[Solved] An awesome Implementation

[pcigroup]

Thank you very much for simplifying my life. I spent the last six months trying to implement a calendar functionality in my product. Tried almost every product found on the web some too simple other too complex. Telerik Rad Scheduler delivers the complexcity and the simplicity at the same time.  Even the complexicity is implemented in simple Telerik fashion: "deliver more than expected".  I cannot find a word to describe how please I am with this control.

I have two questions:
1. When I implement a recurring appointment I do not not see any additional rows added to my datbase.  I have a cost ($ amt) associated with each appointment and later on I need to report on that. How can I implement this?
2. I did not see any implementation of a reminder/alarm before an appointment time. Will that be implemented?

[T. Tsonev]

Hi Pierre,

Thank you for the appreciation of our work.

Recurrence support is implemented in the form of an additional field (RecurrenceRule by default) that contains the information about the recurrence in a text form that is parsed when needed. It is not in a proprietary format, instead we use the iCalendar notation (RFC2445).

When you create a recurring appointment only the RecurrenceRule is updated. When you modify a recurring appointment (just a single appointment, not the whole series) a new record is inserted - the so called recurrence exception. It contains different data, but it is still associated with the recurrence series through its RecurrenceParentID foreign key.

Regarding the cost, you can use attributes for the purpose. We have discussed the topic already in this forum thread.

We have not considered implementing reminders yet. I agree that this is a useful feature to have out of the box, but I am not sure if we will have the opportunity to implement it in the following two or three major releases. We have logged it and we will come back to it.

Regards,
Tsvetomir Tsonev
the Telerik team

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[Fabian Agudelo]

I agree, I love your Scheduler. But I am trying to resolve the reminder issue and have a very short timeline. My proposed solution involves a Windows Service that queries the database periodically and sends emails.

However, I have a question:
Is there a way to query the recurrence engine without having to call the RadScheduler? (If not, my solution is very hokey--perform a WebRequest to a page that has a Scheduler to find recurrences).

Also, one question about RecurrenceParentID. I am using your BlackPearl demo as a basis for my Scheduler, but when I use an actual db instead of the "SessionDataSource," it fails on inserting a recurring event. In the aspx code, the Insert statement attempts to insert the RecurrenceRule (string) into both the RecurrenceRule (nvarchar) and RecurrenceParentID (int). What SHOULD go into the RecurrenceParentID? The original AppointmentID?

[T. Tsonev]

Hi Fabian Agudelo,

The recurrence engine is implemented as a separate class (RecurrenceRule) that you can use to create, parse and evaluate recurrence rules. Here is an example for parsing and evaluating a recurrence rule:

RecurrenceRule rrule;
if (RecurrenceRule.TryParse(rruleString, out rrule))
{
    foreach (DateTime in rrule.Occurrences)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

See the online documentation of TryParse for more details.

Regarding the BlackPearl demo - you are right, this is incorrect. The INSERT command should insert the @RecurrenceParentID parameter value into the RecurrenceParentID column. We have fixed the problem.

Best wishes,
Tsvetomir Tsonev
the Telerik team

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