Custom Form saved as *.msg file not opening correctly in Outlook 2

[Jim S.]

I have created a custom form based on the Task form for a client that is
working great within Exchange and Outlook 2000 and 2003 clients. Lets call
this custom for "Work Ticket".

Work Tickets are created in a public folder and updated over a period of
time. When the client is done using the ticket, I have automated the process
(using VBA) of saving a copy of the item to a network share and then deleting
the original item in the public folder. The saved file has an extension of
".msg".

Here is where the problem is. Users with Outlook 200 can double-click on
the saved *.msg files, open them up and view the extra tabs and fields/values
of the custom form. Users on Outlook 2003 (all of them are SP2) have
different results. Some only see the standard Task form, while others see
the custom form fields (tabs, labels, textboxes, etc.) but do not see the
values for them. In the latter case, only the standard Task values are
present or visible.

I have performed the "clear cache" function on the Outlook 2003 systems, as
well as actually deleted the frmcache.dat file as well. After clearing the
cache, I would open an existing Work Ticket item in the public folder to
download the form locally. Still no difference on the Outlook 2003 systems.

Sorry for the lengthy message. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

InnoTech, Inc.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Where is the form published? Since the .msg files don't exist in a folder, they may not be able to connect with the published form unless it's in the Organizational Forms library.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Jim S.]

Sue,
Thanks for the quick reply.

Well, up until this last week, the form was only published to the public
folder in which they were created. In an attempt to try and fix this issue,
I published the form to a particular user's personal library.

The result of having the form published in the personal library is that now
she can open some of the recently saved forms (Exchange to file), but cannot
view some older ones that were saved with a previous versoin of the custom
form.

Should I publish the custom form to the Organizational library?

I just noticed that my origianl post had a typo in it, sorry. Outlook 2000
users do not have these problems as they can open view any/all saved items
within Excahgne and saved as *.msg files on a server too.

Thanks,
Jim Schram

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

It's your choice whether to publish to the Organizational Forms library once or to each individual's Personal Forms library. I know which one I'd find easier to maintain.

Does "older ones that were saved with a previous versoin" mean published with a different message class? Are these one-off form items?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Jim S.]

Sue,

Yes, the custom forms are based on the same message class. I forget the
exact custom form class, but I believe it is something like
IPM.<something>.WorkTicket and is based on the Task class.

To be honest I'm not too sure about the whole One-Off concept. When the
Work Ticket items are saved, the form definition is _not_ saved with them.
I've read elsewhere that this is bad. I've read a couple knowledgebase
articels on the one-off concept and believe that I'm not creating one-off
items, but I'm not sure.

The older items I referenced in my previous message were created using an
earlier version of the Work Ticket custom form (with same message class &
name).

Are there some articles describing best practices regarding publishing of
custom forms to public folders and having them accessible to saved items?

Thanks again for your help.

Regards,
Jim

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Are there some articles describing best practices regarding publishing of

custom forms to public folders and having them accessible to saved items?

No, because saved items -- as in .msg files -- cannot access forms published in public folders. Any form for use by an .msg file must be in Org Forms or Personal Forms.

To be honest I'm not too sure about the whole One-Off concept. When the
Work Ticket items are saved, the form definition is _not_ saved with them.
I've read elsewhere that this is bad.

No, it's generally good. There are few scenarios in which saving the form definition with the item is appropriate.

I've read a couple knowledgebase
articels on the one-off concept and believe that I'm not creating one-off
items, but I'm not sure.

You can check the value of the MessageClass property using Outlook Spy or by writing VBA code to get the value of Application.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.MessageClass when the item is open. One-off items are also larger than regular items because of the embedded form they contain.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers