Tài liệu Module 8: Creating a Digital Dashboard ppt

Contents Overview 1 Creating a Digital Dashboard 2 Using the Outlook View Control 23 Lab A: Building a Digital Dashboard 54 Lab B: Adding a Folder Home Page Review 64 Module 8: Cre

Contents

Overview 1

Creating a Digital Dashboard 2

Using the Outlook View Control 23

Lab A: Building a Digital Dashboard 54

Lab B: Adding a Folder Home Page

Review 64

Module 8: Creating a Digital Dashboard

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Instructor Notes Module 8: Creating a Digital Dashboard

This module provides students with the ability to create a digital dashboard by using features of Microsoft® Outlook® 2000 The module enables students to associate folder home pages with Outlook 2000 folders, incorporate the Outlook view control on Web pages, and customize the default Outlook Today Web page to add functionality and information relevant to their application By using these skills along with other skills specific to digital dashboards, students will be able to create digital dashboards that present targeted, dynamic

information to users

Materials and Preparation

This section provides you with the materials and preparation needed to teach this module

Materials

To teach this module, you need the following materials:

Microsoft PowerPoint® file 1593a_08.ppt

Module 8, “Creating a Digital Dashboard”

Preparation

To prepare for this module, you should:

Read all the materials for this module

Read the instructor notes and margin notes for the module

Complete the labs

Presentation:

60 Minutes

Labs:

75 Minutes

Module Strategy

Use the following strategy to present this module:

Creating a Digital Dashboard Provide an introduction to digital dashboards, including definitions of

knowledge worker and information sections Describe the capabilities of

digital dashboards Explain how to integrate Web content and connect to business data within a digital dashboard Explain how to personalize and customize a digital dashboard Explain how to enable a digital dashboard for offline use Explain how to deploy a digital dashboard

Creating Folder Home Pages Explain how to associate a folder home page with a folder and provide information about setting security for folder home pages Describe strategies for using the Outlook view control within a folder home page Explain how

to access the Outlook object model and access Outlook 2000 folders from within a folder home page

Using the Outlook View Control Introduce the Outlook view control and describe how this Microsoft ActiveX® control can be used to mimic Outlook view functionality in a Web page Demonstrate how to add the control in the Web page and then show some of the properties and methods of the Outlook view control that students can use to integrate the control into their solutions Explain how to use the Outlook view control within a folder home page

Customizing Outlook Today Provide an overview of Outlook Today Explain the ways in which the Outlook Today Web page can be modified Describe how to choose which method to use for distributing a custom Outlook Today page Explain how

to customize the Outlook Today htm and dll files Describe the performance limitations of Outlook Today and explain how to overcome browser issues within Outlook Today

Overview

Creating a Digital Dashboard

Creating Folder Home Pages

Using the Outlook View Control

Customizing Outlook Today

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

Deploy a digital dashboard to users

Use scripting, the Microsoft® Outlook® object model, and the Outlook view control on a custom a folder home page

Use the Outlook view control to add Outlook 2000 view functionality to your application

Deploy a customized Outlook Today page to users

In this module, you will learn

about creating folder home

pages, using the Outlook

view control, customizing

Outlook Today, and creating

a digital dashboard

Creating a Digital Dashboard

Introduction to Digital Dashboards

Capabilities of Digital Dashboards

Integrating Web Content

Connecting to Business Data

Personalization and Customization

Enabling Offline Use

Deploying a Digital Dashboard

You can take advantage of the development features of Outlook 2000—especially folder home pages, the Outlook view control, and Outlook Today—

to create a digital dashboard A digital dashboard is a Web page or a series of

Web pages, running inside Outlook 2000, that consolidate personal, team, corporate, and external information A digital dashboard can be as simple as a single Web page that displays a user’s daily calendar and favorite links or a full-featured knowledge-management solution that joins information from enterprise and external sources

By using the technologies and programming techniques discussed in this module, you can create a digital dashboard based on Outlook Today Digital dashboards utilize Outlook Today to access critical business information, and take advantage of the analysis tools, collaboration capabilities, and Internet and messaging standards support in Microsoft Office 2000

Slide Objective

To outline this topic

Lead-in

You can create a digital

dashboard by using skills

you learned that relate to

folder home pages, the

Outlook view control, and

the Outlook Today Web

page

Introduction to Digital Dashboards

DigitalDesktop – Microsoft Outlook

File Edit View Favorites Tools Actions Help

New Reply Reply to All Forward Send/Receive DigitalDesktop – Digital Dashboard Folder List

DigitalDesktop Outlook Today – [Mailbox Calendar Contacts Deleted Items Drafts Forums

Inbox(7)

