Building Digital Dashboards with Outlook 2000 and Exchange

1
Building Digital Dashboards with Outlook 2000 and
Exchange Mike MorrisonSenior
ConsultantMicrosoft Corporation
2
(No Transcript)
3
Todays Agenda

• What is a Digital Dashboard?
• Digital Dashboard Starter Kit
• The API Melting Pot
• Dashboard Structures and Architecture
• Code, Code and More Code
• Tips And Tricks
• Off-line, Security and Deployment
• Lessons Learned

• Shameless Giveaways!

4
The Battle of SoCal Edison

• Exchange vs. Notes
• Billg the CEO Summit
• One Company Culture
• Lost the battle but winning the war
• Importance of information any where any time

5
What is a Digital Dashboard?

• Situational Awareness
• Empowering Knowledge Workers
• Personalized data
• Off-line synchronization
• Focused metrics for business direction

6
Digital Dashboard Starter Kit (DDSK)

• Dashboard examples
• Starter
• Functional Sales, Finance
• Vertical Healthcare, Insurance, Manufacturing
• White papers
• Advanced Development Guide
• Business Process Assessment Guide
• COM Add-ins
• Outlook Today
• FrontPage

7
DDSK Samples

• First Dashboard
• Healthcare Dashboard
• Manufacturing Dashboard
• Insurance Dashboard
• Salesperson Dashboard
• Finance Dashboard

8
DDSK White Papers

• An Overview of Digital Dashboard Development
• Digital Dashboard Business Process Assessment
  Guide

9
Demo
10
What Dashboards bring to Knowledge Workers

• Personalized Information
• Off-line Access
• Easy Customization
• Rich User Interface to Data

Situational Awareness
11
Types of Dashboards

• Internet Explorer
• Web-Based
• Outlook 98
• Outlook Today
• Outlook 2000
• Outlook View Control
• Folder Home Pages
• Exchange 2000
• Web-Based
• XML

Reach
Rich
Have cake and eat it too
12
Outlook Today vs. Folder Home Pages

• Outlook Today
• Must edit RegKey for full IE Object Model
• Be careful with ltframesetgt ltiframegt
• TARGET_blank does not open new window
• References to other frames might not work
  correctly
• Forms do not work correctly
• Tabular data controls do not work correctly
• Folder Home Pages
• Full IE Object Model
• Slightly slower
• May need to set the startup folder

13
Dashboard Layouts Zones
Links (Button Bar)

• Zones
• HTML Tables
• IDs
• Links
• HeaderZone
• LeftColumn
• RightColumn
• Msnavigation

HeaderZone (Stock Ticker)
LeftColumn
RightColumn
MSNavigation
14
Dashboard Components Nuggets

• Nuggets
• State stored in registry
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Ou
  tlook\Today

Show/Hide buttons(call displayNugget script)
15
Dashboard Coding Approaches
Client
16
Building Dashboards

• Define the audience
• Define the content
• Put content into Exchange store or Web
• Build HTML page (FrontPage)
• Outlook View Control
• Outlook Today Databinding Control
• Office Web Components
• Write custom script code
• Deploy

17
The Outlook Object Model

• COM Automation Objects
• High performance access to private and public
  exchange data
• Built-in offline synchronization
• Easy hyperlinks
• Outlook//Inbox
• Outlook//Public Folders/

18
Outlook OM SampleHiding toolbar buttons
Set g_App window.external.OutlookApplication Set
g_TheExplorer g_App.ActiveExplorer Set
g_CommandBars g_TheExplorer.CommandBars Call
displayCommandButton(0,1017) 'hide back button
Call displayCommandButton(0,1018) 'hide forward
button sub displayCommandButton(bool,ID) on
error resume next dim myItem, MyBool if
bool 1 then MyBool True else MyBool
false end if Set myItem g_CommandBars.FindCon
trol(1,ID) myItem.visible MyBool Err.Clear end
sub
19
The Outlook View Control
20
Outlook View Control

• Displays any Outlook View
• ActiveX wrapper around Outlook Views
• Displays contents of Outlook folder
• Selectable view
• Folder contents Create, open, print, delete
• Address book, contacts
• Can be hosted in
• Outlook Web View
• Outlook Form
• Internet Explorer

21
Outlook View Control

• Requires Outlook 2000 installation
• Ships on the web and with Team Productivity
  Update
• www.microsoft.com/exchange
• officeupdate.microsoft.com/outlook
• Within Internet Explorer
• Exposes light, safe OM
• Within Outlook
• Exposes entire Outlook Object Model

22
Outlook View Control Setting properties
ltspan id"spanMessages2" onclick"HighPriorityMess
ages.view'Messages'" id"Btn2"gt Messages lt/span
gt ltBRgt ltspan id"spanMessages3"
onclick"HighPriorityMessages.view'By Follow-up
Flag'" id"Btn3"gt By Follow-up
Flag lt/spangt ltobject ID"HighPriorityMessages"
CLASSID"CLSID0006F063-0000-0000-C000-000000000
046" codebase"../outlctlx.CABver9,0,3024" gt
23
Server-Side Code

• Be careful and remember offline
  considerations/requirements
• ASP, CDO, Exchange Scripting Agents may not work
  well offline
• Leverage existing Windows DNA applications
• Integrate LOB applications
• Great ISV potential with BizTalk Server
  Commerce Server 4.0

24
Off-line Issues

• No single solution (
• Different types of data in different repositories
• Exchange private/public
• Internet
• Intranet
• File System
• SQL Server
• LOB Data Warehouse, DB2, SAP etc..
• Make it seamless to the user where this data is
  at, regardless if they are on-line or off-line.

