Have a test environment of LYNC 2013 and EXCHANGE 2013.

No software clients - pure OWA access.

IM works within OWA and I can manually set availability which is seen correctly by other users.  What does not happen is any calendar entries - they do not update the presence status (ie. does not go to busy when in a meeting ).

I did install Lync client 2013 and that did work ( and updated OWA ) - but I want a pure web environment without the need for additional software based clients.

Can this work?  If so is there anything that can be checked to see where the issue is?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Did you configure the integration between OWA and Lync Server 2013? if not, follow the blog i mentioned below and try. It seems that the EWS works just fine in the environment. Probably this has something to do with the integration.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13168.integrating-exchange-2013-owa-and-lync-server-2013.aspx

usually what happens is that Lync Client look for the autodiscover.domain.com/ews/exchange.asmx record to connect to EWS services to update presence information based on Exchange calendar. I'm not sure what you're going to try will work because it's not designed to do so.

Thanks,

I just didn't know if the actual Lync Server would do the check in the background but it seems you have confirmed that it is only the actual client that performs this.

It's the client which does the check. not the server. in server you can configure the web polling interval using the Client policy.

Hi,

Maybe it's my misunderstanding. Did you mean you dont want additional software based clients (including Lync client 2013)?

If you dont install a Lync client on user workstations, you cannot see presence of Lync users from OWA.  

Whats more, for Lync side, if you do not install Lync client software the only way to use Lync is Lync Web App (a browser-based meeting client). Lync Web App only support to join Lync Meetings. However, Lync meeting cannot schedule by Lync Web App and OWA.

Here is a link about Lync Web App may help you:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/lync-help/what-is-lync-web-app-HA103699740.aspx

If you want to create Lync Meetings but dont have Microsoft Outlook you can use Lync Web Scheduler (a web-based program)

More details:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/lync-help/lync-web-scheduler-HA103466460.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA103699740

Best Regards,

Eason Hu

Thanks for the comments so far.

I'm not bothered about seeing presence of Lync users.  I need to purely be able to see presence information of 'outlook' user in terms of outlook appointments.  At present that does not seem to work in OWA - it keeps the user as 'available' even when they have a scheduled appointment.

I did get it to work when there was an actual Lync client on the workstation but I do not want any clients ( ie. Outlook or Lync ) - I want a pure web based solution ( in this instance ).  The web functions as adequate for what I am trying to achieve.

Thanks.

Some further update.

When a meeting is scheduled and the reminder appears in OWA - the presence does change...but once this reminder is 'dismissed' the presence then reverts back to available.

Thanks.

• Edited by Barry Clarkson Thursday, January 16, 2014 8:39 AM

Some further update.

When a meeting is scheduled and the reminder appears in OWA - the presence does change...but once this reminder is 'dismissed' the presence then reverts back to available.

Thanks.

• Edited by Barry Clarkson Thursday, January 16, 2014 8:39 AM

Actual it looks like the presence change status is just related to inactivity and changes to 'appear away' if the browser window has not been interacted with for a while.

To summarise:

Presence status can be changed manually in OWA and works fine.

What I wanted to achieve was presence changing in OWA when a meeting was scheduled.  This needs to achieved without a LYNC client installed on physical machines - ie. a pure web based solution.

I may be asking the impossible..

Thanks.