Associating a Form Region with an Outlook Message Class

   Introduction

When you create a form region for Microsoft Office Outlook, you must identify the message class names of the Microsoft Office Outlook forms you want to extend. Outlook generates a message class to identify each form in its collection. To associate the form region with the message class, specify these names in the New Form Region wizard or apply attributes to the form region class.

   Identifying Message Class Names

Use a form region to extend any of eight standard forms. The following table lists these eight standard forms and their message class names.

You can also extend any custom form that you define in Outlook. Identify a custom form just as you identify a standard form, by using its message class name.

   Associating a Form Region with an Outlook Message Class Using

   the New Form Region Wizard

The final page of the New Form Region wizard lets you to select a standard message class or type the name of a custom message class.

The list of standard message classes is disabled if the form region is designed to replace the whole form or the default page of a form. You can only specify standard message class names for forms that add a new page to a form or append to the bottom of a form. For more information, see "How to: Add a Form Region to an Outlook Project". 

You can use the Which custom message classes will display this form region? text box to type the name of one or more custom message classes.

The name(s) that you type must comply with the following guidelines:

·         Use the fully qualified message class name (for example: "IPM.Note.Contoso").

·         Use semi-colons to separate multiple message class names.

·         Do not include standard Outlook message classes, such as "IPM.Note" or "IPM.Contact".

·         Do not specify the base message class by itself (for example: "IPM").

·         Do not exceed 256 characters for each message class name.

The New Outlook Form Region Wizard validates your input when you click Finish.  You will receive an error if the text violates one or more of these guidelines.

Note   The New Outlook Form Region Wizard only validates the format of your input. It does not verify that the message class names that you provide are located in Outlook. Therefore, make sure that the message class names that you specify in this text box match valid message class names in Outlook. If they do not match, the form region will not display.

When you complete the wizard, the New Outlook Form Region wizard applies attributes to the form region class that contain the specified message class names. You can also apply these attributes manually.

   Associating a Form Region with a Message Class Using Class 

   Attributes

You can associate a form region with an Outlook message class after you complete the New Form Region wizard. To do this, apply attributes to the form region class.

The following example applies two Microsoft.Office.Tools.Office.MessageClassAttribute attributes to a form region class named myFormRegion. The first attribute associates the form region with a standard message class.  The second attribute associates the form region with a custom message class named IPM.Task.Contoso.

[Visual Basic]

<Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.MessageClassAttribute(Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.MessageClassAttribute.Note)> _

<Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.MessageClassAttribute("IPM.Task.Contoso")> _

<Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.FormRegionNameAttribute("Trin_Outlook_FR_Attributes.myFormRegion")> _

Public Class myFormRegion

End Class

[C#]

[Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.MessageClassAttribute(Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.MessageClassAttribute.Note)]

[Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.MessageClassAttribute("IPM.Task.Contoso")]

[Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.FormRegionNameAttribute("Trin_Outlook_FR_Attributes.myFormRegion")]

partial class myFormRegion : Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.FormRegionControl

{

     public myFormRegion()

     {

          InitializeComponent();

     }

 }

Attributes must comply with the following guidelines:

·         For custom message classes, use the fully qualified message class name (for example: "IPM.Note.Contoso").

·         Do not specify the base message class by itself (for example: "IPM").

·         Do not exceed 256 characters for each message class name.

·         Do not include the names of standard message classes if the form region replaces the whole form or the default page of a form. You can only specify standard message class names for forms that add a new page to a form or append to the bottom of a form. For more information, see "How to: Add a Form Region to an Outlook Project".

If attributes violate one or more of these guidelines, you will receive an error when you build the project.

Note   Visual Studio Tools for Office Code Name "Orcas" only validates the format of your input. Visual Studio Tools for Office Code Name "Orcas" does not verify that the message class names that you provide are located in Outlook. Therefore, make sure that the message class names that you specify in this text box match valid message class names in Outlook. If they do not match, the form region will not display.