Exchange Emailing inside Dynamics GP

UPDATE 6/1/18:
With the retirement of EWSEditor as a testing tool, we recommend using the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer to verify whether or not your Autodiscover is working. 

https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/ 

While the ability to use Exchange for sending emails from GP is not a new feature, there’s not much information out there about what it takes to get rolling with it. This blog should help to get you started, as well as give you some insight into common Exchange emailing issues we’ve come across in Support.

The first thing to determine is whether you are using Hosted Exchange, or on-premise Exchange. If you currently have an on-premise dedicated Exchange server, then your setup will be a bit easier. If you are using Hosted Exchange, note that Dynamics GP fully supports Hosted Exchange, if it’s hosted through Microsoft Exchange Online (Office 365). Exchange functionality has not been tested with other hosting providers, and is not supported.

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/GP/support/hot-topics/msdgpoffice365comp

Exchange emailing from inside GP leverages Exchange Web Services (EWS). If you already leverage EWS for Outlook functionality such as OOF, Folders, Unified Messaging, then you should be all set to go. This EWS URL has to be published through AutoDiscover. The quickest and most painless way to test this is to use Outlook’s built-in connectivity tests.

While holding the left CTRL key, right click the Outlook icon in the notification area of your taskbar. Select “Test Email AutoConfiguration”. Enter your email address and password, and tick just the box for “Use AutoDiscover.” Click the “Test” button. Once the test finishes, look for the “Availability Service URL:” line in the results. The address should be something similar to “https://server.domain.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx”. When you get a URL back, copy and paste that URL into your web browser. You should be prompted for your credentials, and then you should see a page similar to one of the following:

Exchange 2013:

Exchange 2010:

If the page looks familiar, that's because it's nearly identical to the landing page you get when testing Dynamics GP Web Services! Those familiar with WCF services and GP Web Services should feel at home with EWS. If you get some sort of error, or cannot view the page, this likely means that you don't have access to the EWS Virtual Directory, or the Directory is unavailable. 

You can test the Internal and External URL’s for EWS using Exchange PowerShell.

Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory | FT Name, *URL*

If the URL’s are incorrect or pointing to the wrong server, you can modify them with a PowerShell command similar to the following:

Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Server <servername> | Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory –InternalUrl https://new.server.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

Once you’ve confirmed through the Outlook Exchange tests that EWS and AutoDiscover are working, go ahead and enter one of the email setup screens in GP, such as Tools >> Setup >> Purchasing >> Email Setup. Enter your email address and password. You need to log in to Exchange once per each GP session. Closing and re-launching GP releases your connection to the Exchange server and will force you to log in again.

It is entirely possible that your credentials are accepted by the Exchange Server, but you are still unable to send emails. The last used EWS endpoint is cached in SQL in the DYNAMICS..SY04920 table to speed up the processes. If you are able to log in to Exchange, but are getting “Unknown Error”, or “Error Generating Email”, then it is highly likely that the EWS endpoint address being returned by AutoDiscover, and stored in SQL, is incorrect. The URL will likely not point to the EWS endpoint, or perhaps there’s some DNS routing issues with the URL.

The last thing to consider with enabling Exchange emailing for your GP users is that each email function in GP does require some additional configuration. For example, in order to email Sales and Purchasing documents, you must use Message ID’s for different Document Types, and must ensure that each Customer and Vendor has correct email addresses. To send Invoices via Word Templates or PDF’s, the same considerations apply with MAPI emailing in that you may need to have Office or Acrobat installed to send the emails. You should also check with your Email Administrator to ensure that your Exchange server allows attachments of whichever type you choose to email. Ensuring that your Exchange Server is returning an EWS URL through AutoDiscover is the first step to begin leveraging the Exchange emailing functionality in GP. '

Happy emailing!

Dan