appointments from tasks - advanced filter/view

Dear Experts,
you can create appointment in calendar from task (by draggisk task to calendar).
If you create such appointent, does the appointment object contains some reference to the source task?
can you for example prepare and SQL filter (view) showing only those tasks which have a corresponding appointment in calendar?
thanks
Jarek

LVL 1

ja-rekAsked: 2012-12-28

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LVL 76

David LeeCommented: 2013-03-07

The following macro reads through your tasks and searches for a matching appointment on your calendar. If it doesn't find one, then it adds that task to the list. Once the macro finishes processing the tasks it displays a page in Internet Explorer listing the tasks that it didn't find a match for. Click a link to open that task.

Follow these instructions to add the code to Outlook.

1. Start Outlook
2. Press ALT+F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor
3. If not already expanded, expand Microsoft Office Outlook Objects
4. If not already expanded, expand Modules
5. Select an existing module (e.g. Module1) by double-clicking on it or create a new module by right-clicking Modules and selecting Insert > Module.
6. Copy the code from the Code Snippet box and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook's VB Editor window
7. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes
8. Close the VB Editor

Sub FindMatchingTasks()
    Dim olkTsks As Outlook.Items, _
        olkTsk As Outlook.TaskItem, _
        olkApts As Outlook.Items, _
        olkHit As Outlook.AppointmentItem, _
        strBuff As String, _
        objIE As Object
    Set olkTsks = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks).Items
    Set olkApts = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar).Items
    olkApts.Sort "[Start]"
    olkApts.IncludeRecurrences = True
    For Each olkTsk In olkTsks
    Debug.Print olkTsk.Subject
        Set olkHit = olkApts.Find("[Subject] = '" & olkTsk.Subject & "'")
        If TypeName(olkHit) = "Nothing" Then
            strBuff = strBuff & "<tr><td><a href=""Outlook:" & olkTsk.EntryID & """>" & olkTsk.Subject & "</a></td></tr>"
        End If
    Next
    Set objIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
    With objIE
        .Navigate2 "about:blank"
        Do Until .readyState = 4
            DoEvents
        Loop
        .document.Body.innerHTML = "<p>The following tasks do not appear to have a matching entry on your calendar.</p><table>" & strBuff & "</table>"
        .Visible = True
    End With
    Set olkTsks = Nothing
    Set olkTsk = Nothing
    Set olkApts = Nothing
    Set olkHits = Nothing
    Set objIE = Nothing
End Sub

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LVL 12

Julian123Commented: 2012-12-28

Hi ja-rek,

From the Outlook perspective, there's no direct pointer from the appointment object to the task object. The appointment is a new and separate item on the calendar. There isn't a way to create a regular or SQL view that shows only tasks with a corresponding appointment.

That said, the task and appointment will have the same subject so it would be possible to write a customer VBA or C# add-in that creates a view that links the two together. It may not work 100% of the time if multiple tasks/appointments have the same subject but if that doesn't occur often for you it should work most of the the time. If that's of interest to you, please open a new question in the Outlook Groupware and MS Development sections and we can get you some help on that.

Thanks!

LVL 10

Nancy McCulloughCommented: 2013-01-01

Yep, you can. Using MS Office for project management is an enhancement found in 2010. Have a peek: http://gigaom.com/2009/09/23/5-outlook-2010-productivity-enhancements/

LVL 1

ja-rekAuthor Commented: 2013-02-15

Unfortunately I cannot find what I need in the arcticle you provided, cityqat.
Can you please be more specific?

or maybe other Expert could help?
I need a way to display tasks (maybe using SQL filter) from which there are no appointments created in Calendar.

Otherwise I will follow Julian123 advice.

thanks!
Jarek

LVL 76

David LeeCommented: 2013-03-07

Hi, ja-rek.

What do you have in mind when you say "display tasks"? As Julian123 said, we can use VBA to search the calendar for tasks with subjects matching those of tasks. There's no built-in way of displaying that in Outlook though. In other words, we can't filter your task list to show just those tasks with calendar appointments. We could display that info in a dialog-box, send it to Excel, or something like that.

Julian123 also pointed out an obvious flaw in this kind of search. All we can match on is the subject. That's going to provide inaccurate results since it's entirely possible that there will be appointments with subjects that match tasks even though that appointment wasn't created by dragging and dropping the task to the calendar.

Perhaps if you could share what you need to accomplish we could recommend a solution.