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NAME

EWS::Client::Calendar - Calendar Entries from Microsoft Exchange Server

VERSION

version 1.143070

SYNOPSIS

First set up your Exchange Web Services client as per EWS::Client:

 use EWS::Client;
 use DateTime;
 
 my $ews = EWS::Client->new({
     server      => 'exchangeserver.example.com',
     username    => 'oliver',
     password    => 's3krit', # or set in $ENV{EWS_PASS}
 });

Then perform operations on the calendar entries:

 my $entries = $ews->calendar->retrieve({
     start => DateTime->now(),
     end   => DateTime->now->add( months => 1 ),
 });
 
 print "I retrieved ". $entries->count ." items\n";
 
 while ($entries->has_next) {
     print $entries->next->Subject, "\n";
 }

DESCRIPTION

This module allows you to perform operations on the calendar entries in a Microsoft Exchange server. At present only read operations are supported, allowing you to retrieve calendar entries within a given time window. The results are available in an iterator and convenience methods exist to access the properties of each entry.

METHODS

CONSTRUCTOR

EWS::Client::Calendar->new( \%arguments )

You would not normally call this constructor. Use the EWS::Client constructor instead.

Instantiates a new calendar reader. Note that the action of performing a query for a set of results is separated from this step, so you can perform multiple queries using this same object. Pass the following arguments in a hash ref:

client => EWS::Client object (required)

An instance of EWS::Client which has been configured with your server location, user credentials and SOAP APIs. This will be stored as a weak reference.

QUERY AND RESULT SET

$cal->retrieve( \%arguments )

Query the Exchange server and retrieve calendar entries between the given timestamps. Pass the following arguments in a hash ref:

start => DateTime object (required)

Entries with an end date on or after this timestamp will be included in the returned results.

end => DateTime object (required)

Entries with a start date before this timestamp will be included in the results.

email => String (optional)

Passing the primary SMTP address of another account will retrieve the contacts for that Exchange user instead using the Delegation feature, assuming you have rights to see their contacts (i.e. the user has shared their contacts). If you do not have rights, an error will be thrown.

If you pass one of the account's secondary SMTP addresses this module should be able to divine the primary SMTP address required.

impersonate => String (optional)

Passing the primary SMTP address of another account will retrieve the entries for that Exchange user instead, assuming you have sufficient rights to Impersonate that account. If you do not have rights, an error will be thrown.

The returned object contains the collection of calendar entries which matched the start and end criteria, and is of type EWS::Calendar::ResultSet. It's an iterator, so you can walk through the list of entries (see the synposis, above). For example:

 my $entries = $cal->retrieve({start => '', end => ''});

$entries->next

Provides the next item in the collection of calendar entries, or undef if there are no more items to return. Usually used in a loop along with has_next like so:

 while ($entries->has_next) {
     print $entries->next->Subject, "\n";
 }

$entries->peek

Returns the next item without moving the state of the iterator forward. It returns undef if it is at the end of the collection and there are no more items to return.

$entries->has_next

Returns a true value if there is another entry in the collection after the current item, otherwise returns a false value.

$entries->reset

Resets the iterator's cursor, so you can walk through the entries again from the start.

$entries->count

Returns the number of entries returned by the retrieve server query.

$entries->items

Returns an array ref containing all the entries returned by the retrieve server query. They are each objects of type EWS::Calendar::Item.

ITEM PROPERTIES

These descriptions are taken from Microsoft's on-line documentation.

$item->Start

A DateTime object representing the starting date and time for a calendar item.

$item->End

A DateTime object representing the ending date and time for a calendar item.

$item->TimeSpan

A human readable description of the time span of the event, for example:

  • 25 Feb 2010

  • Feb 16 - 19, 2010

  • 24 Feb 2010 15:00 - 16:00

$item->Subject

Represents the subject of a calendar item.

$item->Body (optional)

Text attachment to the calendar entry which the user may have entered content into.

$item->has_Body

Will return true if the event item has content in its Body property, otherwise returns false. Actually returns the length of the Body text content.

$item->Location (optional)

Friendly name for where a calendar item pertains to (e.g., a physical address or "My Office").

$item->has_Location

Will return true if the event item has content in its Location property, otherwise returns false. Actually returns the length of the Location text content.

$item->Type

The type of calendar item indicating its relationship to a recurrence, if any. This will be a string value of one of the following, only:

  • Single

  • Occurrence

  • Exception

$item->CalendarItemType

This is an alias (the native name, in fact) for the $item->Type property.

$item->IsRecurring

True if the event is of Type Occurrence or Exception, which means that it is a recurring event, otherwise returns false.

$item->Sensitivity

Indicates the sensitivity of the item, which can be used to filter information your user sees. Will be a string and one of the following four values, only:

  • Normal

  • Personal

  • Private

  • Confidential

$item->DisplayTo (optional)

When a client creates a calendar entry, there can be other people invited to the event (usually via the To: box in Outlook, or similar). This property contains an array ref of the display names ("Firstname Lastname") or the parties invited to the event.

$item->has_DisplayTo

Will return true if there are entries in the $item->DisplayTo property, in other words there were invitees on this event, otherwise returns false. Actually returns the number of entries in that list, which may be useful.

$item->Organizer

The display name (probably "Firstname Lastname") of the party responsible for creating the entry.

$item->IsCancelled

True if the calendar item has been cancelled, otherwise false.

$item->AppointmentState

Contains a bitmask of flags on the entry, but you probably want to use IsCancelled instead.

$item->Status (optional)

Free/busy status for a calendar item, which can actually be one of the following four string values:

  • Free

  • Tentative

  • Busy

  • OOF (means Out Of Office)

  • NoData (means something went wrong)

If not provided the property will default to NoData.

$item->LegacyFreeBusyStatus (optional)

This is an alias (the native name, in fact) for the $item->Status property.

$item->IsDraft

Indicates whether an item has not yet been sent.

$item->IsAllDayEvent

True if a calendar item is to be interpreted as lasting all day, otherwise false.

TODO

There is currently no handling of time zone information whatsoever. I'm waiting for my timezone to shift to UTC+1 in March before working on this, as I don't really want to read the Exchange API docs. Patches are welcome if you want to help out.

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

Oliver Gorwits <oliver@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2014 by University of Oxford.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.