Retrieve calendar items (Outlook API, WebDAV) displaying strange behaviour

Question

Possible cause:

Sort after setting IncludeRecurrences.

Here is my code of a PowerShell module that retrieves Outlook items between two dates.

And a little applet to check for changes and send an email including the agenda updates, which comes handy when you don’t have mobile access to the Exchange.

Path: Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\Outlook\expcal.ps1

Function Get-OutlookCalendar
{
  <#
   .Synopsis
    This function returns appointment items from default Outlook profile
   .Description
    This function returns appointment items from the default Outlook profile. It uses the Outlook interop assembly to use the olFolderCalendar enumeration.
    It creates a custom object consisting of Subject, Start, Duration, Location
    for each appointment item.
   .Example
    Get-OutlookCalendar |
    where-object { $_.start -gt [datetime]"5/10/2011" -AND $_.start -lt `
    [datetime]"5/17/2011" } | sort-object Duration
    Displays subject, start, duration and location for all appointments that
    occur between 5/10/11 and 5/17/11 and sorts by duration of the appointment.
    The sort is the shortest appointment on top.
   .Notes
    NAME:  Get-OutlookCalendar
    AUTHOR: ed wilson, msft
    LASTEDIT: 05/10/2011 08:36:42
    KEYWORDS: Microsoft Outlook, Office
    HSG: HSG-05-24-2011
   .Link
     Http://www.ScriptingGuys.com/blog
 #Requires -Version 2.0
 #>

 echo Starting... Initialize variables

 Add-type -assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook" | out-null
 $olFolders = "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders" -as [type]
 $olCalendarDetail = "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlCalendarDetail" -as [type]

 echo ... Getting ref to Outlook and Calendar ...

 $outlook = new-object -comobject outlook.application
 $namespace = $outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
 $folder = $namespace.getDefaultFolder($olFolders::olFolderCalendar)

 echo ... Calculating dates ...

 $now = Get-Date -Hour 0 -Minute 00 -Second 00

 echo From $a To $b

 echo ... Getting appointments ...

 $Appointments = $folder.Items
 $Appointments.IncludeRecurrences = $true
 $Appointments.Sort("[Start]")

 echo ... Setting file names ...

 $oldfile = "$env:USERPROFILE\outlook-calendar.bak"
 echo oldfile: $oldfile
 $newfile = "$env:USERPROFILE\outlook-calendar.txt"
 echo newfile: $newfile
 $calfile = "$env:USERPROFILE\outlook-calendar.ics"
 echo calfile: $calfile

 echo ... Exporting calendar to $calfile ...

 $calendarSharing = $folder.GetCalendarExporter()
 $calendarSharing.CalendarDetail = $olCalendarDetail::olFullDetails
 $calendarSharing.IncludeWholeCalendar = $false
 $calendarSharing.IncludeAttachments = $false
 $calendarSharing.IncludePrivateDetails = $true
 $calendarSharing.RestrictToWorkingHours = $false
 $calendarSharing.StartDate = $now.AddDays(-30)
 $calendarSharing.EndDate = $now.AddDays(30)
 echo $calendarSharing
 $calendarSharing.SaveAsICal($calfile)

 echo ... Backing up $newfile into $oldfile ...

 if (!(Test-Path $newfile)) {
  echo "" |Out-File $newfile
 }

 # Backup old export into $oldfile
 if (Test-Path $oldfile) {
  echo "Deleting old backup file $oldfile"
  del $oldfile 
 }
 echo " ... moving $newfile into $oldfile ... "
 move $newfile $oldfile

 echo "... Generating text report to file $newfile ..."

 $Appointments | Where-object { $_.start -gt $now -AND $_.start -lt $now.AddDays(+7) } | 
  Select-Object -Property Subject, Start, Duration, Location, IsRecurring, RecurrenceState  |
  Sort-object Start |
  Out-File $newfile -Width 100

 echo "... Comparing with previous export for changes ..."

 $oldsize = (Get-Item $oldfile).length
 $newsize = (Get-Item $newfile).length

 if ($oldsize -ne $newsize ) {
  echo "!!! Detected calendar change. Sending email..."
  $mail = $outlook.CreateItem(0)

  #2 = high importance email header
  $mail.importance = 2

  $mail.subject = $env:computername + “ Outlook Calendar“

  $mail.Attachments.Add($newfile)
  $mail.Attachments.Add($calfile)
  $text = Get-Content $newfile | Out-String
  $mail.body = “See attached file...“ + $text

  #for multiple email, use semi-colon ; to separate
  $mail.To = “your-email@your-mail-domain.com“

  $mail.Send()

 }
 else {
  echo "No changes detected in Calendar!"
 }


} #end function Get-OutlookCalendar

Function Get-OutlookCalendarTest
{
 echo starting...
 Add-type -assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook" | out-null
 $olFolders = "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders" -as [type]
 $outlook = new-object -comobject outlook.application
 $namespace = $outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
 $folder = $namespace.getDefaultFolder($olFolders::olFolderCalendar)

 $a = Get-Date -Hour 0 -Minute 00 -Second 00
 $b = (Get-Date -Hour 0 -Minute 00 -Second 00).AddDays(7)
 echo From $a To $b

 $Appointments = $folder.Items
 $Appointments.IncludeRecurrences = $true
 $Appointments.Sort("[Start]")

 $Appointments | Where-object { $_.start -gt $a -AND $_.start -lt $b } | Select-Object -Property IsRecurring, RecurrenceState, Subject, Start, Location

} #end function Get-OutlookCalendarTest

This is the code to invoke the PowerShell function in the module:

Path: Documents\WindowsPowerShell\mono.ps1

Import-Module -Name Outlook\expcal.psm1 -Force

$i=0

#infinite loop for calling connect function   
while(1)
{
   $i = $i +1
   Write-Output "Running task Get-OutlookCalendar ($i)"
   Get-OutlookCalendar

   start-sleep -seconds 300

}

To run the PowerShell script, use powershell.exe. To run this on startup, a shortcut on “%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\”:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\mono.ps1"

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