Question

It doesn’t look like Dynamics allows for recurring appointments. I found a tutorial for recurring service activities, but I don’t really follow the portion where it sends a SOAP object. If anyone can help I would appreciate it

Answer 1

It is possible to create reccuring appointments in MS CRM 4.0 without using workflow.

I have done one implementation for creating reccuring service activity. I have added two new fields in the Service Activity entity.
Please read the detailed implementation below:

Entity Name: serviceappointment

Add two new Fields

New Field 1

Field Label: Recurring Frequency
Field Name: new_recurringactivity
Requirement Level: No Constraint
Field TYpe: picklist
Field Values:

1 – Daily
2 – Weekly
3 – Fortnightly
4 – Monthly
5 – Bi-Monthly
6 – Quarterly
7 – Half Yearly
8 – Yearly

New Field 2

Field Label: Recurring End Date
Field Name: new_recurringenddate
Field Type: datetime
Field Format: Date Only
Requirement Level: No Constraint

Purpose of the new fields

Field Name: new_recurringactivity
Purpose: This field will accept recurring frequency from the user.

Field Name: new_recurringenddate
Purpose: This field will accept the date from the user. It will not create any activity beyond the date. Otherwise it will go in a endless loop.

CODE SNIPPET 1

// Add this code snippet to the OnLoad event of the Service Activity Form

// Lock the recurring Service Activiy fields once activities have been created
if (crmForm.all.new_recurringactivity.DataValue)
{
crmForm.all.new_recurringactivity.disabled = true;
crmForm.all.new_recurringenddate.disabled = true;
}

---

CODE SNIPPET 2

// Add this code snippet to the OnSave event of the Service Activity

// Function to format a date to the UTC format required by web services
function DateToUTCFormat(inputDate)
{
var date = inputDate.getDate();
var month = inputDate.getMonth()+1;
var year = inputDate.getYear();
var hours = inputDate.getHours();
var minutes = inputDate.getMinutes();
var ampm = " AM";
if (hours > 11)
    {
    ampm = " PM";
    hours = hours - 12;
    }
if (hours == 0)
    {hours = 12;}
if (minutes < 10)
    {var time = hours.toString() + ":0" + minutes.toString() + ":00" + ampm;}
else
    {var time = hours.toString() + ":" + minutes.toString() + ":00" + ampm;}
var UTCDate = month.toString() + "/" + date.toString() + "/" + year.toString() + " " + time;
return UTCDate;
}


if (crmForm.all.new_recurringactivity.disabled == false && crmForm.all.new_recurringactivity.DataValue && crmForm.all.new_recurringactivity.DataValue)

{
var interval = 0;
switch (parseInt(crmForm.all.new_recurringactivity.DataValue)) 
{
case 1:   // Daily (Please check the value you are getting from the CRM Form)
 interval = 1;
 break;

case 2: // weekly
 interval = 7;
 break;

case 3: // Fortnightly
 interval = 14;
 break;

case 4: // Monthly
 interval = 30;
 break;

case 5: // Bi-Monthly
 interval = 60;
 break;

case 6: // Quarterly
 interval = 90;
 break;

case 7: // Half Yearly
 interval = 180;
 break;

case 8: // Yearly
 interval = 365;
 break;

}

var recurringEnd = crmForm.all.new_recurringenddate.DataValue;
recurringEnd.setDate(recurringEnd.getDate()+1);
var activityStart = crmForm.all.scheduledstart.DataValue;
var activityEnd = crmForm.all.scheduledend.DataValue;

// Set the first reccuring appointment as per the recurring frequency opted by the user

activityStart.setDate(activityStart.getDate()+interval);
activityEnd.setDate(activityEnd.getDate()+interval);

