Lotus Notes Calendaring with VB / VBA.

Part 3 - Examples and More

Page: << 1 2 3

In this section we will go over the ParseTimeArray function. I will also provide two example subs which use the functions in part 1 & 2.

The purpose of ParseTimeArray is to create a binary representation of a user's free time for the selected day. It requires both the output array and array length of GetUsedTime to work properly. I use this in my app in conjunction with a drop down box to flag the times that a counselor has appointments scheduled by putting a mark before the time. There is also a feature that allows the scheduler to select a time that is marked and return the binary representations of the other counselor's day so that they can all be easily compared with the day and time the secretary is trying to schedule for. It then returns a list of counselors who do have that time block free. If you are familiar with binary and VB, this function should make perfect sense. If not, I suggest you look for a good binary tutorial (there are millions) online. You will be glad you did. Trust me, you can't be a good programmer until you can effectively use binary!

Public Function ParseTimeArray(GetUsedTimeArray As Variant, ArrLen As Integer) As Long Dim lngOut As Long, datTmp As Date, strDat As String, i As Integer, intBlock As Integer, intLen As Integer 'GetUsedTimeArray(x, 1) = Start Time 'GetUsedTimeArray(x, 2) = Length of appointment For i = 1 To ArrLen datTmp = GetUsedTimeArray(i, 1) strDat = FormatDateTime(datTmp, vbLongTime) intBlock = GetBlockByTime(strDat) intLen = GetUsedTimeArray(i, 2) 'Set bits here Do Until intLen = 0 lngOut = lngOut Or Digit_Weight(intBlock) intLen = intLen - 30 intBlock = intBlock + 1 Loop Next i ParseTimeArray = lngOut End Function 'Calculates the binary weight of a number in a list 'This is used to fit any combination of selections in a list into a single field by setting each record to on or off Public Function Digit_Weight(ByVal Digit As Integer) As Long Digit_Weight = ((2 ^ Digit) / 2) End Function

The following function: GetBlockByTime() is required by ParseTimeArray and uses the table which follows it called tbl_Timeblocks. Since the day is divided up into half hour blocks, this function will assume that if someone is busy for part of the block, they are busy for the entire block. This makes it so that the code doesn't crap out when there is an appointment scheduled for 3:15 or 11:45.

This will create three test appointments for the user, on the day you specify. You can then use test2 to retrieve them. If this works properly, you should see three "True"s in the Immediate window.

Public Sub Test1(UserName As String, UserPass As String, strDate As String) If strUserPass = "" Then Exit Sub Debug.Print SendNewNotesAppointment(UserName, strUserPass, "Tester1", "TEST1 - YOU CAN DELETE THIS", strDate, "9:00AM", 30) Debug.Print SendNewNotesAppointment(UserName, strUserPass, "Tester2", "TEST2 - YOU CAN DELETE THIS", strDate, "10:30AM", 60) Debug.Print SendNewNotesAppointment(UserName, strUserPass, "Tester3", "TEST3 - YOU CAN DELETE THIS", strDate, "3:00PM", 120) End Sub

This little gem grabs all the specified day's appointments for the specified user. It writes the Parsed Time Array binary string to the Immediate window as well as a summary of the day's appointments. The function at the bottom Dec_to_Bin is needed to convert the long integer datatype to a string of 1's and 0's that represent the number in binary form.

Public Sub Test2(User As String, strUserPass as stringThisDate As String) Dim tmp Dim tmplen As Integer Dim i As Integer If strUserPass = "" Then Exit Sub tmp = GetUsedTime(User, strUserPass, ThisDate, tmplen) Debug.Print "************************************************************" Debug.Print "Parsed TimeArray: " & Dec_to_Bin(ParseTimeArray(tmp, tmplen)) For i = 1 To tmplen Debug.Print tmp(i, 3) & "(" & tmp(i, 1) & "): " & tmp(i, 4) & " Duration: " & tmp(i, 2) & " Mins" Next i Debug.Print "************************************************************" Debug.Print " " End Sub 'Converts a decimal number to a binary string of 1's and 0's Public Function Dec_to_Bin(DecNum) As String Dim lngConvert As Long Dim strConvert As String Dim intBinDigits As Integer Dim i As Integer lngConvert = CLng(DecNum) Do Until Digit_Weight(intBinDigits + 1) > lngConvert intBinDigits = intBinDigits + 1 Loop For i = intBinDigits To 1 Step -1 If lngConvert >= Digit_Weight(i) Then lngConvert = lngConvert - Digit_Weight(i) strConvert = strConvert + "1" Else strConvert = strConvert + "0" End If Next i Do Until Len(strConvert) > 20 strConvert = "0" + strConvert Loop Dec_to_Bin = strConvert End Function

This is what the output of test2 should look like if used on the same day with the same user as you specified in test1.

Returns this in the Immediate window: ************************************************************ Parsed TimeArray: 000111100000001100100 Appointment(4/15/2005 9:00:00 AM): Tester1 Duration: 30 Mins Appointment(4/15/2005 10:30:00 AM): Tester2 Duration: 60 Mins Appointment(4/15/2005 3:00:00 PM): Tester3 Duration: 120 Mins ************************************************************

Well, that's all folks! I hope you found this article useful. If you end up borrowing this code, I only ask three things of you out you for the hours I have put into writing this code.

1) If you improve it in any way, please send me the improvements. I will be sure to give you credit for your work!

2) Drop me a line from the Contact Us page giving me a quick description of what you are using it for so that I can put some user comments on the bottom here (if you don't want it posted on here, send it anyway and just specify that you don't want it posted).

3) At the top of the module you are putting this code into, please put the following:

'Lotus Notes Calendaring
'Developed by Joe Korzeniewski of www.vortexwd.net 'For an explanation of this code please visit www.vortexwd.net/Lotusnotescalendaring1.asp