ExchangeUser.GetFreeBusy Method

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Outlook Developer Reference

Obtains a String representing the availability of the ExchangeUser for a period of 30 days from the start date, beginning at midnight of the date specified.

Version Information
 Version Added:  Outlook 2007

Syntax

expression.GetFreeBusy(Start, MinPerChar, CompleteFormat)

expression   A variable that represents an ExchangeUser object.

Parameters

Name Required/Optional Data Type Description
Start Required Date The date of availability, starting at midnight.
MinPerChar Required Long Specifies the length of each time slot in minutes. Default is 30 minutes.
CompleteFormat Optional Variant A value of True indicates that a finer granularity of busy time is returned in the free/busy string. A value of False indicates that a distinction between only the available and busy times is returned.

Return Value
A String that represents the availability of the Exchange user for a period of 30 days from the start date, beginning at midnight of the date specified. Each character in the String is a value indicating if the user is available (0), and optionally, whether a busy time is marked tentative (1), out of office (3), or other (2).

Example

The following Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) example uses the GetFreeBusy method to retrieve the free/busy information, with each time slot representing a 60 minute period, for the manager assigned to the current user. The example then uses that information to calculate the date and time on which the first free period occurs, and displays that information in the Debug window.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  Sub GetManagerOpenInterval()
    Dim oManager As ExchangeUser
    Dim oCurrentUser As ExchangeUser
    Dim FreeBusy As String
    Dim BusySlot As Long
    Dim DateBusySlot As Date
    Dim i As Long
    Const SlotLength = 60
    'Get ExchangeUser for CurrentUser
    If Application.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry.Type = "EX" Then
        Set oCurrentUser = _
        Application.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry.GetExchangeUser
        'Get Manager
        Set oManager = oManager.GetExchangeUserManager
        If oManager Is Nothing Then
            Exit Sub
        End If
        FreeBusy = oManager.GetFreeBusy(Now, SlotLength)
        For i = 1 To Len(FreeBusy)
            If CLng(Mid(FreeBusy, i, 1)) = 0 Then
                'get the number of minutes into the day for free interval
                BusySlot = (i - 1) * SlotLength
                'get an actual date/time
                DateBusySlot = DateAdd("n", BusySlot, Date)
                'To refine this function, substitute actual
                'workdays and working hours in date/time comparison
                If TimeValue(DateBusySlot) >= TimeValue(#8:00:00 AM#) And _
                    TimeValue(DateBusySlot) <= TimeValue(#5:00:00 PM#) And _
                    Not (Weekday(DateBusySlot) = vbSaturday Or _
                    Weekday(DateBusySlot) = vbSunday) Then
                        Debug.Print oManager.name & " first open interval:" & _
                        vbCrLf & _
                        Format$(DateBusySlot, "dddd, mmm d yyyy hh:mm AMPM")
                    Exit For
                End If
            End If
        Next
    End If
End Sub

See Also