ISV.Config not showing up in the Web...check if Outlook is running

One of my colleagues, Kris, came across an odd occurrence with a client. Apparently, all of our custom ISV.Config settings were not displaying in the Web interface for some users. We checked the settings (we had selected that they display in the Web) and the user's computer and couldn't deduce initially what the problem was. After some iterations with CRM support, we determined the source of the problem...our old friend, the CRM cookie and its interaction with the Outlook CRM client. Apparently, the ISV.Config configuration of Outlook overrides the Web's configuration. In our specific example, we configured the ISV buttons to display only for the Web client. Since our user had the Offline Outlook client installed, the buttons didn't show even when she accessed from the Web.

After we corrected the situation with our user (see below for some possible fixes), we did some more testing internally. Thanks to Neil, another fantastic Sonoma colleague, we came up with the following matrix of test cases and whether the buttons displayed or not:

 
Note: The display is referencing the grid and record-level buttons and settings. The application level menu always seemed to correctly display in each test case.

The cells highlighted in yellow are ones that the behavior of the application doesn't match the configured settings, thanks to the sharing of the cookie. As you will see, when Outlook is open, the Outlook setting drives the display.

So what are your workarounds? Here are a couple...

1. Use a different URL (such as an alias or fully qualified domain name) for the configuration of Outlook than what you use when accessing from the Web. Then, Outlook and IE won't share the same cookie and all is well.
2. Add all of options (the settings Web Application, Outlook, Outlook Offline) and then it will display no matter what. This might be less desirable as you would have possible buttons/links displaying in Outlook (or the Web) when you don't want them to, but this is better than not showing at all!

What confused us with the original case was my incorrect assumption that the Offline Client setting pertained to the state of the Outlook client (ie whether the user was online or offline). Apparently, this setting applies to the Offline Client itself. Since it seems to be more useful for this setting to be targeted for the state of the offline client, I am hoping this might be changed (or added) in the next release of CRM.