Fixing a problem with my addin

Back to the bug with the addin which opens OneNote whenever you open an Outlook sticky notes folder.

 
 

When I look at this bug, I'm going to look at what I know and what I suspect (or can guess at). Then I'll get an estimate of the cost to fix the bug before deciding what to do next.

 
 

Here's what I know.

From a customer viewpoint, there is a setting in Outlook that lets you control which folder shows when you start. If you set Outlook to open the a sticky notes folder be default, my addin will not open OneNote.

From a tester viewpoint, this bug was easy to find and any fix will be easy to test.

From a development viewpoint, the fix here will be tough. If you haven't downloaded the source code, all I do is register for Outlook's FolderChange event. When it fires, I check to see if a sticky notes folder is being opened, and if so, I show OneNote. Fixing this bug will be time consuming: I'll have to research other events in Outlook to find one which may work. Barring that, I would have to research other ways to fix this.

 
 

And here's what I suspect:

Not many people alter their startup folder. It's a hard to find dialog (click the"Advanced" button on the 5th tab of the tools | options dialog and then click "Browse" to open a third modal dialog to change this).

Even if this is a common setting for people to change, my gut feeling is more people would set the calendar to show by default than the Inbox. Contacts would probably be third, then some other folder which the user created would be fourth. A sticky notes folder would be a very obscure setting to use.

Most people don't restart Outlook as much as other applications - it's email, just boot it and leave it running.

I doubt the Outlook object model has an event I can use, so any fix will likely be complicated from a development point of view.

 
 

So now I have three different viewpoints to resolve to fix this bug.

 
 

As the feature designer, I'm leaning against fixing the bug. As a tester, I'll push to get it fixed (just to be complete) knowing that testing a fix probably won't be hard to do. As the developer, I'll spend a little time investigating potential fixes. (And now I'll simulate waiting a day for the developer to finish the research).

 
 

And there is no easy fix. Outlook's OM does not expose the startup folder. A fix would involve monitoring the current folder of Outlook at all times.

 
 

Next: I close this bug report. Hint: this bug does not get fixed in the code.