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I can't seem to set my 'busy status' (free, busy, out of office etc) during the 'response' screen when replying to meeting invites. Do I need to manually set this for each meeting by selecting from my calendar after responding to the email invite?
I am trying to use a macro to automate this, but .BusyStatus = olFree and .ShowAs = olFree unfortunately aren't triggering a change in status, which suggests the functionality has moved?
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Can you provide the macro code that you're using? Also can you confirm that this is the "old" Outlook client and not the new one?
Thanks! This is the 'old' outlook client, macro code below.
Sub AutoAcceptMeetings(oRequest As MeetingItem)
If oRequest.MessageClass <> "IPM.Schedule.Meeting.Request" Then
Exit Sub
End If
Dim oAppt As AppointmentItem
Set oAppt = oRequest.GetAssociatedAppointment(True)
oAppt.ShowAs = olFree
oAppt.Save
Dim oResponse
Set oResponse = oAppt.Respond(olMeetingAccepted, True)
' creates response, saves to drafts without sending
oResponse.Close (olSave)
' deletes draft response
' if not deleted, may create tentative appt on calendar
oResponse.Delete
End Sub
Did this code use to work? Just a cursory glance, and knowing very little about Outlook meeting API, it doesn't seem correct to me. You get a MeetingItem object and then you create a standalone appointment and save it (blank) and then set the appointment as an accepted meeting. I don't see where you actually do anything with the original meeting request.
Taking a look at what is available on MeetingItem it appears you should take the MeetingItem you get and call the GetAssociatedAppointment method with the value of True. This adds the appointment to your calendar and returns the corresponding appointment. At that point you should be able to update the appointment properties and then call Save to persist them.
Just a guess at the code here because I cannot currently test this in Outlook.
Sub AutoAcceptMeetings(oRequest As MeetingItem)
If oRequest.MessageClass <> "IPM.Schedule.Meeting.Request" Then
Exit Sub
End If
Dim oAppt As AppointmentItem
Set oAppt = oRequest.GetAssociatedAppointment(True)
' Adjust the appointment
oAppt.BusyStatus = olBusyStatus.olFree
' Accept the invite
oAppt.Respond(olResponseAccepted, True)
oAppt.Send
End Sub
I'm not sure if the appointment if the Save method needs to be called directly but I assume that Respond handles that.
From the documentation <MeetingItem.GetAssociatedAppointment method (Outlook)>, the original code follows the same format when generating a response. The code I am using is silently adding this to calendar without sending a response which is what I wanted it to do - apologies I should have mentioned this!
The original code I use works in all aspects except changing the busy status. I can see the 'accepted on' time updating when I run the rule. The issue is just that it is adding as busy not free!
I've tried your implementation of the busy status above and setting the value to '0' from <OlBusyStatus enumeration (Outlook)> but no luck unfortunately
In the code you posted I don't see that you're setting the busy status field. Are you doing that next to the ShowAs call and before you save the appointment?
In the docs for Respond it notes that the original appointment (the one you're saving) gets duplicated and then deleted. I suspect the appointment changes you're saving are getting lost as the duplication doesn't save the extra stuff. The docs say to get the new appointment. Therefore maybe you should call Respond and then use the response to get the updated appointment, set the busy status and then save it.