Outlook Form Regions

[Rafael]

All,

I've looked in several places but I have yet to find an answer to my
question. Can I use Outlook Form Regions to share data among Exchange usrs
the same way I can do it with custom forms?

Or are Form Regions to be used with local data only?

My scnario is a separate form region on a calendar appointment item where I
can enter some data and when I send a meeting request, the users in the
receipient list can see the form region and the data. Granted I would have
deployed the AddIn to all usres.

Thanks,

Rafael

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Form regions work based on MessageClass. If the custom MessageClass is
preserved, the user has the needed entries in their registry and the
underlying values in the fields in the form region are preserved in user or
named properties and the code in the addin handles those or the controls are
bound the data should be preserved and displayed.

 

[Rafael]

Ken I think I follow what you're saying below but I've found it impossible to
get this working in a meeting request scenario. I creae the Form Region for
IMP.Appointment and it displays fine but when the user receives the invite,
they do not see any of the data I entered even though they have the same
AddIn with the same Form Region.

Following your logic below, it looks like I need the same form region
attached to the other Calendar type message classes IPM.Appointment.Schedule
Meeting Request, etc.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You're dancing with the solution. A meeting request has a different
MessageClass than an Appointment, etc. For your solution to handle all those
different classes you need to register to handle them.

 

[Rafael]

Dancing perhaps but I have created entries for both IPM.Appointment and
IPM.Meeting.Schedule.Request and still no dice.

A form region for IPM.Note works like a charm however since Outlook does not
change the form.

I guess I am not sure exactly which forms need to be handled to be able to
use Form Regions with meeting requests so I would appreciate any help you can
provide.

Thanks again,

Rafael

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

What *does* the user see? Blank controls? No region at all?

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

Dancing perhaps but I have created entries for both IPM.Appointment and
IPM.Meeting.Schedule.Request and still no dice.

A form region for IPM.Note works like a charm however since Outlook does not
change the form.

I guess I am not sure exactly which forms need to be handled to be able to
use Form Regions with meeting requests so I would appreciate any help you can
provide.

Thanks again,

Rafael

You're dancing with the solution. A meeting request has a different
MessageClass than an Appointment, etc. For your solution to handle all those
different classes you need to register to handle them.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

Ken I think I follow what you're saying below but I've found it impossible
to
get this working in a meeting request scenario. I creae the Form Region
for
IMP.Appointment and it displays fine but when the user receives the
invite,
they do not see any of the data I entered even though they have the same
AddIn with the same Form Region.

Following your logic below, it looks like I need the same form region
attached to the other Calendar type message classes
IPM.Appointment.Schedule
Meeting Request, etc.

Any thoughts?

 

[Rafael]

The Form Region is displayed with blank controls.

The controls are blank on the meeting request as well on my sent items.

Thanks,

Rafael

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Are the form region controls bound to user properties? Are the user
properties being preserved when the item is received?

 

[Rafael]

The controls are bound to custom fields I created/user properties. And when
I receive the meeting invite, I am able to type data into the Form Region,
save the calendar Item and exit Outlook. Open Outlook and re-open my
calendar Item and the data I entered remains. This tells me that the user
properties are preserved on the receiving end.

Rafael

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

No, it only tells you that the user properties are there now, not that they
were there and preserved the data that was sent. You need to test those user
properties without adding any new data to them.

 

[Rafael]

I must admin I'm not clear on what "test" I need to do to confirm this. It
is apparent that the data is being stipped out at some point so not sure how
to test where this happens.

Rafael

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Get hold of a MAPI viewer such as OutlookSpy (www.dimastr.com) and review
the user properties at each step of the way. Or write a VBA macro to display
the user properties and check them each step of the way. The point is to
find out where you're losing the data, then you can start to figure out why.

 

[Rafael]

OutlookSpy is a great tool indeed but I do not the data from my form region
anywhere.

 

[Rafael]

As I mentioned earlier the data I enter on the IPM.Appointment form remains
on my side at least but it does not make it to the message going out on
IPM.Schedule.Meeting.Request form.

Do you have a sample code to help me reference the form region from within
an Item_Send event and check the data before it goes out?

Thanks,

Rafael

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

No, I have no code like that. I don't even know if it's possible at all. I
haven't attempted to send out any items with form regions and seeing if the
form region or its data is preserved. In general I try to avoid that sort of
thing, too many things can go wrong.

 

[Rafael]

I'm starting to get the hint Ken. I see why Sue gave up on this stuff some
years ago.

Well, is back to custom form then. Thanks for your help!

Rafael

 

[Rafael]

Ken,

If I modify the form region on the meeting request form, the data is
preserved it appears. All I need to do if possible is to take the data from
the current item's form region and add it to the outgoing meeting request
message.

The trick here is how to reference the form region for the outgoing meeting
request message. I'm going ot start a new discussion on the VSTO forum to
see if this is possible and there's a sould out there that can help me out
with some code.

Thanks,

Rafael