Disable Outlook 2007 automatic meeting update

[Rafael]

All,

It appears that Outlook 2007 automatically updates your calendar item when
you receive a meeting update which is something Outlook 2003 did not do. I
get a button on the email message that reads: "No Response Required".

Is there a way to disable this otherwise nice feature in Outlook?

The problem I have with it is that Outlook will only update standard fields
and ignore my custom form (understandably so).

Thanks,

Rafael

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

What about changing this setting: Tools | Options | E-mail Options | Tracking Options | Process requests and responses on arrival?

I don't understand what that has to do with a custom form, though.

 

[Rafael]

The issue is that when Outlook 2007 processes the meeting update, some how my
custom form does not get updated even though the NEW information/data is part
of the meeting update message.

I made the changes suggested below but I still have the same issue. Notice
that this works when is the other way around. If I send a meeting update to
a user with Outlook 2003, the custom form data is also updated on the
calendar item.

I hate that sniffer.

I've tried a couple of ways to use the NewMailEx() both in vba and VSTO but
it does not seem to work consistently. Any thoughts?

Thanks again Sue!

Rafael

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Sorry for the delay in responding. I must be dense because I'm still not quite clear on what you're seeing. Part of the problem is that "custom form" means the template used to create items, not the items themselves. Is the problem that a meeting update generated from a custom appointment form is not updating the meeting that an attendee has accepted? What data isn't being updated? Where is the form published?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Rafael]

Hey Sue thanks for revisiting this issue. I'll try to explain better.

I created a custom appointment form which has one additional page called
Meeting Details. On this new page, we enter "internal only" meeting
information but everything else works exactly the same: attendees, date,
subject, location, etc.

The form is deployed on the Org Forms Library in Exchange 2003. I have
changed the default Appointment form on all clients to use the custom form:
IPM.Appointment.myForm. Therefore, when I receive a meeting invite, I see
the default information as well as the Meeting Detaills page with some data
in it (e.g: this is a VIP client, etc.).

Once I accept the meeting invite, all is fine and the data on the custom/new
page is there as part of the meeting request as expected. However, when the
organizer sends me an update to the meeting and they add text to the
custom/new page (Meeting Details), the data on the custom page is not updated
when the recipient (me) has Outlook 2007. It works fine on Outlook 2003 as I
have to open the message and accept it where as Outlook 2007 will
automatically update the appointment.

Hope this paints a better picture if the issue.

Rafael

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Do you get the same behavior if you create a new item explicitly with the published form (Tools | Forms | Choose Form) rather than relying on default form substitution?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Rafael]

I can't say I've tried that but that won't look any different to Outlook and
when the meeting update is received. Regardless, Outlook 2007 by default
will process meeting updates automatically and display the "no response
necessary" message.

The interesting thing is that the data on the custom form is part of the
meeting update message as I am able to see it there when I open the message
in my Inbox.

I read somewhere that this is part of a sniffer technology that Outlook 2007
uses to prevent people from missing appointment invites so I was looking to
see if this is something that can disabled.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I already gave you the option for disabling the sniffer. This seems to be different. I think testing with the explicit form is important, as the forms substitution feature has always seemed a little flakey to me.

What exactly are you seeing on the message in the Inbox? A custom form page? Something else?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Rafael]

Your suggestion did not solve my issue Sue but then again I did not try the
using the explicit form. However, regardless of how I bring up an
appointment, the form substitution would still show the custom form?

What I see on the Inbox is the meeting update message and when I open it, it
has the "Meeting Details" page in it as well.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

What I see on the Inbox is the meeting update message and when I open it, it

has the "Meeting Details" page in it as well.

Meeting Details is your custom page?

However, regardless of how I bring up an
appointment, the form substitution would still show the custom form?

Form substitution is specific to a particular message class not the item type. I don't trust it and am not willing to try to troubleshoot any issue related directly to it. If the same problem occurs, though, using the form explicitly, that's worth looking into.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Rafael]

Meeting Details is the name of my custom page.

It is tricky as the meeting request comes in as a meeting request message
class but Microsoft changed the behavior of Outlook 2007 and although it
helps some what is making things harder for me. Unfortunately, the form
region option in OL 2007 is useless for this scenario as I cannot add a
private page to an appointment item and send that data successfully across to
other users.

The closest I've come to a solution to the issue is to use NewMailEx event
to look for the custom form and look for the associated appointment and
replace the data on the existing item with the data on the update message.
Not an ideal solution but it works most of the time.

Thanks again!

Rafael