Outlook 2003 custom Forms

[Fredrick A. Zilz]

I developed some custom forms in Outlook 2000. We have now upgraded to
Outlook 2003.

I am finding that some of my users are experiencing problems in opening
items using custom forms. When I look at the the forms folder (documents
and Settings, Local, ...Forms) in a correctly working system the forms look
like "ipm.contact.custom" on the systems having difficulties they look
like "hcontact.000" or the like. Some of the systems with this problem are
installing the custom form each time they open an item, some appear to be
working correctly, then suddenly resort back to the default form.

So far I am seeing this problem on Windows 2000 sp4 computers with Office
2003.
They are all upgrades from Office XP.

 

[David C.]

I have seen the exact same problem using custom forms and
Outlook 2003 final, version 11.5608.5606.

If you create a folder in the All Public Folders and
assign it a custom form and then create a link to that
folder in your Favorites, each time you try to create a
new item you will get the error "The object could not be
found." Also if you open an existing item in the
Favorites folder you will see the "Installing the form on
you machine" dialog box before openning each item. The
sixth time you try either operation in your Favorites
folder, Outlook 2003 will hang.

If you look in the directory where the forms cache is
located, %USERPROFILE%/Local Settings/Application
Data/Microsoft/FORMD/, you will see several folders that
have the name of the message class,
i.e. "IPM.Contact.Custom", will a number of "0"'s appended.

In my testing I have found that this problem did not exist
in Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002, Outlook 2003 Beta 2, or
Outlook 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh. It only appears in
the released version of Outlook 2003.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Outlook 2003 does per-folder caching of custom forms, not per-machine. In trying to track down just what's happening with this issue, it would be useful to know whether you have Outlook set up for cached Exchange mode.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[dz]

Try this: The forms should be publised to the public
folder, then each user, instead of using "Favorites,"
should add a shortcut for each form to their Outlook bar.
This has worked like a charm for me.

DZ

-----Original Message-----
Outlook 2003 does per-folder caching of custom forms, not

per-machine. In trying to track down just what's happening
with this issue, it would be useful to know whether you
have Outlook set up for cached Exchange mode.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers


"David C." <[email protected]> wrote in

message news:[email protected]...

 

[Fredrick A. Zilz]

In my scenarios the users are using cached Exchange,

Both the users who are experiencing this issue and those who are not are
using the cached exchange option. So far I have only seen the problem on my
Windows 2000 sp4 users and not on my Windows xp proff.

Why would the forms folders in the forms cache be named differently - on my
computer - working correctly - ipm.contact.customcontact, on the
malfunctioning hcontact.000, etc?

I have not disabled cache on the affected computers to see what happens. I
did recreate their profile and so far they are only installing the form once
per item type. But the form name is still the hcontact format not the ipm.
format.


Outlook 2003 does per-folder caching of custom forms, not per-machine. In
trying to track down just what's happening with this issue, it would be
useful to know whether you have Outlook set up for cached Exchange mode.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Fredrick A. Zilz]

My custom solution looks to folders in the users favorites folders, so even
if this resolves the forms issue, I would have to redesign the whole
application to look to the public folder and not the favorites. Maybe down
the road I will do this. Need to learn more about cached exchange before I
do.

 

[Shayne Ziegler]

My company's custom Outlook forms have the same problem
discussed now that we upgraded to Outlook 2003.

When using Cached Exchange mode without Favorites, NO
problems are encountered.

However, laptop users want to add the public folders to
the favorites and synchronize them so they are available
offline. When this is done, Outlook will reload the form
each time a new item is opened. The forms cache creates a
folder called (formname)0, 00, ... each time the form is
loaded. After about six times, Outlook will become non-
responsive and you must kill the process.

I tried using Favorites on a number of computers and found
the initiation of problem to be unsystematic. You can
start using Favorites and encounter no problems. Then
suddenly form reloading starts. After that, the problem
is persistent.

Additional details: Has occurred with both Windows XP and
Win2KSP4 users. The server is Windows / Exchange 2003.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

There should be a hotfix in the works to resolve this issue, but for now, avoiding Public Folder\Favorites when you're using custom forms seems to be the workaround.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

This is a known problem. A fix is in the works. The workaround in the meantime is to avoid using Public Folders\Favorites to access folders that contain items created with custom forms.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Fredrick A. Zilz]

Ok, then how do I refer to one folder from another one, if the user will
work online and offline. Currently I have a Company Folder. the Items use
a custom form which includes the outlook view control looking at a public
contact folder, with a filter to only show that companies contacts. The
same type of views take place for my pricing folder, Licensing folders, etc.
The way I have it setup, the folders all refer to the All Public
Folders\Favorites\Company\Contacts, etc. So that online or offline the same
path works.

I am unclear on how to set this up for online and offline users without
using favorites?

There should be a hotfix in the works to resolve this issue, but for now,
avoiding Public Folder\Favorites when you're using custom forms seems to be
the workaround.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

That's the problem. Because of the bug, offline use of folders with custom forms is essentially nonfunctional right now.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Fredrick A. Zilz]

Thank Sue
Any word on when a fix might be coming?


That's the problem. Because of the bug, offline use of folders with custom
forms is essentially nonfunctional right now.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

It's already in the works, we're told.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers