GetAppointments Method

GetAppointments returns a time slot indicating when an employee can potentially be scheduled. This method reserves these time slots in memory until the ConfirmAppointment or CancelRequest method is called, or until the timeout elapses.

This method is similar to the GetAppointment method, but differs from the GetAppointment method in the following ways:

• The actual activities to book do not yet exist, and are not created until the ConfirmAppointment method is called.

• The GetAppointments method checks for several employees in the same request.

• The GetAppointments method returns only 1 time slot for each employee instead of the number that the ABS - Default number of slots parameter defines. For more information, see Parameters for Schedules.

• The GetAppointments method includes SameTimeFlag argument. Values include:

  • TRUE. All of the employees must be scheduled together for the same time. Time slots are returned for all or none of the specified employees.

  • FALSE. The employees can each be scheduled for different times between the earliest start time and latest start time. Time slots are returned only for those employees that can be scheduled.

Invoked From

This method is called by Assignment Manager.

Arguments

The following table describes the arguments for this method.

Argument Name	Description
SvcRegnId	The service region ID of the activity.
ReqId	A unique number to identify this request for a subsequent call to either confirm some of the time slots returned by this method or cancel the request and release those slots.
EmployeeIds	The IDs of all of the employees to schedule during this time.
ActType	The type of the activity (for example, call, appointment, administration, and so on).
ActPriority	The value from the Priority field of the activity (for example, 1-ASAP, 2-High, 3- Medium, or 4-Low).
NoSoonerThan	The value from the Earliest Start Time field of the activity.
NoLaterThan	The value from the Latest Start Time field of the activity.
Duration	The actual length of time that each employee is required.
SameTimeFlag	A flag that specifies whether all employees must be available at the same time or whether their appointments can be spread out at different times between the earliest and latest start time. Values include: TRUE. Indicates that the employees must be available for scheduling at the same time. FALSE. Indicates that the employees can be scheduled for different times.
BreakFlag	A flag that specifies whether the activity can be broken into different pieces or whether the activity must be contiguous. Values include: TRUE. Indicates that the activity can be broken into pieces. FALSE. Indicates that the activity must be contiguous.

Return Values

This method returns a property set containing a list of time slots that are available for the activity. The following table describes the return values that each returned time slot contains.

Return Value	Description
Request Id	A unique ID to identify the request sent to the engine.
Assignee	The assignee available during the time slot.
Slot Start - SR Time Zone	The slot start time in the time zone of the service region for the activity.
Slot End - SR Time Zone	The slot end time in the time zone of the service region for the activity.
Slot Start	The slot start time. This return value is always in the GMT time zone, not the time zone for the login user.
Slot End	The slot end time. This return value is always in the GMT time zone, not the time zone for the login user.
Service Region Id	The service region ID of the activity.
Activity Id	The activity ID of the activity to schedule.