Delete appointments and cancel meetings by using EWS in Exchange

Learn how to delete appointments and meetings by using the EWS Managed API or EWS in Exchange.

The essential difference between meetings and appointments is that meetings have attendees, and appointments don't. Both appointments and meetings can be single instances or part of a recurring series, but because appointments don't include attendees, rooms, or resources, they do not require a message to be sent. Internally, Exchange uses the same object for both meetings and appointments. You use the EWS Managed API Appointment class or the EWS [CalendarItem](https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/Title Topic ID Project Name Writer Editor Publish Preview.aspx) element to work with meetings and appointments.

Table 1. EWS Managed API methods and EWS operations for deleting appointments and meetings

EWS Managed API method EWS Operation What it does
Appointment.Delete
DeleteItem
Deletes an appointment.
Appointment.Delete
CreateItem (calendar item)
Deletes a meeting.

Note that when you delete an appointment by using EWS, you use the DeleteItem operation, but when you delete a meeting, you use the CreateItem operation. This might seem counterintuitive, but it is because you have to create a meeting response object to send meeting cancellation messages to attendees.

Delete an appointment by using the EWS Managed API

The following code example shows how to use the Delete method to delete an appointment from your calendar folder, and the ExchangeService.FindItems method to verify that the appointment was deleted by looking for it in the Deleted Items folder.

This example assumes that you have authenticated to an Exchange server and have acquired an ExchangeService object named service. The local variable appointmentId is an identifier associated with an existing appointment.

// Instantiate an appointment object by binding to it by using the ItemId.
// As a best practice, limit the properties returned to only the ones you need.
Appointment appointment = Appointment.Bind(service, appointmentId, new PropertySet());
// Delete the appointment. Note that the item ID will change when the item is moved to the Deleted Items folder.
appointment.Delete(DeleteMode.MoveToDeletedItems);
// Verify that the appointment has been deleted by looking for a matching subject in the Deleted Items folder's first entry.
ItemView itemView = new ItemView(1);
itemView.Traversal = ItemTraversal.Shallow;
// Just retrieve the properties you need.
itemView.PropertySet = new PropertySet(ItemSchema.Id, ItemSchema.ParentFolderId, ItemSchema.Subject);
// Note that the FindItems method results in a call to EWS.
FindItemsResults<Item> deletedItems = service.FindItems(WellKnownFolderName.DeletedItems, itemView);
Item deletedItem = deletedItems.First();
Folder parentFolder = Folder.Bind(service, deletedItem.ParentFolderId, new PropertySet(FolderSchema.DisplayName));
Console.WriteLine("The appointment " + "\"" + deletedItem.Subject + "\"" + " is now in the " + parentFolder.DisplayName + " folder.");

This example shows a simple way to verify that the appointment was deleted, by verifying that the subject of the first item in the Deleted Items folder matches that of the deleted appointment. How you choose to verify that your appointment was deleted will vary based the needs of your application.

As you can see, deleting an appointment is straightforward and pretty much what you might expect. Note when you create your verification step that the appointment item in the Deleted Items folder has a different ItemId than the appointment item in the calendar folder. The item is copied and deleted rather than simply moved to the Deleted Items folder.

Delete an appointment by using EWS

The request and response XML in the following examples correspond to calls made by the EWS Managed API code in Delete an appointment by using the EWS Managed API. The request and response XML that verifies that the appointment item is in the Deleted Items folder is shown as well.

The following example shows the request XML for the DeleteItem operation to delete an appointment.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
       xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:soap="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Header>
    <t:RequestServerVersion Version="Exchange2007_SP1" />
    <t:TimeZoneContext>
      <t:TimeZoneDefinition Id="Pacific Standard Time" />
    </t:TimeZoneContext>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <m:DeleteItem DeleteType="MoveToDeletedItems" SendMeetingCancellations="SendToAllAndSaveCopy">
      <m:ItemIds>
        <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
      </m:ItemIds>
    </m:DeleteItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The following example shows the response XML that is returned by the DeleteItem operation. The ItemId and ChangeKey attributes are shortened for readability.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Envelope xmlns:s="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <s:Header>
    <h:ServerVersionInfo MajorVersion="15" MinorVersion="0" MajorBuildNumber="800" MinorBuildNumber="5" Version="V2_6" 
 xmlns:h="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" 
 xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" />
  </s:Header>
  <s:Body xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <m:DeleteItemResponse xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
  xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:DeleteItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
        </m:DeleteItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:DeleteItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

