Pass parameters to GetAppointments in Provider

[Ryan]

Hi,
Is there a way to pass parameters to the GetAppointments function in a custom DB provider.  I want to select the appointments based on criteria that is chosen by the user, and then update the schedule with appointments that match the criteria.  Is there another way to do this that I'm overlooking?  Basically, I don't want to select all appointments and then filter on the scheduling page, I want to filter the appointments that are selected from the database.

Thanks

[Ryan]

I think I solved my own problem.  I'm using custom attributes to pass info back to GetAppointments.  If there is a better way then please inform me.

Thanks

[CMSC_345]

I would like to ask the same question. Can anyone comment on the proper way to pass parameters into the GetAppointments so the GetAppointment's query can use the parameters for filtering?

[Peter]

Hello Ryan,

Please, find attached a small demo project of how to parameters to the GetAppointments function in a custom DB provider. Here is an outline of the steps needed to implement this solution.

• Create your own class in App_Code which inherits from the Page class. In the example, I create the MyPage.cs file.
• Define the properties which will be passed to the provider in MyPage.cs.
• Set your page to inherit from MyPage
• Find and cast MyPage in the provider like this:
  

  using (DbConnection conn = OpenConnection())
              {
                  DbCommand cmd = DbFactory.CreateCommand();
                  cmd.Connection = conn;
                  cmd.CommandText = "SELECT [ClassID], [Subject], [Start], [End], [RecurrenceRule], [RecurrenceParentId] FROM [DbProvider_Classes]";
  
                  MyPage page1 = (MyPage) owner.Page;
                  string param1 = page1.MyParam;
                  using (DbDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
                  {
                      while (reader.Read())
                      {
                          Appointment apt = new Appointment();
  
                              apt.Owner = owner;
                              apt.ID = reader["ClassID"];
                              apt.Subject = Convert.ToString(reader["Subject"]);
                              apt.Start = DateTime.SpecifyKind(Convert.ToDateTime(reader["Start"]), DateTimeKind.Utc);
                              apt.End = DateTime.SpecifyKind(Convert.ToDateTime(reader["End"]), DateTimeKind.Utc);
                              apt.RecurrenceRule = Convert.ToString(reader["RecurrenceRule"]);
                              apt.RecurrenceParentID = reader["RecurrenceParentId"] == DBNull.Value ? null : reader["RecurrenceParentId"];
  
                              if (apt.RecurrenceParentID != null)
                              {
                                  apt.RecurrenceState = RecurrenceState.Exception;
                              }
                              else
                                  if (apt.RecurrenceRule != string.Empty)
                                  {
                                      apt.RecurrenceState = RecurrenceState.Master;
                                  }
                              LoadResources(apt);
                              if (apt.Subject.ToString() == param1)
                              {
                                appointments.Add(apt);
                              }
                        }
                   }
              }

Note also that the above code illustrates a simple filter functionality by comparing the appointment's subject to the passed parameter (this is just for an example).

To keep things simple, I created three appointments with Subject: "a", "b", and "c". If you want to display appointments with subject "a" for example, just set MyParam  = "a"; in the code behind of your page:

public partial class _Default : MyPage
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        MyParam = "c";
    }
}

I hope this helps you get started. Should you have any question, feel free to contact us.



Regards,
Peter
the Telerik team

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[CMSC_345]

Thank you so much. It works as expected. It's much cleaner this way.

[Tree]

Is there another way to do this rather than relying on subclassing a Page type?  The solution offered by Telerik means that I am tying my provider to a particular web page type.  Not exactly good architecture in my opinion.

[T. Tsonev]

Hi,

I totally agree with you that this is not the cleanest solution for passing custom parameters. A proper solution would be to include a custom "context" object as a parameter to each provider method. Then RadScheduler will let you populate it by firing the appropriate events before calling provider methods.

For the moment we can only provide workarounds such as inheriting the page. Another option would be to instantiate the provider on the page. You'll incur performance hit, as the provider will not be shared, but you'll gain complete control over the instance.

Regards,
Tsvetomir Tsonev
the Telerik team

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