Link OL Contacts to Access
 

Ref: Access/Outlook 2003/Exchange Server
I'm far from an expert (learn it as I go along) but I was developing an
application in Access and worked on linking to OL Contacts before I ever
discovered this site. Having not read all the posts about the inherent
limitations I forged ahead and came up with something that seems to work ok,
albeit slowly! In Access I had a "ClientID" field (6-8 alphanumeric
characters) unique to each client. ("Primary Key") In that table I collect
all the data I needed to develop the application. (Client legal/tax types,
fiscal year end, state of organization, etc.) with relationships to other
tables needed. Then in Outlook I used the "User Field 1" (this is one of the
OL fields that DOES link) as the ClientID and in Access I write queries that
establish the relationship between the internal Client table and the linked
OL table. (ClientID--User Field 1) (This is not a "primary key" in OL so
you must be careful entering values to prevent duplicates.

Initially I had a form that had all the client info, but it was so slow to
populate the linked table values that I created a popup subform with the
linked table fields so users can use the Client form (without
address/phone/etc) as needed and click a button to bring up the additional
information when needed.

If anyone tries this and can come up with a way to speed it up, I'd like to
hear about it!!!

Also, just as a note, at one point during my development I added a user
defined field to Outlook saving that OL form as a new default form in a new
folder. That user defined field DID come through to Access during a link but
when I discovered that Contacts can only be viewed in the form in which they
were created and that I would have to change the message class for all
existing entries I abandoned that approach. (The OL contacts had been
accumulating for years...I am new...didn't want to change their
defaults...they're all paranoid about such things!)

If anyone tries/has tried these approaches and have any suggestions on
improving on the (little) progress I've made, please let me know!

Thanks,
Robin