BCM Extensibility

[Fidget Brain]

I am being tasked with building a .NET application using Outlook 2007 as the
UI. BCM currently contains 90% of the logic that I require. However it is
lacking some key features. Will there be an API made available so that I can
extend the current BCM functionality using my own .NET add in? in particular
I would want to change the user defined fields functionality, so that the
type of UDF's being displayed is dynamic and dependent upon the selection
within a custom dropdownlist. I may also need to add a couple more forms,
and to extend the current database structure to cater for this.

My gut feeling tells me that the BCM will not be extensible in this manner,
and that the only way to achieve these objectives is to build my own
customised add-in application from scratch. If this is the case, then this
is a great shame, as the BCM contains many features that I would want to use
out of the box.

I would be grateful if somebody could clarify this for me. Thanks.

 

[Luther]

In general, BCM is accessible through the Outlook Object Model. You can
get to BCM items through the BCM folders, just like other Outlook
items.

BCM v3, for Outlook 2007, supports custom fields. I have heard that
there will be some documentation on how to access BCM specific
features, like their custom fields, soon, but that information is not
currently in the BCM v3 Beta help files. However, you can import a BCM
file with custom fields to add them to BCM. Depending on how dynamic
your fields need to be, this may be sufficient.

I don't know about adding new forms.

I wouldn't advise tinkering with the BCM database, but BCM does store
all the data for all the "other" (i.e. not-BCM) fields associated with
an Outlook item, in a binary column in the database. So when you set
data for a field BCM doesn't know about, save a form, and then reopen
it, your data is returned.

 

[Fidget Brain]

hi. thanks for the reply.

specifically i would want to set up a bunch of UDF's within the system. then
i would want the type of UDF's being displayed to dynamically change
depending upon the selection within a dropdownlist on that same form.

also i would be grateful if you could provide me with any resources where i
can gain more information from a developer's perspective on BCM 2007, as I
havent been able to find a great deal of info out there.

thanks,

 

[Luther]

To sett up the UDFs you can enter them manually, if this is for only
one machine, or build a BCM file with the UDF definitions, and import
the file into every machine.

Having the UDF value change based on the value of some other field will
be trickier. Two possibilities spring to mind. One is a to do it in a
VBA routine that's triggered by an Outlook Form Save event. The other
is to do the same thing via a TRIGGER on a save to the pertinent table
in the database.

If you need the UDF to get set immediately when the user changes the
selection on the pulldown, then you'll have to add some VBS code to the
form (form VBS appears to be deprecated in Outlook 2007) or write an
add-in that hooks into the dropdown control's change event. That's
feasible, but tricky.