Relinking fields

[Paul Martin]

Hi All

Finished my first custom form but I have found a little problem and I think
its probably the way I have saved the Custom Form.

I design my form. SAVE AS onto my computer for future use. PUBLISH FORM to
Personal Forms to use the form. Everything works great.

If I decide to change the form using the saved version I select FORMS -
DESIGN A FORM - Locate my local saved form - but when loads the fields on
screen have losted their linked FIELD.

If I choose the PERSONAL FORMS version - form loads and fields are still
linked.

Is this normal?


Thanks
Paul

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Can you explain what you mean by "when loads the fields on screen have
losted their linked FIELD"?

 

[Paul Martin]

Hi Sue

Form loads perfect but if you go to design mode and select a field and
properties it displays the VALUE tab and there is nothing highlighted in
CHOOSE FIELD (e.g. this is blank). You need to manually select a user
defined field.

Does this make sense?

Thanks again
Paul

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I can't think of a situation in which a custom form would lose its field
bindings just by being saved. When you did the Save As, did you save it as
an Outlook template .oft file?

In any case, you should be able to make any changes using the published form
instance, then republish and save a new backup .oft file.

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

 

[Paul Martin]

Hi Sue

Yes always save that format. I have started to do what you suggest. Still
having problems with link tasks losing the link information. When a form is
saved is there any additional information saved which could prevent fields
being updated or filed with linked information? I thought it could be the
form is being "linked to a contact" and when I design/change/save this
information is being saved with the form so if I try and use as a NEW TASK
FOR CONTACT this information is already there and therefore new data won't
"attach" itself to the form.

Paul

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I don't know what you mean by "link tasks losing the link information."
"Link" in the context of Outlook forms and items generally refers to the
Links collection and Link object. I think you are talking instead about
controls bound to Outlook properties.

If that is indeeed what you mean, the only time I've seen forms lose the
control bindings is when the form is way, way too complex -- like 2-300
fields and controls. You are binding controls only to Task properties and
custom properties defined for your form, correct?
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Paul Martin]

Hi Sue

I will try and make a few things clearer - apologies still getting to grips
with Outlook Form Programming.

I don't know what you mean by "link tasks losing the link information."

When you select NEW TASK FOR CONTACT starts off filling in fields I have
linked to but after a while it stops working. I can start a new task, design
the form, put the sample script you gave me (shows contacts name in a
message box). Start adding all my fields and layout and the fields still
work OK but something causes them to stop and that is what I am having
problems trying to discover what I am doing that is causing the custom task
to stop allowing linked information to work.

"Link" in the context of Outlook forms and items generally refers to the
Links collection and Link object. I think you are talking instead about
controls bound to Outlook properties.

No it is the linked collection. What I am trying to do is setup a custom
form for my business my plan is.
Employee find customers record in a Public Folder Contact Folder. Selects
NEW TASK FOR CONTACT. Custom form loads with name, address, telephone, etc
already filled in. Employee fills in job details. Moves new Task into a
Public Folder containing all our current jobs we have in. Other employees
can look at customers record and see under activity current jobs the
customer has with us.

If that is indeeed what you mean, the only time I've seen forms lose the
control bindings is when the form is way, way too complex -- like 2-300
fields and controls. You are binding controls only to Task properties and
custom properties defined for your form, correct?

The Form I have created has about 20 field boxes. I have added the XPrint
form printer because the way I have laid the form out looks like our paper
job cards.

Currently I am using the form with filling in all the fields and it works
great, prints great, but its just to save typing the customer information in
manually all the time I am trying to eliminate.

Bottom line is I design a custom form, add script to so when task is created
when you are in CONTACTS and select new TASK FOR CONTACT the contacts
name,address,etc fills into the particular fields in my custom form. This
works for a while then stops - and its trying to find out why it stops.

Hope I have made some sense.

Paul

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

When you select NEW TASK FOR CONTACT starts off filling in fields I have

linked to but after a while it stops working. I can start a new task,
design the form, put the sample script you gave me (shows contacts name in
a message box). Start adding all my fields and layout and the fields still
work OK but something causes them to stop and that is what I am having
problems trying to discover what I am doing that is causing the custom
task to stop allowing linked information to work.

Where is this custom task form published? Did you use substitute it for the
default form with the registry substitution method described at
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/newdefaultform.htm?

No it is the linked collection. What I am trying to do is setup a custom
form for my business my plan is.
Employee find customers record in a Public Folder Contact Folder. Selects
NEW TASK FOR CONTACT. Custom form loads with name, address, telephone, etc
already filled in. Employee fills in job details. Moves new Task into a
Public Folder containing all our current jobs we have in. Other employees
can look at customers record and see under activity current jobs the
customer has with us.

Instead of using New Task for Contact, you might consider putting a button
on the form used for the contacts in the public folder that (a) creates the
task in the desired public task folder, (b) links the current contact, and
(c) fills in the informaton from the linked contact. That's a more
straightforward method, I think, than New Task for Contact.

The Form I have created has about 20 field boxes. I have added the XPrint
form printer because the way I have laid the form out looks like our paper
job cards.

Ick. XPrint is only supported in Outlook 2000 and even there, does only a
minimally acceptable job.

 

[Paul Martin]

Hi Sue

Where is this custom task form published? Did you use substitute it for
the default form with the registry substitution method described at
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/newdefaultform.htm?

Published currently on my local computer in PERSONAL and I have followed
your instructions about the registry. When I select new task it loads a
custom form with the file name FantasyTast. So that works OK.

Instead of using New Task for Contact, you might consider putting a button
on the form used for the contacts in the public folder that (a) creates
the task in the desired public task folder, (b) links the current contact,
and (c) fills in the informaton from the linked contact. That's a more
straightforward method, I think, than New Task for Contact.

That sounds good - how do I do that? Where would I start?

Ick. XPrint is only supported in Outlook 2000 and even there, does only a
minimally acceptable job.

Yeh so lots of people comment but for me it actually works great for what I
want it to do. I think once I can get the basics of this project right I
will look into the other options you mention on your website.


Thanks again
Paul

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

To create a new instance of a custom form programmatically, use the Add
method on the target folder's Items collection. You can use the code at
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/code/getfolder.htm to walk the folder hierarchy
and return the MAPIFolder corresponding to a given path string.

Once you have the item, you set can its properties to the values you want to
pull out of the Contactitem where the code is running. All that code would
go into the custom contact form, not the task.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers