How to Create a Schedule Token

Article
06/30/2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager

You create a schedule token, in System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, by creating and populating an instance of the appropriate SMS_ST_ schedule token class. SMS_ST schedule classes are child classes of the SMS_ScheduleToken class and handle the scheduling of events with differing frequencies such as daily, weekly and monthly.

The SMS_ScheduleMethods Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) class, and the corresponding ReadFromString and WriteToString methods are used to decode and encode schedule tokens into and from an interval string. The interval strings can then be used to set schedule properties when defining or modifying objects. An example of this can be seen in the How to Create a Maintenance Window for a Collection topic where the ServiceWindowSchedules property is configured.

To create a schedule token and convert it to an interval string

Create a schedule token object by using one of the SMS_ScheduleToken child classes. This example uses the SMS_ST_RecurInterval class.
Populate the properties of the new schedule token object.
Convert the schedule token object to an interval string by using the SMS_ScheduleMethods class and WriteToString method.
Use the interval string to populate an object's schedule properties, as needed.

Example

The following example method shows how to create a schedule token by creating and populating an instance of the SMS_ST_RecurInterval schedule token class. In addition, the example shows how to convert the schedule to an interval string by using the SMS_ScheduleMethods class and WriteToString method.

For information about calling the sample code, see Calling Configuration Manager Code Snippets.

Sub CreateDailyRecurringScheduleString(connection,   _
                                       hourDuration, _
                                       daySpan,      _ 
                                       startTime,    _
                                       isGmt)

    ' Create a new recurring interval schedule object.
    ' Note: There are several types of schedule classes available, each defines a different type of schedule.
    Set recurInterval = connection.Get("SMS_ST_RecurInterval").SpawnInstance_

    ' Populate the schedule properties.
    recurInterval.DayDuration = 0
    recurInterval.HourDuration = hourDuration
    recurInterval.MinuteDuration = 0
    recurInterval.DaySpan = daySpan
    recurInterval.HourSpan = 0
    recurInterval.MinuteSpan = 0
    recurInterval.StartTime = startTime
    recurInterval.IsGMT = isGmt

    ' Call WriteToString method to decode the schedule token.
    ' Note: The initial parameter of the WriteToString method requires an array. 
    Set clsScheduleMethod = connection.Get("SMS_ScheduleMethods")
    clsScheduleMethod.WriteToString Array(recurInterval), scheduleString

    ' Output schedule token as an interval string.
    WScript.Echo "Schedule Token Interval String: " & scheduleString

End Sub

public void CreateDailyRecurringScheduleToken(WqlConnectionManager connection,
                                              int hourDuration, 
                                              int daySpan,
                                              string startTime,
                                              bool isGmt)  
{
    try
    {                
        // Create a new recurring interval schedule object.
        // Note: There are several types of schedule classes available, each defines a different type of schedule.
        IResultObject recurInterval = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_ST_RecurInterval");

        // Populate the schedule properties.
        recurInterval["DayDuration"].IntegerValue = 0;
        recurInterval["HourDuration"].IntegerValue = hourDuration;
        recurInterval["MinuteDuration"].IntegerValue = 0;
        recurInterval["DaySpan"].IntegerValue = daySpan;
        recurInterval["HourSpan"].IntegerValue = 0;
        recurInterval["MinuteSpan"].IntegerValue = 0;
        recurInterval["StartTime"].StringValue = startTime;       
        recurInterval["IsGMT"].BooleanValue = isGmt;

        // Creating array to use as a parameters for the WriteToString method.
        List<IResultObject> scheduleTokens = new List<IResultObject>();
        scheduleTokens.Add(recurInterval);

        // Creating dictionary object to pass parameters to the WriteToString method.
        Dictionary<string, object> inParams = new Dictionary<string, object>();
        inParams["TokenData"] = scheduleTokens;

        // Initialize the outParams object.
        IResultObject outParams = null;

        // Call WriteToString method to decode the schedule token.
        outParams = connection.ExecuteMethod("SMS_ScheduleMethods", "WriteToString", inParams);

        // Output schedule token as an interval string.
        // Note: The return value for this method is always 0, so this check is just best practice.
        if (outParams["ReturnValue"].IntegerValue == 0)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Schedule Token Interval String: " + outParams["StringData"].StringValue);
        }
    }
    catch (SmsException ex)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failed. Error: " + ex.InnerException.Message);
    }
}

The example method has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
connection	Managed: WqlConnectionManager VBScript: SWbemServices	A valid connection to the SMS Provider.
hourDuration	Managed: Integer VBScript: Integer	Number of hours during which the scheduled action occurs. Allowable values are in the range 0-23. The default value is 0, indicating no duration.
daySpan	Managed: Integer VBScript: Integer	Number of days spanning schedule intervals. Allowable values are in the range 0-31. The default value is 0.
startTime	Managed: String (DateTime) VBScript: String (DateTime)	Date and time when the scheduled action takes place. The default value is "19700201000000.000000+***". This is the format in which (WMI) CIM DATETIME values are stored.
isGmt	Managed: Boolean VBScript: Boolean	true if the time is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The default value is false, for local time.

Compiling the Code

The C# example has the following compilation requirements:

Namespaces

System

System.Collections.Generic

System.Text

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine

Assembly

microsoft.configurationmanagement.managmentprovider

adminui.wqlqueryengine

Robust Programming

For more information about error handling, see About Configuration Manager Errors.

.NET Framework Security

For more information about securing Configuration Manager applications, see Securing Configuration Manager Applications.

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