Note: Checkout and get the new Windows Phone edition of the WCF Tool! Click Here

The WCF Tool (who can federate tool) will scan through your Outlook contacts and give you a "heads up" on which of your business partners have public Microsoft Lync or OCS federation enabled. This is a great tool to run for people who do or don't have Microsoft Lync to show them who they could connect with in their own contact list.

 

To Install:

• Download and unzip
• Run/click on the setup.exe

 

How To Run:

1. Select which Outlook folder you want to scan
2. Select if you want to submit new domains to the Lync Federation Directory Project and click "Scan" to start.
   1. Please note: if you do not want to submit domains via email to the Lync Federation Directory Project, uncheck "Auto Submit..."
3. See contacts that may be federation enabled. If you have Lync/OCS installed you can click to immediately test.

 

Requirements:

• You need to have Outlook (tested with Outlook 2010) installed on pc running this tool
• Outlook 2007 works but there is no "Suggested Contacts" folder
• The tool uses data from the Lync Federation Directory Project as well as live DNS queries, which requires internet access to return results. Without internet access the WCF Tool will still return hits from the LFDP domain list.

 

Notes:

• This is beta so please give feedback in the Q&A, twitter @matthewlandis or comment here.
• Depending on security settings you may need to click "Allow" to an Outlook dialog.
• Depending on Windows or other software firewall settings you may need to "Allow" this app.

 

Known Issues:

• If you try to run a scan without Outlook installed you will get an error.
• Contacts that are returned as Lync/OCS need to be verified by you.

 

Release Notes:

• Next Release (In progress)
  • Scan "Suggested" or "Contacts" at the same time.
  • More scheduled scan intervals (twice a day?)
• Release v.1.4 (06/09/2012)  (Click Here for screenshots)
  • Update Directory List (+8,000 entries)
  • You can now click File | Acknowledge Hits so rescanning only shows new contacts that are Lync enabled
  • New Who Can Federate Live! Feature. Run WCF Tool continuously as Tray app
    • run as Tray app
    • run scans on scheduled basis
    • be notified daily of new contacts you should be using Lync with
  • UI tweaks
  • NOTE: Who Can Federate Live! ALWAYS submits new domains to Lync Federation Directory.
  • Notes & Known Issues
    • is not designed for mass install yet (no cert, silent mode)
    • We did a lot of updates on this version so there may be bugs
    • Only one interval for scans: Scan Now or Once a day
• Release v1.3 (12/22/2011)
  • Update Directory List (+2,100 entries)
  • Cosmetic user interface tweaks
• Release v1.2 (11/28/2011)
  • New Directory def. list with +800 entries
  • New display grid (to facilitate more information with returned contact in future)
  • Click on a contact to open a session using Lync/OCS to immediately test if federation is open
  • Copy hits/returns or new domains to clipboard
  • "auto submit new domains" check box (Note: uncheck before scan if you don't want to submit)
• Release v1.1 (11/16/2011)
  • Show how many Contact "Hits" returned
  • Ability to Submit domains returned to the Lync Federation Directory Project by clicking File | Submit... after scanning.
  • Updated application icon
• Release v1.0
  • basic functionality 

 

Roadmap (very tentative, top of list more likely)

• Behind scenes: do not submit domains twice (bug)
• Behind scenes: remove space from end of domain (bug)
• Add application cert
• More efficient backend "new domains" submission process
• More information with each hit: if known to be open, what type of server?
• Behind scenes: Make app multi-threaded

 

Acknowledgements

Japheth Nolt, a colleague at Landis Computer, always gets me "unstuck" when I have .Net dev questions & did with WCF Tool as well! Thanks!

The Lync Federation Directory Project data makes this tool run 10x faster than without.

@nomorephones for throwing out the challenge to make a Lync tool like this.

Last, but definitely not least, the Lync Community (forums, twitter, where ever)---you rock!