Can Outlook folders simulate Listview presentation of ADO records

Can Outlook folders simulate Listview presentation of ADO records

• Husnok

  Thanks Helmut,
  I didn't quite get your point regarding 'deleting fields ... will dramatically increase the size.....'
  Can you please explain this in more detail
  
  Regard
  gabba
  
  

• BpBonnett

  Thanks Paul, i would like to be a little more spesific about it.
  Here is some pseudo code draft for my VSTO addin, i would be happy for any comments.
  
  1.  Create a Run button and a Combobox containing predefined search.
  2.  Select and run one of the predefined search
  3.  Get recordset from Web service based on predefined search.
  4.  Create a working folder based on (IPM.Post).
  5.  Based on the fields in the recordset create user defined fields in the folder.
       (if predefined search is changed the delete all user defined fields/view)
  6.  Create a new table view showing all user defined fields.
  7.  for all records
  8.      Transform record to a POST item and add it
  9.   next
  10.Delete working folder when addin unload.
  
  
  I'm a little confused how to create user defined fields in the folder, is it so that you have to add all userdefined field for each item you post to the folder unless you use a customized form linked to the folder 
  
  I assume that i can disable the default post form and instead showing a .NET form.
  
  Regards
  Thor Sverre Gabrielsen (gabba)
  
  

  
  
  

• Rob R

  Based on my understanding of your proposed solution, you should be able to simply change your Microsoft Office Outlook folder view to display items in a list format instead of an item format. This doesn't require any programming. For a graphical example of this, open your Outlook Calendar. On the View menu, point to Arrange By, point to Current View, and click By Category. A list view should appear.
  
  To create your own views, open the specific Outlook folder that you're storing items in. On the View menu, point to Arrange By, point to Current View, and click Define Views. In the Custom View Organizer dialog box, click New, and follow the on-screen directions to create your own view. Also, you can create Outlook views programmatically by using the Outlook Views collection and View object. 
  
  You could use the Outlook object model, in conjunction with ADO.NET, to create Outlook items that correspond to records in your database. Of course, you'd probably also want to create sort of "refresh" code that somehow synchronizes your list of Outlook items with the latest data in your database.
  
  Anyway, I hope this is the type of information that you were looking for.
  
  Regards,
  Paul Cornell
  Documentation Manager
  Microsoft Developer Division User Education

  ------------------------------------
  This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. 
  
  

  
  

• Infosteo

  That is pretty much what we want, but we also want to be able to sync those contacts from a public folder to a PDA. Then if they make changes on their PDAs, to be able to sync the other way and update the SQL dbase.
  
  Is that possible
  

• abdulhakeem_h

  Hello madda,
  
  yes, this should be possible,
  however, as i know you can't sync userdefined folders or
  userdefined fields in the contactfolder.
  
  Greets, Helmut Obertanner
  
  

• slbteam08

  Hello gabba,
  
  user defined fields,
  you can create a outlook item from scratch, add fields and publish that into that folder,
  however, deleteing the fields will one off all (post) items in that folder wich will dramatically increase the size of all posts, since the form description is saved in all of the items.
  
  A better approach yould be to
  a: show a aspx page as folder homepage where you can show your result with a datagrid
  
  or
  
  B: create a public folder in exchange with all fields that you can receive
  sync your database / webservice on serverside with:
  linked SQL Server
  or WebDav
  or CDO 2000 Exchange
  or OLEDB
  
  use that public folder in favourites in outlook and
  create an active-X control where you can filter the data in the outlook view
  with Folder or Views restrict method.
  
  create a custom windows / outlook form to view and modify the data.
  
  so, your clients can use the data offline and maybe a synchronization back to server is also possible
  
  Greets, Helmut Obertanner
  [DATALOG Software AG]
  
  

• gireddy

  Hello gabba,
  
  let's say an Item in the folder will normally have 1 - 8kb, depending what fields are filled.
  when you one off a form, the size increases to ~ 80 kb
  Its ~ 10 times more then normal.
  Let's say we are the customer with 3000 Contacts in a folder.
  3000 x 8kb = ~24 MB - we are synchronized in the headquarter, everything fine.
  The chiefdeveloper deleted a field in our Folder,
  all Items become One-Off items, the Formdescription is saved within every Item
  
  Because all items are changed, we have to sync every item.
  
  Now, our Foldersize is
  3000 x 80 kb ~ 240 MB
  we're travelling to Italy and want to synchronize with our Headquarter,
  were in the hotel and have a DialUp connection with Modem ~ 56KB/s
  
  240 MB / 56kbit
  1 byte = 8 bit = 56 / 8 = 7kbyte / s
  = 34285 secs = 571 mins ~ 9,5 hours
  to synchronize the folder
  
  that's what i declare as dramatically increase....
  
  greets, Helmut
  
  
• Can Outlook folders simulate Listview presentation of ADO records