New Custom Project Form

Rodney · Sep 18, 2005

Help with New Projects

Mattias

Thanks for the work you have devoted to this Form!

I have installed the form per your directions and all of my old projects work fine. However, I can't get this to work with new projects. I have the Add-in v2.1.
I have tried to add projects using Tools>Options>GTD>Manage Projects>Add; Using File on the GTD Tool Bar and selecting for the project, Action on the GTD Tool Bar and selecting . None of these give me the Project Form; I have to convert them using DocMessageClass.

I reread the instructions and it looks like I have everything where it is supposed to be. The only thing is that there is a file named frmChooseNA.frx in the zip file, but I never did anything with it during installation. Do I need to do something with this to make it work?

I'm sure this is something simple I have overlooked; would appreciate your help.

Rodney

peter_g · Sep 19, 2005

ChooseNA Problem and Beta Status...

Mattias:

Just a quick note to let you know that I have almost completed a beta test report on this form. It is an excellent piece of work and will dramatically improve the value of Outlook (even with the Add-In) as a solution to implement the GTD methodology - great work.

My most significant comment so far is that I have encountered the same script errors as some of the others - all centered around ShowChooseNA - it does not appear to be a valid object. When I inspect the Application object with the debugger, Application.ShowChooseNA is not a valid reference (although it appears in ThisOutlookSession, it does not appear in Application).

Lots more comments in my forthcoming report, but this is the biggest problem so far.

Regards,
Peter

xoff · Sep 19, 2005

Error

Mattias,

Great product so far with one day of testing.

One glitch I have run into is when I mark a task complete (that was created throught the project form). I receive the following error:

"Object doesn't support this property or method: 'Application.showchooseNA' Line No. 281"

Other than that smooth so far.

Xoff

charles7a · Sep 19, 2005

Possible Bug

I noticed that when I open a Someday NA that it opens up with the Custom Project Form. If I save and close, it becomes a project, even though I did not change it to Project.

jvw · Sep 19, 2005

showchooseNA

Peter g and Xoff

I have not had the same issue with the showchooseNa notice
"Object doesn't support this property or method: 'Application.showchooseNA' Line No. 281"

I could create the problem, however, by creating a new task with Mattias' project form when I didn't have the GTD-Template set as the default form in the task properties "when posting to this folder, use..." box. the project form then creates the new task with an Outlook standard task form instead of Mattias' task form, and then when completing the task created with the standard form, the above notice shows up.

Are you using Mattias' project form as the default form for new tasks?

jvw

xoff · Sep 20, 2005

jvw said:
Peter g and Xoff

Are you using Mattias' project form as the default form for new tasks?

jvw

Yes I am.

Xoff

peter_g · Sep 20, 2005

Default form for new tasks...

Yes, I am too. Operation of the "choose next action" functionality is intermittent at best. It occasionally works after I re-run DocMessageClass - a few items seem to creep in there that are defaulting to IPM.Task, which makes me think there's another place - such as the create project window of the GTD Add-In, where the default form also needs to be amended.

Also, a nasty feature of running DocMessageClass seems to be that the links between tasks and email messages created using the Action button of the GTD Add-In seem to get severed - so that the "Open Mail" button is no longer available to these tasks. This is a major pain where I have been relying on the task to retain the attached email. The root cause (not 100% sure it's DocMessageClass) should be investigated further, and an explicit warning about this should be included in the install documentation of the form.

This all being said, the sheer usefulness of this form outweights any of these small "growing pains"...

Regards,
Peter

Rodney · Sep 20, 2005

Help with New Projects

I've been trying to troubleshoot this on my own. I looked up in the Outlook Help how to create a new form, and used the GTD Template form (Tools>>Forms>>Design forms>>Look in: Personal Forms Library>>GTD Template) to see if it was a problem with the form. When the form is opened into design mode, all the pages are there, but they have parentheses in their title. (There are two pages without parentheses, Task and Details, and these are the ones that show up when I open a new project task I have created with the Netcentrics Add-in.) I can make the parentheses go away by the command Form>>Display this page, in the Design View, so I assume this would make that page show up when the form is used (I was afraid if I saved the changes I would really mess things up). So does your code (or the Add-In) control which of these pages shows up? Is that is what is wrong? Or is the task just not getting the correct message class (IPM.Task.GTD-Template). Is there a way to tell the message class of a project task?

By the way, I tried still another way to make a new project form...adding a new project from the New Project Task button on the Addin tool bar in the Tasks window...still can't get the form to show up.

Rodney said:
I have installed the form per your directions and all of my old projects work fine. However, I can't get this to work with new projects. I have the Add-in v2.1.

Rodney

Rodney · Sep 20, 2005

Help with New Projects

Rodney said:
Is there a way to tell the message class of a project task?

