Coding my little Exchange ActiveSync utility has been fun, and I’m still tweaking it. However since Visual Studio 2010 just went RTM I got derailed for a few days. I’m not using any fancy new features that would require VS 2010 – that’s true, but it inspired me to undergo an effort to do other things to raise my code quality than just reading over the code lines again. I consider it “sharpening my programming saw” as it’s not directly related to me being a hobby programmer, but nonetheless helps me become better at it.
(https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit7.php)

I upgraded the project from VS 2008 to VS 2010, which in itself doesn’t change anything. But I decided to implement something I as a lone coder haven’t bothered with doing yet; I needed a system for bug tracking, source control, etc. So I decided to install Team Foundation Server 2010 and learn the basics. I know, it’s probably overkill for my needs, but if it isn’t overkill it’s just no fun What this means though is that whenever someone gives me feedback after using the utility, or I find something myself I log into the SharePoint site and enter it for further follow up. I still don’t know where this app will end up, and it might not be worth the effort developing it further, but at least I’m committed to do the development proper. The app itself has helped my in my daily job a couple of times already.

Enough about that – what’s new with this build? I’ve started refactoring parts of the code, and weeded out a couple of bugs in the process (an ongoing process of course). I’m in the process of configuring automated tests so I can be sure I test every combo. And I’ve added client certificate authentication!

Testing your client certificate scenario isn’t always that easy, so using a desktop tool should hopefully be easier to use. The way it works is that you need to type in the complete file path of a .cer file and tick the checkbox, and the certificate will be used for authentication purposes. Mind you – client certificate authentication isn’t exclusively a client side thing. The way it works, or doesn’t work, depends on your servers too. You might have to fill in username and password in addition to the certificate to validate. (The rest of the Exchange config for client certificates really demands an article of it’s own. That I have not written yet. But hopefully will get around to looking into.)

So, that’s all for now. Please update your hard drive with the new version if you are a user of this tool.

Link: http://mobilitydojo.net/files/EAS_MD_0.9b.exe