tap the exchange? (1 Viewer)

[mission2java_78]

Big problem...we've avoided this every week but it seems to be rather
a large pain and concern we are having. About 8 months ago I wrote
an Issues Management System which basically recorded issues in our company.
Now each issue could have multiple actions based on it. So we have a one-to-many
relationship with one issue having many action items. Our process is as follows:
1) An Issue is recorded by what we call the originator (or creator) of the
person who has noticed the issue
2) The originator then creates action items (tasks) in the system and assigns them
to responsible personnel.
3) Each task is sent to the responsible person via a click of a button. The click of
a button has code which creates an Outlook task to the responsible person and sends the data


Now the problem we are encountering is say a responsible person receives a task and completes it.
He / She currently has to go through a two step process to mark the action item (task) complete
The first step is to update Outlooks task list by marking that complete, and the second step
is to go into the application and mark that task complete...this is tedious. This is awful on the
user end because we all know users want to take the least amount of steps to accomplish something.


Basically what I am envisioning is say a responsible person recives a task and then a week later
completes it. Fine and dandy...now the responsible person goes ONLY into outlook and marks the task
complete..this will trigger an update to the database that task that issue (the record) to mark it as
complete. Why should that person have to do the same thing, twice? ... they shouldn't ... right?
The user shouldnt have to go into the application and mark the task complete..only in Outlook. SOmehow
and some way I believe MICROSOFT uses a database to keep track of outlook tasks...I mean how else
does it know who assigned it .. and when its due / the owner / etc. Is it possible to play around
with Exchange Server and accomplish what I am trying to do? There must be a unique ID for each task...
or something to that effect. Somehow I need to link the outlook task with my application and upon clicking
the complete check box in outlook have it automatically update the application.


If no one knows if a way how about a contracting / consulting company to give us a little heads up.
If anyone has any leads or any way to do something to this effect please let me know.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[gwunta]

Hi Jon

Can't you get Outlook to generate a file using csv's and export it into Access. The values in the csv file could identify the taskID and the reponseID as well as a valude indicating whether the task is completed.

GB

 

[mission2java_78]

Hi gw,

Not sure what you mean but you may be leading me on to the right thing Im looking for. As I said we have a one - to many relationship.
RecordID = the issue
TaskID = the task / action item.

There is no response id...im guessing you're referring to outlook here? The user simply clicks a completed field (yes / no field) in the application which is in the tasks table for the task item.

Do you have any examples of what you mean with csv files? I dont know too much of the workings of outlook...but how does outlook uniquely identify each task ? And how will I related that to my tables?

Jon

 

[mission2java_78]

Hi Gw,

So far locally I can do the following:
Private Sub Command0_Click()
Dim itm As Object
Dim fd As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim itms As Outlook.Items
Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim ol As New Outlook.Application


Set ns = ol.GetNamespace("MAPI")
'Retrieve a collection of mail messages in the inbox.
Set itms = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks).Items

For Each itm In itms
If itm.Complete = True Then
MsgBox "Task: " & itm & " Task Completed"
Else
MsgBox "Task: " & itm & " Task Not Completed"
End If
Next

End Sub

This checks each task on my machine and displays a message box...can I apply this to all users on our exchange server? Meaning is it possible to run this code so that it checks everyones task list? Also How can I correctly identify the Record from my database with the task in outlook? Is there some type of key that I can tie the two apps together?
Jon

 

[gwunta]

Hi Jon

My apologies for not getting back sooner. CSV files are comma seperated values files which Access can directly import. I have a temporary table called RawData which imports an object (file.csv) as a comma seprated values file and then take the relevant data from there and into other tables for use. Can you get Oultook to generate one of these files? They are simply numbers seprated by commas that can be eaily created in notepad. For example, you may want to have the first digit specify the ProblemID, the second to specify whether or not that task has been completed and then the third to specify the TaskID if you have multiple tasks to be completed for the one problem. You can also include the date and time if you wish. This is what it would look like in notepad.

"23/4/2002","9:13",312,1,4

Thats it. The file is imported and the quotations automatically removed. So you end up with the date and time of the entry, 312 is the ProblemID, 1 specified the task was completed (0 if it wasn't) and 4 represents the TaskID for that ProblemID. You will have to specify where to import the .sv file from once its been transmitted using Outlook. I keep mine in the same directory as the back end.

To import the file I just use a four line macro. ImportObject I think is the command. Let me know how you go.

GB

 

[mission2java_78]

The problem is how does outlook know about my ProblemID and TaskID and how am I going to get this data from all users of our exchange server. I dont want this only for me locally I basically need to check all tasks for all servers...

Jon