'The Operation Failed' Displayed When Opening a Custom Form

[Chris Bingham]

Hi,

We’ve encountered a strange problem with a custom form in Outlook, and I was
hoping someone here might be able to help me please?

The form is stored in a public folder on out Exchange 2000 server, and up
until this morning was working fine. However this morning we started getting
the ‘Operation Failed’ message when you click on the forms tab in the task
items stored in the public folder-, but only on Outlook 2003 clients –
Outlook 2000 clients can still use the form OK.
The item doesn’t switch to the custom form tab, even after clicking OK to
the ‘Operation Failed’ dialog.
Also, I’ve found that if you choose ‘Form’ -> ‘Run This Form’ from the task
item’s menu, the a second instance of the item opens , and the form also
seems to work OK after this.
I also tried copying the public folder to my mailbox, but the error still
occurs.

As far as I can tell the form doesn’t contain any scripting code, just a few
formulas (I didn’t develop the form, and don’t really know much about Office
development!), and nothing has changed on the server, network or clients
overnight. All of the clients that run Outlook 2003 are on XP Pro SP2 and are
fully updated.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give,

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If you have the problem user create a new item in the folder, does the form work OK for that operation?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Chris Bingham]

Hi Sue,

Thanks for your help!

Yes when the people who use these forms create a new item, the custom form
then works OK in both 2000 & 2003.

Curiously enough, while trying this out we came across one item that would
even open in 2003, it just came up with ‘Can’t open the item, operation
failed’, and then a couple that did open OK in both 2003 & 2000??

I hope this makes more sense to you than it does to me, ‘cuse I’m stumped at
the moment!

Thanks again,
Chris

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm stumped too. You might try republishing it if you have it saved as an .oft file (as you should). Another thing to check is whether it just has too many fields. That can cause unusual behavior.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers