Custom Forms and an Outlook 2003 Upgrade

[Deane]

I have Exchange 2000 on Windows 2000. We recently upgraded all clients to
Outlook 2003.

I had a custom form in the Organizational Form Library for a particular
public folder. Nothing major -- I just added a button.

Now, when users in Outlook 2003 open a contact for this public folder, they
sometimes get the old form (with the button), but sometimes they get a
new-fangled form (with no customizations). The new form looks like the new
Outlook 2003 contact form, complete with a little spot for a picture.

Couple questions:

(1) I don't mind the new form, but where can I find it so I can add my
button to it?
(2) How do I make sure everyone is getting the same form?

Deane

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Have you applied Office 2003 Service Pack 1? This is a very important SP for
organizations using forms in public folders.

 

[Deane]

Okay, did that, thanks. Will I have to convert my forms to the new Outlook
2003 versions?

Deane

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

No. There is no "Outlook 2003 version" of forms to convert to. Have you
cleared the forms cache since the SP1 upgrade?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Deane]

No. There is no "Outlook 2003 version" of forms to convert to. Have you

cleared the forms cache since the SP1 upgrade?

I have now. Does this mean users are going to get the style of form they've
always gotten, or are they going to get the new, funky Outlook 2003 style?
If the latter, what happens to my custom button?

Deane

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Items whose MessageClass is set to use a custom form will open with that
form. Contacts that don't use a custom form will use the Outlook 2003-style
contact layout.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Deane]

Sue, I'm still really confused here.

All of our clients are now coming up with the new form, with no custom
button, which is a big problem. I have tried to set the folder to use the
old, customized form with no success -- it keeps pulling the new form. I've
cleared the cache and everything.

No problem, I thought, I'll just add the button to the new form -- it's
very simple mod. However, when I go to Design a Form, all I get is the old
form.

I can't help but think this has something to do with running Outlook 2003 on
Exchange 2000.

Deane

 

[Deane]

I checked the Message Class on one of the contacts in the folder:

"IPM.Contact"

More questions:

-- Both the Standard Form Library and the Organizational Form library have a
form named "Contact." How does the system differentiate between the two?

-- When new items are created in this folder, what Message Class gets set on
the new item?

-- When I'm designing a form, how can I tell, defintively, what Message
Class the form is? I'm having problems editing the wrong form, as near as I
can tell.

-- It strikes me that this new contact form (the Outlook 2003 format) is
part of the client (Outlook 2003), but not the server (Exchange 2000). If
the new form came with the client, how do we get it "installed" on the server?

Wickedly confused,

Deane

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Comments inline.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

I checked the Message Class on one of the contacts in the folder:

"IPM.Contact"

That means that they are not using a custom form.

More questions:

-- Both the Standard Form Library and the Organizational Form library have
a
form named "Contact." How does the system differentiate between the two?

When you publish a custom form, you give it a message class name, e.g.
IPM.Contact.MyContact. This is done on the Publish dialog.

-- When new items are created in this folder, what Message Class gets set
on
the new item?

That depends on what steps you're using to create the item and what form is
the default for the folder. Tell us more.

-- When I'm designing a form, how can I tell, defintively, what Message
Class the form is? I'm having problems editing the wrong form, as near as
I
can tell.

If you want to edit an existing custom form, you can go through the Tools |
Forms | Design a Form to select the one with the right message class.

-- It strikes me that this new contact form (the Outlook 2003 format) is
part of the client (Outlook 2003), but not the server (Exchange 2000). If
the new form came with the client, how do we get it "installed" on the
server?

There is nothing to install. Perhaps your confusion comes from the fact that
the new contact form layout in OL2003 and the included picture control are
not available to programmers, who will see the older layout when they put an
Outlook 2003 contact form into design mode.

 

[Deane]

Here's how this came about, from the beginning...

I created a Public Folder and filled it with contacts. I did this
programatically, because we were pulling them out of an old, proprietary
contact database. A little VBScript and an hour or two and -- voila --
10,000 contacts in a public folder.

I created a new form in Organizational Forms called "SFC Contact" (SFC being
the acronym for my company). I made my mod, and I published the form.

(Something odd that I've never been able to figure out: do you save the form
after you make your mods in "Design Mode" before you publish it? Whenever I
did, it would pop a box complaining about the "File As..." field being blank,
as if I was working on an actual Contact or something. Or does "Publish"
imply "Save"?)

I then right-clicked on the Public Folder, selected the "Forms" tab, and
then clicked the "Manage..." button. My understanding is that ALL forms are
on the left, and the forms for THIS FOLDER are on the right. With this
understanding, I deleted the "Contact" form on the right, found "SFC Contact"
on the left, and copied it over. I clicked the "Clear Cache" button, then
"Okay." (I've gone back and checked, and my changes stuck...) The form is
set to be the ONLY form to be used on the folder.

(While I was in there, I checked the Properties... of "SFC Contact" form.
Its class is "IPM.Contact.SFC Contact" which seems right.)

Question: does making this form the default for the folder retroactively
change the Message Class for every contact currently in the folder? (I
checked a few...it didn't.)

That depends on what steps you're using to create the item and what form is
the default for the folder. Tell us more.

The default is (should be, anyway), "IPM.Contact.SFC Contact". I say this
because this is the form I have set as the default. I don't know how to
verifiy that this is indeed the case.

I create a new item by clicking the "New" button. Is it different if I
create it programmatically?

There is nothing to install. Perhaps your confusion comes from the fact that
the new contact form layout in OL2003 and the included picture control are
not available to programmers, who will see the older layout when they put an
Outlook 2003 contact form into design mode.

Yes, this is exactly my confusion. Since the layout is different, how can I
design a form? If I put a button at X, how do I know that X is not
underneath the picture control or where the note field is in the new layout?

My assumption is that you'd only see the new layout on un-customized forms.
If you customize a form, does the display of the form revert to the old
layout? Is it not possible to customize a form and have it keep the new
layout (that'd be a trick since the new layout doesn't show up in design
mode...)

Gee, Sue, you sure know a lot. You should write a book or something...oh
wait, you have and it's on my bookshelf... (speaking of which, if it's easier
to refer me to page numbers in the "Microsoft Outlook Programming" book, feel
free).

Deane

 

[Deane]

Well, I sort of have it fixed.

I built a little VBScript to change the Message Class on all the items in
the folder. It took about five minutes to run, but all the contacts are
opening with the right form now. It doesn't have the new, Outlook 2003,
layout, but that's okay. My button is right where I put it, and that's all I
care about.

Thanks, Sue, for all your help. Based on what you explained about the
Message Class, I feel like I have a lot more control over the form that comes
up for the item. Before, I felt like it was kind of in the hands of fate or
the Exchange Gods.

Deane

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Great. Trying to understanding the message class and forms cache can cause
headaches. I hope yours is better now.