Journal Notes Outbox Sent Items Tasks URLs Personal Folders Public Folders Sam

custom update 81 – 60.15 S&P 500 1347.35 -9.59 NASDAQ 2626.49 –65.91 MSFT 88.44 –1.81 LU 63.81 –3.31

House boxes in Senate on tax cuts Woodstock ’99 ends on a sour note Reform Party veers away from Perot

Seattle US Satellite Europe Pacific S.America

Corporate Reporting

Chart Pivot Map Data…

Tools Platforms Desktop Hardware Entertainment Desktop Applications

Sum of Actual Sum of Plan

The purpose of a digital dashboard is to enable knowledge workers to better

focus on their key business priorities and make more informed decisions Knowledge workers are employees whose fundamental task is analyzing and manipulating information

In its simplest form, a digital dashboard is nothing more than a very dynamic Web page that is running within Outlook 2000 Normally, a digital dashboard is

a customized Outlook Today page There are a number of decisions that need to

be made, however, about what information to include on the page, how users will interact with the information offline, and what level of customization will

be available to users

It is highly recommended that development begin with a single Web page hosting a limited amount of information before more detailed solution is undertaken

Introducing the Information Section

The term information section is used to describe the filtered, robust, and

dynamic information that is displayed in a digital dashboard The technical way

in which that information is rendered can be a Microsoft ActiveX® control, an Active Server Page (ASP), or an Extensible Markup Language (XML) data feed The important element of an information section is that it presents information in a concise fashion, focusing on what the user needs, and that it be dynamic, so that the user can access information in greater detail (drill down) These information sections can come from a wide variety of sources — personal information from Outlook 2000 or sales data from a Microsoft SQL Server™

version 7.0 data warehouse

Capabilities of Digital Dashboards

Access to Any Information Source

Integration of Information

Interactivity with Information

Digital dashboards offer the following capabilities

Access to Any Information Source

Digital dashboard solutions build on an organization’s existing business systems by pulling multiple data sources together in one place Information from virtually any source—former systems, Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, SQL Server 7.0, or Web servers—can be made accessible through a digital dashboard for online and offline use

Integration of Information

A digital dashboard integrates personal, team, corporate, and external information, enables learning between knowledge workers and collaboration among teams, filters corporate information, and provides a dynamic repository

of external information

Interactivity with Information

A digital dashboard provides interactive capabilities that enable knowledge workers to quickly obtain a more in-depth perspective of business conditions High-level sales and competitive data can be further analyzed in relevant business reports and applications, allowing knowledge workers to interact directly with the data using Office PivotTable® Web components or Microsoft Excel with SQL Server integration A digital dashboard can also incorporate tools such as Microsoft NetMeeting® conferencing software, which allows people to share applications and collaborate over the intranet or Internet, and Microsoft Windows Media™ player

Slide Objective

To list the capabilities of

digital dashboards

Lead-in

Digital dashboards offer

access to any information

source, integration of

information, and interactivity

with information

Integrating Web Content

Integrating ActiveX Controls

Integrating Dynamic Web Pages

within a frame or Iframe

Integrating Dynamic Web Content

Integrating ActiveX Controls

There are a number of freely available ActiveX controls that you can incorporate into a digital dashboard For example, you can incorporate the MSN™ Investor Ticker Control, for which the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code is quite simple

<object classid="clsid:D3E12F51-0795-11d2-91CC-00C04FA31C90"

codebase="http://fdl.msn.com/public/investor/v6//ticker.cab#version=6,1998,1031,3" height="34" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 8px" type="application/x-oleobject" width="100%">

</object>

Integrating Dynamic Web Pages

The only way to include dynamically generated Web pages, such as ASPs, is in

a frame or Iframe Iframes are generally very useful tools for quickly integrating Web content into digital dashboards Be aware, however, that each Iframe creates a new instance of the base Microsoft Internet Explorer engine, referred to as the Trident engine While a few Iframes are not a significant issue, it is not a good idea to base your entire page on Iframes

Slide Objective

To list the types of Web

content you can integrate

within a digital dashboard

Lead-in

You can integrate Web

content into your digital

dashboard by using ActiveX

controls, dynamic Web

pages, and dynamic Web

content

Note

Integrating Dynamic Web Content

A common technique used in building digital dashboards is the including bandwidth dynamic content Many Web sites produce content that is updated on

low-a regullow-ar blow-asis, but the content low-alwlow-ays resides low-at the slow-ame Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Traffic cameras are a good example of this Even though the picture updates roughly every five minutes, it is always located at the same URL (such as http://TraffCam.gov/camera10.gif)

Connecting to Business Data

Using Office Web Components

Creating Dynamic Data Connections

Creating an Information Section with Corporate Data

Office 2000 and SQL Server 7.0 provide powerful and easy-to-use capabilities for connecting people to business information such as sales data It is easy to include these capabilities in a digital dashboard Microsoft Excel is often the best tool to use for creating information sections based on business data

