Process calendar items in batches in Exchange

Learn how to create, get, update, or delete batches of calendar items in a single call by using the EWS Managed API or EWS in Exchange.

You can use the EWS Managed API or EWS to work with batches of appointments and meetings to reduce the number of calls a client makes to an Exchange server. When you use the EWS Managed API to create, get, update, and delete a batch of calendar items, you use ExchangeService object methods, whereas when you work with single calendar items, you use Appointment object methods. If you are using EWS, you use the same operation for batch calls that you use for single calls.

Table 1. EWS Managed API methods and EWS operations for working with batches of calendar items

In order to…	Use this EWS Managed API method	Use this EWS operation
Create calendar items in batches	CreateItems	CreateItem
Get calendar items in batches	BindToItems	GetItem
Update calendar items in batches	UpdateItems	UpdateItem
Delete calendar items in batches	DeleteItems	DeleteItem

In this article, you'll learn how to complete basic tasks for batches of calendar items by using the EWS Managed API or EWS.

Note that in the EWS Managed API examples in this article, if the methods are called sequentially, you can create, get, update, and then delete a batch of calendar items.

Collection<ItemId> itemIds = BatchCreateCalendarItems(service);
Collection<Appointment> myAppointments = BatchGetCalendarItems(service, itemIds);
itemIds = BatchUpdateCalendarItems(service, myAppointments);
BatchDeleteCalendarItemsTwice(service, itemIds);

Create calendar items in batches by using the EWS Managed API

You can create calendar items in batches by using the CreateItems EWS Managed API method, as shown in the following example. This example creates three Appointment objects — a single-instance appointment, a recurring appointment, and a meeting — and then adds them to a collection.

This example assumes that you have authenticated to an Exchange server and have acquired an ExchangeService object named service.

public static Collection<ItemId> BatchCreateCalendarItems(ExchangeService service)
{
    // These are unsaved local instances of an Appointment object.
    // Despite the required parameter of an ExchangeService object (service), no call
    // to an Exchange server is made when the objects are instantiated.
    // A call to the Exchange server is made when the service.CreateItems() method is called.
    Appointment appt1 = new Appointment(service);
    Appointment recurrAppt2 = new Appointment(service);
    Appointment meeting3 = new Appointment(service);
    // Set the properties for a single instance appointment.
    appt1.Subject = "Review current quarterly deliverables";
    appt1.Body = "Wrap up all outstanding deliverables for this quarter and prepare for Q2.";
    appt1.Start = DateTime.Now.AddDays(2);
    appt1.End = appt1.Start.AddHours(3);
    appt1.Location = "My office";
    appt1.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 30;
    // Set the properties for a recurring appointment.
    recurrAppt2.Subject = "Food bank delivery";
    recurrAppt2.Body = "Deliver the team's weekly food drive collection to the food bank.";
    recurrAppt2.Start = DateTime.Now.AddDays(1);
    recurrAppt2.End = recurrAppt2.Start.AddHours(1);
    recurrAppt2.Location = "Local food bank";
    arecurrAppt2.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 30;
    DayOfTheWeek[] dow = new DayOfTheWeek[] {(DayOfTheWeek)recurrAppt2.Start.DayOfWeek};
    recurrAppt2.Recurrence = new Recurrence.WeeklyPattern(recurrAppt2.Start.Date, 1, dow);
    recurrAppt2.Recurrence.StartDate = recurrAppt2.Start.Date;
    recurrAppt2.Recurrence.NumberOfOccurrences = 10;
    // Set the properties for a single instance meeting.
    meeting3.Subject = "Code Blast";
    meeting3.Body = "Let's get together to finish all the methods and unit tests for the ContosoLive project.";
    meeting3.Start = DateTime.Now.AddDays(3);
    meeting3.End = meeting3.Start.AddHours(6);
    meeting3.Location = "The lounge";
    meeting3.RequiredAttendees.Add("Mack@contoso.com");
    meeting3.RequiredAttendees.Add("Sadie@contoso.com");
    meeting3.RequiredAttendees.Add("Magdalena@contoso.com");
    meeting3.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 30;
    // Add the appointment objects to a collection.
    Collection<Appointment> calendarItems = new Collection<Appointment>() { appt1, recurrAppt2, meeting3 };
    // Instantiate a collection of item IDs to populate from the values that are returned by the Exchange server.
    Collection<ItemId> itemIds = new Collection<ItemId>();

    // Send the batch of Appointment objects.
    // Note that multiple calls to the Exchange server might be made when Appointment objects have attachments.
    // Note also that the the ID of the item collection passed as the first parameter to CreateItems is set on return.
    ServiceResponseCollection<ServiceResponse> response = service.CreateItems(calendarItems,
                                                                              WellKnownFolderName.Calendar,
                                                                              MessageDisposition.SendAndSaveCopy,
                                                                              SendInvitationsMode.SendToAllAndSaveCopy);
    if (response.OverallResult == ServiceResult.Success)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("All appointments and meetings sucessfully created.");
    }
    // Collect the item IDs from the created calendar items.
    foreach (Appointment appt in calendarItems)
    {
        itemIds.Add(appt.Id);
    }
    int counter = 1;
    // Show the IDs and errors for each message.
    foreach (ServiceResponse resp in response)
    {
        // Because item IDs are long, show only five characters.
        Console.WriteLine("Result (message {0}), id {1}: {2}", counter, itemIds[counter - 1].ToString().Substring(0, 5), resp.Result);
        Console.WriteLine("Error Code: {0}", resp.ErrorCode);
        Console.WriteLine("ErrorMessage: {0}\r\n", resp.ErrorMessage);
        counter++;
    }
// Return the collection of item IDs.
return itemIds;
}

The Appointment objects in the collection can be appointments or meetings, and either single instances or a recurring series of either.

Create calendar items in batches by using EWS

You can create calendar items in batches by using the CreateItem EWS operation, as shown in the following code example. This is also the XML request that the EWS Managed API sends when you use the EWS Managed API to create calendar items in batches.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
               xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
               xmlns:t="http://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" SendMeetingInvitations="SendToAllAndSaveCopy">
      <m:SavedItemFolderId>
        <t:DistinguishedFolderId Id="calendar" />
      </m:SavedItemFolderId>
      <m:Items>
        <t:CalendarItem>
          <t:Subject>Review current quarterly deliverables</t:Subject>
          <t:Body BodyType="HTML">Wrap up all outstanding deliverables for this quarter and prepare for Q2.</t:Body>
          <t:ReminderDueBy>2014-01-07T12:13:40.333-08:00</t:ReminderDueBy>
          <t:Start>2014-01-08T13:13:37.717-08:00</t:Start>
          <t:End>2014-01-08T16:13:37.717-08:00</t:End>
          <t:Location>Local food bank</t:Location>
          <t:MeetingTimeZone TimeZoneName="Pacific Standard Time" />
        </t:CalendarItem>
        <t:CalendarItem>
          <t:Subject>Food bank delivery</t:Subject>
          <t:Body BodyType="HTML">Deliver the team's weekly food drive collection to the food bank.</t:Body>
          <t:Start>2014-01-07T13:13:40.333-08:00</t:Start>
          <t:End>2014-01-07T14:13:40.333-08:00</t:End>
          <t:Recurrence>
            <t:WeeklyRecurrence>
              <t:Interval>1</t:Interval>
              <t:DaysOfWeek>Tuesday</t:DaysOfWeek>
            </t:WeeklyRecurrence>
            <t:NumberedRecurrence>
              <t:StartDate>2014-01-07-08:00</t:StartDate>
              <t:NumberOfOccurrences>10</t:NumberOfOccurrences>
            </t:NumberedRecurrence>
          </t:Recurrence>
          <t:MeetingTimeZone TimeZoneName="Pacific Standard Time" />
        </t:CalendarItem>
        <t:CalendarItem>
          <t:Subject>Code Blast</t:Subject>
          <t:Body BodyType="HTML">Let's get together to finish all the methods and unit tests for the ContosoLive project.</t:Body>
          <t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>30</t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>
          <t:Start>2014-01-09T13:13:44.998-08:00</t:Start>
          <t:End>2014-01-09T19:13:44.998-08:00</t:End>
          <t:Location>The lounge</t:Location>
          <t:RequiredAttendees>
            <t:Attendee>
              <t:Mailbox>
                <t:EmailAddress>Mack@contoso.com</t:EmailAddress>
              </t:Mailbox>
            </t:Attendee>
            <t:Attendee>
              <t:Mailbox>
                <t:EmailAddress>Sadie@contoso.com</t:EmailAddress>
              </t:Mailbox>
            </t:Attendee>
            <t:Attendee>
              <t:Mailbox>
                <t:EmailAddress>Magdalena@contoso.com</t:EmailAddress>
              </t:Mailbox>
            </t:Attendee>
          </t:RequiredAttendees>
          <t:MeetingTimeZone TimeZoneName="Pacific Standard Time" />
        </t:CalendarItem>
      </m:Items>
    </m:CreateItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The server responds to the CreateItem request with a CreateItemResponse message that includes a ResponseCode value of NoError for each of the new calendar items, which indicates that each calendar item was created successfully.