The following example shows the request XML for the FindItem operation that retrieves the first item in the Deleted Items folder in order to compare the item's subject with that of the deleted appointment object.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages
" xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:soap="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Header>
    <t:RequestServerVersion Version="Exchange2007_SP1" />
    <t:TimeZoneContext>
      <t:TimeZoneDefinition Id="Pacific Standard Time" />
    </t:TimeZoneContext>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <m:FindItem Traversal="Shallow">
      <m:ItemShape>
        <t:BaseShape>IdOnly</t:BaseShape>
        <t:AdditionalProperties>
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:ItemId" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:ParentFolderId" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Subject" />
        </t:AdditionalProperties>
      </m:ItemShape>
      <m:IndexedPageItemView MaxEntriesReturned="1" Offset="0" BasePoint="Beginning" />
      <m:ParentFolderIds>
        <t:DistinguishedFolderId Id="deleteditems" />
      </m:ParentFolderIds>
    </m:FindItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The following example shows the response XML that is returned by the FindItem operation during the verification step.

Note

The ItemId and ChangeKey attributes are shortened for readability.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Envelope xmlns:s="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <s:Header>
    <h:ServerVersionInfo MajorVersion="15" MinorVersion="0" MajorBuildNumber="800" MinorBuildNumber="5" Version="V2_6" 
 xmlns:h="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" 
 xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" />
  </s:Header>
  <s:Body xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <m:FindItemResponse xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:FindItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:RootFolder IndexedPagingOffset="1" TotalItemsInView="10748" IncludesLastItemInRange="false">
            <t:Items>
              <t:CalendarItem>
                <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA=" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
                <t:ParentFolderId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="AQAAA" />
                <t:Subject>Tennis lesson</t:Subject>
              </t:CalendarItem>
            </t:Items>
          </m:RootFolder>
        </m:FindItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:FindItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Delete a meeting by using the EWS Managed API

When you delete a meeting, in addition to removing the appointment item from the calendar folder, you might also want to send meeting cancellations to attendees. You can use the following three methods to cancel a meeting:

The method that you choose depends on the level of detail you need to provide in your cancellation message. Appointment.CancelMeeting makes it easy to update the cancellation message by passing an updated message as a parameter. CancelMeetingMessage allows you to modify properties on your message before sending a cancellation, so you can do things like request a receipt.

The code examples in this section show the different ways to delete a meeting and send meeting cancellations. The examples assume that you have authenticated to an Exchange server and have acquired an ExchangeService object named service. The local variable meetingId is an identifier associated with an existing meeting where the target user is the meeting organizer.

The following code example shows how to delete a meeting by using the Appointment.Delete method.

// Instantiate an appointment object for the meeting by binding to it using the ItemId.
// As a best practice, limit the properties returned to only the Appointment ID.
            
Appointment meeting = Appointment.Bind(service, meetingId, new PropertySet());
// Delete the meeting by using the Delete method.
meeting.Delete(DeleteMode.MoveToDeletedItems, SendCancellationsMode.SendToAllAndSaveCopy);
// Verify that the meeting has been deleted by looking for a matching subject in the Deleted Items folder's first entry.
ItemView itemView = new ItemView(1);
itemView.Traversal = ItemTraversal.Shallow;
// Just retrieve the properties you need.
itemView.PropertySet = new PropertySet(ItemSchema.Id, ItemSchema.ParentFolderId, ItemSchema.Subject);
// Note that the FindItems method results in a call to EWS.
FindItemsResults<Item> deletedItems = service.FindItems(WellKnownFolderName.DeletedItems, itemView);
Item deletedItem = deletedItems.First();
Folder parentFolder = Folder.Bind(service, deletedItem.ParentFolderId, new PropertySet(FolderSchema.DisplayName));
Console.WriteLine("The meeting " + "\"" + deletedItem.Subject + "\"" + " is now in the " + parentFolder.DisplayName + " folder.");

The following code example shows how to delete a meeting by using the CancelMeeting method.

