How do you use forms created in HTML

[Dogbreadth]

I have a bunch of forms that I would like to save as OFT
files to send to individual departments. Currently I use
them on the internet where the data is saved in a MySQL dB
but I would much rather cut out the step of going to the
website. Is there anyway to accomplish this in Outlook
2002? I could bypass the submission to a dB but that would
be a great bonus if possible.
I really don't want to have to 'learn' how to use the form
editor tool as it is not the most logicalware.
Thanks in advance,
-jt.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

If you want to save forms as .oft files, turn off WordMail as the editor,
run the form, then use File | Save As.

 

[Dogbreadth]

Sue, Thanks for the reply!
When you say Wordmail I'm assuming you mean using word as
your editor which I don't do in the first place. And maybe
I didn't offer up exactly what my intentions were...
I just read a post about copy email message data to MySQL
which is what my html forms do. I want to do the same but
bypassing the web with my existing forms (Little League
game scoring, pitch counts, etc.). So how do I get those
forms into Outlook? I tried by pasting into a new message
and then saving as *.oft but when I open it all I see is
the html code. Are there certain tags that I shouldn't be
using that would cause the code to 'show'?
Maybe I should be pasting the code elsewhere and am going
about this wrong altogether?
And another very mportant question, Does the send then
actually post to the dB (what the form originally posts
to)?
Again, I appreciate your help/patience.
-jt.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

I don't know what you mean by "bypassing the web with my existing forms."
Are these web page forms?

Sending an Outlook message does not post data to a database, regardless of
what the message looks like. It just sends the message.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Dogbreadth]

Again, thanks for your reply.
Yes, they are web forms, sorry if that wasn't clear. And
like I said before, connecting to a dB or whatever is
optional as I believe I can accomplish the same basic
needs with Outlook. I did see a tool that does write the
mail message to MySQL but that is not my sole purpose. I
have dropdowns for selections and different fields that I
would like to use without having to recreate. Then users
could open them as form (OFT) with a predetermined
distribution (To, Cc, Bcc), fill in the fields and send it
off. My main point is I don't want to have to learn some
new tool that doesn't jump out as easy to use as the form
building tool supplied with Outlook appears to be.
If I don't have an option to somehow import my existing
HTML (web) forms then I guess I will need a link to some
help with the tool.
Thanks.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Outlook forms and web forms are *totally* different.

That said, the HTML content of an Outlook HTML format message can contain an
HTML form and do either a GET or POST (but I keep forgetting which), but it
cannot run script.

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

 

[Dogbreadth]

Ok,
So since they are completely different how do you propose
I go about achieving what I want to do. As I said before,
forget about the Post or Get! How about the dropdowns and
select fields that I want that I would hardly call a
script? I have laid out in my previous posts what I am
trying to accomplish and you keep harping back on scripts,
posts and gets...

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

I have laid out in my previous posts what I am

trying to accomplish and you keep harping back on scripts,
posts and gets...

You originally described a web form that puts responses into a database.
Don't you think it was appropriate to explain why that won't translate
directly into an Outlook form, although some HTML form capability is
available in an HTML message? And don't you want to know what the
limitations of an .oft form are?

So far, all we know is that you envision an Outlook form that puts the
information that users enter somewhere. That's not much to go on. What kind
of information do you want to collect? Where is the information going to be
stored? What are you going to do with it when you get it? Do all the likely
users have Outlook?

Without knowing the answers to questions like that, it's impossible say
whether an Outlook form is even an appropriate solution. But if you want to
plow ahead into form design to see what it feels like, here are basic first
steps to construct the type of form you describe:

1) Turn off WordMail as your email editor (which you don't use, so you can
skip this step).
2) Create a new message.
3) Add the To, Cc and Bcc recipients for your predetermined distribution.
4) Choose Tools | Forms | Design This Form.
5) Remove the To and Cc fields from the form.
6) Use the Field Chooser to create custom properties to store data.
7) Use the control toolbox to add controls, binding a property to each
control on the control's Value tab.
8) On the (Properties) dialog, check the "Send form definition with item"
box.
9) Choose File | Save As to save as an .oft file.

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

 

[Dogbreadth]

Sorry it was so confusing. As I have continually stated I
DO NOT CARE IF THE DATA IS KEPT/STORED ANYWHERE
All I want is to be able to use the forms I created in
html that have dropdowns and selection boxes/pulldowns and
certain fields for people to fill out and then mail it.
THAT IS ALL
I guess the easiest way to go is to import/use my form as
a background and use that? GET IT??? THEY USE THE FORM BY
OPENING A OFT FILE/TEMPLATE THAT I HAD CREATED IN HTML AND
SIMPLY FILL OUT THE FIELDS IN MAIL TO SEND !
This is such a joke and typical of M$ products where you
need a freek'n degree to understand or do some of the
simplest things. I tested M$ products at RedWest for over
7 years so I am not some clueless end-user, in fact,
marketing hated me because I would never sign-off on the
crap they push out the door!
So the final answer I guess is no, there is no way to use
forms you already made in HTML and import them into
Outlook for use as an OFT template file. You have to
recreate them from scratch in a clugy interface.

 

[Gary]

Whoops, the two textboxes in that sample I gave you have the same name, plus of course the submitting server won't exist, but it should still try and send the informatioon to a server.

BTW, if microsoft products are so lousy, why did you work with them for 7 years, and why do you still use their product? Nothing better out there perhaps?
)

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Do you always shout at people when they offer help?

If you don't care about storing the data, why are you bothering to collect
it?