Note that the calendar items are either meetings or appointments, or single instances or a recurring series, according to the element values of each calendar item passed to the Exchange server.

The following is the response from the server. 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="847" MinorBuildNumber="12" Version="V2_8"
                         xmlns:h="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types"
                         xmlns="http://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="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
                          xmlns:t="http://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: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: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>

Get calendar items in batches by using the EWS Managed API

You can get calendar items in batches by using the BindToItems EWS Managed API method, as shown in the following example.

This example assumes that you have authenticated to an Exchange server and have acquired an ExchangeService object named service.

public static Collection<Appointment> BatchGetCalendarItems(ExchangeService service, Collection<ItemId> itemIds)
{
    // As a best practice, create a property set that limits the properties returned by the Bind method to only those that are required.
    PropertySet appointmentProps = new PropertySet(BasePropertySet.IdOnly,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.Subject,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.Body,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.Start,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.End,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.AppointmentType,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.Location,
                                                   AppointmentSchema.RequiredAttendees);

    ServiceResponseCollection<GetItemResponse> response = service.BindToItems(itemIds, appointmentProps);
    Collection<Appointment> calendarItems = new Collection<Appointment>();
    foreach (GetItemResponse items in response)
    {
        Item item = items.Item;
        Appointment appointmentItem = (Appointment)item;
        calendarItems.Add(appointmentItem);
        Console.WriteLine("Found item {0}.", appointmentItem.Id.ToString().Substring(144));
    }
    if (response.OverallResult == ServiceResult.Success)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("All calendar items retrieved successfully.");
        Console.WriteLine("\r\n");
    }
    else
    {
        int counter = 1;
        // List the status of each message.
        foreach (ServiceResponse resp in response)
        {
            // Because item IDs are long, show only last 8 characters.
            Console.WriteLine("Result (message {0}), id {1}: {2}", counter, itemIds[counter - 1].ToString().Substring(144), resp.Result);
            Console.WriteLine("Error Code: {0}", resp.ErrorCode);
            Console.WriteLine("ErrorMessage: {0}\r\n", resp.ErrorMessage);
            Console.WriteLine("\r\n");
            counter++;
        }
    }
    return calendarItems;
}

Get calendar items in batches by using EWS

You can get calendar items in batches by using the GetItem EWS operation, as shown in the following example. This is also the XML request that the EWS Managed API sends when you use the EWS Managed API to get calendar items in batches.

The ItemId and ChangeKey attributes are shortened for readability.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
               xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
               xmlns:t="http://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:GetItem>
      <m:ItemShape>
        <t:BaseShape>IdOnly</t:BaseShape>
        <t:AdditionalProperties>
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Subject" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Body" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="calendar:Start" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="calendar:End" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="calendar:CalendarItemType" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="calendar:Location" />
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="calendar:RequiredAttendees" />
        </t:AdditionalProperties>
      </m:ItemShape>
      <m:ItemIds>
        <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
        <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
        <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
      </m:ItemIds>
    </m:GetItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The server responds to the GetItem request with a GetItemResponse message with the requested properties for each item, as shown in the following example.