Just figured out how to do this; new projects are being added as tasks of class IMP.Task. Yet the Task folder properties window clearly shows, "When posting to this folder, use GTD-Template (hope this attaches):

charles7a · Sep 21, 2005

peter_g said:
Operation of the "choose next action" functionality is intermittent at best. It occasionally works after I re-run DocMessageClass - a few items seem to creep in there that are defaulting to IPM.Task...
Also, a nasty feature of running DocMessageClass seems to be that the links between tasks and email messages created using the Action button of the GTD Add-In seem to get severed - so that the "Open Mail" button is no longer available to these tasks. The root cause (not 100% sure it's DocMessageClass) should be investigated further, and an explicit warning about this should be included in the install documentation of the form.
This all being said, the sheer usefulness of this form outweights any of these small "growing pains"...
Regards,
Peter

The NextNA popup works for me as long as all the tasks have been converted using DocMessageClass. The AddCarryTask macro (pretty much the same as the newProjectTask macro) that I WAS using created tasks that were IPM.Task, which then in turn prevented the NextNA popup from working on those Tasks/NAs.

I also have experienced the "Open Mail" button not being available on "@Waiting For" NA's. More than likely caused by DocMessageClass, or more specifically changing the class on @Waiting For tasks. Just part of being a Beta tester!

Charles

apinaud · Sep 21, 2005

I will love to test the form. Where I can obtain the form?

thanks!

Bollinger · Sep 21, 2005

Q&A

mpearce said:
When I go to check a task in my active task view. I get this Script Error :Object doesn't support this property or method:'Application.showChooseNA' Line No:281

techsavvyguru said:
...I got the installation done and I am up and running. I think I may have found something (maybe a bug?) unless I am doing something wrong

When I go to the Resources tab and try to use the Documents Add button I get an error message... VB Script runtime error

Application doesn't support this property or method:'Application.SelectFiles'...

peter_g said:
...My most significant comment so far is that I have encountered the same script errors as some of the others - all centered around ShowChooseNA - it does not appear to be a valid object. When I inspect the Application object with the debugger, Application.ShowChooseNA is not a valid reference (although it appears in ThisOutlookSession, it does not appear in Application...

xoff said:
One glitch I have run into is when I mark a task complete (that was created throught the project form). I receive the following error:

"Object doesn't support this property or method: 'Application.showchooseNA' Line No. 281"

Rodney said:
Just figured out how to do this; new projects are being added as tasks of class IMP.Task. Yet the Task folder properties window clearly shows, "When posting to this folder, use GTD-Template (hope this attaches):

Attention:
All of you having these kind of problems, please ensure that you have "Use custom form in Tasks folder" checked in Tools -> Options -> Getting Things Done ->Other Settings

This controls if the type of newly created projects gets the type IPM.Task.GTD-Template instead of IPM.Task.

Re-run DocMessageClass again to convert the projects to new message class.

Sorry for this, forgot to mention this in the readme file.

If this doesn't help try this:

1. Security Level. When setting security level higher then "Medium" (in menu Tools -> Macro -> Security) the VBA code supporting the form is not loaded. 2. Outlook bug. Sometimes the supporting VBA code is not loaded when starting Outlook. If you doesn't get a security message asking if you want to enable or disable macros when starting Outlook, the macros has not been loaded. When menu (Tools -> Macro -> Visual Basic Editor) is choosen, the macros should load.

dsteinschneider said:
I do a lot of Crystal Report development against SQL databases. I've done a bit of Exchange data reporting but never Outlook PST. I installed the "driver" for outlook and was able to get everything that you see in the Print all fields report but I'm not seeing the Futures actions, history etc. Do you have any pointers for me?

Check "User-defined fields in folder" in the Tasks view. There you'll find fields starting with "GTD.." containing the data you're looking for.

joeycan said:
Hi I am trying to create a task view which will list all master projects (i.e. $MP and projects that are associated to the master project. Also I would like actions to be listed under each project i.e. master project and sub project.

I primarily want to use this as a review tool during my weekly review so I can capture all of my projects and next actions listed for the week.

Any ideas on how it is best to achieve this view, I have played with the custom view for a few hours today and can't get what I am looking for.

So I guess my first question is, is this doable if so am I missing something simple.

You should add the following grouping properties:

GTDMasterProject
|_ Project
|_ Subproject
|_ Action

charles7a said:
I noticed that when I open a Someday NA that it opens up with the Custom Project Form. If I save and close, it becomes a project, even though I did not change it to Project.

Fixed in final version. The form should not appear on Someday NA.

peter_g said:
Also, a nasty feature of running DocMessageClass seems to be that the links between tasks and email messages created using the Action button of the GTD Add-In seem to get severed - so that the "Open Mail" button is no longer available to these tasks. This is a major pain where I have been relying on the task to retain the attached email. The root cause (not 100% sure it's DocMessageClass) should be investigated further, and an explicit warning about this should be included in the install documentation of the form.

Strange. I see what you mean, but I can't figure out which field is beeing corrupt. I'll look for an alternative for DocMessageClass.

Regards
Mattias

charles7a · Sep 21, 2005

Another possible bug

I noticed that I get an error when the showNA popup should show even when security is set to low in Outlook 2003. I must first press Alt-F8 to open the macro window. I do not need to select a macro, just open it and close it. The showNA popup then works.

