Re: Trusted Sources and contractor questions...

From: Edward Hermanson (balzac_at_aracnet.com)
Date: 05/04/04 

Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 14:36:59 -0700

I could have sworn I already posted this. Hmmmm...Guess the first one went
to your email address. Oooops. Sorry.

Thanks Sue. I appreciate the advice. The admin does understand the issues at
least as far as we have gotten so far, however it is very difficult to get a
hold of any one at the company to do testing or to talk to about their
network to do troubleshooting. The only administrator I have to work with
takes a long time to return phone calls or messages. I think this may take
awhile. Thanks again.

Edward Hermanson

"Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" <suemvp@outlookcode.com> wrote in message
news:elv3TFZMEHA.1188@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> If you were working from a spec that said the forms had to be published to
> Org Forms and if you do not have the authority to do that yourself (as you
> never would as a contractor), it's up to them to publish forms correctly
> using instructions that you provide. After that, though, it is to a large
> degree up to you to get it to work, walking them through whatever steps
may
> be needed to get the right procedures in place. I have spent many hours on
> the phone in similar situations, trying to ask the right questions to shed
> light on why things are working. It usually comes down to things like
> Outlook updates being installed without notifying the developer or a forms
> application running in a shared mailbox folder instead of a public folder.
>
> I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to understand the nuances of
> Outlook forms applications. That's why they hired your expertise.
>
> That's my 2 cents' worth. YMMV.
> --
> Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
> Author of
> Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
> Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
> http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx
>
>
> "Edward Hermanson" <balzac@aracnet.com> wrote in message
> news:c76vh602fmm@enews4.newsguy.com...
> > I have what will probably sound like a stupid question. I am a developer
> > that was hired by a friend who was hired by a company (sub
sub-contractor)
> > to build a custom outlook form solution. It is a large company using
> Windows
> > 2000 Advanced Server and Exchange Server on a fairly complicated network
> > with many client computers in dofferent environments including OWA
> clients.
> > When I started the project I had no access to the company network (as
> their
> > environment is VERY secure and allows NO access from outsiders) or IS
> staff
> > and knew only what they provided my client as specifications for their
> > environment. The form they wanted was a type of order form and was to
read
> > data sources from database files, perform calculations, write to files
and
> > use custom print functions with word templates. In their specs it said
> forms
> > had to be published to organizational folders due to organizational form
> > storage so I assumed that they knew the form definitions would have to
be
> > read from a trusted source and that this was part of their security
> > protocol.
> >
> > Building the form was easy. The problem started when we went there to
> > demo/install and the administrator said the company did not publish
forms.
> > He said they had to use templates on shared disc storage (contrary to
the
> > environment specs they provided). I successfully demonstrated the form
by
> > running in design view but know there would be many issues to come. I
> > discovered they did in fact have a process for publishing forms and we
got
> > someone at the compay to go through the process and got it published.
> >
> > We immediately had issues with functionality not behaving as expected
and
> > after going to the company again (over and hour away as the
administrator
> > did not seem to understand the issues over the phone) I quickly
determined
> > that they had one-off forms and could tell the form definition was being
> > included with the item when it was published even though I had made it
> clear
> > in the documentation it must not be. They also had syncronization issues
> > with offline folders at some of the locations and knew this had to be
> fixed.
> >
> > After new instructions to publish the forms without the definition, they
> > began recieving default mail messages instead of the custom forms.
> Obviously
> > the definitions were not being read from the published source but by now
> the
> > company, the administrator ( who still did not seem to understand where
> all
> > this was going ) and my friend were becoming impatient with me.
Aparently
> > they believed it was my responsibily to make it work even though I had
no
> > access to the network and the admin was doing nothing but what I
> > specifically told him to do (Very hands off as I came to believe he was
> not
> > consulted on the project before hand. In a phone conversation while
> > attemting to explain the issues "just put it all in the documentation
and
> > I'll follow that and see if it works".).
> >
> > I have explained the issues to my friend and the admin and made it clear
> > that the form definition has to be read from a trusted source when the
> item
> > is opened and suggested that if they can not get it to work any other
way,
> > to publish the form to the users Personal Forms Library as there will be
> no
> > more than 30 users.
> >
> > I have a feeling that the admin will not do this, however I see no other
> > alternative with the issues they are having and the fact that I cannot
> make
> > changes to their network myself and am getting very little help from the
> > administrator.
> >
> > My question is, who is responsible for getting this to work? If the
> company
> > will not configure their network to allow access to the published form
> > definition when the item is opened I cannot do any thing about it
> obviously,
> > but now I am concerned that my friend (who is not a programmer) and the
> > people at the company who are not savvy enough to understand the issues
> > (including the executives) will think it is my fault that is does not
> work.
> > I don't want my friend to get in trouble (or get sued) and I don't want
to
> > let anyone down. Was it my responsibility to forsee all this in advance
or
> > is it their responsibility to make sure their network can support the
> > application before they hire someone to build it (or configure it
> correctly
> > afterwards)?
> >
> > In an email to my friend the administrator has already accused me of not
> > knowing what I am doing. This is very frustrating as I seem to be the
only
> > one troubleshooting the issues and all he want to do is make sure he can
> > blame someone.
> >
> > Any help in any area (tehcnical, business, legal, OR company politics)
> would
> > be appreciated.
> >
> > Edward Hermanson
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>

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