How to: Create a Custom Action for a Form Region

You can specify custom actions for a form region. By default, four built-in actions exist for any form region. To create an action that suit your needs, you can either modify a built-in action or create a new custom action. For more information on modifying a built-in action, see How to: Modify a Built-in Action for a Form Region.

When you create a custom action, you can specify the following characteristics in the form region manifest XML file that you register for the form region:

• The display name for the custom action.
• Whether the custom action will be displayed on the Ribbon of an inspector.
• The way that the resulting item will be addressed.
• The message class of the item that results from executing the action.
• The way that the body of the current item is included in the resulting item.
• The way that Outlook responds when executing the action.
• The prefix value in the subject of the resulting item.

For more information on registering a form region, see Specifying Form Regions in the Windows Registry.

Identifying Actions for a Form Region

Whether you choose to modify a built-in action or create a custom action, you define the action in the form region manifest XML file. Define these actions under the customActions element, enclosing each action in its own action element and identifying it by the mandatory name attribute. The value of the name attribute is a string that represents the internal name of the action.

To specify an internal name for an action

1. In the form region manifest XML file, specify the action as a child action element of the customActions element for that form region.
2. Specify the internal name of the action as the value of the name attribute of the action element.

The following example assigns replyToBlog as the internal name of one custom action, and postToBlog as the internal name of another custom action:

  <customActions>
    <action name="replyToBlog">
        <!-- further characterize this action -->
    </action>
    <action name="postToBlog">
        <!-- further characterize this action -->
    </action>
</customActions>

Defining a Custom Action

After you have identified an action in an action element, you can further define the action by specifying optional child elements for the action element.

To define a display name for the action

1. In the form region manifest XML file, specify the action as a child action element of the customActions element for that form region.
2. Specify the internal name of the action as the value of the name attribute of the action element.
3. Specify the display name of the action as the value of the child title element of the action element.

The following example assigns replyToBlog as the internal name of a custom action, and Reply to Blog as the display name of the action:

  <customActions>
    <action name="replyToBlog">
        <title>Reply to Blog</title>
        <!-- Further characterize this action -->
    </action>
</customActions>

To specify that an action is to be displayed on the Ribbon of an inspector

1. In the form region manifest XML file, specify the action as a child action element of the customActions element for that form region.
2. Specify the internal name of the action as the value of the name attribute of the action element.
3. Specify true as the value of the child showOnRibbon element of the action element.

The following example assigns replyToBlog as the internal name of a custom action and specifies that it should not be displayed in the Ribbon of an inspector:

  <customActions>
    <action name="replyToBlog">
        <showOnRibbon>false</showOnRibbon>
        <!-- Further characterize this action -->
    </action>
</customActions>

Note
You can assign showOnRibbon either a string value or an integer value. Specifying true or 1 will display the action on the Ribbon; specifying false or 0 will prevent it from being displayed on the Ribbon.

To specify the way that a resulting item will be addressed

1. In the form region manifest XML file, specify the action as a child action element of the customActions element for that form region.
2. Specify the internal name of the action as the value of the name attribute of the action element.
3. Specify a value for the child addressLike element of the action element.

The following example assigns replyToBlog as the internal name of a custom action and specifies that the resulting new item will be addressed as a reply-all item, with all the original recipients copied over to the new item:

  <customActions>
    <action name="replyToBlog">
        <addressLike>replyAll</addressLike>
        <!-- Further characterize this action -->
    </action>
</customActions>

Note
The child addressLike element of the action element can contain one of the following values:

To specify the message class and the form for the resulting item

To specify the way that the body of the current item is included in the resulting item

To specify the way that Outlook responds when executing the action

To specify the prefix value in the subject of the resulting item