Category Actions for Items with no Categories

[Anonymous]

I have only a short question regarding Category Actions. I want to assign a category to new contacts which are exported from another tool in several Contact Folders. These exported contacts have no categories when they arrive in the folder.

I can assign to add a category to a contact with a category action, but what has to be in the field Categories, if the Categories is EMPTY?  If I just leave the field Empty, the whole Category Action disappears.

What is the correct description for Empty as a category?

[Jon]

Unfortunately what you are attempting to do is not currently possible using Category Actions.  Since actions are assigned to categories, there is not currently an option to execute an action for items that have no categories assigned.  Alternatively, you can select all of the items after they are imported and then simultaneously assign categories to all of the selected items.  Will this approach satisfy what you are hoping to accomplish?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the fast answer.  Unfortunately this won’t help us, as it’s a manual action.  We want to run the software on a server, which gets all the contact automatically from an export into several folders like (Customers, Suppliers etc.) from there they are exported again to different users.  At the moment it’s a manual action to categorize them everytime that new items arrive.

So your software would be the perfect solution, as it can assign a category to a “new item in a folder”. The only thing is, that these new items will have no categories when they are created.

Is there any way the software could be adapted, so it just assigns a category to any new item in a folder, without the need of having already a category?

I search so long until I found your product, so I hope it’s possible somehow.

[Jon]

Please explain in more detail what you are trying to accomplish.  Do you want to categorize items with their folder name when they arrive in a folder?  Or is there something else you are doing?  Also, if all you are looking to do is to automatically assign categories to items, then have you investigated Automate for Outlook to see if it can do what you hope to accomplish?  Also, I might consider adding a new feature to CP if it is not too difficult and if I think it will add value to other users.

[Anonymous]

For exmaple, another tool (Genius Connect) is exporting all Customers to a Public folder, every 8 hours.  After that, I have to manually set the categories for these new customer contacts to "Customers".
 
Genius Connect also exports the Suppliers to another folder named supplieres, and I have to categories them again manually.
 
CP can already assign categories to new items in a folder, if they already have a categorie.  So the only thing that needs to be addedd to CP is, that CP can also add categories to new items in a folder which have no category.
 
It would also be a possibility to give them the same category as the folder they arrive in, but I think that is not possible either at the moment?
 
I will also check out Automate for Outlook, but I like the other features of CP more ;-)

[Jon]

Actually, the way CP currently works is, if you setup to automatically assign categories when items arrive in a selected “watch” folder, then it will apply that same action simultaneously to all other “watch” folders that you have selected.  In other words, if you define an action to be performed on items that have no categories when they arrive in the “Customers” folder, then that same action will also be performed for items that have no categories that arrive in the “Suppliers” folder. 

To summarize, CP has two limitations.
1. Actions cannot be assigned to items that have no categories.
2. CP does not differentiated actions on a folder by folder basis, actions are only differentiated by categories that are assigned to items.

The 1st limitation is somewhat easy to remove, but the 2nd limitation would require significantly more work.  Solving the 2nd limitation would required assigning actions based on individual folders such that different actions can be assigned to items that have no categories, and the choice between which action to perform would be determined by the folder that the item was arriving in and not just the fact that the item does not have categories.  Therefore, it is important for me to understand exactly what you are hoping to accomplish, so that I can think of a possible solution that will require the least amount of effort and that will still satisfy your need.

For example, when Genius Connect exports all Customers to a public folder and also exports all Suppliers to another public folder, how does Genius Connect differentiate between Customer and Supplier?  In other words, is there some other unique identifier between Customers and Suppliers (i.e. email address, subject, etc..) that CP can use to differentiate actions between Customers and Suppliers?

[Anonymous]

Now I see the problem.  It’s number 2, that all rules are added for all items and cannot be limited to just one folder.  Sorry it took my so long to get that. 

So I will explain a bit more how Genius Connect works.  It connects directly to the SQL Databases.  It has the following three databases:

Customers -> The main customer address without any contacts
Suppliers -> The main supplier address without any contacts
Contacts -> Contacts of all Customers and Suppliers

So how to see, which Contacts are Suppliers and which are Customers?  They have a unique identifiers like:

CUC1035 (CUC means Customer Contact, from Customer No. 1035)
SC4000 (Supplier Contact, from Supplier 4000)

So I could configure Genius Connect to filter the contacts, if it says CUC it means it’s a customer contact (and I export it to the Folder Customer-Con) and if it is SC, I export it to the folder Supplier-Con.

The last folder is Private Customers, they are also saved in the Customers DB, and I could filter them with the internal group of our system.  All Customers with group 02 are Private customers and are exported to a different folder.