One of the best resources for learning how to connect to business information is the “Building Knowledge Management Solutions Using Microsoft BackOffice® With Microsoft Office 2000: An Evaluation Guide” white paper, located on the Student Materials compact disc of course 1593,

Building Collaborative Solutions Using Microsoft Outlook 2000 This guide

walks through the process step-by-step with an example database

Using Office Web Components

The new Office Web Components are a collection of COM controls for publishing spreadsheets, charts, and databases to the Web, taking advantage of Internet Explorer version 4.01 and later Office Web Components are fully programmable, thereby enabling you to build, interactive Web-based solutions There are four main Web components included with Office 2000

DataSource Control The DataSource Control is the workhorse of the Office

Web Components It is never actually displayed on the Web page, but it provides the connection to data sources that provide information to all the other controls When looking at the code generated by Excel and other tools, you will always see this control present if you have connected to a database

or Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube

Spreadsheet Component The Spreadsheet Component provides interactivity

much like a spreadsheet This component is extremely useful for performing complex calculations as it supports most of the formulas that the full version

You can use the tools of

Office 2000 and SQL Server

7.0 to incorporate dynamic

business data on a digital

dashboard

Note

PivotTable Component The PivotTable Component is most useful for its

ability to connect to OLAP data sources (such as Microsoft OLAP Services) and provide knowledge workers with the ability to do very dynamic data modeling within the digital dashboard

Chart Component The Chart Component allows users to visualize data

quickly by presenting information in charts that can be bound to a variety of data sources This component is extremely useful in digital dashboard solutions for delivering very concise alerts and warnings

Creating Dynamic Data Connections

The combination of Office 2000 and SQL Server 7.0 allows knowledge workers

to connect directly to business data and do any number of sophisticated analyses The technology that enables this sophisticated and flexible analysis is called Microsoft Online Analytical Processing (MSOLAP) The MSOLAP features included in SQL Server and Excel allow knowledge workers to use familiar tools to do sophisticated analyses of corporate data

For more information on MSOLAP, see the “Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 OLAP Services” white paper on the Student Materials compact disc of this course

Creating an Information Section with Corporate Data

Web components can be inserted into Web pages by using virtually any of Microsoft’s tools, including Microsoft Access and the Visual InterDev® Web development system When connecting to enterprise data in SQL Server databases, however, Microsoft Excel is probably the easiest tool to use The PivotTable and PivotChart™ Wizard allows you to quickly connect to a data source, and once you have the page looking just as you would like, you can save it as an interactive Web page that is still connected to the original datasource

Once you have such a Web page, creating a nugget on your dashboard is as simple as copying and pasting the HTML into your dashboard page

Note

Personalization and Customization

Types of Customization

Active Directory and Personalization

Using Outlook to Store Preferences

Personalization and customization are highly complex issues Because digital dashboards are Web pages that can be distributed from a central Web server, they can take advantage of enterprise-wide personalization engines, such as Microsoft Site Server version 3.0, that are capable of providing tailored experiences to end users

Types of Customization

There are a number of different levels at which customization should be considered in digital dashboards While a user could create a personal digital dashboard, most digital dashboards are built and distributed by an information-technology (IT) group The following are levels of customization that can be considered in a digital dashboard

Which information sections are available After analyzing users’ needs, the

group that creates the digital dashboard can produce a base digital dashboard with a set of information sections from which users can choose Some information sections may always be present because they provide strategically critical information

Which information sections are displayed Because digital dashboards are

built with components, it is possible to allow section-by-section control of what appears on the digital dashboard, based on either user preference or role:

• By user Individual users will want some control over which information

sections are displayed on their digital dashboard

• By role Certain information sections will be needed most likely only by

certain groups Tailoring the information on a digital dashboard can be done at role level in a centralized manner

A digital dashboard can

deliver information tailored

to the needs or roles of

individual users

What is shown inside each information section The most important, and

difficult, customization will take place inside the information sections themselves It is best to have this level of customization maintained within the information resource itself Because a digital dashboard is compliant with Windows Distributed interNet Architecture (DNA), it will honor personalization based on Microsoft Windows NT® security, and even cookies

Active Directory and Personalization

The Microsoft Windows® Active Directory™ is Microsoft’s strategic directory store, and provides a wealth of excellent information about users, their location, and their organization groups This is the preferred place to store and retrieve information for delivering personalized information to users For example, a user’s postal code will be available within their Active Directory profile and this can be used to identify which weather map to display in a weather map information section

This becomes even more useful in personalizing the digital dashboard based on

a user’s role in an organization For example, a user’s department name can be passed in a query to a SQL Server database to provide a more focused view of information

