XGEN: Managing Forms Installed on Exchange Server

ID: Q147604

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0

SUMMARY

The tips listed below can be beneficial when managing Forms installed on a Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0.

MORE INFORMATION

Considerations of Modifying an Existing Form

Before changing an existing form, there are several things the designer should take into consideration.

If a view or rule in a folder is based on a particular field and you remove or modify its column name, you must also update the field and the corresponding view or rule to reflect the change.

If you remove or rename fields in an existing form, their associated field values in items created using the previous version of the form will not be displayed in the modified form. For example, suppose the previous version of the form contains an entry field with the column name Company and the name field on the modified form has the column name of Organization. If the user attempts to read items created with the previous version of the form using the modified form, the Organization field will not display the Company field value for the item created using the previous version of the form.

If a new field is added to an existing form, its associated field values will be displayed only in items created using the modified form. For existing items created using a previous version of the form, the field will be blank or will display the initial value for the field, if one has been defined.

If you have copied a form from one forms library to another, you may need to occasionally update the form with the master version.

To update a form:

From the Tools menu, choose Options, and select the Exchange Server tab.

Choose Manage Forms.

Select the form you want to update and choose Update.

If the library you want is not displayed, choose Set.

To see forms listed in alphabetic order by categories, select Show Categories.

Choose Close and click OK.

How to Prevent Users From Creating Messages Using an Outdated Form

If major changes are required for a form, it's often best to create a new form with a different item type. You can then leave the old form in the forms library or folder forms library to be able to read items created using the old form. To create new items, the user must use the new form.

To prevent users from creating new items using an old form, you can do one of the following:

If the form is in the Organization Forms Library, you can select the form's Hidden property. If the form is in the Personal Forms Library, you can instruct the user to select the form's Hidden property. To select a form's Hidden property, choose Options from the Tools menu in the Microsoft Exchange Client. In the Options dialog box, select the Exchange Server tab, and then choose Manage Forms. In the Forms Manager dialog box, select the Hidden check box.

If the form is in a Folder Forms Library, you can hide the form's Viewer Menu Command for the Create New Item event.

Installing a Form Using Forms Designer

With the Install button on the Forms Designer toolbar, you can install a form in a forms or folder forms library if the form has not yet been compiled or if the form has been modified and must be recompiled. When you first install a form using the Forms Designer, several things occur: a Visual Basic (VB) director is created for the form; a VB project is created for the form and saved in the newly created VB directory, the VB files are compiled; a .CFG file that contains the form definition is created; and the form .EXE is installed in the designated library.

Using the Forms Manager dialog box in the Microsoft Exchange Client, you can install compiled forms in a forms or folder forms library, copy existing forms from one location to another, and update or remove forms in a library.

To open the Forms Manager dialog box:

From the Tools menu in the Microsoft Exchange Client, choose Options.

Select the Exchange Server tab and choose Manage Forms.

To select the library in which you want to install forms, choose the right Set button. You can then use the Set Library To dialog box to select the Personal forms, the Organization forms, or a folder forms library.

You can make Send forms available to all users in the organization by installing or copying them to the Organization forms library. This library is located on the Microsoft Exchange Server, so user access is determined by the structure and configuration of your Microsoft Exchange organization.

This library's name is "Organization" by default, but can be changed by the Microsoft Exchange Administrator. There are two types of Send forms that you might want to install in the organization forms library:

General Purpose Send forms, such as the Telephone Note, Chess Form, or Vacation/Sick Day that are used to send information from one user to another.

Send Forms that are used to Send information to a particular folder. For example, you might want to install a News form in the organization forms library to let the user send news items to the HotTopics folder.

Additional query words: faq


Keywords          : XGEN 
Version           : winnt:4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: March 18, 1999