Attributes for Exchange 5.5 Mailboxes : createTimeStamp
This is the timestamp of the creation of the mailbox object in the directory database. It is a read-only attribute which can only be set by the system itself (see property 'Access Category').
createTimeStamp
| LDAP-Name | createTimeStamp |
| Data Type | UTC Time String |
| Multivalue (Array) | No |
| Heuristic | 12 => Replicated between sites, Operational Attribute |
| Access Category | System access only |
| Ex55 Database name | When-Created |
The createTimeStamp attribute is an operational attribute which is not automatically retrieved by a GetObject() or an GetInfo() call. You can load such attributes into the object property cache by explicitly calling GetInfoEx(). Read more about this technique in the topic 'Reading object attributes' here in the SelfADSI tutorial. By the way, there is also an attribute named modifiyTimestampexisting.
Even if you read the attribute data by using the ADSI function GetInfoEx(), it is not that easy to handle the data. This is because the value is stored in the Generalized Time String syntax. Otherwise, it is possible to print out an createTimeStamp value as a formatted date and time string with a normal WScript.Echo call, as VBScript converts the data to the datatype 'DateTime'.
If you have to write an attribute with a date/time value (not possible for the createTimeStamp attribute, for this is under system access only), or if you have to construct an LDAP filter for such an attribute, then you should always use Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In this case you have to use the following syntax:
YYYYMMDDhhmmssZ, e.g. 19681020064500Z => October 20, 1968, 06:45
YYYY: Year in four-digit notation
MM: month
DD: day
hh: hour
mm: minute
ss: second
The 'Z' provides a value for the deviation from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Because we specify time values directly in GMT and almost every LDAP server uses GMT for indicating dates or times, this deviation is Zero - therefore it's 'Z'. You can get more Information about the Generalized Time String syntax here.