Link Contacts to SQL Server tables?

[Guest]

Can Outlook 2003 be set up to link to Contacts data stored in SQL Server
tables?

Why would I want to do that? We have reports written in Crystal Reports 6
that use custom fields in an Outlook Contacts application. CR 6 in
incompatible with XP; and CR 10 cannot access custom fields. If we moved our
Contacts data from Exchange to SQL Server, then we could use CR 10, and point
the CR reports over there. But... would our custom Contact forms (which we
open from Outlook, of course) be able to load the data from the SQL table(s)?

 

[Radek Mrkvicka]

http://www.geniusatwork.nl/geniusconnect_ms.asp

 

[Guest]

Thanks to Radek for the suggestion. I spent some time reading the FAQ on the
GeniusConnect product, and discovered that it does not handle custom (i.e.
user-defined fields) - so it will not work.
I neglected to mention in my original post that the Contacts I am interested
in are not personal contacts, rather they are Public Contacts (i.e. the
Contacts folder is under the Public folders, so it exists on Exchange.) What
I need is some advice on how point that folder away from Exchange and toward
SQL Server.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

No storage in Outlook can point to a SQL server database. You'd have to
synch the two somehow. That would require custom code if you can't find some
utility somewhere that will do that for you.