How to use PHP to authenticate against a remote Microsoft Exchange 2010 - php

Question

As usual, this is a weird and non-negotiable request from top management.
Anyway, the story is as following:
I will build a website at location A, let say UK (Using CentOS, PHP, Apache)
There is a login form on it, and user can enter their Exchange 2010 username (email), and password to login. Where the Exchange 2010 is at location B, let say US.
So the issue in short is that how I can authenticate with a remote Exchange 2010?
There are several suggestions thrown at me but I am not even sure this can be done in the first place...
Can we leverage Exchange 2010's OWA?
Can we use ActiveSync?
Can we use EWS? (Exchange Web Services)
I am not familiar with Microsoft's related technologies, so my question in short is that is there a web service method or similar where I can do my authentication?
Best Regards

Answer 1

You probably mean authenticate against Active directory in which Exchange server is integrated.Then you can use LDAP:
Authenticating in PHP using LDAP through Active Directory

Answer 2

I would look into the adLDAP library on Source Forge. Email me and I will send you my documentation, it takes about 20 minutes to set up and all you need is MS Active Directory, you do not need LDAP. KWSoutherlandJr At yahoo dot com.
adLDAP.courceforge.net

Answer 3

Yes, you can use Exchange Web Service to do this, I recommend the managed API's. Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=13480 , documentation is here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd633710%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx
Here how you could do it. First off include the right namespaces:
// use the exchange library:
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data;
Then write some code similar to this:
ExchangeService service = new ExchangeService(ExchangeVersion.Exchange2007_SP1);
// If you've got a dodgy SSL cert on your exchange box then do this:
System.Net.ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback =
delegate(
Object obj,
X509Certificate certificate,
X509Chain chain,
SslPolicyErrors errors)
{
return true;
};
service.Credentials = new WebCredentials(Username, Password, domain);
service.Url = new Uri(url);
// this will fail if the username+password are incorrect:
Folder.Bind(service, WellKnownFolderName.MsgFolderRoot);

Answer 4

You can give EWSWrapper a try - http://ewswrapper.lafiel.net/
It's a PHP wrapper for Exchange Web Services. It will give you an idea how you can authenticate with Ex Server and what can be done with EWS. Python version has a bit better authentication as it cycles through various auth methods.
Also, you can take a look # this: Access Exchange Web Services with PHP and cURL
Cheers~