Adding Reminders to Custom Content Classes.

[David Sharner]

Hello. First please have patience if this is an easy thing to solve
but I am new to programming Outlook/Exchange. We are currently
designing a solution and have reached an impass. We would like to
create custom content class with the ability to add reminders. I
found one post by Ken Slovak stating that reminders may be added to
contacts by accessing or adding the following fields.

The field for ReminderSet is:
Message.Fields("{0820060000000000C000000000000046}0x8503")

ReminderTime is:
Message.Fields("{0820060000000000C000000000000046}0x8502")

And FlagDueBy is:
Message.Fields("{0820060000000000C000000000000046}0x8560")

So my question is, are these fields only capable of being added to
outlook native content classes or can these fields be added to a
custom content class? If this is only for native content classes,
does anyone know a good resource for understainding how to add
reminder functionality to custom content classes?
David Sharner
CyGen Technologies

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

What do you mean by custom content classes? Do you mean something like
IPM.Contact.MyContact or something created using Extended MAPI that isn't
related to IPM.Contact?

I've had no problems adding those properties to custom contact forms. The
property tags I cited are only valid if you are using CDO 1.21 code however.

 

[David Sharner]

Thank you for your reply Ken. By custom content classes I mean extending
outlook message types (IPM.Contact.MyContact) as well as creating content
classes from scratch on the exchange server using Exchange Explorer. We
would like to provide the ability to have each scenario fire a reminder.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

If you can stuff your custom content class into the default Contacts folder
it should fire a reminder although I haven't tried it. The restriction on
the Reminders folder doesn't limit the items to IPM.Contact message classes
using a prefix search restriction.

Custom message classes using IPM.Contact definitely work. I suppose you
could try adding the appropriate DAV properties to the custom content items.
You'd need at minimum the ReminderSet, FlagDueBy,
ReminderMinutesBeforeStart, FlagRequest, ReminderTime and PR_REPLY_REQUESTED
properties.

You can use OutlookSpy to see what properties are added to a contact and
which existing ones are changed when you set a reminder on a contact and the
reverse when you clear the reminder. Of course all those items would have to
be in the default Contacts folder. To get the DAV properties you could use
the customize current view dialog and play with filters after enabling the
SQL tab to see what the DAV property tags are.

 

[David Sharner]

Can you please clarify what you mean by "stuff your custom content class
into the default Contact folder".
--
David Sharner
CyGen Technologies
http://www.cygentech.com

If you can stuff your custom content class into the default Contacts folder
it should fire a reminder although I haven't tried it. The restriction on
the Reminders folder doesn't limit the items to IPM.Contact message classes
using a prefix search restriction.

Custom message classes using IPM.Contact definitely work. I suppose you
could try adding the appropriate DAV properties to the custom content items.
You'd need at minimum the ReminderSet, FlagDueBy,
ReminderMinutesBeforeStart, FlagRequest, ReminderTime and PR_REPLY_REQUESTED
properties.

You can use OutlookSpy to see what properties are added to a contact and
which existing ones are changed when you set a reminder on a contact and the
reverse when you clear the reminder. Of course all those items would have to
be in the default Contacts folder. To get the DAV properties you could use
the customize current view dialog and play with filters after enabling the
SQL tab to see what the DAV property tags are.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Reminders only fire from the default Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks
folders. Therefore to get reminders to fire for your custom content items
(if they will at all) those items would have to be placed in the default
Contacts folder. At that point if the wind is right you might get reminders
to fire on those items. If that doesn't work you'd need to either disable
the built-in reminders mechanism and create your own for all reminders or
provide your own reminder service for those custom content items.

Unless your custom items can be added to the Contacts folder you don't have
any shot of having Outlook's reminder service firing reminders on your
items.

 

[David Sharner]

Ok, that makes more sense now. Thank you very much for all of your help.
--
David Sharner
CyGen Technologies
http://www.cygentech.com

Reminders only fire from the default Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks
folders. Therefore to get reminders to fire for your custom content items
(if they will at all) those items would have to be placed in the default
Contacts folder. At that point if the wind is right you might get reminders
to fire on those items. If that doesn't work you'd need to either disable
the built-in reminders mechanism and create your own for all reminders or
provide your own reminder service for those custom content items.

Unless your custom items can be added to the Contacts folder you don't have
any shot of having Outlook's reminder service firing reminders on your
items.