Outlook 2003 custom forms - data picker, populate combo box and workflow

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William Hamilton - 23 Sep 2007 10:48 GMT

Hi all,

We have been tasked with automating a few internal office processes with
Outlook 2003. Three main components we are trying to prototype:

1)Adding a date picker to the form to make it easier to select specific
dates. It seems that this control was added to 2007 but can it be done
in 2003?

2)We can add a combo box from the toolbox but want to populate
automagically if possible. From GAL, Contacts in a public folder and
then and external sourse such as an Access for SQL database... possible?

3)Workflow - a number of the forms needed to pass through a range of
people with approriate feedback loops if not approved.
eg: staff -> manager -> admin -> finance
How can this be done?

The people doing this proof of concept work are not developers so may
ask some silly questions. Forms we are working on include:
Leave application, travel request, purchase order request, meeting
request etc

tia

W

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Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 24 Sep 2007 12:29 GMT

1) In versions before Outlook 2007, Outlook has no date picker control available to programmers (which, by the way, is one reason why the first page of the appointment, journal, and task forms is not editable). See http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=26 for controls you can add.

2) You'll need to write code to do that, either VBScript code behind the form or code in an Outlook add-in installed on all machines.

3) Any workflow application requires some mechanism for capturing the "state" of the workflow item, i.e. where it is in the process. What happens to it next depends on that state. As with #2, code can be done in VBScript behind the form or in a separate add-in. You also might want to look at the features that Exchange provides for workflow. Exchange development questions are beyond the scope of this site, which is devoted to Outlook client applications. Docs start at http://msdn.microsoft.com/exchange/ with discussions in the microsoft.public.exchange.development newsgroup or on the Web at http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=838&SiteID=17

Signature

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

> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> Leave application, travel request, purchase order request, meeting
> request etc

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William Hamilton - 25 Sep 2007 08:33 GMT

> 1) In versions before Outlook 2007, Outlook has no date picker control available to programmers (which, by the way, is one reason why the first page of the appointment, journal, and task forms is not editable). See http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=26 for controls you can add.
>
> 2) You'll need to write code to do that, either VBScript code behind the form or code in an Outlook add-in installed on all machines.
>
> 3) Any workflow application requires some mechanism for capturing the "state" of the workflow item, i.e. where it is in the process. What happens to it next depends on that state. As with #2, code can be done in VBScript behind the form or in a separate add-in. You also might want to look at the features that Exchange provides for workflow. Exchange development questions are beyond the scope of this site, which is devoted to Outlook client applications. Docs start at http://msdn.microsoft.com/exchange/ with discussions in the microsoft.public.exchange.development newsgroup or on the Web at http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=838&SiteID=17

Thanks Sue, I will read more and post to the Exchange Dev forum.

thanks

W

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