Reminders for Appointments
- 3 minutes to read
This document introduces the Reminder and describes how reminders can be created and handled. It lists members that you can use to make the most of reminders in DXScheduler.
#What Is a Reminder?
A reminder sends alerts at specified time periods before an appointment's start time. Any appointment can have one or more reminders. If an appointment has a reminder, the 
image is displayed. The DXScheduler Suite for Silverlight provides an abstract ReminderBase class, which implements the basic reminder functionality and two derived classes - Reminder for appointments of AppointmentType.Normal type and RecurringReminder for appointments of a recurrence series.
A reminder can be created for a particular appointment, either via code or with the help of the appointment's editing form.
There are two methods for creating a reminder via code. The simplest one is the Appointment.HasReminder property - if an appointment has no reminders, and the HasReminder is set to true, then a new reminder with default parameters is created and associated with the appointment. If several reminders for an appointment are required, you should use another method. First, a new reminder is created via the Appointment.CreateNewReminder method. Then, after its characteristics are set, it should be added to the reminder's collection Appointment.Reminders of the particular appointment.
To access appointment reminders, use the Appointment.Reminder property, which returns the first reminder in a collection (and the only one if it has been created via the Appointment.HasReminder property), or the Appointment.Reminders property, which gets the entire collection of reminders for an appointment.
When the time has come for the reminder to alert, it invokes the notification dialog.
An end-user can switch reminders off by clicking the "Dismiss" or "Dismiss All" buttons.
Another option is to shift the alert time by selecting the time interval in the combo box and clicking the "Snooze" button. Then, the notification will be postponed for a specified time.
There is a special case for outdated appointments:
- If a reminder is set for an appointment of the AppointmentType.Normal type, this outdated appointment generates an alert as usual (taking into account the SchedulerStorage.RemindersCheckInterval setting). You can use the SchedulerStorage.TriggerAlerts method to fire all reminders for outdated appointments at once when an application starts.
- If a reminder is set for a recurrent appointment, the reminder never fires for an outdated occurrence. This is sensible because recurrence chains can be lengthy and even infinite.
#What Are the Main Members of the Reminder?
The following table lists the main properties, methods and events that implement a Reminder basic functionality.
| Member Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Appointment Information | |
| Reminder. |
Gets the appointment to which the reminder is applied. |
| Reminder. |
Gets the subject text of the appointment to which the reminder is applied. |
| Alert Options | |
| Reminder |
Gets or sets the reminder's alert time. |
| Reminder |
Gets or sets the time interval before the appointment's start time. |
| Alert Handling | |
| Reminder |
Switches the reminder off for the associated appointment. |
| Reminder |
Notifies the scheduler to defer the triggering of a reminder by the specified interval. |
| Scheduler |
Gets or sets the time interval between checks of the reminder alert time (in milliseconds). |
| Scheduler |
Invokes reminder alerts for the current time. |
| Reminders Form | |
| Scheduler |
Occurs before the Reminders form is invoked to display alert notifications for the currently triggered reminders. |
| Scheduler |
Occurs when an end-user does not click the Dismiss or Snooze button on the Reminders form, but simply closes it. The Options |