Major Rules Bug

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris King
  • Start date Start date
C

Chris King

Rules are great but if they don't work as expected, they are a wasted
feature. I wish that someone at Microsoft would read and perhaps reply to
this post...

I have found that with Outlook XP that under at least two conditions, that a
rule runs twice.

If I create a rule that fires off a script or if the action is 'notify with
specific message' the action runs twice.

For example, if I set up a rule to run this script:

Sub ProcessEmailTest(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
MsgBox Item.Subject
End Sub

I will get two messages. It does not matter what the script does, it always
runs twice.

This is a problem. I have tested on multiple PCs but from my searches, it
would appear that once again, I am the only person in the world experiencing
this. -:)

Anyway, anyone else?

-ck
 
A work-around was suggested that seems to work.

If I add 'Stop processing further rules...' into my rule definition, that
seems to work fine.

Does not make sense and I consider this only a work around-ck
 
I wouldn't call it a workaround -- it's the correct procedure. The "stop processing" rule ensures that the message is processed by only one rule.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Perhaps you misunderstand the original post.

I have a rule that says 'if this condition is met, run this script'. The
script says to do something once.

But what is happening is that the script runs twice. That is a bug.

If I modify the very same rule to 'forwarded to some address', it does not
forward it twice. Same rule but with one, it runs the action once (as
expected) but with the other, it runs the action twice. (not correct-a bug)

Now, the stop processing rules prevents the above from happening but what
if:

I want any email from my home account (to my work account) with 'todo' in
the subject line to be first processed by a rule that runs a script to
create an Outlook task but perhaps I then want a second rule to run that
moves all emails from my home account to a specific folder?

If I use the 'Stop Processing Rules' 'work-around' (YES-workaround) then my
second rule will never get run. Yes, I could add it to my script but why
should I have to.

-ck

I wouldn't call it a workaround -- it's the correct procedure. The "stop
processing" rule ensures that the message is processed by only one rule.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
For your "what if," I'd just reverse the order of rules.

Have you run a test with the script rule as the only one active? I'll try to find some time to replicate here. Please post your script code.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
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