Using Outlook to Store Preferences

Outlook 2000 stores preferences in a distinct area of the registry Because this is accessible programmatically through the Outlook object model, you can use this space to store preferences and other information Outlook 2000 already uses the area to store information about the Outlook Today databinding control (such as how many days to display in the calendar)

Writing Preferences to the Registry

These preferences can be written to the registry by using the following Outlook 2000 method

window.external.Setpref( <strStringValueName>, <strStringValueData> )

Using Cookies to Store Local User Preferences

Because digital dashboards are Web pages, you should also consider using cookies to store local user preferences

Enabling Offline Use

Integration Enables Offline Capabilities

Taking Internet and Intranet Content Offline

Taking Business Data Offline

Programmatically Taking Outlook Offline

One of the most important reasons that Outlook 2000 is used as the basis for digital dashboards is that it can serve as the engine for taking a large variety of information offline This capability enables knowledge workers to access a digital dashboard in the same way whether they are at their desk or using a portable computer while traveling This section briefly discusses how different types of information within the digital dashboard can be taken offline You can create robust offline applications by combining all these techniques

Integration Enables Offline Capabilities

Because of the native integration between Outlook 2000 and Exchange Server,

it is easy to set up collaborative applications to be taken offline

Taking Collaborative Applications Offline

To take a collaborative application offline:

1 In Outlook 2000, select the public folder you would like to have made available offline

2 On the File menu, point to Folder, and then click Add to Public Folder

Favorites

The Add to Favorites dialog box appears

3 In the Favorite folder name box, enter the name as you want it to appear

on your list of favorite public folders

4 Click Add

Slide Objective

To outline the topics

associated with enabling a

digital dashboard for offline

use

Lead-in

Robust offline applications

can be created by using

these techniques

5 On the Tools menu, point to Synchronize, and then click Offline Folder

Settings

6 In the Offline Folder Settings box, expand Public Folders and Favorites,

and then click the check box next to the folder you added to Favorites

7 Click OK

You can also select the Synchronize folder home pages option in this

dialog box, which ensures that any Web pages associated with collaborative applications are also taken offline

Taking Internet and Intranet Content Offline

Integration between Outlook 2000 and the Internet Explorer Synchronization Agent enables folder home pages to be taken offline Once Outlook 2000 is finished synchronizing Exchange Server content, it starts the Internet Explorer Synchronization Agent

If there are problems with your network connection, the Web page synchronization process may stop because of the time delay In that case, some pages may not be synchronized If that happens, you are notified by a small icon on the taskbar

This feature is extremely powerful if used with care Because all the Web pages are stored in the same cache, they will be available from within both Internet Explorer and Outlook 2000 Not only can a Web page be taken offline by using this system, but also the Internet Explorer Synchronization Agent ensures that lower-level, supporting content is also taken offline By setting up folder home pages correctly, a variety of interesting offline applications can be built that merge Internet, database, and collaborative information

Taking the Outlook Today Page Offline

If your Outlook Today page is stored on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server you can you can take it offline by using a programming technique Simply create a public folder that is available offline and assign your digital dashboard as the home page of that folder When you go offline, Outlook Today will look to the offline cache for the page it needs It will not matter that the page was actually taken offline for a different folder

Taking Business Data Offline

Business data is the most difficult type of content to take offline because of the volume of content that is generally stored in these systems, as well as user expectations that they will have a seamless experience while using a portable computer

The easiest way to take business data offline is by using cube slices Cube slices

are MSOLAP cubes that can be saved to the file system, a file share, or a Web server They are created by using Excel and can be viewed by using the Office Web Components These cubes provide the same ability to view detailed data that underlies summary data that a user might have when online However, users do not have to be connected to a database when using cube slices

Note

Creating Offline Cube Slices

To create an offline cube slice:

1 Create a PivotTable based on an OLAP Services database

2 In the PivotTable toolbox, on the PivotTable menu, click Client Server

Settings

The Client-Server Settings dialog box appears

3 Click Create local data file

A wizard starts, enabling you to choose how much of the data you want to take offline

Developing Complex Offline Scenarios by Using MSDE

More complex offline scenarios can be developed by using the Microsoft Database Engine (MSDE) MSDE is a new data engine for Microsoft that is completely compatible with the SQL Server 7.0 code base and runs on Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows NT Workstation

Office PivotTable Component

The Office PivotTable component can take its data offline with some programmatic help The following code will force the table to look to offline data, usually stored in an XML file

PivotTable1.ConnectionString = "provider=MSPersist"

