Access RadScheduler Appointment objects from WP7

[Saeed]

Hello,

I have a Silverlight application that uses RadScheduler.  I am now making a companion application on the Windows Phone 7.  I am trying to access my Appointments that were saved in the Silverlight application from the new phone application, however I am unable to reference the Telerik controls from my phone project.

I understand that none of the visual elements of the RadScheduler can be expected to work on the phone.  However, I just want access to the Appointment object and associated helper code, like generating the sequence of appointments from a RecurrenceRule.

What is the best way to achieve this goal?  Is it possible for Telerik to break up the RadScheduler assembly into separate data and UI assemblies?  Or is there some way I can accomplish this on my own?

Thanks
-Saeed

[Deyan]

Hello Saeed,

Thanks for contacting us and for your interest in RadControls for Windows Phone 7.

Indeed, the case that you describe is currently not possible. However, it would be useful if you manage to give us some further details on your scenario, like whether you are accessing your appointments from a Web Service? This would help us evaluate the scenario and see how we could help.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Deyan
the Telerik team

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[Saeed]

I have a Silverlight application that allows the user to create a schedule, and I want to show a few of the upcoming appointments on the phone.  Right now the Silverlight app serializes all of its state, including all Appointment objects, to a byte[] that it passes to a web service, which then stores that data on disk.

I now want to send that byte[] to the phone, have it parse out the data, and show the next few upcoming appointments.  I was hoping I could keep that parsing logic on the client side, including generating appointments from RecurrenceRules.  However, it seems I will have to reference the Telerik assemblies from the web service, process the saved file, and just send the resulting data to the phone.

Please let me know if you think there is a better solution.

Thanks
-Saeed

[Saeed]

To clarify, all I want to show on the phone is some simple text, including subject and date, about upcoming appointments.  No calendar UI necessary.

[Saeed]

Another update:

My approach of parsing the data and generating the list of appointments on the server doesn't work either.  The WCF project on the server is also unable to load the Telerik assemblies because they reference Silverlight assemblies that are not present.

Do you have any suggestions for how to take an Appointment created in a Silverlight project and display its details, specifically including expanding out a recurring appointment, on a phone?  And ideally do the work of parsing on the server or the phone, not in the Silverlight app.

Thanks
-Saeed

[Deyan]

Hello Saeed,

I now better understand the scenario you would like to implement. My suggestion would be to serialize your appointment details in XML format. In this way, you will be able to parse and read it on the phone without depending on the data classes which are available in the Silverlight assemblies containing the RadScheduler. Let me know if this is reasonable solution for you.

Anyway, we will take our time to discuss the interop between our desktop Silverlight controls with the WP7 suite.

I hope this helps.

All the best,
Deyan
the Telerik team

Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.

[Saeed]

Hi Deyan,

Thanks for your response.  Serialization isn't actually the biggest issue here.  I am already serializing the data into my own custom binary format, so I am able to deserialize the appointment data on the phone.  The problem is that I have no way to call into the RadScheduler code to generate appointments from a RecurrenceRule.

Let's say the user creates a recurring meeting in the Silverlight application, say a meeting that starts on 12/20/2010 and repeats every Monday.  If I just read back the serialized appointment info, it looks like there's a single appointment on 12/20.  However, I want the phone to also display 12/27 and 1/3 as upcoming appointments.

So is there any way to make the code for enumerating appointments from a RecurrenceRule available in an assembly that is not tied to Silverlight?

Now that I think about it, I guess I can use the ASP.Net RadScheduler on the server, parse and process the appointment information, and send the list of upcoming appointments to the phone.  Please let me know if this is a good approach, or if you can suggest any other.

Thanks
-Saeed

[Deyan]

Hi Saeed,

Thanks for getting back to me.

Currently we do not plans to separate the logic in the RadScheduler's assemblies into several assemblies.

Indeed, you could use the ASP.NET scheduler on the server to process the information as required.

Another possibility would be serializing the recurrence information in a convenient way in XML format and sending the XML file to the phone where you will be able to read it and present the information to your users.

I hope this helps.

Let me know if you need further assistance on this.

All the best,
Deyan
the Telerik team

Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.