The 3 Stages of Enhanced Presence

A few weeks ago Michael Wagner posted an entry on the Communicator Team Blog about the 3 different stages enhanced presence can actually be in. Prior to that I had assumed that it was either an on or off deal, but there’s a nice little limbo state in the middle to confuse you further. I had the opportunity to play with these different states recently so I figured I’d share what I experienced because it differed slightly from Michael’s post.

The same rules apply:

  • Stage 1 – The user account Enhanced Presence setting is unchecked. This is accomplished by enabling a user for OCS 2007 or migrating a user from LCS 2005.
  • Stage 2 – The user account Enhanced Presence setting is checked, but they have not signed in with Office Communicator 2007. This is accomplished by manually checking the box "Enhanced presence" on the user account.
  • Stage 3 – The user account Enhanced Presence settings is checked and the user has signed in with Office Communicator 2007.

Here’s what I found a client was able to log in to, depending on their stage.

Stage 1

  • Communicator 2005
  • Mac Messenger 6.0.3
  • 3rd-party clients (Trillian, Miranda)

Stage 2

  • Communicator 2005
  • Communicator 2007
  • Communicator Web Access 2007
  • Mac Messenger 6.0.3
  • 3rd-party clients (Trillian, Miranda)

Stage 3

  • Communicator 2007
  • Communicator Web Access 2007

Takeaways

  • Moral of the story is that once a user signs in to Office Communicator 2007 there’s no going back. The only fix is to delete their account from OCS and re-enable it, but they will lose their contact list and access level preferences.
  • If you migrate users from LCS 2005 they will not be able to sign-in to a 2007 client unless you enable their account for enhanced presence. I know it’s counter-intuitive because most of the documentation states that you can’t use OC 2005 if you’re enabled for enhanced presence. Not true, you can continue using OC 2005 until you sign in once to OC 2007. The big gotcha here is why users couldn’t log in to OC 2007 after being migrated successfully – it’s because you have to manually set the enhanced presence.
  • Oddly enough, that only seems to be required for migrated users. For a new user who had never been on LCS, simply creating their OCS account allows them to log in to OC 2007 without enhanced presence being checked. This behavior really confused me, but it must be a difference in how the user creation process is handled for an OCS pool as opposed to an LCS pool.
  • Michael’s post states that you can’t log in to CWA 2007 unless you’re at Stage 3. I found this to be false. You can’t login to CWA 2007 until you reach Stage 2.

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Hi there. My name is Tom Pacyk and this is my small home on the web. I love the intersection of design, technology, and communication, which is a combination that led me to a career in sales and marketing roles at places like Zoom and ServiceNow. They're a bit old now, but I also had the opportunity to publish a couple of books along the way.

Portland, Oregon is home for me, my wife Beth, and our three kids, but I'm actually a Midwestern transplant—I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and went to school at Purdue and Illinois. When I find some free time I'm probably going to concerts, rooting for the Portland Timbers, or working on my Sunshine Burn Photography project.