Programmatically Taking Outlook 2000 Offline

Offline synchronization of Outlook 2000 can be started programmatically by

using the SynchObjects collection This collection is a programmatic reference

to all of the synchronization profiles that a user has set up on a computer If an organization has a standard set of synchronization profiles that are used for varying connections, you may consider including an easy-to-find

synchronization button available on the digital dashboard

Deploying a Digital Dashboard

Distributing from a Web Server

dashboard

Distributing Local and Remote dll Files

Wizard

Because a distribution method can affect design decisions, you should decide how you will distribute your digital dashboard before you begin design work The distribution method you choose determines how you customize the page There are two ways to distribute digital dashboards to users

Web server (http:// protocol)

Local or network dynamic-link library (.dll) file (using the res:// protocol) Distributing from a Web Server

Because a digital dashboard is based on HTML code, you can publish it as an htm file or as an ASP file on a personal or corporate Web server Using a Web server makes your digital dashboard easy to distribute and update You publish the page on the corporate intranet, and set a single registry value on users’ computers to point Outlook Today to your new URL To update the page, you publish it again

In addition, building the digital dashboard as a set of ASP pages allow the page designer to give users more flexibility to customize their Outlook Today pages without using client-side scripting (Too much client-side scripting can slow Outlook Today start-up performance.)

Slide Objective

To list the distribution

choices and methods for

digital dashboards

Lead-in

You can distribute a digital

dashboard from a Web

server or as a dll file

Using a reg File to Point Users to a Shared Digital Dashboard

If you are distributing your digital dashboard through a Web page, you can simply point users to that page by providing them with a reg file The reg file

is simply a text file that contains code similar to the following sample

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Webview\mailbox]

"url"="http://digidash/home.htm"

"navigation"="yes"

You can place the reg file on a Web server and link to it from an HTML page

Distributing Local and Remote dll Files

You can save your customized Outlook Today page in a dll file and use it to replace the default Outlook Today dll file on users’ computers or place it on a server Saving your Outlook Today page in a dll allows Outlook 2000 to take advantage of quicker load times This method makes distributing and updating your customized Outlook Today page more complicated, however In the instance of a local dll file, the modified dll file (and any subsequent updates) must be copied to each user’s computer To modify the dll file, you must use the Microsoft Visual Studio® development system

When using a dll file there are two ways you might consider distributing the file to users

Using the Microsoft Office 2000 Custom Installation Wizard

The Microsoft Office 2000 Custom Installation Wizard enables you to add your own files and registry entries to the standard Office setup, making it easy to include digital dashboard applications and custom Outlook Today pages as you deploy Office 2000 throughout your organization

For more information about using the Office Custom Installation Wizard, please see the Office Resource Kit

Using Microsoft Systems Management Server

Another option for automated deployment of digital dashboards is Microsoft Systems Management Server Systems Management Server version 2.0 provides centralized software distribution tools that reduce the need for the administrator to visit the desktop and the likelihood of human error

Note

Creating Folder Home Pages

Associating Folder Home Pages with Folders

Setting Security for Folder Home Pages

Accessing the Outlook Object Model from Within a Folder Home Page

Accessing Outlook 2000 Folders

Folder home pages are a new feature of Microsoft Outlook 2000 Folder home pages enable you to link an HTML page to any folder in the Outlook 2000 environment

Folder home pages support offline viewing capabilities, so Outlook 2000 can synchronize an HTML page associated with a folder offline when a user synchronizes the folder This ensures that the folder home page is available whether the user is working offline or online

enables you to associate a

Web page with any folder in

the Outlook 2000

environment

Associating Folder Home Pages with Folders

For example, an administrator can create a folder home page for the Calendar folders of a set of users When users view their calendars, a specific Web page appears within Outlook 2000 Administrators can then easily communicate calendar-specific information, such as vacation schedules or holiday hours, to every employee in the organization

Associating a Home Page with an Outlook 2000 Folder

The process of associating a folder home page with an Outlook 2000 folder is straightforward You add a folder home page to a particular folder by using the

Properties dialog box for that folder

To add a folder home page in Outlook 2000:

1 In the Outlook Folder pane, right-click the folder to which you want to add a

folder home page, and then click Properties

The Properties dialog box appears

2 Click the Home Page tab

3 In the Address box, enter the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the Web

page you want to associate with the folder

4 If you want the home page to appear by default when a user clicks the folder

within Outlook 2000, click the Show home page by default for this folder

check box

Slide Objective

To present the Home Page

tab of the Properties dialog

box for a sample inbox

folder

Lead-in

In Outlook 2000, you use

the Home Page tab of the

Properties dialog box to

associate a folder home

page with a folder

Specifying or Disabling Folder Home Pages for Users

You can set a system policy that either specifies or disables folder home pages

for your users You can set folder home page options in the Folder Home

Pages for Outlook special folders category of the System Policy Editor

Outlook 2000 requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and later for HTML rendering, security, and offline-caching services to ensure the safety of displaying HTML and active content in folder home pages