<?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="847" MinorBuildNumber="16" Version="V2_8"
                         xmlns:h="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types"
                         xmlns="http://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:GetItemResponse xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
                       xmlns:t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:GetItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:Items>
            <t:CalendarItem>
              <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
              <t:Subject>Review current quarterly deliverables</t:Subject>
              <t:Body BodyType="HTML">
                &amp;lt;html&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;head&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;/head&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;body&amp;gt;
                Wrap up all outstanding deliverables for this quarter and prepare for Q2.
                &amp;lt;/body&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;/html&amp;gt;
              </t:Body>
              <t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>30</t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>
              <t:Start>2014-01-19T18:59:07Z</t:Start>
              <t:End>2014-01-19T21:59:07Z</t:End>
              <t:Location>Local food bank</t:Location>
              <t:CalendarItemType>Single</t:CalendarItemType>
            </t:CalendarItem>
          </m:Items>
        </m:GetItemResponseMessage>
        <m:GetItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:Items>
            <t:CalendarItem>
              <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
              <t:Subject>Food bank delivery</t:Subject>
              <t:Body BodyType="HTML">
                &amp;lt;html&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;head&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;/head&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;body&amp;gt;
                Deliver the team's weekly food drive collection to the food bank.
                &amp;lt;/body&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;/html&amp;gt;
              </t:Body>
              <t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>15</t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>
              <t:Start>2014-01-18T18:59:07Z</t:Start>
              <t:End>2014-01-18T19:59:07Z</t:End>
              <t:CalendarItemType>RecurringMaster</t:CalendarItemType>
            </t:CalendarItem>
          </m:Items>
        </m:GetItemResponseMessage>
        <m:GetItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:Items>
            <t:CalendarItem>
              <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
              <t:Subject>Code Blast</t:Subject>
              <t:Body BodyType="HTML">
                &amp;lt;html&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;head&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;/head&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;body&amp;gt;
                Let's get together to finish all the methods and unit tests for the ContosoLive project.
                &amp;lt;/body&amp;gt;
                &amp;lt;/html&amp;gt;
              </t:Body>
              <t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>30</t:ReminderMinutesBeforeStart>
              <t:Start>2014-01-20T18:59:08Z</t:Start>
              <t:End>2014-01-21T00:59:08Z</t:End>
              <t:Location>The lounge</t:Location>
              <t:CalendarItemType>Single</t:CalendarItemType>
              <t:RequiredAttendees>
                <t:Attendee>
                  <t:Mailbox>
                    <t:Name>Mack@contoso.com</t:Name>
                    <t:EmailAddress>Mack@contoso.com</t:EmailAddress>
                    <t:RoutingType>SMTP</t:RoutingType>
                  </t:Mailbox>
                  <t:ResponseType>Unknown</t:ResponseType>
                </t:Attendee>
                <t:Attendee>
                  <t:Mailbox>
                    <t:Name>Sadie@contoso.com</t:Name>
                    <t:EmailAddress>Sadie@contoso.com</t:EmailAddress>
                    <t:RoutingType>SMTP</t:RoutingType>
                  </t:Mailbox>
                  <t:ResponseType>Unknown</t:ResponseType>
                </t:Attendee>
                <t:Attendee>
                  <t:Mailbox>
                    <t:Name>Magdalena@contoso.com</t:Name>
                    <t:EmailAddress>Magdalena@contoso.com</t:EmailAddress>
                    <t:RoutingType>SMTP</t:RoutingType>
                  </t:Mailbox>
                  <t:ResponseType>Unknown</t:ResponseType>
                </t:Attendee>
              </t:RequiredAttendees>
            </t:CalendarItem>
          </m:Items>
        </m:GetItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:GetItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Update calendar items in batches by using the EWS Managed API

You can update calendar item properties in batches by using the UpdateItems EWS Managed API method, as shown in the following example.

