Exchange Calendar with CDO

Exchange Calendar with CDO

CDO (Collaboration Data Objects) for Exchange 2000 provides a COM-based API for creating and managing calendar appointments, meeting requests, and free/busy data.

CDO Library Reference

Creating an Appointment with CDO

' Create a calendar appointment using CDO for Exchange 2000
Dim strCalURL
strCalURL = "http://mail.corp.flamenet.io/exchange/jsmith/Calendar/"

Dim iAppt
Set iAppt = CreateObject("CDO.Appointment")

iAppt.StartTime       = "2001-06-15T09:00:00Z"
iAppt.EndTime         = "2001-06-15T10:00:00Z"
iAppt.Subject         = "Project Review Meeting"
iAppt.Location        = "Conference Room B"
iAppt.TextBody        = "Review Q2 project milestones and deliverables."
iAppt.BusyStatus      = 2  ' olBusy

' Add attendees
Dim iAttendee
Set iAttendee = iAppt.Attendees.Add
iAttendee.Address = "mailto:jdoe@corp.flamenet.io"
iAttendee.Role    = 1  ' cdoRequiredParticipant

' Save to the calendar folder
Dim strItemURL
strItemURL = strCalURL & "project-review.eml"

Dim iFields
Set iFields = iAppt.Fields
iAppt.DataSource.SaveToContainer strCalURL, _
    iAppt, _
    cdoAdoStream

WScript.Echo "Appointment created."

Reading Free/Busy Data

Exchange stores free/busy data in a public folder. You can query it via the urn:schemas:calendar: namespace or use the CDO.CalendarMessage object to process meeting requests and responses.

Common Pitfalls

• CDO 1.21 requires a MAPI profile: it cannot use HTTP URLs. Use CDO for Exchange 2000 (the HTTP-based version) for web applications.
• Time zones: Always specify UTC times and include the urn:schemas:calendar:dtstart and dtend fields with the Z suffix.
• Meeting requests require the CDO.CalendarMessage wrapper to generate iCalendar-formatted invitations.