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Differences between the EWS Managed API 2.0 and EWS

Learn about the differences between the EWS Managed API and Exchange Web Services (EWS) to help you decide which programming technology is right for you.

Last modified: February 03, 2014

Applies to: EWS Managed API | Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) | 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.

The EWS Managed API provides an intuitive interface for developing client applications that use EWS. The API enables unified access to Exchange resources, while using Outlook–compatible business logic. The EWS Managed API uses EWS SOAP messages to communicate with the Exchange Client Access server.

If you’re a .NET Framework developer, we encourage you to use the EWS Managed API rather than autogenerated proxies to develop against EWS. The EWS Managed API object model is significantly easier to use than autogenerated proxy object models. Additionally, the autogenerated proxy object models do not provide an Autodiscover implementation and do not include client-side logic.

You can use the EWS Managed API to access EWS in versions of Exchange starting with Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1), including Exchange Online. Note, however, that not all features that are available in EWS are implemented in the EWS Managed API.

To learn about what’s new in the latest version of the EWS Managed API, see New features in the EWS Managed API 2.0.

EWS and EWS Managed API feature comparison

The following table identifies the EWS Managed API feature implementations that target different versions of Exchange. If the EWS Managed API does not implement a feature that you want to use, you might consider an autogenerated proxy object model. For more information, see EWS client design overview for Exchange 2013

Feature

EWS Managed API 1.2

EWS Managed API 2.0

Exchange 2007 SP1

Exchange 2010

Exchange 2010 SP1

Exchange 2010 SP2

Exchange 2013

Ambiguous Name Resolution

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Archiving

X

X

Archive Mailbox

X

X

X

X

X

Attachments

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Autodiscover

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Bulk Transfer

X

X

X

Calendaring

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Conversations

X

X

X

X

X

Delegate Access

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Delegate Management

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Distribution List Expansion

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Dumpster 2.0

X

X

X

X

X

X

eDiscovery

X

X

Email

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Exchange Impersonation

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Extended Properties

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Folders

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Get Password Expiration

X

X

X

X

Get User Availability

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Identifier Conversion

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Inbox Rules

X

X

X

X

X

Items

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Notifications – Push/Pull

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Notifications - Streaming

X

X

X

X

X

Out of Office (OOF)

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Retention Policy

X

X

Search

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Search (Index Search)

X

X

X

X

X

X

Synchronization

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Tasks

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Tracing

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Unified Messaging

X

X

X

X

X

X

User Configuration

X

X

X

X

X

X