Note

Setting Security for Folder Home Pages

Using Zone Security and Enabling Scripts to Access the Outlook Object Model

Using Zone Security Only

same security settings as other ActiveX controls

There are two security modes available for folder home pages Each folder home page uses either zone security that allows script access to the Outlook object model, or zone security by itself

If you are using Outlook 2000 as a browser, it is important to remember that browser security is disabled by default

Using Zone Security and Enabling Scripts to Access the Outlook Object Model

This security mode, which is the default mode for Outlook 2000, enables scripts

on a Web page to access the Outlook object model and ensures that the Outlook Today Microsoft ActiveX control runs continuously For all other aspects of the Web page, the appropriate Internet Explorer zone security settings are used For example, if the Internet Explorer zone security settings specify that ActiveX controls are not enabled, no ActiveX controls run for a folder home page except the Outlook Today ActiveX control

It is important to note that while the folder home page has access to the Outlook object model, and therefore has robust browser security, other pages to which users link to from the folder home page do not have access to the Outlook object model or robust security For this reason, if you need strong security on pages other than the folder home page, use Dynamic HTML (DHTML) or open the new Web page in an Internet Explorer browser window outside of

Outlook 2000

Access to the Outlook object model enables scripts to manipulate the user’s Outlook 2000 information on the computer The security concern with this mode is that it allows anyone who creates a public folder for a home page to include scripts that can manipulate data in user mailboxes Although it provides the opportunity to create powerful public folder applications, access to the Outlook object model also exposes users to some security risks

Slide Objective

To list the two security

modes available for folder

home pages

Lead-in

Both of the available

security modes for folder

home pages take advantage

of zone security provided by

Internet Explorer

Note

Using Zone Security Only

This security mode is activated directly through the Microsoft Windows registry or indirectly through a system policy In this mode, scripts on the Web page do not have access to the Outlook object model, and the Outlook Today ActiveX control is subject to the same Internet Explorer zone security settings

as all other ActiveX controls

For example, if the Internet Explorer zone security settings specify that ActiveX controls are not allowed to run, the Outlook Today ActiveX control does not run on the computer In this case, a user would not be able to view the Outlook Today page

You can increase security by using a system policy to disable folder home

pages for all of your users Within the System Policy Editor, in the Microsoft

Outlook 2000\Miscellaneous\Folder Home Pages for Outlook special folders category, select the Disable Folder Home Pages policy and then select Disable Folder Home Pages for all folders in the Settings for Disable Folder Home Pages area

Tip

Accessing the Outlook Object Model from Within a Folder Home Page

To Access the Outlook Object Model from Within a Folder Home Page

Any application that supports Component Object Model (COM) objects and a scripting language can use the Outlook object model to handle e-mail

Typically, these applications are Outlook 2000, other Microsoft Office applications, and custom software developed with languages such as Microsoft Visual Basic® or Microsoft Visual C++® By using the Outlook object model, a script can send e-mail, post to public folders, scan the address lists, and so forth

Accessing the Outlook Object Model

To access the Outlook object model from within a folder home page:

1 Retrieve the Outlook 2000 Application object by using this syntax:

Window.External.OutlookApplication

2 Retrieve any other Outlook 2000 objects you want to use

For example, by calling the ActiveExplorer method on the returned

Application object, you can retrieve the Explorer object that is hosting the

folder home page

The following VBScript code sample demonstrates how to access the object model

Set oApplication = window.external.OutlookApplication

Set oNS = oApplication.GetNameSpace("MAPI")

Set oCurrentUser = oNS.CurrentUser

Set oMovesFolder = oNS.Folders("Public Folders").Folders("All Public" & _ "Folders").Folders("BusinessFunctions").Folders("MoveApp").Folders("Employee" _ & "Moves")

Slide Objective

To list the steps involved in

accessing the Outlook

object model from a folder

home page

Lead-in

To access the Outlook

object model from a folder

home page, you start with

the Outlook 2000

Application object

Accessing Outlook 2000 Folders

Code Used to Retrieve the Folder Named My Folder

/My Folder/>My Folder</A>

You can add links to folder home pages that give users quick access to Outlook 2000 folders and Exchange Server public folders To do so, use the

Outlook:// syntax within a standard HTML <A HREF> tag

For example, if you want to include a link to a folder named My Folder, located

at //Public Folders/All Public Folders/My Folder, you could use the following HTML

<A HREF=Outlook://Public Folders/All Public Folders/My Folder/>My Folder</A>

Slide Objective

To show the HTML code

you can use to access an

Using the Outlook View Control

Adding an Outlook View Control to a Web Page

Using Outlook View Control Methods and Properties

Using the Outlook View Control Within a Folder Home Page

The Outlook view control is a Microsoft ActiveX control that encapsulates the functionality of Outlook 2000 views The control can display Table,

