Custom forms and scheduled resources...

[RDuckworth]

Many thanks for any ideas, suggestions, or solutions...

Our environment is SBS 2003, Exchange 2003, and Outlook 2003 clients. We
have approx 20 clients. I have adapted the basic appointment form to include
three new tabs with custom form information. (It's really basic custom field
stuff, with a little script for printing a worksheet from the form contents.
I'd be happy to share the form data if it would be helpful...)

When a user adds a new appointment to the calendar with the custom form data
they may also invite resources (mailboxes/calendars with auto-accept rules).
This seems to work fine, and resources are responding with success
notifications or failures appropriately.

Here's the issue: the meeting organizer sees the list of resources, but
other users see no resources scheduled for the event. (The resources are
succesfully booked.) The other users (someone who opens an existing calendar
item for review/modification) see the correct calendar event with the
following exceptions: scheduling and tracking tab shows the current users as
the event organizer, and any scheduled resources are missing from the list.

One more time with a little detail:
So if Russell creates an item and schedules conference room 1 AND LCD
projector 4 those resources are successfully booked, and subsequent views of
the item from Russell's calendar show the resources in the scheduling and
tracking tabs, and the resources are listed in the "To:" field on the
appointment tab.
When Kurt opens the item for review, the scheduling and tracking tabs show
only "Kurt" as the organizer, and the conference room and LCD projector
are not listed.

Again, many thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

IIRC, that's normal, expected behavior. You might want to show the resources separately as a field on one of your custom form pages.

 

[RDuckworth]

Many thanks, Sue!
What about this is as a concept? (and may ask ask for a code snippet if you
care to offer one?)
the object _RecipientControl2 refers to "Resources", and I have created a
user field called "HoldField-Resources".
This is where I need some assistance now... how do I set HoldField-Resources
= _RecipientControl2, and the repopulate "Resources" with the
HoldField-Resources when the form is reopened?

Got time for a follow-up?
How do I get the "invite attendees" option to auto-enable when resources are
added. Right now the users must manually select the "invite" button to get
the "send" option.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

That's the hard way. Just add a text box to your form and on the Value tab of its Properties dialog, bind it to the Resources field.

Or, use a formula to set your HoldField-Resources field to [Resources].

You can programmatically execute any toolbar button with CommandBar techniques. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/tips/commandbarfun.htm

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

Many thanks, Sue!
What about this is as a concept? (and may ask ask for a code snippet if you
care to offer one?)
the object _RecipientControl2 refers to "Resources", and I have created a
user field called "HoldField-Resources".
This is where I need some assistance now... how do I set HoldField-Resources
= _RecipientControl2, and the repopulate "Resources" with the
HoldField-Resources when the form is reopened?

Got time for a follow-up?
How do I get the "invite attendees" option to auto-enable when resources are
added. Right now the users must manually select the "invite" button to get
the "send" option.

 

[RDuckworth]

Many thanks again, Sue,

I'm having real trouble with triggering the "Invite attendees" command
button. If I have a "Resources" command button on the custom form, is there
a concise way to trigger the "Invite attendees" button as a part of that
button push?
--
RDuckworth

That's the hard way. Just add a text box to your form and on the Value tab of its Properties dialog, bind it to the Resources field.

Or, use a formula to set your HoldField-Resources field to [Resources].

You can programmatically execute any toolbar button with CommandBar techniques. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/tips/commandbarfun.htm

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

Many thanks, Sue!
What about this is as a concept? (and may ask ask for a code snippet if you
care to offer one?)
the object _RecipientControl2 refers to "Resources", and I have created a
user field called "HoldField-Resources".
This is where I need some assistance now... how do I set HoldField-Resources
= _RecipientControl2, and the repopulate "Resources" with the
HoldField-Resources when the form is reopened?

Got time for a follow-up?
How do I get the "invite attendees" option to auto-enable when resources are
added. Right now the users must manually select the "invite" button to get
the "send" option.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You can turn an appointment into a meeting request by setting the MeetingStatus property. See http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=88 for sample code.

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

Many thanks again, Sue,

I'm having real trouble with triggering the "Invite attendees" command
button. If I have a "Resources" command button on the custom form, is there
a concise way to trigger the "Invite attendees" button as a part of that
button push?
--
RDuckworth

That's the hard way. Just add a text box to your form and on the Value tab of its Properties dialog, bind it to the Resources field.

Or, use a formula to set your HoldField-Resources field to [Resources].

You can programmatically execute any toolbar button with CommandBar techniques. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/tips/commandbarfun.htm

Many thanks, Sue!
What about this is as a concept? (and may ask ask for a code snippet if you
care to offer one?)
the object _RecipientControl2 refers to "Resources", and I have created a
user field called "HoldField-Resources".
This is where I need some assistance now... how do I set HoldField-Resources
= _RecipientControl2, and the repopulate "Resources" with the
HoldField-Resources when the form is reopened?

Got time for a follow-up?
How do I get the "invite attendees" option to auto-enable when resources are
added. Right now the users must manually select the "invite" button to get
the "send" option.
--
RDuckworth


:

IIRC, that's normal, expected behavior. You might want to show the resources separately as a field on one of your custom form pages.

Many thanks for any ideas, suggestions, or solutions...

Our environment is SBS 2003, Exchange 2003, and Outlook 2003 clients. We
have approx 20 clients. I have adapted the basic appointment form to include
three new tabs with custom form information. (It's really basic custom field
stuff, with a little script for printing a worksheet from the form contents.
I'd be happy to share the form data if it would be helpful...)

When a user adds a new appointment to the calendar with the custom form data
they may also invite resources (mailboxes/calendars with auto-accept rules).
This seems to work fine, and resources are responding with success
notifications or failures appropriately.

Here's the issue: the meeting organizer sees the list of resources, but
other users see no resources scheduled for the event. (The resources are
succesfully booked.) The other users (someone who opens an existing calendar
item for review/modification) see the correct calendar event with the
following exceptions: scheduling and tracking tab shows the current users as
the event organizer, and any scheduled resources are missing from the list.

One more time with a little detail:
So if Russell creates an item and schedules conference room 1 AND LCD
projector 4 those resources are successfully booked, and subsequent views of
the item from Russell's calendar show the resources in the scheduling and
tracking tabs, and the resources are listed in the "To:" field on the
appointment tab.
When Kurt opens the item for review, the scheduling and tracking tabs show
only "Kurt" as the organizer, and the conference room and LCD projector
are not listed.

Again, many thanks!