This example assumes that you have authenticated to an Exchange server and have acquired an ExchangeService object named service.

public static Collection<ItemId> BatchUpdateCalendarItems(ExchangeService service, Collection<Appointment> calendarItems)
{
    int i = 1;
    // Appointment item IDs to return.
    Collection<ItemId> itemIds = new Collection<ItemId>();

    // Update the subject of each calendar item locally.
    foreach (Appointment appointment in calendarItems)
    {
        // Update the subject of each calendar item in the collection
        appointment.Subject = "Company headquarters are moving down the street to 1234 Contoso Drive!: " + appointment.Subject.ToString();
        Console.WriteLine("Updated the subject property for calendar item {0} of {1}, item id {2}.", i, calendarItems.Count, appointment.Id.ToString().Substring(0, 5));
        i++;
        // Collect item IDs to return instead of appointment objects.
        itemIds.Add(appointment.Id);
    }
    // Send the updated items to the server.
    // This method call results in an UpdateItem call to EWS.
    ServiceResponseCollection<UpdateItemResponse> response = service.UpdateItems(calendarItems,
                                                                                 WellKnownFolderName.Calendar,
                                                                                 ConflictResolutionMode.AutoResolve,
                                                                                 MessageDisposition.SendAndSaveCopy,
                                                                                    SendInvitationsOrCancellationsMode.SendToChangedAndSaveCopy);
    // Display the result of the UpdateItems method call.
    if (response.OverallResult == ServiceResult.Success)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Calendar items successfully updated.\r\n");
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Not all items were successfully updated on the server.\r\n");
        i = 1;
        foreach (ServiceResponse srvResponse in response)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Result for message {0}: {1}", i, srvResponse.Result);
            Console.WriteLine("Error code: {0}", srvResponse.ErrorCode);
            Console.WriteLine("ErrorMessage: {0}\r\n", srvResponse.ErrorMessage);
            i++;
        }
    }
    return itemIds;
}

Update calendar items in batches by using EWS

You can update multiple calendar items by using the UpdateItem EWS operation, as shown in following code example. This is also the XML request that the EWS Managed API sends when you use the EWS Managed API to update calendar items in batches.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
               xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
               xmlns:t="http://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:UpdateItem MessageDisposition="SendAndSaveCopy" ConflictResolution="AutoResolve"
                  SendMeetingInvitationsOrCancellations="SendToChangedAndSaveCopy">
      <m:SavedItemFolderId>
        <t:DistinguishedFolderId Id="calendar" />
      </m:SavedItemFolderId>
      <m:ItemChanges>
        <t:ItemChange>
          <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
          <t:Updates>
            <t:SetItemField>
              <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Subject" />
              <t:CalendarItem>
                <t:Subject>Company headquarters are moving down the street to 1234 Contoso Drive!: Review current quarterly deliverables
                </t:Subject>
                </t:CalendarItem>
            </t:SetItemField>
          </t:Updates>
        </t:ItemChange>
        <t:ItemChange>
          <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
          <t:Updates>
            <t:SetItemField>
              <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Subject" />
              <t:CalendarItem>
                <t:Subject>Company headquarters are moving down the street to 1234 Contoso Drive!: Food bank delivery</t:Subject>
              </t:CalendarItem>
            </t:SetItemField>
          </t:Updates>
        </t:ItemChange>
        <t:ItemChange>
          <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
          <t:Updates>
            <t:SetItemField>
              <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Subject" />
              <t:CalendarItem>
                <t:Subject>Company headquarters are moving down the street to 1234 Contoso Drive!: Code Blast</t:Subject>
              </t:CalendarItem>
            </t:SetItemField>
          </t:Updates>
        </t:ItemChange>
      </m:ItemChanges>
    </m:UpdateItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The server responds to the UpdateItem request with an UpdateItemResponse message that includes a ResponseCode value of NoError, which indicates that each of the updates was saved successfully on the server. Any conflicts are reported in the ConflictResult element.