Day/Week/Month, Card, and Timeline views Because it is an ActiveX control, you can use the Outlook view control in Visual Basic forms, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications forms, Web applications, and folder home pages You can programmatically change the properties of the Outlook view control, which enables you to mimic Outlook 2000 functionality within your applications You can place more than one control on a single Web page in your application For example, you can show a side-by-side view of two calendars, or a contacts list and all tasks associated with the currently selected contact When multiple View controls are on a single page, their menus are merged based on the control that has focus

Slide Objective

To outline this topic

Lead-in

The Outlook view control

enables you to add view

functionality to Web pages

and other applications

Adding an Outlook View Control to a Web Page

Use the Object Tag to Add the Outlook View Control to a Web Page

<object ID="oViewControl" WIDTH="504" HEIGHT="240" CLASSID="clsid:0006F063-0000-0000-C000-000000000046" >

<param NAME ="View" Value="My Custom View">

<param NAME ="Folder" value="\\Public Folders\

All Public Folders\My Public Folder">

<param NAME ="Namespace" value="MAPI">

<param NAME ="Restriction"

<param NAME ="View" Value="My Custom View">

<param NAME ="Folder" value="\\Public Folders\

All Public Folders\My Public Folder">

<param NAME ="Namespace" value="MAPI">

<param NAME ="Restriction"

value="[Subject] = 'Outlook'">

<param NAME ="DeferUpdate" value="0">

</object>

To add an Outlook view control to a Web page, add the Object tag to the page

In the Object tag, specify an ID parameter, to which you can later refer in your

application Once the Outlook view control has been placed onto the HTML page, it does not require additional code to work The following example shows the HTML tag that implements the Outlook view control in a Web page

<object ID="oViewControl" WIDTH="504" HEIGHT="240"

CLASSID="clsid:0006F063-0000-0000-C000-000000000046" >

<param NAME ="View" Value="My Custom View">

<param NAME ="Folder" value="\\Public Folders\All Public Folders\My Public Folder">

<param NAME ="Namespace" value="MAPI">

<param NAME ="Restriction" value="[Subject] = 'Outlook'"> <param NAME ="DeferUpdate" value="0">

</object>

In this example, the following parameter tags are used:

View The View parameter is set to My Custom View This is a custom

view that will be the default view displayed in the control when it appears

Folder The value of this parameter is set to \\Public Folders\All Public

Folders\My Public Folder This causes the Outlook view control to display

the contents of the folder named My Public Folder

Namespace The value of this parameter is set to MAPI This parameter is

used to access existing Outlook 2000 items, default folders, and data sources The object itself provides methods for logging in and out of Outlook 2000, accessing storage objects directly by ID, accessing certain special default folders directly, and accessing data sources owned by other users

Slide Objective

To show how to add the

View control to a Web page

Lead-in

Use the Object tag to insert

the View control into a Web

page

At this time the Outlook view control only supports MAPI

Restriction The value of this parameter is set to contain “Outlook.” This

filter is interpreted to view all items that contain the words “Outlook” or

“outlook” anywhere in the Subject field

DeferUpdate The value of this parameter is set to False This means that the

Outlook view control will reflect current property settings

Note

Using Outlook View Control Methods and Properties

Using Outlook View Control Methods

FlagItem, Categories, CustomizeView, ShowFields,

and SynchFolder methods

Using Outlook View Control Properties

Restriction, DeferUpdate, and View properties

The Outlook view control exposes a number of properties and methods that you can use in your script code

To see a complete list of the properties and methods of the Outlook view control, add a reference to the control in the Microsoft Visual Basic Editor in Outlook 2000 and then use the Object Browser

Using Outlook View Control Methods

The following are some of the important methods of the Outlook view control

FlagItem

The FlagItem method displays the dialog box that flags an item with a

reminder It will not work unless the user has selected a valid item in the View control, such as a post item

Categories

The Categories method displays the Categories dialog box in which the user

can select item categories This is the same dialog box that appears when the

Categories button is clicked in an Outlook 2000 form

CustomizeView

The CustomizeView method displays the dialog box that lets a user select

fields, sort order, filters, automatic formatting, and grouping for the view This

is the same dialog box that is displayed by selecting the Customize Current

View command

Slide Objective

To list some of the

properties and methods of

the Outlook view control

Lead-in

The Outlook view control

exposes a number of

properties and methods that

you can use in your script

code

Note

ShowFields

The ShowFields method displays the Show Fields dialog box By using this

method, the user can quickly select the desired fields that the View control will display for the current user

SynchFolder

The SynchFolder method attempts to synchronize the current folder in the

background

Using Outlook View Control Properties

The following are some of the important properties of the Outlook view control

[Message Class] = "IPM.Task"

