Hi I was hoping someone could help me with understanding an in-depth understanding of what MAPI really is, especially when compared to other mail protocols like IMAP4 and POP3. Am I correct in saying that MAPI, in itself, is not actually a protocol, it's actually an API? But what does this really mean?

MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface): MAPI is the messaging API bundled with the Windows operating systems. It has also been ported to UNIX by third party vendors. There are versions of MAPI, the original MAPI 0 (SimpleMAPI) that provided simple mail calls, such as Send and Receive, plus support for CMC 1.0. The latest release (MAPI 1.0) provides for a two-sided API that allows message enabled applications to access a rich set of messaging and groupware functions of multiple backend service providers (vendor products). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAPI http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/definition/MAPITroy Werelius www.Lucid8.com