. Developers often found it challenging to find the property or namespace they needed, and then often didn’t have complete information about how to use them. Exchange Web Services greatly simplifies the developer’s work by providing a set of Web Services that describes all the desirable properties and unifies them in one namespace.
Inside Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Web Services is the developer’s essential guidebook to that Web Services set because it is the only book available that describes these properties in depth—what they do, why they are important, and how they behave in the context of particular methods. The authors' approach in each chapter is to illustrate a concept using XML and XML schema, and then to make that concept more concrete by writing proxy-class code that shows the concept at work. One key advantage of this book is that it explains how to use Exchange Web Services through both XML and the Visual Studio autogenerated proxy classes, so developers who do not use Windows will find the information as useful as developers who do.
Personally, I find this book remarkable not only because it is so thorough and engaging, but because it is a feat of incredible teamwork and good humor right to the end. This group of authors and technical reviewers know their stuff, love what they’re doing, and enjoy working together. They are eager to share their knowledge. It shows on every page. As the editor for this project, I feel fortunate to have witnessed true collaborative development at its best.
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Editors' Picks
For Home and Office Users
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Reviewed by Kathleen Atkins, Content Project Manager, Microsoft Press
Katherine Murray, a prolific writer about technology and an admirer of Microsoft products, has written a clear, engaging, and extremely attractive book about Microsoft Expression Web and how to use it. Because she so entirely understands and ably uses elements of design and online media (as well as print technology), she’s a terrific presenter of Expression Web tools and how best to create an effective and handsome Web site.
She begins by helping her audience understand what they’re getting with the Microsoft Expression Web toolset, whether they are professional Web designers or hobbyists. Microsoft Expression Web replaces Microsoft FrontPage, using and extending the best features of FrontPage, as Murray says, in standards-based software that produces simple to sophisticated Web sites by working with databases and making use of e-commerce features and a variety of media (including a range of photo file types, video, and sound), as well as frames and CSS. Along the way, Murray explains technology with the same clarity that she explains design: emphasizing the choice between importing or embedding pictures, for example, or the virtues and limitations of GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats.
While she offers an ample number of trouble-saving and cautionary tips, Murray is a cheerful believer in experimentation; any novice Web designer will get plenty of encouragement to try out the choices that the software enables. This book enables anyone interested in Web design to immediately begin producing a site with Expression Web, learning all the way.
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For IT Professionals
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Excerpt from William R. Stanek, Author
Welcome to Windows Server 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant. As the author of more than 65 books, I’ve been writing professionally about technology since 1994. Over the years, I’ve written about many different server technologies and products, but the one product I like writing about the most is Windows Server. From top to bottom, Windows Server 2008 is substantially different from earlier releases of Windows Server. For starters, many of the core components of Windows Server build off the same code base as Windows Vista. This means User Account Control (UAC) and just about everything you know about Windows Vista applies to Windows Server 2008. That’s the good news—the bad news is that just about everything else in Windows Server 2008 has changed in some way.
Having written many top-selling Windows Server books, I was also able to bring a unique perspective to this book—the kind of perspective you can gain only after working with technologies for many years. For you see, long before there was a product called Windows Server 2008, I was working with a beta product and before that I was working with an alpha product that most people outside of Microsoft don’t even know existed. From these early beginnings, the final version of Windows Server 2008 slowly evolved until it became the finished product that is available today.
Additionally, as you’ve probably noticed, more than enough information about Windows Server 2008 is available on the Web and in other printed books. You can find tutorials, reference sites, discussion groups, and more to make using Windows Server 2008 easier. However, the advantage of reading this book instead is that all of the information you need to learn Windows Server 2008 is organized in one place and presented in a straightforward and orderly fashion. This book has everything you need to customize Windows Server 2008 installations, master Windows Server 2008 configuration, and maintain Windows Server 2008 servers.
In this book, I teach you how features work, why they work the way they work, and how to customize them to meet your needs. I’ll also offer specific examples of how certain features can meet your particular needs, and how you can use other features to troubleshoot and resolve issues you might have. In addition, this book provides tips, best practices, and examples of how to optimize Windows Server 2008 to meet your needs. This book won’t just teach you how to configure Windows Server 2008—it’ll teach you how to squeeze every last bit of power out of it and make the most out of the features and options included in Windows Server 2008.
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For Certification
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Reviewed by Laura Sackerman, Content Project Manager, Microsoft Press
You probably know that the new Windows Server 2008 certification exams are coming soon. To give you a preview, here’s a sample practice test question from MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-643): Configuring Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, currently in development:
Question: You are an IT support specialist for a company named Fabrikam.com, whose network consists of a single Active Directory domain. The Fabrikam.com network includes a server named TS2 that runs a finance application named App2. No other applications are hosted on TS2.
Your company has deployed a new Terminal Services gateway named TSG1 in the company's perimeter network. Some members of the Finance department work at a branch office. You want to allow these Finance users at the branch office to access App2 through TSG1. Finance users working in the branch office are not currently able to use TSG1. What should you do? (Choose two. Each answer presents part of the solution.)
A. Use Group Policy to enforce Remote Desktop Connection settings for members of the Finance group to use TSG1.
B. Configure a Remote Access Policy that allows members of the Finance group to remotely access the Fabrikam.com network.
C. Configure a TS CAP that allows members of the Finance group to connect to TSG1.
D. Configure a TS RAP that allows members of the Finance group to connect to TS2.
E. Configure the TS Gateway to use HTTPS-HTTP bridging.
Correct Answers: C and D
Explanation: To enable external users to connect to a terminal server resource on the corporate network, you need both a TS CAP and a TS RAP. A TS CAP authorizes users to connect as far as the TS Gateway. A TS RAP authorizes users to connect from the TS Gateway to a specific terminal server resource on the internal network.
You do not want to force all members of the Finance group to use the TS Gateway because some members might be connecting from inside the corporate network. In addition, this solution does not address the problem that members of the Finance group are not yet authorized to connect to TSG1 or TS2. To authorize users to do that, you need a TS CAP and a TS RAP.
A Remote Access Policy authorizes certain users to connect to a network through a VPN or dial-up connection. It does not allow users to connect to terminal server resources on a network from points outside that network.
You do not want to configure the TS Gateway to use HTTPS-HTTP bridging. HTTPS-HTTP bridging is used when you have configured an SSL termination device such as an ISA Server, and you do not want to enforce SSL communication between the SSL termination device and the TS Gateway. Enabling this option does not allow users to connect to terminal server resources on a network from points outside that network.
We hope this brief sample gives you a head start on your Windows Server 2008 exam preparation!
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November 21, 2007 
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