Exchange: Update GAL automatically

Question

I'm working in a small app that needs to integrate contacts into my company Exchange server. I managed to "push" all this contacts into a user contacts list, but I'd need to share this contacts amongst everybody.

My question is: is there a way to automatically add a contact to the GAL, when this contact is added to the user contacts list?

This way, I would push contacts into a "user contact list" (let's say [email protected]), and they would somehow be updated automatically into the GAL (if this makes sense).

So whenever a contact is added into "[email protected]", this will be pushed into the GAL as well.

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to update the GAL trough Exchange Web Services, and after some research I was only able to push contacts into a user contact list, this is the reason why I'm looking for a solution like this.

Thanks for your time

Answer 1

My question is: is there a way to automatically add a contact to the GAL, when this contact is added to the user contacts list?

No when a user adds a contact to their contacts folder in their Mailbox this just creates an Exchange Store item for that user. A GAL contact is an Mail-enabled Active directory object that must be created using the Exchange Admin Console or Exchange management Shell.

You could create a client application that uses EWS to subscribe to a user contact folder (either push,pull or streaming) and then process any new entries and then create the Contact using the EMS new-mailcontact cmdlet https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124519%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx .(you need to build your own logic to avoid duplication etc).

Cheers Glen