Wrapping an Existing Application with a Team Folders Interface

Folder Hierarchy

If your folder application does not have this type of hierarchy, you'll want to change the hierarchy before you proceed with the steps to add the Team Folders interface. Make sure you have a parent folder that contains no items, only subfolders, and that all subfolders are on the same level beneath the parent. 

Steps

1. Use the Team Folders Wizard to create a new Team Project in Public Folders. (This will be discarded later, so you can create it anywhere in the hierarchy.)
2. Bring up the Properties dialog for the existing application’s parent folder. On the Home Page tab, set the folder home to the new team project folder’s home page. Check the Show home page by default for this folder box.  
3. If you have a Contacts folder (the name of the folder doesn't matter -- just the type of items it contains) in your existing application, use the method in Step 2 to set the folder home page for the existing Contacts folder to the Contacts folder home page created by the Team Folder Wizard. Repeat for the other types of folders in your existing application, matching them with the appropriate home page created by the Wizard. 
4. Copy the Administration folder from the hierarchy created by the Team Folders Wizard to the parent folder for your existing application. 
5. Compare your existing application with the folders created in Public Folders by the Team Folder Wizard. Where your application does not contain a corresponding folder, copy the folder created by the Team Folders wizard to your application’s parent folder. For example, if your existing project does not have a folder containing task items, copy the Tasks folder. If you do not plan to put data in these folders, on the Properties dialog for each folder, set the permissions to hide the folder from the Outlook folder list. You will also need to adjust the Team Folders HTML code as described below, to hide these folders. 
6. Open the default.htm page created by the Team Folders Wizard in Visual InterDev. Use the index at the beginning to help you find the areas you need to change. Specifics on what I did in each area (most of it won't make sense until you actually look at default.htm):

FNP	Change the default folder names to match the folder names in the existing application.  Change the button names to match the folder names and to rearrange the buttons.  Change the strings used to complete the “New” button for each module to match the right type of item or form name.  Change the text for the folder views.  Change message class for custom forms.  Change g_FolderPathInput to make sure it points to the right public folder, i.e. the parent folder for the  existing application, not the parent folder for the newly created Team Project.
NBP	Change the properties for the folder view buttons, rearranging as needed to match the rearrangement of toolbar buttons in TBB and adding the actual view names for the public folders.
TBB	Comment out unneeded buttons here and change tabcontainer to match the correct type of folder

7. Under the SetFolderProps procedure change the number for FolderBtn# to match the changes you made in the FNP section.
8. (Optional) Modify default.htm to replace the default logo with a company logo.
9. (Optional) Open the cascading style sheet (css.css) in Microsoft FrontPage 2000 and make any style changes. You could also edit it in Visual InterDev or any text editor, of course, but FrontPage gives you a color picker.
10. Test default.htm and make sure that all views, forms, buttons, etc. work satisfactorily.
11. Rename the .htm files corresponding to individual child folders (e.g., cal.htm and contact.htm). Still with default.htm open, in the PCV section, set IsParent to False, and FolderType to the appropriate value for the first child folder (say Calendar). Use File | Save As to save a copy of default.htm as the first child HTML page, e.g. cal.htm. Repeat for each of the other child pages. 
12. Go to the Administration folder and perform the customization tasks suggested there -- adding a description of the application, goals, news, etc. and setting permissions. 
13. Delete the folders you created in Step 1. 

Notes

Step 5: Creating an entire project, including folders you're not planning to use, may seem like overkill. But it's easier to build the project and just to leave the extra folders in place than it is to delete them. The Team Project folder home page checks for their presence and returns an error if it doesn't find them. Besides, you might want to add one or more of those other folders to your existing project eventually.

Step 11: Each home page for a child folder is just a clone of the parent page with these two small changes. Creating the child folder home pages this way is much easier than making the detailed edits under Steps 6-8 in each child folder page.

More Information

• Microsoft Outlook 2000 Team Folders