In part 1 of this series I introduced Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes and demonstrated how to create Room Mailboxes.  In part 2 of this series I went on to demonstrate how to create Equipment Mailboxes.  Now in part 3 of this series I’ll demonstrate creating custom resource properties for Resource Mailboxes.

What are Custom Resource Properties?

Custom resource properties are additional attributes that can be assigned to Room and Equipment mailboxes to indicate which features are available for those resources.

For example, in an organisation that has several meeting rooms with different features, custom resource properties can be used to show which room has teleconferencing equipment, which one has a whiteboard, which one has tea and coffee facilities, etc.

Similarly for Equipment mailboxes custom resource properties can indicate features such as which vehicles have a GPS installed, or what kind of vehicle (such as truck, van, car) it is.

Extending the Resource Property Schema

By default in an Exchange Server 2007 there is no custom resource properties defined.

[PS] C:>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {}

Resource properties can be defined using the Set-ResourceConfig cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.

In this example I define a custom resource property to indicate that a Room Mailbox contains a projector.  The change is immediately applied and will appear when running the Get-ResourceConfig cmdlet again.

[PS] C:>Set-ResourceConfig -ResourcePropertySchema
 Room/Projector

[PS] C:>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Projector}

Schema changes made by the Set-ResourceConfig cmdlet overwrite existing settings instead of adding to them.  For example if I run another command to add a whiteboard property the earlier property of “projector” is overwritten.

[PS] C:>Set-ResourceConfig -ResourcePropertySchema
 Room/Whiteboard

[PS] C:>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Whiteboard}

To prevent existing properties being overwritten with new updates you must first read the existing configuration into an array.

[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig = Get-ResourceConfig

[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Whiteboard}

Make modifications to the array using PowerShell commands.  For example, to add an additional feature of “whiteboard” to the schema:

[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Room/Projector")

Apply the changes to the resource property schema.

[PS] C:>Set-ResourceConfig -Instance $ResourceConfig

[PS] C:>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Projector, Room/
Whiteboard}

Note that the Get-ResourceConfig cmdlet now shows both the existing and newly added properties.

You can use the same method to add multiple new entries.

[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig = Get-ResourceConfig

[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Room/Teleconference")
[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Room/TeaCoffee")
[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Equipment/Van")
[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Equipment/Car")
[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Equipment/GPS")

[PS] C:>Set-ResourceConfig -Instance $ResourceConfig
[PS] C:>Get-ResourceConfig | fl ResourcePropertySchema

ResourcePropertySchema : {Equipment/GPS, Equipment/Car
, Equipment/Van, Room/TeaCoffee, Room/Teleconference,
 Room/Projector, Room/Whiteboard}

Custom properties can also be removed from the resource schema using a similar method.  For example, to remove the “TeaCoffee” feature from the schema:

[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig = Get-ResourceConfig

[PS] C:>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Remove
 ("Room/TeaCoffee")
True
[PS] C:>Set-ResourceConfig -Instance $ResourceConfig
[PS] C:>Get-ResourceConfig | fl ResourcePropertySchema

ResourcePropertySchema : {Equipment/GPS, Equipment/Car,
 Equipment/Van, Room/Teleconference, Room/Projector,
 Room/Whiteboard}

Applying Changes to Resource Mailboxes

Custom resource properties can be added to mailboxes via the Resource Information tab in the mailbox properties.

Click on the Add button, choose the custom property you wish to add, and then click OK.

Click on OK again to apply the change to the mailbox

The custom property is now visible to end users in Outlook when choosing the room for a meeting request.