25
Off-line Recommendations

• Use off-line mode when not on a high speed
  connection
• Use Quick Sync Groups
• Leverage the Outlook synchronization for
  Internet, Intranet and folder home pages
• Up to 3 levels
• Leverage Mobsync.exe (part of IE5)
• Can programmatically add folders to favorites
• (With a hack from Tom Rizzo, you can
  programmatically flag them for synchronization)

26
Dashboard Security

• Browser security disabled
• Enabled upon navigation to page
• Be careful of frames
• Link to folder homepages with lta
  hrefoutlookgt

27
Personalization

• Rely on Personalization Infrastructure
• Active Directory
• Use nuggets
• Customization
• Outlook Preferences
• window.external.Setpref(ValueName, ValueData)
• Cookies
• XML

28
Dashboard Deployment

• DLL
• Best Performance
• Distribute with SMS or Custom Office install
• Hard to update large deployments
• Best Bet is Web and Public Folder
• Public Folder favorites and IIS
• Easy to update
• Slightly slower
• Set Outlook Today value in registry

29
Moving to Exchange 2000

• Leverage built-in HTML capabilities
• Native support for Internet Protocols
• Streaming support
• XML-Based dashboards
• 5-305 Building Web Applications Using Exchange
  2000 Outlook Web Access Components Fri. 1030
  Rm 214E/215E - Alex Hopmann

30
Tips And Tricks

• 1. Investor Ticker
• 2. Using DHTML events
• 3. Outlook View Control and Frames
• 4. Hyperlinking to the Outlook Object Model
• 5. Logging errors in the Exchange Scripting Agent

31
Tip Number 1Investor Ticker
CPU Utilization
32
Tip Number 2Using DHTML events
ltspan id"spanMessages5" onclick"HighPriorityMes
sages.view'Unread Messages' changeMessagesTab(th
is)" id"FolderBtn5 class"btnFolder"gtUnreadlt/sp
angt ltscript language"javascript"gt function
changeMessagesTab(currentdiv) spanMessages2.sty
le.fontWeight"normal" spanMessages3.style.fontWe
ight"normal" spanMessages4.style.fontWeight"nor
mal" spanMessages5.style.fontWeight"normal" cur
rentdiv.style.fontWeight"bold" lt/scriptgt
33
Tip Number 3Outlook View Control and Frames
Sub Window_OnResize If document.body.offsetWidth
gt 15 Then oOVCObject.Width
(document.body.offsetWidth-15) End If If
document.body.offsetHeight gt 22 Then
oOVCObject.Height (document.body.offsetHeight-22
) End If End Sub Function Document_OnClick Win
dow_OnResize End Function
34
Tip Number 4Hyperlinking to the Outlook OM
ltA HREF OUTLOOK\\inboxgtInboxlt/Agt Set
oApplication window.external.OutlookApplication
Set oNS oApplication.GetNamespace("MAPI") Set
oCurrentFolder oApplication.activeExplorer.curre
ntfolder Sub IterateSubFolders() strLinkPrefix
"outlook\\Public Folders\All Public Folders\"
For i 1 to oCurrentFolder.Folders.Count
strLinkName strLinkPrefix Trim(oCurrentFolder.
Name) "\" Trim(oCurrentFolder.Folders(i).Name)
strOutputText strOutputText "ltA href'"
strLinkPrefix strLinkName "gt"
Trim(oCurrentFolder.Folders(i).Name)
"lt/AgtltBRgt" Next End Sub()
35
Tip Number 5Logging Errors in Exchange Scripting
Agent
Sub SendErrorMessage(strMessageBody) Set
fldrOutbox AMSession.Outbox strMessageBody
Error in Exchange Scripting Agent " vbCrLf
strMessageBody Set msgResponse
fldrOutbox.Messages.Add( strSubj,
strMessageBody ) msgResponse.Recipients.Add
"Error Logs" ', "", 1, msgTarget.Sender.ID msg
Response.Send End Sub
36
Applying Dashboards to Solve Customer Needs

• Common business problems
• Leveraging disparate data stores
• Information any where any time
• Intelligent Business Intelligence

37
Lessons Learned

• Keep It Simple
• Despite the technology, it has to be engaging
• Just as Microsoft has reinvented itself to be
  more Customer Focused, so too our software has to
  be more User Focused

38
More Information

• Web
• www.microsoft.com/technet/AppFarm
• www.slipstick.com
• MS Press
• Building Applications with Outlook 2000 Technical
  Reference Randy Byrne
• Programming Outlook and Exchange Thomas Rizzo
• mikemo_at_microsoft.com
• ddsk_at_microsoft.com

39
More Information

• Refer to the TechNet Web site at
  www.microsoft.com/technet/
• Microsoft Official Curriculum
• Course 1593 Building Collaborative Solutions
  Using Microsoft Outlook 2000
• Additional MEC 99 Sessions
• 7-306 A Digital Dashboard for Healtcare Chad
  Richards -214E/215E Fri. 115
• 7-306 A Digital Dashboard for Manufacturing
  Barry Knuttila - 214E/215E Fri. 300

40
(No Transcript)