Is there a way to use the Autodiscover feature without Exchange?

Question

The autodiscover method used by Exchange looks great. However I do not have Exchange.

It looks like when setting up a mail account the device/mail client looks for a autodiscover.xml file.

Is there a way to create such a file by myself and serve it on a usual Linux server, pointing to a usual mail Linux server?

Answer 1

No, Autodiscover is specific to Exchange, you won't get that working outside of that environment.

It's not just the .xml file, there are a lot of things at play when it comes to Autodiscover.

To give you some quick background, read through this article, and you will get a better idea of it.

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2010/management-administration/exchange-autodiscover.html

Answer 2

@DanBig is incorrect. Look here for a decent sample on returning an Autodiscover.xml file in PHP on Linux: http://virer.net/info/ol-autodiscover/index.html

Answer 3

Ah - only if your Linux server looks like an exchagne server. This is not "use open api" it is "use exchange internal api".

Answer 4

Actually if your clients are Outlook (I'll assume that because you said they are looking up autodiscover.xml) you want to use Guessmart for autoconfiguration if you're using POP/IMAP and SMTP. Guessmart is basically Outlook using your email address and password to try various hostnames using common POP/IMAP/SMTP ports until it finds one it can successfully log into. It's the same user experience in Outlook as Autodiscover but meant for non Exchange servers.

You can test all this in Outlook by ctrl-right-clicking the notification tray Outlook icon and selecting "Test Email Autoconfiguration". Uncheck the Autodiscover and test Guessmart to see how Outlook works.