Scheduler like Outlook

[04evildave]

Hi,

I'm trying to think how to create a calendar / scheduler like that provided in Outlook. I want to show 1 day at a time, and then have 20 or so 30 minute appointments displayed (for a Doctor Surgery).

I thought of creating a 'Date' table and then a portal (Appointments table) with appointment times, but, I really want blank appointments to be listed (so we know what's free), and the only way I can think to do that would be to create millions of mostly blank records in the Appointment table before releasing the software.

Is there a way to display all the blank spots where free appointments lie, without creating a record first?

Buggered if I can think of it?

Thanks for teh help in advance

Dave :

[comment]

Since you intend to view only 1 day at a time, you only need a record per time slot. For example, for a 9 to 5 day with 15-min appointments, you'd need 32 slot records. A global date field determines the viewed day, and the slots follow.

See also here.

[Wim Decorte]

Or how about integrating with Outlook instead of recreating it?

[lance123]

Hi Wim,

What is the best method of integration with Outlook. I saw this thread and it may solve some problems for me. I work in a lot of corporate intranets and have found that Outlook and Exchange are often in place. To seemlessley integrate into this would give ability to automate a lot into 'their' normal systems.

Ie being able to drop in a meeting or calendar item. Or alternatively receive one.

Thanks in advance

[Wim Decorte]

The best method depends on what exactly you want to do. Outlook supports VBA and has ActiveX methods you can use in VBscript and VB (plus any other programming language).

The easiest way is to have a button in FM that calls a VBScript to insert (or update) the data in Outlook. And a button in Outlook that inserts or updates the data in FM. Outlook in essence is a database so it has its own unique recordID you can use to track appointments (or contacts, or email,...).

If you want to do drag and drop however you'll need to use an intermediate app (in VB or any other programming language) so you can use events. Even then, FM doesn't have an "object" you can drag and drop to start with. Outlook does.

[Wim Decorte]

There used to be a product called "FMconnector" that made this kind of work easy. Maybe do a Google but I think it's no longer available.