Microsoft Groove Custom Form Tools

Groove Error Message when Modifying Lookups

I was updating a tool.  This is revision 029 of the tool and I get the following error message when trying to update any of the Lookups using the MODIFY LOOKUP tab.

After many hours of rolling back versions of the tool, restarting Groove and shouting….. (this did nothing but made me feel better!!).  I tried the same operation on my backup machine. My backup machine is my active resilence copy of all my workspace - hey presto - No error.

I wonder why?  I am able to continue my work  by editing lookups from my backup machine but I do not know the root cause of the issue. Do you? Have you seen this error message? Tell me.

Setting Field Lengths on Forms when creating a Groove Custom Form Solution.

I always had  issues when setting the fields length correctly so that the form layout would display correctly.

Well, we have a function in out toolkit that resolves this issue, however, it is still not that easy…. So, I have updated the functions to ensure you get the correct form layout as fast as possible.

 The normal approach is to add these calls to your OAI function:

\\ Set the width of the fields 

SetColumnWidths( “10%”, “20%”, “10%”, “60%” );

SetTabGroupColumnWidths( “15%”, “15%”, “0%”, “70%” );

\\

 The calls above set the relative columns on the form and the tabs respectively. However, sometimes (most times) the form does not do what you expect.  So, replace the standard functions with the function below and the fields will have a red border so you can determine the errant field and you can adjust the % to meet your need.

To remove the red border - simply comment out the line below.

td.style.border = “1px solid red”;

 Replacement functions are to be found here.

Jan 07 - UK Groove User Group Meeting

We are planning a UK Groove User Group meeting for the end of January 2007 at the Microsoft Victoria Offices.

Agenda to be defined.

If you have any agenda items then please let me know.

Groove Thoughts 2007

This year has been very interesting.

Met more people, created more solutions and had a lot of fun.  However, a horrid start to the year. All that is over now.

What did I learn in 2007?

1. Microsoft Groove is a great tool.
2. Microsoft Groove alone is never to going to make you rich. You need to have alternatives architectures such as Microsoft Sharepoint as part of the solution to get the debate going.
3. Microsoft Groove is a growing in demand. That demand is now similar to the the pre-Microsoft Groove days.
4. The library of functions created with Mark Smith in early 2006 is very good.
5. The library of functions required to support each solution is growing and growing…. and most of them are not yet available to the general public.  So, it must be so tough to create solutions……
6. You can beat Microsoft Sharepoint in terms of cost when the solution is internal and scoped for the workgroup.  Typically, 10 time less expensive.

For 2008 I will try and keep the blog up to date.  I will post the functions and knowledge I have (well, the little I have!).

 Have a Great 2008.

End of year - 2007

Been very busy creating tools for Groove.  They will ship very soon.

 And, I have a new set of demonstrator tools. They are intended as add-ons to Groove 2007.

Tree view of Groove workspaces

A simple tool that enables you to catalog workspaces, tools and views into views so the user can easy and quickly access the information. Essentially, removes the need for the Groove Launchbar.

This can be implemented with a Groove Tool or as a standalone application.

See link

XML Handler for Groove Form Data

A set of functions to enable a developer to create XML formatted output from a record (within a forms application) and then read the XML formatted record from within another Groove forms application or Groove Web Services application.

This makes reading data SO easy.  If the design changes in the source design, the XML parser will handle the change and ease the migration of tool solutions.  See link.

Microsoft Contact Tool - Add-in functionality

We have a number of add-in functions and views to the Contact Tool shipped by Microsoft.

1. My Favorites - You can create a sub-set of Contacts that are private to yourself. So, you can have a list of the people you often contact/refer to.
2. Common Favorites - You can create a sub-set of Contact that are listed in a view across all the members to workspace/tool. Useful, for departments and business where you need a contact list that is shared.
3. Private Contacts - You can create records that are PRIVATE to you.  This is uber cool.  Means you can add a contact that no-one can access (within the constraints of the Groove data security model).

See the screen shots to see the additional functionality. 

1. My favorites and common favorites.  These are accessed via views. See picture.
2. Private contacts.  The additional tab in the Contact Tool. See picture.

Groove Solutions - Shipped by Microsoft (December 2007)

These tools can be found http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Browse.aspx?DisplayLang=en&nr=20&productId=20BE712B-2F07-4AC1-A9BB-E4CEF2AA331E&sortCriteria=date which is kind of useful - but there’s no RSS feed. You’d think they would be listed here http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/downloads/CD101759231033.aspx but they are not.

#1: The new Welcome Page Tool - a custom tool. Please use the discussion tool to let me know, if when you load the tool your CPU goes 100%!!

