Where do I get an Exchange server for development?

Question

I am working on an application that connects to numerous e-Mail services including Microsoft Exchange. Now that I've seen that there is an Outlook Web Access API, my simple question is:

Where do I get a sandbox (ideally free) to test my implementation on? Do I really need to install all different Exchange versions, create accounts etc. with Outlook Web Access on top?

I don't have any Windows servers or licences. It's a web application running on Linux servers. Doesn't Microsoft have an Exchange sandbox or anything?

Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You might try an evaluation version from the Microsoft evalcenter here to test anything with and do an evaluation.

But just a short advise: There are multiple Exchange versions out there (Exchange 2010, 2013, 2016) with different Service Packs or Cumulative Updates. So checking only one version didn´t mean that your application will work with every exchange server. The best option I can think of is using IMAP on Exchange. This should be nearly identically on any Exchange Server while the Outlook Web Access (OWA) API might change from version to version.

However that depends on you solution and what it needs to perform.

Answer 2

Alternatively, you could get a trial O365 (Exchange Online) account and just run against whatever users or resources you have there. A 3-user license is maybe US$100 a year or thereabouts. Of course, this will mean you're running against the latest Exchange version, so the earlier ones would still need to be tested via eval versions.

As to the API, I'm really not sure about the OWA API, nor have I used IMAP. The "official" way to access Exchange is via Exchange Web Services or EWS. This comes in various flavors, can be used from Java, PHP, and other non-MS platforms, and provides a pretty robust and full-featured access into Exchange. My use of EWS has been limited to Windows/C#, so I can't vouch for the non-MS stuff, but it's been out for a while, and there is also a REST interface now--again no experience with that for me.