You can also pass the restriction as a parameter by using the following syntax when creating an Outlook view control

<param NAME=Restriction VALUE="[Message Class] = 'IPM.Task'">

By using the Restriction property, you can place two Outlook view controls on

a single page and have one view control show a restricted set of items based on what the users select in the other Outlook view control

The Outlook view control also supports the comparison operators >, <, >=, <=, +, and <> Comparison operators are not case sensitive and do not include the subject prefix that is added when a message is replied to or forwarded The

logical operators that are allowed are And, Not, and Or Note that the operator

= does not represent “equals,” but rather “contains.” The following example matches all items that have “Outlook” or “outlook” anywhere in the Subject field

<param NAME Restriction VALUE="[Subject] = 'Outlook'"

To create a true equality filter, you must use the operators <= and >= together

In the following example, the control displays only those items whose Subject field contains only “outlook” or “Outlook.”

OvCtl1.Restriction "[Subject] <= 'outlook' and [Subject] >= 'Outlook'"

DeferUpdate

The DeferUpdate property controls whether property changes affect the control

display When set to True, this property prevents changes to control properties from being displayed in the control When set to False, this property allows the control to update to reflect current property settings In the following example, the control will reflect the current property settings

<object ID="oViewControl" WIDTH="504" HEIGHT="240"

CLASSID="clsid:0006F063-0000-0000-C000-000000000046" >

<param NAME ="View" Value="My Custom View">

<param NAME ="Folder" value="\\Public Folders\

All Public Folders\My Public Folder">

<param NAME ="Namespace" value="MAPI">

<param NAME ="Restriction" value="">

<param NAME ="DeferUpdate" value="0">

End Sub

</script>

The following example shows the script in the previous example when it is

called in HTML by a Form button

<FORM Name="DemoForm">

<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="Change View"

NAME="BtnView"

OnClick="change_view()">

</FORM>

Using the Outlook View Control Within a Folder Home Page

Adding the Outlook View Control

when adding a view control to any other Web page

Using the Outlook View Control to Change the Folder View

Drafts, Deleted Items, Inbox, Journal, Notes, Outbox, Sent Items, or Tasks

The Outlook view control is an ActiveX control that displays a view of an Outlook 2000 folder The Outlook view control can function from a folder home page presented within Outlook 2000, as well as from Outlook 2000 forms and any environment that supports ActiveX controls When it operates within Outlook 2000, the control exposes the full Outlook object model

Because the Outlook view control is an Outlook 2000 add-in, Outlook 2000 must be installed on the computer on which you want the Outlook view control to run

Although the Outlook view control is not included with Outlook 2000, it will be available for download from the Microsoft Web site at

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/

Adding the Outlook View Control

To add an Outlook view control to a folder home page, you add the Object tag

to the page the same way you do so when adding an Outlook view control to any other Web page If the control is placed on the folder home page of a public folder, it shows the default view of that public folder when it is loaded

Slide Objective

To outline the topics

associated with adding an

Outlook view control to a

folder home page

Lead-in

You can use the Outlook

view control on a folder

home page to present users

with the familiar user

interface and functionality of

the Outlook 2000 client

Note

Using the Outlook View Control to Change the Folder View

You can use the Folder property of the Outlook view control to set the

currently displayed folder

To display the default folders of the active mailbox, you set the Folder property

to either Calendar, Contacts, Drafts, Deleted Items, Inbox, Journal, Notes,

Outbox, Sent Items, or Tasks

The following code example demonstrates how to display a public folder Ovctl1.folder = \\Public Folders\All Public

Folders\Corporate\DemoFolder

Demonstration: Using the Outlook View Control in a Visual Basic Form

In this demonstration, the instructor uses two Outlook view controls on a Visual Basic form The instructor creates a Visual Basic form, adds the Outlook view controls to the form, sets a reference to the Outlook object library, runs a demonstration application, and demonstrates that the Outlook view control is functional

Creating the Visual Basic Form

To create the Visual Basic form:

1 Click Start, point to Programs, point to Visual Studio 6.0, and then click

4 On the View menu, click Project Explorer

5 In the Project Explorer pane, titled Project – Project1, click Form1

6 On the Project menu, click Remove Form1

7 On the Project menu, click Add Form

The Add Form dialog box appears

8 Click the Existing tab

9 Change Look In to <drive>:\MOC\1593a\labfiles\demo08a

10 Click ViewControl.FRM

Slide Objective

To demonstrate the use of

Outlook view controls on a

Visual Basic form

Lead-in

In this demonstration, the

instructor adds two Outlook

view controls to a Visual

Basic form

Tell students not to perform

these steps on their

computers The steps are

included for their reference

only