If I set security to Medium, I do not get the "Do you want to Enable Macro's window" when starting Outlook 2003. I must press Alt-F8, the "Do you want to Enable Macro's window" pops up and I enable macros. The showNA popup then works.

astrea · Sep 22, 2005

Script errors still occur

Hi Mattias,

I tried your suggested solution to the script error problems (use custom for, re-use DocMessageClass, check security) but I still keep getting script errors like described by various other people before. Any other idea what could be the problem? Other than that: Great form!

Best regards,
Thorsten

Bollinger · Sep 22, 2005

astrea said:
Hi Mattias,

I tried your suggested solution to the script error problems (use custom for, re-use DocMessageClass, check security) but I still keep getting script errors like described by various other people before. Any other idea what could be the problem? Other than that: Great form!

Best regards,
Thorsten

The script error indicates that the supporting VBA code in ThisOutlookSession (Visual Basic Editor) is not found by the custom form. Have you made sure the code is loaded and exists in your Outlook VBA project?

If that doesn't work, try to add this function to ThisOutlookSession and restart Outlook:

Code:

Private Sub Application_Startup()
	    S = ""
	End Sub

Regards
Mattias

astrea · Sep 22, 2005

Mattias,

I added your little code snippet to ThisOutlookSession and now Outlook tells me on startup that ThisOutlookSession contains macros and asks if I want to enable macros or not.

But: After enabling macros in this step, I still get an error message when, for example, trying to use the "add" button on the resources tab. Error message: "Object doesn't support this property or method: 'Application.Select.Files'"

I've added my complete ThisOutlookSession code below. Maybe that helps tracking down the problem.

Thanks for all your efforts,
Thorsten
----------------------

Function showChooseNA(proj As String, na As String, mp As String)
If proj "" Then
frmChooseNA.Project = proj
frmChooseNA.na = na
frmChooseNA.MasterProject = mp
frmChooseNA.Show 1
End If
End Function

Function SelectFiles()
Dim FileList As New Collection
Dim I As Long
Dim S As String

ShowFileOpenDialog FileList
Set SelectFiles = FileList
End Function

Function GetOneNameViaCDO()
Const cdoE_USER_CANCEL = &H80040113

' start CDO session
Set objSession = CreateObject("MAPI.Session")
objSession.Logon , , False, False
On Error Resume Next
Set colCDORecips = objSession.AddressBook(, _
"Choose person responsible for this GTD Project", , , 1, _
"Responsible")
If Err = 0 Then
If colCDORecips.Count 1 Then
MsgBox "You can only choose 1 contact. If you want to select more, create a gruop and add the group", , _
"Warning"
Else
strName = _
colCDORecips.Item(1).AddressEntry.Name
If Err = 287 Then
' security block triggered
MsgBox "Outlook cannot return " & _
"a name, because " & _
"you clicked No on the " & _
"e-mail address access " & _
"dialog. You need to try " & _
"again and click Yes " & _
"this time.", , _
"E-mail Address Access"
End If
End If
ElseIf Err = cdoE_USER_CANCEL Then
' user canceled the address book dialog -
' do nothing or provide a message to user
End If

GetOneNameViaCDO = strName

' release objects
objSession.Logoff
Set colCDORecips = Nothing
Set objSession = Nothing
End Function

Private Sub Application_Startup()
S = ""
End Sub

charles7a · Sep 22, 2005

Bollinger said:
If that doesn't work, try to add this function to ThisOutlookSession and restart Outlook:

Code:

Private Sub Application_Startup() S = "" End Sub

Regards
Mattias

Adding the function to ThisOutlookSession works. The showNextNA popup works automatically when a Project related NA is completed.

peter_g · Sep 22, 2005

NA Popup Window Issue - solved...

charles7a said:
Adding the function to ThisOutlookSession works. The showNextNA popup works automatically when a Project related NA is completed.

I concur. I was able to duplicate the failure of the NA popup window running. The intermittent functioning of the window was due to me occasionally accessing the Visual Basic editor, which resulted in the macro being loaded. Other times of course, I got the script error.

After adding the Startup code segment provided by Mattias, the NA Window now functions consistently!

Great stuff!
Peter

Rodney · Sep 22, 2005

Bollinger said:
Attention:
All of you having these kind of problems, please ensure that you have "Use custom form in Tasks folder" checked in Tools -> Options -> Getting Things Done ->Other Settings

This worked. However, now when I add a new project, i get an error message: No project named: 'XXXXX' was found in Tasks folder. When I click OK, it still works fine; the project XXXXX is there in my project list and the project form opens fine.

Great work Mattias.
Donation to follow.

Rodney · Sep 22, 2005

Bug report

I installed the form on my office computer today. When I go to open a project, I get the following error:
Object doesn't support this property or method: 'ovcActiveTasks.Filter' Line No: 211.

New Custom Project Form

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