So in the end we have 5 folders in the Public Folders:

Customers (Main Address)
Customers-Con (Contacts of the Customers)
Suppliers (Main Address)
Suppliers-Con (Contacts of the Supplier)
Private Addresses

After that I at the moment manually add the proper Categories to them, and after that I start the tool Easy2Sync and let all of them get synced into the main Public Folder with all contacts in it, and also to some users in their private contact store, so they get replicated onto their mobile phones.

So I think, now you get the overview why, this feature would mean a lot to me, as I could automate the complete process, Genius Connect and Easy2Sync have the ability to sync in a time frame, so the only thing stopping me from that, is that the categories would be missing.

For the solution, I would be able to for example map the field CUC1035 to any field in the contact, with that it should be possible to define in CP, that it will add categories Customer-Con to any contacts with CUC and Suppliers-Con to any with SC.

For Customers, Suppliers and Private, I could also export the group to any field, so it also has something to know what category is needed.

So what do you think, would this somehow be possible?

[Jon]

Based on your request, I have made changes to Categorize Plus that I hope will enable you to accomplish what you are trying to accomplish.  In this new version I have added additional criteria for executing Category Actions.  Each of these new criteria can be selected from the drop down combo box that is displayed when inputting criteria in the Category Actions dialog.  Please use the link below to download and install this new version, and then refer to the explanation below and the attached image to configure the new settings.

New Version:  http://www.veranosoft.com/download/CategorizePlus.msi

New Category Action “Categories” Criteria
1.  [No Categories]
2.  [Any Categories]
3.  [Folder Name]

New Category Action “Value” Criteria
When the “Add Categories” Action is selected
  1.  [Folder Name]
When the “Remove Categories” Action is selected
  1.  [All Categories]
  2.  [Folder Name]

You should be able to use these new Category Action criteria to accomplish your objective.  For example, for items arriving in the “Customers” and the “Suppliers” folders, you can use the following step-by-step procedure to configure the Category Actions to add specific categories only to items arriving in these folders.  I have also attached an image that illustrates the Category Action settings that will add a “Blue” category to items arriving in the “Customers” folder, and will add a “Green” category to items arriving in the “Suppliers” folder.  For the attached example to work, you will need to select both the “Customers” folder and the “Suppliers” folder as watch folders in the Category Actions Options dialog.  Please follow the step-by-step procedure below and refer to the attached image.

Add the item’s Folder Name as a category for each item that arrives in the folder
1.   Create a new Category Action with a “Categories” criteria = [No Categories]
2.   Select an “Action” criteria = Add Categories
3.   Select a “Value” criteria = [Folder Name]
4.   Select the “Setting” criteria = Folder
(use the “Select” button in the Options Dialog to specify the “Customers” and the “Suppliers” folders as the watch folders)

Add additional categories to each item that contain the “Customers” category
5.   Create a new Category Action with a “Categories” criteria = Customers
6.   Select an “Action” criteria = Add Categories
7.   Select a “Value” criteria = Any categories that you would like to add to these items
8.   Select the “Setting” criteria = Folder

Add additional categories to each item that contain the “Suppliers” category
9.   Create a new Category Action with a “Categories” criteria = Suppliers
10. Select an “Action” criteria = Add Categories
11. Select a “Value” criteria = Any categories that you would like to add to these items
12. Select the “Setting” criteria = Folder

Remove the item’s folder name for all items that contain the item’s folder name
13. Create a new Category Action with a “Categories” criteria = [Folder Name]
14. Select an “Action” criteria = Remove Categories
15. Select a “Value” criteria = [Folder Name]
16. Select the “Setting” criteria = Folder

I realize that this solution is not perfect, but it was the easiest to implement.  It only took a couple hours of programming.  And the good news is, these new features are available in the free version of Categorize Plus.

Let me know if this solution works for you.

[Anonymous]

You’re a genius. It works like a charm. Even the first setting fixes 90% of the problem. I was able to rename the folders to the category they need, so when I added the Watch Folders and just set the Action:

New Category Action “Categories” Criteria
1. [No Categories]
2. [Any Categories]
3. [Folder Name]

All of the new items, get the correct Categories instantly, only when I want to add another category than the Folder name, I need to do the follow up steps.

Thanks for investing that much time in my request and thinking about a solution (btw. Automate for Outlook, only works for Emails, not any other Outlook items).

As a little thank you, I just bought 4 CA Pro licenses via Paypal.  I searched so long for a solution, and now it’s working perfect without any manual steps anymore. 

[Jon]

I am glad that the solution worked for you.  And thanks for the purchase of Categorize Plus.  In your continued use, let me know if you have any further requests.  I always enjoy hearing from users.