Outlook 2000 and SP3 form problems

T

Trent Shirley

Hi Everyone,
We are having an issue with service pack 3 shutting down scripting behind
our Outlook forms and I am trying to find a solution.

Our forms work correctly from where they are published in a public folder
but once submitted the scripting is shut down at the next step in the work
flow. The next person to open the form is unable to use any of the scripted
buttons. I can partially fix this by setting the form not to send it's
definition with the message so it will load from the original published
trusted form but then we run into the next problem.
The 2nd step in the application workflow is for a person from a different
group to make their changes/additions to the form and then FORWARD the form
to the next group. The forward action does not allow you to select a form
object in a public folder, only one in the Organizational Forms Library.

My dilema is that the company is pushing SP3 to all desktops in the near
future and many of our Outlook forms will stop functioning.
I do not have access to publish to the Organizational Forms Library and if I
were to get access to it there are several other issues such as changes to
the workflow for the clients. I do not know where the forms library is
located and I assume that by publishing there all clients will have to then
launch the forms from a different location than they are used to or I will
have to keep two versions of the forms up to date, one in the original
public folder and a second with a varied name in the organizational library
so the content will always have a trusted form to load it's data into and
prevent it from shutting down scripting.

Is there an easier solution than drastic rewrites to all of the Outlook
forms? I read about Administrative Options for the Outlook E-mail Security
Update on Slipstick.com and although vague about how it might apply to
Outlook forms it sounds like it might work but then we have to deal with the
Exchange Server teams to install and configure the administrative form, then
the Desktop Engineering folks to review and approve the registry changes and
potentially push them to clients and then with the Information Security to
decide if they will allow the changing of default security options in
Outlook and to add clients into the groups. The whole process will be a
headache and very time consuming in our 5 meeting per decision environment
(possible exaggeration but you know how it gets).

Any easier methods of getting my apps working without having to have admin
access on the exchange servers and individual PCs or trying to get those
groups to cooperate?

Help!!!!

Trent

P.S. Sorry for crossposting but all of these groups seem to be valid
locations for this type of question.
 
S

Sue Mosher [MVP]

If you do not have access to publish to the Organizational Forms library,
cannot get the cooperation of the Exchange admin to allow script in one-off
forms, and do not want to go to the effort of publishing to each user's
Personal Forms library, you have only two other choices -- keep Outlook 2000
at pre-SP2 or abandon the project.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
T

Trent Shirley

That is what I was afraid of.
The application I am working to repair has 60+ people using it daily making
it difficult but not impossible to publish to Personal Forms libraries.
The company however has over 19,000 employees and I suspect there will be a
lot of other applications that will begin to fail as well and am hoping to
find a solution that will provide benefit company wide with the least
disruption to the clients.

Is it easy for the Exchange admin to allow one-off forms to operate? They
may not have a problem allowing it but if it involves installing custom
forms, setting up security groups and rolling out registry patches it will
involve several different support areas and policy decisions for those areas
which will take some time to get in place.

Where would the Organizational Forms library exist normally? I cannot find
it on our servers and suspect I just do not have rights to see the folder.
Is it at all possible to create a shortcut to a form in the Organizational
Forms folder so that clients will not need special view rights in order to
go and select the form for use? Changing the work habits of so many
individuals will lead to a lot of confusion.

Is it possible to replace the existing form with one that when opened will
just switch the client to the Organizational form? This would negate any
need for keeping two versions of the same form or altering the clients
workflow in launching the form.

If I can handle our own application fix programmatically I have done my job
but a company wide solution would be much better. I just do not have
control over what or how a company wide fix is implemented and can only
provide my own opinion and hope they agree.

Thanks.
 
S

Sue Mosher [MVP]

A single registry change on the client is required, then all the security
settings can be managed centrally in an Exchange public folder. See
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/esecup/admin.htm

The Organizational Forms Library is a system folder, not visible in the
Exchange folder hierarchy. The administrator must create it. You'll see it
only when you publish a form or choose published forms. See
http://www.slipstick.com/dev/launchform.htm for ways to make it easy to
launch a form without selecting it from a library.

This side-effect of the Outlook Email Security Update is well known. I would
suggest that before rolling it out to 19,000 users, someone might want to
inventory Outlook-related applications that will likely be affected.

If you publish the form to Org Forms and remove it from its currently
published location, Outlook will automatically find and use the form
definition in Org Forms. Make sure, of course, that you keep the version
numbers sequential.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers



Trent Shirley said:
That is what I was afraid of.
The application I am working to repair has 60+ people using it daily making
it difficult but not impossible to publish to Personal Forms libraries.
The company however has over 19,000 employees and I suspect there will be a
lot of other applications that will begin to fail as well and am hoping to
find a solution that will provide benefit company wide with the least
disruption to the clients.

Is it easy for the Exchange admin to allow one-off forms to operate? They
may not have a problem allowing it but if it involves installing custom
forms, setting up security groups and rolling out registry patches it will
involve several different support areas and policy decisions for those areas
which will take some time to get in place.

Where would the Organizational Forms library exist normally? I cannot find
it on our servers and suspect I just do not have rights to see the folder.
Is it at all possible to create a shortcut to a form in the Organizational
Forms folder so that clients will not need special view rights in order to
go and select the form for use? Changing the work habits of so many
individuals will lead to a lot of confusion.

Is it possible to replace the existing form with one that when opened will
just switch the client to the Organizational form? This would negate any
need for keeping two versions of the same form or altering the clients
workflow in launching the form.
 

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