Custom Form Not Displaying

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Guest

I created a custom Contact form that I published to a public contact folder in Outlook. It's been working without a hitch for months. Suddenly, last week, when users attempt to open a contact from this public folder, the following message appears

"The custom form could not be opened. Outlook will use an Outlook form instead. The form required to view this message cannot be displayed. Contact your administrator.

I tried the following to isolate what the issue might be

1. Republished the custom form in the public contact folder (I had saved the form as an .OFT file, so I could open this file and publish as a form in the public folder). Didn't work

2. Created a new public contact folder, published the custom contact form in this folder. Same problem

3. Created a new custom form, published in the original public folder and in the new one I created. Same problem

4. Created a new contact folder "locally" (i.e., in my Mailbox, not in the Public Folders in Outlook) and published the custom form to this folder. Same problem

5. Published the original custom contact form in the Contacts folder in Personal Folders on a computer that was not using Outlook with Microsoft Exchange; i.e., a non-networked laptop using a local installation of Outlook. The custom form worked perfectly

So, from all of this I am concluding that our Exchange Server is having a generalized problem with custom forms. This came on very suddenly. I am not the IT support person--I support Outlook only in our organization--so I have no idea what might have caused the onset of this problem. But, it is a network-wide problem--no one on the network can open the custom form. The various solutions I found in researching the knowledge base, etc. were all applicable to issues on individual computers.

Can any one help?

Thanks

Bob Vos
(e-mail address removed)
 
Find and delete the file frmcache.dat on the computer htat's having the
problem. If multiple computers are having the problem, you'll need to delete
this file on all of them. This happens often when you attempt to republish
the custom form while users are logged into Outlook or have the form open.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
www.cardozasolutions.com

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***
Bob Voss said:
I created a custom Contact form that I published to a public contact
Click to expand...
folder in Outlook. It's been working without a hitch for months. Suddenly,
last week, when users attempt to open a contact from this public folder, the
following message appears:
"The custom form could not be opened. Outlook will use an Outlook form
Click to expand...
instead. The form required to view this message cannot be displayed. Contact
your administrator."
I tried the following to isolate what the issue might be:

1. Republished the custom form in the public contact folder (I had saved
Click to expand...
the form as an .OFT file, so I could open this file and publish as a form in
the public folder). Didn't work.
2. Created a new public contact folder, published the custom contact form in this folder. Same problem.

3. Created a new custom form, published in the original public folder and
Click to expand...
in the new one I created. Same problem.
4. Created a new contact folder "locally" (i.e., in my Mailbox, not in the
Click to expand...
Public Folders in Outlook) and published the custom form to this folder.
Same problem.
5. Published the original custom contact form in the Contacts folder in
Click to expand...
Personal Folders on a computer that was not using Outlook with Microsoft
Exchange; i.e., a non-networked laptop using a local installation of
Outlook. The custom form worked perfectly.
So, from all of this I am concluding that our Exchange Server is having a
Click to expand...
generalized problem with custom forms. This came on very suddenly. I am not
the IT support person--I support Outlook only in our organization--so I have
no idea what might have caused the onset of this problem. But, it is a
network-wide problem--no one on the network can open the custom form. The
various solutions I found in researching the knowledge base, etc. were all
applicable to issues on individual computers.
 
Dear Pat,

Thanks for your reply. I had tried your suggestion on one of our
workstations. It didn't do the trick, unfortunately. And, I just tried
it on my computer (on which the custom form is not displaying) and
wasn't even able to find the frmcache.dat file. Given that all of our
computers are having the same problem and what I stated above, I don't
think this could be the issue. Any other ideas?? Not being able to
display our data with this custom form is paralyzing us!

Thanks,

Bob
 
It is almost certainly a forms cache issue of some sort. We just need to
figure out where and what. I forgot to tell you though, you need to have
Outlook closed when you delete the frmcache.dat file. But you can clear the
cache another way. Go to Tools, OPtions, Other tab, Advanced Options, Custom
Forms, Manage Forms and click the Clear Cache button there.

Did you make any changes to the form before this problem started?

I will look up any potential problems that might be server side. I'll post
back in a bit.


--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
www.cardozasolutions.com

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***
 
Hi Patricia,

can you please explain the purpose of frmcache.dat and why
it is safe to delete it. I have been having similar
problem to Bob.

Thanks
Jonathan
 
Think of it as a temporary storage area. When you load a custom form for the
first time, the form definition is cached and stored so the next time you
load it, it takes less time. That's why it's safe to delete this file.
You're only loading teh cached definition, not the actual definition itself.
When you delete this file you're forcing a reload of the definition.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
www.cardozasolutions.com

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***
 
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