Outlook Interoperability Evolves with 2 .PST Open Source Projects

Microsoft has made what only seems like a natural step in the evolution of Outlook interoperability, unveiling two open source projects designed to increase the openness of the .pst file format. In all fairness, the software giant was already on the right path, having offered technical documentation for Outlook 2010 Personal Folders (.pst) earlier this year, and long before the delivery of Office 2010, with the shared standards documentation for Office 2007.

The .pst Data Structure View Tool and a .pst File Format Software Development Kit (SDK) only come to add to the list of initiatives from the software giant that open information stored in .pst files not only to partners and customers, but also competitors building rival solutions to Outlook. Both the View Tool and the SKD are offered free of charge via CodePlex, and are open source projects governed by the Apache 2.0 license.

“The PST Data Structure View Tool is a graphical tool allowing the developers to browse the internal data structures of a PST file. The primary goal of this tool is to assist people who are learning .pst format and help them to better understand the documentation,” revealed Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Sr. Technical Evangelist. “The PST File Format SDK is a cross platform C++ library for reading .pst files that can be incorporated into solutions that run on top of the .pst file format. The capability to write data to .pst files is part of the roadmap will be added to the SDK.”

At the end of this article, developers will be able to find two embedded videos detailing the new open source projects built in order to open the .pst file format, courtesy of Daniel Ko, development manager in the Outlook team.

“The industry as a whole benefits from tools and information that enhance interoperability with our most popular products. The .pst documentation makes it easier for products from other vendors to interoperate with Outlook data,” added William Kennedy, corporate vice president, Office Communications and Forms at Microsoft. “Customers are telling us they need greater interoperability, and we believe that welcoming competition and choice will create more opportunities for customers, partners and developers.”

The.pst Data Structure View Tool is available for download here.

The .pst File Format Software Development Kit (SDK) is available for download here.