In a nutshell, users can configure from simple method calls, an Outlook-style activity sheet with buttons whose action is to swap Servoy forms into a single view.
There is still a need to augment the plugin api to remove activity sheets and buttons as well as the ability to add components other than Servoy forms to the views. That will come in a 2nd release in about 1 week’s time.
I hope some folk find it useful:)
This new software is bundled with the media-manager series of plugins and beans.
Unpack the zip file to ${servoy.home} and read the licence and release notes in ${servoy.home}/cybersack-doc/
plugins.Outlook.addActivityPanel(
“Customer View”, //the Activity pane name
true); //should we clobber any existing pane with that name ?
plugins.Outlook.addActivityPanelButton(
“Customer View”, //which Activity pane to place the button into
“Blue Form”, //the name of the button
true, //should we clobber any existing button with that name ?
“http://www.cybersack.com/resources/tasks-email.png”, //an image resource for the button
“_BlueForm”); //the name os the Servoy form to plce into the holder when the button is clicked
I have another idea for your next plugin project : Instead of “rebuilding” outlook could you imagine to exchange/synch data with Outlook (or better: exchange server)? One typical shortcoming when selling our solution is the so-called “office integration”, which mainly refers to exchange server integration…
patrick:
I have another idea for your next plugin project : Instead of “rebuilding” outlook could you imagine to exchange/synch data with Outlook (or better: exchange server)?
This bean/plugin is not intended to emulate, replace or integrate with MS Exchange/Outlook software.
It is simply a method-configurable activity pane to swap forms (and soon other components) in a style similar to that displayed by a number of applications, including Outlook
Having said that, anyone writing such integration components is welcome to use the plugin for their presentation layer navigator
This bean/plugin is not intended to emulate, replace or integrate with MS Exchange/Outlook software.
I noticed that. I just have the impression that Outlook integration is an important area in corporate environments and you seem to be a very capable plugin developer. So I thought I drop an idea…
Thanks for the nice words
It seems that component developers on this list should communicate on a one-to-one basis more often
The idea is a very good one.
If the Outlook-integration proposals cited here have not come to fruition by Servoy World time, I’ll do it myself - thanks for the idea !
I have been looking at the merits of this.
I would be inclined to not reproduce exisiting functionality provided by the world’s most effective marketing vendor
Whilst the idea of ‘having Outlook in your solution’ may initially be ‘cool’, it is actually making a rod for your own back if you start to reproduce Outlook functionality! Why ?
The Microsoft product will always
*be more robust
*be more up-to-date
*be less buggy
*be more feature-rich
*be better
*be cheaper (maybe !)
*have support
So…I think that integration of an Outlook client should be written as a desktop-integration via the opeating system. That means just delegation and listening.
Such could be achieved with a plugin (if you know the Windows and OS X calls to Outlook via the various developer interfaces exposed on those platforms).
Thanks for your thoughts. Not sure if I should read this as feedback to my project or just general thoughts but in case it is the first I must say that the plugin I am building (and showing the next days) is not at all about building Outlook in a Servoy solution.
It is about creating an environment in which the user/developer decides how to send mail, work with agenda functionality etc.
There are solutions that require such stuff. At least mine does. 9 out of 10 the customer works with MS Windows and MS Office. Like you say we should not try to do what MS does at its best but in the case of IT2Print (our MIS for the graphic arts industry) some email tasks, schedule stuff etc. can only be best handled through our solution. But, the client also works with Outlook.
So, we have a sync issue. The client needs to update 2 applications to control his 9-5 life. Once they get used to it not too much of a problem but surely a subject to be dealt with during sales .
And now the Office plugin comes in place. We, the developers, have an extra option. Sync the solution with MS Outlook. This can be both ways but most likely from the solution to Outlook. No more jumping between applications to search for that sent mail or reminders set in one of both applications. No everything is where the user used to look before they used one of our solutions… I don’t like to advertise MS stuff but this is just daily practice.
Exactly what I need, too. Many customers enjoy for whatever reason the “beauty” of Outlook. On the other side, they like to have a contact history for a customer in our CRM. Here we have that sort of synch issue. The reasons for such a plugin in my eyes are:
enjoy Outlook functionality like Drag & Drop, graphical management of appointments (just drag to make an appointment longer) and so forth
have the ability to track appointments in the CRM although you work with Outlook
possibility to easily synch with a PDA using CRM data that has been synched with Outlook
I don’t like to advertise MS stuff but this is just daily practice
But I also have an idea for SalernoJ. Since you already started to create sort of a Microsoft navigation component, how about something like the screenshot. As far as I know there is already an Open Source project busy making these components available in Java, but those are not immediately usable inside Servoy.
Just to follow up on the “UI” side (as suggested here by patrick and by marcel), I have already completed an integration of these components as plugin/bean combos for Servoy.
A few developers were ‘tinkering’ but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.
I have done this and there are 2 plugins:
OutlookForms (the one which started this thread)
OutlookMethods (a UI using the one shown by patrick) to fire methods from the bean component which has been placed onto the form.
Swapping Servoy forms and firing Servoy methods seemed the most logical application for these UI components.
They are both tested and deployed.
I am just waiting on a Servoy fix (a regression actually) before I release them. Johan has told me that the fix will appear after Servoy World.
