Saving changes to custom form

[Maisie]

Have struggled to create a custom form and have now published in the
appropriate folders where i want it used. Any changes to these custom forms
are not being saved when a new contact is created. Any ideas

 

[Hollis D. Paul]

Have struggled to create a custom form and have now published in the
appropriate folders where i want it used. Any changes to these custom forms
are not being saved when a new contact is created. Any ideas

A custom form should only be published in one place. If you want to use it in
more than one folder, it should be published to the Exchange Form Library, on
an Exchange server, or to the Personal Forms Library in your PST file on the
workstation. Publishing it in more than one place can cause problems.

When you make a new version of a custom form, the only way to make sure the
system uses the correct form is to include the version number in the name of
the form. It does no good to just put the version number in the version
number field. So, your form should be published as MyForm_Ver1, MyForm_Ver2.
Keep at least three form versions, but you can probably safely delete older
versions of a form. You can use a utility provided by Microsoft or other
third party sources to convert existing data items of older versions to the
latest version number.

Look on Slipstick.com for that utility, also. And to find the procedures to
use to make your new custom form the default form for your computer.

Hollis D. Paul [MVP - Outlook]
(e-mail address removed)
Using Virtual Access 4.52 build 277 (32-bit), Windows 2000 build 2600
http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp?FR=0&SD=TECH&LN=EN-US

Mukilteo, WA USA

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

What kind of changes? The only thing that's saved when the user creates a
new item is the data in that item. The published form never changes until
you publish it again.

 

[John Riddle]

First off, when you say: "Any changes to these custom forms are not being
saved when a new contact is created." are you referring to any changes at
all or just changes to the custom fields that you created? Are your custom
controls bound to custom fields (or standard Outlook fields)? If not, then
there would be no place for the changes to be saved to.

John

 

[John Riddle]

Hollis,

What do you mean by "It does no good to just change the version number in
the version number field"?

I have been creating custom forms for quite a while and updating them quite
regularly by changing the version number and re-publishing the form. This
works pretty well. However, like everyone else users do get forms cache
corruption on a regular basis. Are you saying that I need to completely
change the name of the form every time I make a minor change? I have about
50,000 lines of VBA code (many of which references custom forms to create
new items and such). Every time I make a minor change to a form, are you
saying that I should go through all my VBA code and update it to reference
the new form? Also, I have about 12 custom forms in my solution. All of
which reference other custom forms in the code behind them. So, if I make
minor changes to one custom form (and therefore change the name of the
form), I need to change all the code in all the other custom forms (and
therefore change the names of them as well) and re-publish them too? This is
A LOT of work involved for making a minor change to one form. In addition,
when that was all done, I'd need to go through and change more than 100,000
items that use those custom forms. What problem would this solve? I don't
see how this would solve the forms cache curruption problem that everyone
seems to have that uses custom forms.

John

Have struggled to create a custom form and have now published in the
appropriate folders where i want it used. Any changes to these custom
forms
are not being saved when a new contact is created. Any ideas

A custom form should only be published in one place. If you want to use
it in
more than one folder, it should be published to the Exchange Form Library,
on
an Exchange server, or to the Personal Forms Library in your PST file on
the
workstation. Publishing it in more than one place can cause problems.

When you make a new version of a custom form, the only way to make sure
the
system uses the correct form is to include the version number in the name
of
the form. It does no good to just put the version number in the version
number field. So, your form should be published as MyForm_Ver1,
MyForm_Ver2.
Keep at least three form versions, but you can probably safely delete
older
versions of a form. You can use a utility provided by Microsoft or other
third party sources to convert existing data items of older versions to
the
latest version number.

Look on Slipstick.com for that utility, also. And to find the procedures
to
use to make your new custom form the default form for your computer.

Hollis D. Paul [MVP - Outlook]
(e-mail address removed)
Using Virtual Access 4.52 build 277 (32-bit), Windows 2000 build 2600
http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp?FR=0&SD=TECH&LN=EN-US

Mukilteo, WA USA

 

[Hollis D. Paul]

What do you mean by "It does no good to just change the version number in
the version number field"?

It is a hit or miss operation with respect to getting the latest changes if
you publish to the same name. Usually it works. However, we went around
and around with the Outlook development team, and the only sure way to get
the correct form every time is to put your version number in the form name
you use to publish it. If you like playing Russian Roulette with your
forms, then you will be successful most of the time publishing to the same
name. It is just not the Best Practice.

Hollis D. Paul [MVP - Outlook]
(e-mail address removed)
Using Virtual Access 4.52 build 277 (32-bit), Windows 2000 build 2600
http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp?FR=0&SD=TECH&LN=EN-US

Mukilteo, WA USA