Recurring Appointments that don't fit a pattern

[Diane Poremsky]

I have this starter macro - Create Outlook appointments using multiple recurring patterns - i call it a starter because it doesn't quite work as i intended and I haven't had time to fix it. I have another one that makes several appt or tasks in an uneven pattern, something like a lawyer might need to set up appt prior to a court case - 2 weeks before, 1 week out, 3 days out, day before. It's messy right now (needs converted to use an array, when i get a chance).

 

[htd01]

That's good work from what I can see, but what if you started with a basic form that allows you to select a Vague Recurrence Pattern?( Every blank blank of blank ), and then allow them to set the irregular ones by selecting whether or not to move the event in another form? Allowing the macro to run on a selected event or several selected events can automate things even further by cycling through all the events that need to Recur, and should allow the Form to run once for each set, along with setting every recurrence and allowing you to click a button to move through them. In the VBA code, you can set up some kind of Marker in the HEADER that creates an Identifier you can use to sort through a particular recurring series. You can use an "Update Recurrence" Macro to apply updates to the recurring series as needed by searching through all appointments (this assumes you added some tag to the end of the filename to match against), then match to the subject, and it won't lose exceptions that hold special notes, since they are all singular appointment events. I'll send you my macro for sending out the appointments, you may want to use it to Fwd Instead, but I like the send ( I suggest you add a question of how many to send right away and cycle through those, then strip the recipients from the rest of them, send to only the resources, and re-apply the recipients); my example is just a start but may help you. If you treat regular and irregular the same, and only use a "Vague" description of the recurrence first, you can use the controls to move or skip one recurrence wherever you want. It would be full featured, and using cycle For loops that pick out selected items, you can make the interface intuitive, Saving the appointments and sending the meetings.

My VBA: View attachment send all VBA.txt

Use that to send meetings only. You can adjust it to save the appointments too.

 

[larry]

That will work - you just need to get the dates into an array in some manner then create the appointments. The problem is that it gets complicated.

I haven't had a chance to test your code sample, but will check it out when i get a chance.

 

[htd01]

Your ARRAY is the Calendar folder. You can cycle through all items in it. If you build by a post test loop that tests the endpoint of the events, you can cycle on through. If you allow it to pull the data from a currently selected event, you can re-run this to push the recurrences further into the future ( so you can continue recurring again and again until the whole cycle is over), and it will create an event for each one. You can mark them, compare data, and even add Secondary Categories in 2010 outlook. That way you can cycle both your category and another (allowing them to change even the subject so they can update it). Now you've got a simple way to update all of them, and if you use an outer loop based on the date of the selected item or today, it will only update future items. For lawyers, this is key, as it will keep an accurate record of the event information at the time of the event. This can be archived with a test that checks backward to a certain length, and then runs a report of all events before deleting them, saving on email server space, and keeping a legal record of the data.

You can even work across multiple calendars.

Eg.

sub begin

Dim myOuterFolder As Object

Dim myInnerFolder As Object

Dim myItem As Object

For Each myInnerFolder in myOuterFolder
For Each myItem in myInnerfolder
Do something with it
next

next

end

If the Calendar folder is the outer array, and the calendar itself (which is a folder) is the inner array, and the items are the data in the inner array (appointment items), these become the cycle you can use for your update macro. Now, imagine that you just had some simple numbers to control the creation macro:

Sub Begin

Dim dateCurrentItem as DATEVALUE

Dim dateEndItems as DATEVALUE

*\\ Right here you would SET dateCurrentItem to the startdate of your starting appt, next you will add 1year to it, then set dateEndItems to that new value, and set dateCurrentItem back to the start-date of your first appointment (the one selected)

Dim recurPattern as *\\right here you can specify it as a Form based selection

Do

*\\here, you can build the first new appointment in the next part of the form by showing the date built from a recurPattern selection-->switch statement that allows them to continually change the occurrence pattern for the next event

*\\you can allow them to change the date in the Form by typing it in, the time as well, and you can continually poll for their conflict property (possibly with a button to show a message-box with info on the conflicts)

*\\create the event by copying the information properties from the original (test what type: appointment or Meeting) and apply recipients as well

*\\now you can send\Save if you like and the event is created, just be sure to set some marker to identify it as a recurring event from your program

*\\If they set an endpoint for the recurrences or a last occurrence date, you can set that variable now and move on to the test; this allows for active and constant adjustment of the booking window

While dateCurrentItem >= dateEndItems

*\\Post Test Loop: it will happen at least once but can be stopped with a Break statement linked to a DONE button

*\\I recommend running the loop from the send all function here

End

If you are worried about Resources being booked, there's an answer for that to. When you run Update, Don't update the Resources right away. You could create a message that asks about added or changed resources and then move to a form to process it. Now you can update those that match the old resource, and if there are a few that were changed on their own, show them and ASK IF they should be changed as well, and then act on that. Now any that denied resources initially and had a resource change to make them workable will get updated for information but not resource, or they will get moved to a better resource.

 

[larry]

The array would hold the vague pattern.

Do you have a working code sample so we can see it in action?

 

[htd01]

I see what you're getting at. Unfortunately I'm not entirely familiar with VBA beyond some basic functions. I was speculating on the design. I see where you're array is coming from. You'd have to hold either the date values, or at least a method to create an odd recurrence. If you build on the original recurrence programming, you'll be able to link them all easily enough. THe hard part is building the array processing for that. It took me a little while to read up on the VBA for the outlook recurrence pattern.

The only alternate route (Create as single events) would be to use an array of integers that conform to date values. When you have a start date (First Occurrence), you can use a vague pattern, and use that to translate into new values that continue until the end date (not necessarily the last occurrence). You'd then have to output that to a file with the subject heading and some kind of delineation as the file-name, and when updating, you just pull the file (create an array of filenames and store it; then check for it when an appointment is selected, and run a subroutine asking which values in others should be rewritten, or added to; you can go one by one or do all). This requires a VBA agent subroutine to check for appointments constantly, and find out if one is open that fits the recurrence.

You're better off with the normal recurrence pattern adjustments. Use the built in Recurrence patterns and use a default setting, then select the first recurrence (second occurence of the appointment), edit the details, set the exceptions flags, save, open the next, and so on as you make changes; Then allow them to send all the meetings, or just save appointments.

 

[ECM]

Hi all, Let me begin by apologising if this is the incorrect thread to post this in....I have been looking all day for an answer and have gotten nowhere...I need to create an appointment (Outlook 2007) that occurs every 1, 3, 6, 9, and 11 months from a given date. The purpose is to remind project team members to complete a task due at these intervals, and to attend a subsequent meeting. Ideally, the email remainder for each appointment would be sent one week before the appointment date, to allow the project team to prepare. Obviously, the limitations on the Outlook recurrence patterns are a hindrance to achieving this. Please note that this appointment pattern will be used across many projects, all starting at different times. Any ideas? I have looked around code sites and cannot find exactly what I am after (I am far from a VBA expert, but may be able to get some assistance from my IT team). There may also be some Outlook add-on products that can help, but I cannot determine which ones. It seems like I want to add a customized option in the Recurrence Pattern field, but not sure if this is even possible....Anyway, all roads today seem to have lead to this forum. Many thanks in advance.