// Instantiate an appointment object by binding to it using the ItemId.
// As a best practice, limit the properties returned to only the Appointment ID.
Appointment meeting = Appointment.Bind(service, meetingId, new PropertySet());
// Delete the meeting by using the CancelMeeting method.
meeting.CancelMeeting("The outdoor meeting has been cancelled due to hailstorms.");

The following code example shows how to delete a meeting by using the Appointment.CreateCancelMeetingMessage method.

// Instantiate an appointment object by binding to it using the ItemId.
// As a best practice, limit the properties returned to only the Appointment ID.
Appointment meeting = Appointment.Bind(service, meetingId, new PropertySet());
// Delete the meeting by using the CreateCancelMeetingMessage method.
CancelMeetingMessage cancelMessage = meeting.CreateCancelMeetingMessage();
cancelMessage.Body = new MessageBody("The outdoor meeting has been canceled due to hailstorms.");
cancelMessage.IsReadReceiptRequested = true;
cancelMessage.SendAndSaveCopy();

Delete a meeting by using EWS

The request and response XML in the following examples correspond to calls made by the EWS Managed API code in Delete a meeting by using the EWS Managed API by using the Appointment.Delete method.

The following example shows the request XML when you use the CreateItem operation to send cancellation messages to attendees and delete a meeting.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
       xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:soap="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Header>
    <t:RequestServerVersion Version="Exchange2007_SP1" />
    <t:TimeZoneContext>
      <t:TimeZoneDefinition Id="Pacific Standard Time" />
    </t:TimeZoneContext>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <m:CreateItem MessageDisposition="SendAndSaveCopy">
      <m:Items>
        <t:CancelCalendarItem>
          <t:ReferenceItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
          <t:NewBodyContent BodyType="HTML">The outdoor meeting has been canceled due to hailstorms.</t:NewBodyContent>
        </t:CancelCalendarItem>
      </m:Items>
    </m:CreateItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The following example shows the XML that is returned in response to a CreateItem operation request used to delete a meeting.

Note

The ItemId and ChangeKey attributes are shortened for readability.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Envelope xmlns:s="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <s:Header>
    <h:ServerVersionInfo MajorVersion="15" MinorVersion="0" MajorBuildNumber="800" MinorBuildNumber="5" Version="V2_6" 
 xmlns:h="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" 
 xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" />
  </s:Header>
  <s:Body xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <m:CreateItemResponse xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:CreateItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:Items>
            <t:CalendarItem>
              <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
            </t:CalendarItem>
          </m:Items>
        </m:CreateItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:CreateItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

The following example shows the request XML for the FindItem operation that retrieves the first item in the Deleted Items folder in order to compare the item's subject with that of the deleted appointment object.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
       xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:soap="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Header>
    <t:RequestServerVersion Version="Exchange2007_SP1" />
    <t:TimeZoneContext>
      <t:TimeZoneDefinition Id="Pacific Standard Time" />
    </t:TimeZoneContext>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <m:FindItem Traversal="Shallow">
      <m:ItemShape>
        <t:BaseShape>IdOnly</t:BaseShape>
        <t:AdditionalProperties>
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:ItemId" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:ParentFolderId" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Subject" />
        </t:AdditionalProperties>
      </m:ItemShape>
      <m:IndexedPageItemView MaxEntriesReturned="1" Offset="0" BasePoint="Beginning" />
      <m:ParentFolderIds>
        <t:DistinguishedFolderId Id="deleteditems" />
      </m:ParentFolderIds>
    </m:FindItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The following example shows the XML that is returned by the FindItem operation during the verification step.

Note

The Id and ChangeKey attributes are shortened for readability.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Envelope xmlns:s="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <s:Header>
    <h:ServerVersionInfo MajorVersion="15" MinorVersion="0" MajorBuildNumber="800" MinorBuildNumber="5" Version="V2_6" 
 xmlns:h="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" 
 xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" />
  </s:Header>
  <s:Body xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <m:FindItemResponse xmlns:m="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
xmlns:t="https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:FindItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:RootFolder IndexedPagingOffset="1" TotalItemsInView="10750" IncludesLastItemInRange="false">
            <t:Items>
              <t:CalendarItem>
                <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
                <t:ParentFolderId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="AQAAA" />
                <t:Subject>Team building exercise</t:Subject>
              </t:CalendarItem>
            </t:Items>
          </m:RootFolder>
        </m:FindItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:FindItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

See also