Combobox in user defined appointment item

[Lucia]

Hi, everyone,

I've developed one user defined appointment item in Outlook and I have
one combobox which is filled when the form is opened. And the input of
the combobox is limited to the list. So if the user inputs some invalid
value. Outlook will output one error message. Regarding to this
combobox I have now the following questions:

1. May I customize the error message of Outlook while the user gives
any invalid values?

2. If the user send this appointment to other ones, the form is changed
automatically to IPM.Schedule.Meeting.Request. When someone opens this
kind of form, the combobox will not be filled. So the user will always
get some error messages.

I'm looking for a solution without customizing the
IPM.Schedule.Metting.Request form.
The first idea of mine is to set MatchReqired = True only when the user
opens the user defined appointment item. But I tested with
Item.GetInspector.ModifiedFormPages("UserDefined").Controls("combo").MatchRequired
= True, but it doesn't work.

Has anyone a suggestion?

3. My another question is if there is any other ways to fill in the
combobox. The ENTER action is unfortunely not supported in VBScript.

Thanks a lot

Lucia

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

1) If you use the Validation tab settings, you are limited to what you can put in the Validation Message formula. (Yes, it's a formula, not just a text string.) If you need more than that, perform your validation in code behind the form.

2) Where is the form published? What version of Outlook? Have you thought about using separate compose and read layouts for the page with the combo box? If the recipient doesn't need to make a selection, then you can use a text box on the read layout.

3) See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/formcontrols.htm#listcombo

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

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

 

[Lucia]

Hi, Sue,

Thanks very much for your help.

1) I will have a try with formula.

2) My form is published in calender folder in Outlook 2003, but it
didn't replace standard appointment form. And I've tried to separate
compose and read layouts. It works fine with invitation. But the
problem is that after user created one such appointment, chose some
item from the combobox and saved it, it can only be opened in read
layout by appointment owner. So the user will not be able to change the
data again. How can I change back to compose layout and allowed the
user to reedit?

regards

Lucia

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

It is not possible to switch between read and compose layouts. Maybe what you could is provide -- only for the original creator -- a button to enable the disabled controls.

Code won't run for the recipient of the meeting request because they don't have access to the published form definition.

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

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