<?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="859" MinorBuildNumber="13"
                         Version="V2_8" xmlns:h="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types"
                         xmlns="http://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:UpdateItemResponse xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
                          xmlns:t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:UpdateItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:Items>
            <t:CalendarItem>
              <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
            </t:CalendarItem>
          </m:Items>
          <m:ConflictResults>
            <t:Count>1</t:Count>
          </m:ConflictResults>
        </m:UpdateItemResponseMessage>
        <m:UpdateItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:Items>
            <t:CalendarItem>
              <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
            </t:CalendarItem>
          </m:Items>
          <m:ConflictResults>
            <t:Count>1</t:Count>
          </m:ConflictResults>
        </m:UpdateItemResponseMessage>
        <m:UpdateItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:Items>
            <t:CalendarItem>
              <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
            </t:CalendarItem>
          </m:Items>
          <m:ConflictResults>
            <t:Count>1</t:Count>
          </m:ConflictResults>
        </m:UpdateItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:UpdateItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Delete calendar items in batches by using the EWS Managed API

You can delete calendar items in batches by using the DeleteItems EWS Managed API method, as shown in the following example. This example makes the deletion request a second time to show that no exceptions are thrown but that the server will return an ErrorItemNotFound error to indicate that the items to delete weren't in the store when the call was made. This error is returned if the item has already been deleted, or if a bad item ID is passed to the server.

This example assumes that you have authenticated to an Exchange server and have acquired an ExchangeService object named service.

public static void BatchDeleteCalendarItemsTwice(ExchangeService service, Collection<ItemId> itemIds)
{
    // Delete the batch of appointment objects
    // This method call results in a DeleteItem call to EWS.
    ServiceResponseCollection<ServiceResponse> response = service.DeleteItems(itemIds,
                                                                                DeleteMode.MoveToDeletedItems,
                                                                                SendCancellationsMode.SendToAllAndSaveCopy,
                                                                                AffectedTaskOccurrence.AllOccurrences);
    int counter = 1;
    // Show the IDs and errors for each message.
    foreach (ServiceResponse resp in response)
    {
        // Because item IDs are long, show only five characters.
        Console.WriteLine("Result (message {0}), id {1}: {2}", counter, itemIds[counter - 1].ToString().Substring(0, 5), resp.Result);
        Console.WriteLine("Error Code: {0}", resp.ErrorCode);
        Console.WriteLine("ErrorMessage: {0}\r\n", resp.ErrorMessage);
        counter++;
    }

    // Now attempt to delete the same items again.
    response = service.DeleteItems(itemIds,
                                    DeleteMode.MoveToDeletedItems,
                                    SendCancellationsMode.SendToAllAndSaveCopy,
                                    AffectedTaskOccurrence.AllOccurrences);
    counter = 1;
    // Show the IDs and errors for each message.
    foreach (ServiceResponse resp in response)
    {
        // Because item IDs are long, show only five characters.
        Console.WriteLine("Result (message {0}), id {1}: {2}", counter, itemIds[counter - 1].ToString().Substring(0, 5), resp.Result);
        Console.WriteLine("Error Code: {0}", resp.ErrorCode);
        Console.WriteLine("ErrorMessage: {0}\r\n", resp.ErrorMessage);
        counter++;
    }
}

When the DeleteItems method is called the second time, no exception is thrown, but the server returns an ErrorItemNotFound error in the result.

Delete calendar items in batches by using EWS

You can delete calendar items in batches by using the DeleteItem EWS operation, as shown in the following code example. This is also the XML request that the EWS Managed API sends when you use the EWS Managed API to delete calendar items in batches.

