Using Post Feature to collaborate

[Jake Bailey]

I have a collaboration issue that I’m trying to help alleviate within
my office/company.

Here is the scenario:
I have 7-10 users who regularly need to email information or request
information back and forth every day. Unfortunately email
correspondence can get out of control on just one topic alone
(sometime 6-8 replies). What I would like to do is have a public
folder that is for a specific topic where the users can post a new
request and then someone can post a response within the same post, not
as a new one. For example, if I have a folder called “New Item
Request” where a user can request for a new item to be entered into
our point of sale system. To do this the user will be required to
enter in certain information such as ‘Vendor’, ‘Item Number’,
‘Description’, ‘Color’, etc; then hit a button that submits it to the
folder. Once this new item or posting is submitted then I would like
it to notify the other users by showing (1) next to the folder, just
like the notification for a new unread email. Now here is the next
step where I think it may get tricky. When the other users go to that
folder to see the posting I need them to have the ability to post a
reply within that same post but not be able to edit the original
message. Almost like a message board where the original message is
grayed out and has certain properties next to it such as user name,
time stamp, status, etc; So after 3 to 4 replies to this post it will
kind of look like an email that has been sent back and forth where you
can scroll down and see the correspondence between the users but not
be able to edit it. Once the task request in this post (New Item) is
completed or finished I would like an option for the status to be
“Closed” or “Completed” where users can no longer post replies to it.

So my question is:
1. Is the ‘Post’ feature in Outlook the best way to achieve this? If
not, which solution within Outlook should I look at? VBA?

Just so you know -
1. I purchased Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming by Sue Mosher a
couple months back which has been an excellent resource so I have done
some reading on different option with forms and VBA. Unfortunately I
don’t have opportunity to take the time to develop a solution only to
find out later down the road that a different path should have been
taken. I would like to get some guidance or direction from some
experts before I begin this journey.
2. The users are all on Exchange server and the folders will most
likely be under my profile and then shared to the other users so I can
maintain control and not have to rely on our IT guy every time a
change or alteration is made.

Thanks in advance for your help.
-Jake

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If you have Outlook 2007, then you should be able to make this work with one
or more post forms published to a shared folder in your Exchange mailbox. A
few suggestions on your specific requirements:

What I would like to do is have a public
folder that is for a specific topic where the users can post a new
request and then someone can post a response within the same post, not
as a new one.

Think about whether you want the responses to use the same form (i.e. UI and
code) as the original requests or whether they need a different form.

Once this new item or posting is submitted then I would like
it to notify the other users by showing (1) next to the folder, just
like the notification for a new unread email.

You'll send a sharing message using the Share This Folder command. After
users accept it, they'll see the folder in their folder list, see its unread
count, and even be able to take it offline.

When the other users go to that
folder to see the posting I need them to have the ability to post a
reply within that same post but not be able to edit the original
message.

You handle this with the permissions on the folder.

Once the task request in this post (New Item) is
completed or finished I would like an option for the status to be
“Closed†or “Completed†where users can no longer post replies to it.

This will need to be handled with code for the Reply or CustomAction event
(depending on exactly how you implement the form) that checks for some
"Closed" or "Completed" property value and if found, cancels the event by
setting the return value of the event handler to False.

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

 

[Jake Bailey]

Thanks for the quick reply Sue. This will help get me started in the
right direction.

-Jake