Unless you enjoy wasting the time of the people who submit the data, the
data has to be stored *somewhere*, even if it's just in the body of an
Outlook message. If having the data in the message body along with all the
controls for your form is good enough for you, then copy and paste from your
web page form into a blank Outlook HTML message, add some recipients, and
save it as an .oft file. Give that file to people who have Outlook. (It
won't work with any other mail client.) Those people can open it, enter data
in the form controls, and then send the message. It will arrive at the
recipients' Inbox. The form and the data entered in the form text boxes and
other controls will be part of the message text on the incoming message.

If you change your mind and want a more structured solution, one that will
allow you to do something with the data other than read it in a message, you
can follow the steps I described earlier to create a custom Outlook form
that will store each bit of information in a discrete data property.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[DB]

Thasnks for the tip.
I stick with them because I have to since they have
cornered the market. And it's true that the majority of M$
products only see bout 15% of the functionality utilized
therefore, bloatware. You would be shocked (or maybe not
if you use their products regularly) if you saw what some
of the bugs do that are acceptable for release...

-----Original Message-----
Whoops, the two textboxes in that sample I gave you have

the same name, plus of course the submitting server won't
exist, but it should still try and send the informatioon
to a server.

BTW, if microsoft products are so lousy, why did you work

with them for 7 years, and why do you still use their
product? Nothing better out there perhaps?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

That was, in fact, among my earlier suggestions, but I couldn't remember
whether it was GET or POST that worked. Thanks for confirming that it's GET.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

While you too are bickering...

From what I have read here it seems to me that you simply want to include

If that's the case, what's wrong with just adding code like this to an HTML formatted email message.

Sample:

<html><head><title>Untitled Document</title><meta

http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body><form action="http://myserver/submit.asp"
method="get" target="_blank"><p><input name="FirstName" type="text">First

I just tested it on our Outlook system and it seems to work fine. You can

paste this code directly into an HTML email message and send it to yourself
to test.

 

[DB]

Not yelling, frustration when complete email not read and
then of course misunderstood. The freek'n subject tells it
all. The data would be the contents of the email sent.
Again, back to posts and gets!
I will not rely on M$ as it takes too much time. And KISS
is not in the vocabulary of M$.
I thank-you for your time.

 

[Gary]

Sue

I know it's off-subject, but I've posted a question on here and in your website forum but wonder if you could take a quick look at my problem for me please....

Here's the post
I have a simple enough request I think but cannot find a solution. I have a VB app that creates email messages and emails staff inside our corporation. The email message needs to run some client-side code to access a local COM object

The problem is that whenever I add anything resembling client-side code into the HTMLBody it gets stripped out either when created or when received by the recipient (I'm not sure). We use Windows 2000 Pro, Outlook 2002 and Exchange 2000

An example: when I add <Script language=...> in the <Head> tag, the whole <Script> section disappears but other tags like <Style> remain intact
I can't even add a <A OnClick=...> tag. The moment I add the word "OnClick" this link won't work

The only way I can get something to work is to call a hyperlink to an ASP page and pass the necessary parameters through to a webpage. On the webpage the ASP creates the required client-side script and finally I can access the COM object but this seems like overkill.

And the biggest problem using this method is that I cannot control the automatic closing of the webpage that pops up in Internet Explorer. I can add a window.close command after the COM object has run but it ALWAYS displays a messagebox alerting the user that something is attempting to close the window and should they allow this. Most frustrating! Ideally I don't want a webpage to startup everytime the use clicks something on the email message - I just want the COM object to run with some passed parameters - this is the primary goal

Can anyone suggest a simple piece of code that Outlook WILL allow to exist in the email body that can run my COM object somehow? If we can reduce some security in Outlook to allow this then that's FINE, as we are securely behind several firewall systems. I have wondered if I could hide the COM code in a server-based custom form? I haven't used forms much yet but it that's the only way, I'll learn.

Many thanks for your time
Gar

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Outlook does not run script in HTML messages. It's a security issue. The
only way you can get it to run is to tell the user to invoke the View | View
in Internet Zone (which I'd block if I were a security admin) command.

If it's for internal use, then an Outlook form might be appropriate and can
include script to invoke your COM object.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

Sue,

I know it's off-subject, but I've posted a question on here and in your

website forum but wonder if you could take a quick look at my problem for me
please....?

Here's the post:
I have a simple enough request I think but cannot find a solution. I have

a VB app that creates email messages and emails staff inside our
corporation. The email message needs to run some client-side code to access
a local COM object.

The problem is that whenever I add anything resembling client-side code

into the HTMLBody it gets stripped out either when created or when received
by the recipient (I'm not sure). We use Windows 2000 Pro, Outlook 2002 and
Exchange 2000.

An example: when I add <Script language=...> in the <Head> tag, the whole

I can't even add a <A OnClick=...> tag. The moment I add the word

"OnClick" this link won't work.

The only way I can get something to work is to call a hyperlink to an ASP

page and pass the necessary parameters through to a webpage. On the webpage
the ASP creates the required client-side script and finally I can access the
COM object but this seems like overkill.

And the biggest problem using this method is that I cannot control the

automatic closing of the webpage that pops up in Internet Explorer. I can
add a window.close command after the COM object has run but it ALWAYS
displays a messagebox alerting the user that something is attempting to
close the window and should they allow this. Most frustrating! Ideally I
don't want a webpage to startup everytime the use clicks something on the
email message - I just want the COM object to run with some passed
parameters - this is the primary goal.

Can anyone suggest a simple piece of code that Outlook WILL allow to exist

in the email body that can run my COM object somehow? If we can reduce some
security in Outlook to allow this then that's FINE, as we are securely
behind several firewall systems. I have wondered if I could hide the COM
code in a server-based custom form? I haven't used forms much yet but it
that's the only way, I'll learn.