The tool, the documentation.

The link is to The Welcome Page tool template in the Microsoft Download Center:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6749C281-C78E-445D-AC12-07BCC917A2B7&displaylang=en

An enhanced version of this tool is a complete Rich Text editor, not dissimilar to this ‘Note tool’ but includes document security and other cool features. like integrated email, Silverlite and more.

#2: The new Groove 2007 Contacts tracker. This contacts tool was ported from a Groove 3 version into Groove 2007. This tool should be used in preference to a personal Contact list as this custom form tool can be linked into the Groove User Workspace Navigator.

The tool, the documentation.

The link is to the Contact Tracker tool template in the Microsoft Download Center:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D7109197-7E9B-44DE-AAF8-5A76D2A7F54D&displaylang=en

An enhanced version of this tool includes private contacts within a subset of the workspace membership, private to yourself and common favorites for all workspace members and support for XML data interfacing with Groove Data Bridge and other web services applications.

#3: This tool allows you to examine the all your workspaces, accounts, identities, tools and the data. This tool is provided within the Groove Developer Tool kit, but you may not have access to all the tools/software to enable you to compile into a useable executable.

Have fun using this tool as is comes with a very poor user interface (my view) but it does show what you can do with Groove web services and how you can acess all the ‘parts’ of your Groove dataset.

The application.

This tool is planned to be replaced by the ‘Groove Investigator’ which does essentially exposes the same Groove dataset but with a much improved user interface. I will post the new tool when I can.

Current Groove 2007 Issue list

I saw this thread ‘Please put ALL you bug reports in this thread’ in Groove discussion board.

I am not so sure about the list….

By company bas been desiging, developing, implementing and support  solutions in Groove 2007 from the very first release and we have some insights into the inner working of Groove.

Thoughts on the list:

Form Designer errors from the forum ————————————
1. whenever you try to hide / show fields the entire form can get corrupted.
there is no error if this is done under script control
- I think you will find that this is caused by the incorrect initialisation of a date field.
—— Workaround - ALWAYS set a date field to a default or an initial value. NEVER leave the intial value empty.
——- I reported this to Msft a long time ago.

2. Changing the size allocated to a date fields, then trying to move the
field, causes the form to get totally corrupted
—— See item #1

3. creating groups in a tab then removing them kills the form
—— See item #1

4. adding more than one tab control to a form generates an error (non fatal f you remove the extra tab)
—— See item #1

5. Lookups created using the normal designer are much slower than the same ookup in a script. Also, combo boxes refresh each time a new value is picked p / added and this could be a few thousand.
—— Correct. I have written a workaround for this.

6. Forms can take many minutes to open, specially if there are self lookups sed and more than 5,000 entries in the form.
—— Correct. I have written a workaround for this but ensure you do not have to many sorts on any view. RULE #1 - More views less sorts!

I believe the current list of feature is:

Form and Form Designer errors

1. Date fields are incorrectly initialised - the workaround MUST be followed.

2. Lookups refresh each time a new value is picked - workaround available.

3. Lookups fail to be registered correctly and no values are returned when using (some) international keyboards.

4. Contact fields are not correctly initialised and are also field values cannot be deleted - workaround available.

5. When creating higlhy complex parent-child relationships (3 levels deep) propogation fails - workaround available. If you see this bug then you must be a serious Groove developer. See the Microsoft Time Recording tool coming out soon for an example of complex parent-child relationships….

6. When debugging using VS Groove stops responding - kill Groove and restart Groove. :=)

7. When you have one identity on two machines, when you exit the Designer.. you do not leave the designer…..! Spooky. The changes have been saved - you are just in in Groove never, never land. Press cancel and all will be ok.

8. DO NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT - use duplicate field! It will corrupt the design datanase. DO NOT USE duplicate. UNDERSTAND!

9. DO NOT. DO NOT. Delete scripts from the left hand pane in the designer. Delete and add script from a for TAB. DO NOT delete from the left hand pane. UNDERSTAND! As you will be left in the Groove never, never land.

10. Do not use AUTOCREATE for all roles in a form and also set the TOOL permissions so GUESTS cannot create a form. This has a different result from leaving YOU in the Groove never, never land - it will leave the GUESTS in the Groove never, never land.

11.When designed views an error message is issued ‘view deleted..’ ‘sorted deleted’… Workaround. ALWAYS select the form(s) you wish to view prior to setting any sorts. If you do not - you will pay the price!

Groove files tool

1. Files security loop hole. See this

Summary

Groove has a few features - we just need to understand them, document them, reproduce them and work with Microsoft to understand and resolve them.

I will update this document, as and if I think of any others.