The ItemId and ChangeKey attributes are shortened for readability.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
               xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
               xmlns:t="http://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"
                  AffectedTaskOccurrences="AllOccurrences"
                  SendMeetingCancellations="SendToAllAndSaveCopy">
      <m:ItemIds>
        <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
        <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
        <t:ItemId Id="AAMkA" ChangeKey="DwAAA" />
      </m:ItemIds>
    </m:DeleteItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The server responds to the DeleteItem request with a DeleteItemResponse message that includes a ResponseCode value of NoError for each item that was removed.

<?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="859" MinorBuildNumber="13" Version="V2_8"
                         xmlns:h="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types"
                         xmlns="http://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="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
                          xmlns:t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:DeleteItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
        </m:DeleteItemResponseMessage>
        <m:DeleteItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
        </m:DeleteItemResponseMessage>
        <m:DeleteItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
        </m:DeleteItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:DeleteItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Note that if the DeleteItem request is made when the associated items have already been deleted, no exception will be thrown, but the server will return an ErrorItemNotFound error in the result. The following example shows the server response to a DeleteItem request when the associated items have already been deleted.

<?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="859" MinorBuildNumber="13" Version="V2_8"
                         xmlns:h="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types"
                         xmlns="http://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="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"
                          xmlns:t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:DeleteItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Error">
          <m:MessageText>The specified object was not found in the store.</m:MessageText>
          <m:ResponseCode>ErrorItemNotFound</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:DescriptiveLinkKey>0</m:DescriptiveLinkKey>
        </m:DeleteItemResponseMessage>
        <m:DeleteItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Error">
          <m:MessageText>The specified object was not found in the store.</m:MessageText>
          <m:ResponseCode>ErrorItemNotFound</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:DescriptiveLinkKey>0</m:DescriptiveLinkKey>
        </m:DeleteItemResponseMessage>
        <m:DeleteItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Error">
          <m:MessageText>The specified object was not found in the store.</m:MessageText>
          <m:ResponseCode>ErrorItemNotFound</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:DescriptiveLinkKey>0</m:DescriptiveLinkKey>
        </m:DeleteItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:DeleteItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Verifying that a batch process completed successfully

When one or more calendar items in a batched request can't be processed as requested, an error is returned for each calendar item that failed, and the rest of the calendar items in the batch are processed as expected. Failures in batch processing can occur if the item was deleted, and therefore can't be sent, retrieved, or updated, or if the item moved to a different folder, and therefore has a new item ID, and cannot be modified with the item ID sent. The information in this section shows how to get error details about failures in batch processing of calendar items.

To verify the success of a batch process by using the EWS Managed API, you can check that the OverallResult property of the ServiceResponseCollection is equal to ServiceResult.Success. If so, all the calendar items were processed successfully. If the OverallResult is not equal to ServiceResult.Success, one or more of the calendar items were not processed successfully. Each of the objects returned in the ServiceResponseCollection contains the following properties:

• ErrorCode

• ErrorDetails

• ErrorMessage

• ErrorProperties

• Result

These properties contain information about why the calendar items could not be processed as requested. The examples in this article print out the Result, ErrorCode, and ErrorMessage for each failed item. You can use these results to investigate the issue.

For EWS, to verify the success of a batched process, check the ResponseClass attribute for each item being processed. The following is the basic structure of the ResponseMessageType, the base type from which all response messages are derived.

<ResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success | Warning | Error">
            <MessageText/>
            <ResponseCode/>
            <DescriptiveLinkKey/>
            <MessageXml/>
</ResponseMessage>

The ResponseClass attribute is set to Success if the calendar item was processed successfully, or Error if it was not processed successfully. For calendar items, you will not encounter a Warning during batch processing. If the ResponseClass is Success, the ResponseCode element that follows is also always set to NoError. If the ResponseClass is Error, you need to check the values of the MessageText, ResponseCode, and MessageXml elements to determine what caused the problem. DescriptiveLinkKey is currently unused.

See also

• Calendars and EWS in Exchange

• Get appointments and meetings by using EWS in Exchange

• Update appointments and meetings by using EWS in Exchange

• Delete appointments and cancel meetings by using EWS in Exchange

• Process calendar items in batches in Exchange

• Throttling implications for EWS batch requests