// Prepare values for the new Service Activity

var subject = crmForm.all.subject.DataValue;
var regardingId = crmForm.all.regardingobjectid.DataValue[0].id;
var customerId = crmForm.all.customers.DataValue[0].id;
var serviceid = crmForm.all.serviceid.DataValue[0].id;
var resourceId = crmForm.all.resources.DataValue[0].id;
var ownerId = crmForm.all.ownerid.DataValue[0].id;
var new_recurringactivity = crmForm.all.new_recurringactivity.DataValue;

// Loop for the number of recurring Service Activities
while (activityStart < recurringEnd)
    {    
    // Prepare the SOAP message.
    var startUTC = DateToUTCFormat(activityStart);
    var endUTC = DateToUTCFormat(activityEnd);
   // alert("startUTC: "+startUTC);
    var recurringEndUTC = DateToUTCFormat(recurringEnd);
    var authenticationHeader = GenerateAuthenticationHeader();
    var xml = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>" + 
    "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'"+
    " xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'"+
    " xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'>"+ 
    authenticationHeader+
    "<soap:Body>"+ 
    "<Create xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices'>"+ 
    "<entity xsi:type='serviceappointment'>"+
    "<subject>"+subject+"</subject>"+
    "<serviceid>"+serviceid+"</serviceid>"+
    "<ownerid>"+ownerId+"</ownerid>"+
    "<customers>"+
        "<activityparty>"+
            "<partyobjecttypecode>account</partyobjecttypecode>"+
            "<partyid>"+customerId+"</partyid>"+
            "<participationtypemask>11</participationtypemask>"+
        "</activityparty>"+
    "</customers>"+
    "<resources>"+
        "<activityparty>"+
            "<partyobjecttypecode>systemuser</partyobjecttypecode>"+
            "<partyid>"+resourceId+"</partyid>"+
            "<participationtypemask>1</participationtypemask>"+
        "</activityparty>"+
    "</resources>"+
    "<scheduledstart>"+startUTC+"</scheduledstart>"+
    "<scheduledend>"+endUTC+"</scheduledend>"+
    "<new_recurringenddate>"+recurringEndUTC+"</new_recurringenddate>"+
    "<new_recurringactivity>"+new_recurringactivity+"</new_recurringactivity>"+
    "</entity>"+ 
    "</Create>"+ 
    "</soap:Body>"+ 
    "</soap:Envelope>";
    // Prepare the xmlHttpObject and send the request.
    var xHReq = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
    xHReq.Open("POST", "/mscrmservices/2007/CrmService.asmx", false);
    xHReq.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Create");
    xHReq.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");
    xHReq.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", xml.length);
    xHReq.send(xml);
    // Capture the result
    var resultXml = xHReq.responseXML;

    // Check for errors.
    var errorCount = resultXml.selectNodes('//error').length;
    if (errorCount != 0)
        {
         var msg = resultXml.selectSingleNode('//description').nodeTypedValue;
         alert(msg);
        }
    // Notify user of Service Activity creation
    else
        {
       // alert("Service Activity created on " + activityStart);
        }
    // Increment the next Service Actvity to be created by as per the recurring frequency opted by the user
    activityStart.setDate(activityStart.getDate()+interval);
    activityEnd.setDate(activityEnd.getDate()+interval);
    }

} // Code block Ends

Some More Explanation

Please note in the above code snippet I am taking resources as user. So for that I have used in the code snippet

"<resources>"+
        "<activityparty>"+
            "<partyobjecttypecode>systemuser</partyobjecttypecode>"+
            "<partyid>"+resourceId+"</partyid>"+
            "<participationtypemask>1</participationtypemask>"+
        "</activityparty>"+
    "</resources>"+

If you are considering equipments as your resources then use

"<partyobjecttypecode>systemuser</partyobjecttypecode>"+

Also note that if you want to accept multiple resources then you need to change the value in the “participationtypemask” node.

Since I am expecting 1 resource so I have kept the value as 1.

Let me know if this helps.

If you can’t see the code properly then you can also visit http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/crmdevelopment/thread/3f020e02-cd86-44b2-9cff-36e6cdafc8d8/

Regards,

Sarbashish Bhattacharjee