Microsoft Outlook Calendar Integration for On-Premises Exchange
Important
Information and features vary according to the roles to which you belong and the permissions associated with those roles. For more information, contact your module manager or your campus support team.
Use this guide if:
Your school hosts Microsoft Exchange on-premises
You manage Microsoft Exchange Server internally
You use Exchange Web Services (EWS)
Use Microsoft Exchange Online Account Settings instead if:
You use Microsoft 365
Your mailboxes are hosted by Microsoft
You use Microsoft Entra ID and App Registrations
For more information, see the Microsoft Exchange Online Account Settings topic.
Overview
Calendar synchronization allows users to view their Outlook calendar meetings and events on their J1 Web Home page calendars. This is a one-way synchronization process. Users can see their Outlook items in J1 Web, but must access Outlook to update, add, or remove events on their Outlook calendars. Outlook items shown in J1 Web include an “Edit in Microsoft Outlook” link that opens Outlook Web Application (OWA), where users can make changes.
Note
If your school does not have an Outlook Web Application (OWA) set up, users will still be able to see their Outlook calendar items, but they will not be able to access the OWA and make updates.
On-premises Exchange Server means your school purchased Exchange licenses and manages the installation and updates on-site, and users access Exchange through your local setup.
Setting up synchronization is a four step process.
Step 1: Enter Microsoft Exchange Information in J1 Web
Step 2: Grant the Exchange Account Access to the Calendars from the Exchange Server
Step 3: Update the Exchange Service User Name in the Desktop
Step 4: Activate Calendar Syncing in J1 Web
For Step 1, enter your school’s Exchange web service and account information. The Exchange username and password you enter will be used to log in to Exchange and retrieve your users’ calendars. For more information about granting the Exchange account access to your users' Exchange calendars, see Step 2.
From the System Administration hub, select System Settings, Calendar.
From the Third-party Calendars section, click the Enter account settings link. The Microsoft Outlook Calendar Account Settings page.
In the Exchange Web Service (EWS) URL field, select http:// or https:// and enter your school’s Exchange Web Service URL.
For example, select https:// and enter webmail.jenzabar.local/EWS/Exchange.asmx.
Contact your Exchange administrator if you do not know your EWS endpoint.
In the Exchange Domain field, enter the Exchange user’s network domain.
In the Username field, enter the Exchange account username your school wants to use to log into Exchange to retrieve users' calendars.
In the next step, this user will be granted access to the users' Exchange calendars. J1 Web will use these credentials to log into Exchange and access users’ calendars.
In the Password field, enter the password for the username entered above.
If the username and password for the Exchange account expire, the sync will be disrupted. Your school may want to consider creating a special Exchange account that does not expire.
Click Update.
For Step 2, grant the Exchange user entered above access to your users’ calendars using the following steps. If the Exchange user entered above already has access to your users' mailboxes, proceed to Step 3.
Log in to your school’s Exchange server or a remote server with access to your school’s Exchange server as an administrative user.
Open the Exchange Management Shell utility. Utility initialization starts.
When utility initialization is completed, run the command line below. This command grants the Exchange user entered in J1 Web (Step 1) access to the end user’s calendar.
Replace with the UPN of the Exchange admin user entered in the J1 Web Microsoft Outlook Calendar Account Settings page.
Add-MailboxFolderPermission –Identity :\Calendar –User - AccessRights Reviewer
Note
For IT administrators comfortable with PowerShell scripting, it is recommended a script be created (at least initially) to grant the Exchange admin user access to multiple end user calendars instead of one at a time.
For more information about the Add-MailboxFolderPermission command, please see the following Microsoft article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/add-mailboxfolderpermission?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=exchange-ps
For Step 3, “link” your J1 Web users to their Outlook calendar. To create this link, you must update the APP_USER.DIRECTORY_SERVICE_USERNAME column to their User Principal Name (UPN). Generally the UPN is in this format: username@domain. For example, hsimpson@springfield.net. The UPN should be the same as their network domain account UPN.
There are two ways to update user’s Exchange service user name.
Using the J1 Desktop Users window, Exchange Service User Name column:
Using the following update statement (you can also create your own):
UPDATE APP_USER SET DIRECTORY_SERVICE_USERNAME = ‘’ WHERE USER_ID = ‘’
In Step 4, enable the Outlook sync in J1 Web System Administration. Once enabled, users can choose whether to enable calendar synchronization from the Accounts and Preferences page, Calendar options.
From the System Administration hub, select System Settings, Calendar.
From the Microsoft Outlook Calendar settings options, click Enter account settings. The Microsoft Outlook Calendar Account Settings page appears.
Slide the Outlook Calendar Syncing option to ON.
Click Update. The Microsoft Outlook Calendar Account Settings window closes and Outlook calendar syncing will be available to users from the Account and Preferences page.
FAQ
Run the Exchange Settings Test. Exchange Settings Testing errors come from Microsoft and typically provide enough information to troubleshoot the issue.
If the Exchange Settings Test succeeded, run the 'Verify a Mailbox or Calendar' test for a user with J1 Web and Exchange Online access.
To verify their account:
From the Microsoft Outlook Calendar Account Settings page, click the Save button. The Calendar Settings page appears.
From the Third-party Calendars, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, On-premises Exchange Server options, click the Verify a mailbox or calendar link.
Enter their username and calendar ID information.
Click Test settings.
Ensure your school uses on-premises Active Directory to perform the AD steps and not Azure Active Directory (cloud-based).
Ensure you entered the Exchange Web Service URL and Exchange credentials correctly in J1 Web.
J1 Web relies on these values to connect with Exchange and they must be entered correctly for the sync to work.
Jenzabar recommends using a dedicated Exchange service account with access to the calendars being synchronized. To avoid service interruptions, consider using an account with a non-expiring password if permitted by your school's security policies.
Contact your Exchange administrator if you do not know your EWS endpoint. Typical EWS URLs resemble: https://www.mail.yourschool.edu/EWS/Exchange.asmx
Incorrect UPN mapping
Missing mailbox permission
Incorrect EWS URL
Expired service account password