Using the Address Book in a Custom Task Form

[BethA]

I am trying to use the address book to fill in a "requestor" name in a custom
task form (requestor is a custom field that we added). I found this page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291147

about how to use address books in an Outlook solution.

Method 1 is using the AddressBook method. I got that to work, and it's very
nice EXCEPT for the warning that pops up about a program trying to access the
email addresses. That pop-up makes it not so useful.

So we are using method 2 and have a button which brings up an address book
bound to the "Have Replies Sent To" field and then the REquestor field is
supposed to have the initial value set to the other field and be updated
automatically. This works fine for a new task. But if we open an old task
which didn't have a requestor name and use the Address Book to add it, here's
what happens: the name from the address book does show up in the Requestor
text box BUT it is not saved when the task is saved.

I think there must be a way to use Item_CustomUserProperties to save the
item when the REquestor is changed, but it's not working.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook version? There is no CustomUserProperties event. The event you're thinking of is CustomPropertyChange; see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=38.

What is the formula for your Requestor field?

 

[BethA]

I'm sorry - I should have edited my post more carefully! You are right, it is
the CustomPropertyChange event, and I did get it working to show me
Item.UserProperties("Requestor").Value, etc. when it changed.

Outlook version is 2003, SP2, and we do have Microsoft Exchange, which I
guess can affect things too.

Thanks,
Beth

 

[BethA]

Also, I should add that the link:
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=38 has been very helpful and I
read over the discussion cited there. I think the problem is just as Sue
mentions there - Item.UserProperties("Have Replies Sent To") does not behave
like a normal UserProperty.

I'm wondering if there are any other ways around that, so we can
consistently have the value of that UserProperty copied to
Item.UserProperty("Requestor").

Thanks!
Beth

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I can duplicate that behavior. I suspect that it has something to do with the Have Replies Sent To field for a message being analogous to StatusUpdateRecipients and StatusOnCompletionRecipients, so you're using a field for an unintended purpose twice over.

In any case, I don't think that method is really workable. I'd either live with the CDO security prompts or use Redemption (http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/) to avoid the prompts.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[BethA]

Yes, that makes sense. I tried it with the "To" field, and seemed to get the
same results. Is there any other field that would give the AddressBook but
not cause this problem?

Knowing it is not possible is helpful too!

Thanks,
Beth

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Not in versions before Outlook 2007. As I indicated, Redemption offers the best solution for Outlook 2003, unless you can live the CDO's security prompts.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54