How to: Create Appointments with Custom Fields

• Oct 03, 2023
• 3 minutes to read

The code sample below illustrates how to create an appointment with a custom field and use this field in the SchedulerDataStorage.FilterAppointment event to hide appointments which meet certain criteria.

To define a custom field, create a new custom field mapping and add it to the collection of custom mappings using the CustomFieldMappingCollectionBase<T>.Add method. If the Scheduler is not bound to a data source, specify any non-empty string as the data field name.

Create an appointment using the SchedulerDataStorage.CreateAppointment method (so the newly created custom field mappings will be preserved for a new appointment). Set the value for the custom field and add the appointment to the SchedulerDataStorage.Appointments collection.

In the SchedulerDataStorage.FilterAppointment event handler, check the value of the custom field to set e.Cancel to true and hide this appointment.

AppointmentExamples.cs

    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.Clear();
    // Handle the FilterAppointment event to display appointments by some criteria.
    scheduler.Storage.FilterAppointment += Storage_FilterAppointment;
    scheduler.DayView.TopRowTime = TimeSpan.FromHours(DateTime.Now.Hour);

    // Add mapping to create a custom field. 
    // If Scheduler is bound to data, the string "DataFieldOne" should match the field name in the data source.
    // For unbound Scheduler, the data field name is required but not used.
    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.CustomFieldMappings.Add(new
       AppointmentCustomFieldMapping("PropertyOne", "DataFieldOne"));
    Appointment apt1 = scheduler.Storage.CreateAppointment(AppointmentType.Normal,
        DateTime.Now, new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0), "Visible Appointment");
    apt1.CustomFields["PropertyOne"] = "Visible";
    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.Add(apt1);
    Appointment apt2 = scheduler.Storage.CreateAppointment(AppointmentType.Normal,
        DateTime.Now.AddHours(2), new TimeSpan(0, 30, 0), "Hidden Appointment");
    apt2.CustomFields["PropertyOne"] = "Hidden";
    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.Add(apt2);
static void Storage_FilterAppointment(object sender, PersistentObjectCancelEventArgs e) {
    e.Cancel = ((Appointment)e.Object).CustomFields["PropertyOne"].ToString() == "Hidden";
}

AppointmentExamples.vb

    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.Clear()
    ' Handle the FilterAppointment event to display appointments by some criteria.
    AddHandler scheduler.Storage.FilterAppointment, AddressOf Storage_FilterAppointment
    scheduler.DayView.TopRowTime = TimeSpan.FromHours(Date.Now.Hour)

    ' Add mapping to create a custom field. 
    ' If Scheduler is bound to data, the string "DataFieldOne" should match the field name in the data source.
    ' For unbound Scheduler, the data field name is required but not used.
    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.CustomFieldMappings.Add(New AppointmentCustomFieldMapping("PropertyOne", "DataFieldOne"))
    Dim apt1 As Appointment = scheduler.Storage.CreateAppointment(AppointmentType.Normal, Date.Now, New TimeSpan(1, 0, 0), "Visible Appointment")
    apt1.CustomFields("PropertyOne") = "Visible"
    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.Add(apt1)
    Dim apt2 As Appointment = scheduler.Storage.CreateAppointment(AppointmentType.Normal, Date.Now.AddHours(2), New TimeSpan(0, 30, 0), "Hidden Appointment")
    apt2.CustomFields("PropertyOne") = "Hidden"
    scheduler.Storage.Appointments.Add(apt2)
Private Shared Sub Storage_FilterAppointment(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As PersistentObjectCancelEventArgs)
    e.Cancel = CType(e.Object, Appointment).CustomFields("PropertyOne").ToString() = "Hidden"
End Sub

Custom Edit Form

If you want users to view and edit data stored in custom appointment fields, implement a custom appointment edit form (the DevExpress.XtraScheduler.UI.AppointmentForm class descendant). See this GitHub repository for the example: How to use custom appointment fields in a custom editing form.