OL98: How to Programmatically Publish a Form

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Microsoft Outlook Form

The following steps create a custom Outlook form that programmatically publishes a form in the Inbox:

1. Open a new mail message. On the Tools menu, click Forms and then click Design This Form.
2. Click the (P.2) page of the form. On the Form menu, click Control Toolbox. Use the Control Toolbox to add a Command Button to page P.2.
3. On the Form menu, click View code. Type or copy the following code into the VBScript code window of the form and then close the editor:

          Option Explicit
          Dim olNS
          Dim MyFolder
          Dim MyItem
          Dim MyForm
   
          Sub CommandButton1_Click()
             Set olNS = Item.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
             Set MyFolder = olNS.GetDefaultFolder(6) '6=olFolderInbox
             Set MyItem = Application.CreateItem(0)  '0=MailItem
             Set MyForm = MyItem.FormDescription
             MyForm.Name = "MyInboxForm"
             MyForm.PublishForm 3, MyFolder          '3=olFolderRegistry
             Item.Close 1                            '1=olDiscard
          End Sub
   							

4. On the Tools menu, click Forms and then click Publish Form As. Select the Inbox as the destination, enter MyForm as the Display Name, and then click Publish. Choose either Yes or No when you are prompted about sending the form definition with the item.
5. Close and don't save changes to the form.
6. On the Actions menu, click New MyForm.
7. Click the P.2 page of the form and click the button.

This will open a new instance of MyForm and publish it to the Inbox as MyInboxForm. You can verify this by clicking the Actions menu and seeing New MyInboxForm listed at the bottom of the menu.

Visual Basic Project

Use the following steps to create a Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 project to demonstrate how to programmatically publish a form into the Inbox:

1. Create a new standard Visual Basic project.
2. Create a reference to the Outlook 98 Type Library.
3. Add a command button to the Form.
4. Type or paste the following code into General Declarations section of the form code window.

         Option Explicit
         Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
         Dim olNS As Outlook.NameSpace
         Dim olFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
         Dim olItem As Outlook.MailItem
         Dim myForm As Outlook.FormDescription
   
         Private Sub Command1_Click()
            Set olApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
            Set olNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
            olNS.Logon , , True, True
            Set olFolder = olNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
            Set olItem = olApp.CreateItem(olMailItem)
            Set myForm = olItem.FormDescription
            myForm.Name = "MyInboxForm"
            myForm.PublishForm olFolderRegistry, olFolder
            Unload Me
         End Sub
   							

5. When you run this Visual Basic application, it publishes a new form in the Inbox and gives it a new name.