DASL Filter function?

[Mark B]

I am trying to figure out how to use the "undocumented" Today(S) function.
Basically I have about 10 search folders that make use of most of these:

%yesterday
%today
%tomorrow
%last7days
%next7days
%lastweek
%thisweek
%nextweek
%lastmonth
%thismonth
%nextmonth

So I am also hoping that these functions also allow for passing of a (S)
seconds parameter. The reason I am hoping to do this is to pre-adjust my UTC
DateTime field "MileStone1UTC" so that it will be normalized into local
date/time.

e.g.

"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/string/{00020329-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/MileStone1UTC"
= Today(46800)

e.g.

"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/string/{00020329-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/MileStone1UTC"
= Tomorrow(46800)

However it doesn't work. Anyone know what will here?

Maybe if I knew what Today(0) equated to I could use that if it was an exact
time such as Saturday, January 30, 12:00 AM.

Then I could use:

MileStone1UTC >= Today(0+46800) AND MileStone1UTC <
Today(0+46800+(24*60*60))

where 46800 is 13 hours in my case -- that is the UTC offset from local
time.



Here's the article I was referencing:
=================================================================================
http://blogs.msdn.com/andrewdelin/archive/2005/08/08/448882.aspx

-Snip -

Outlook SQL DASL syntax - an update
Here's an update to my previous blog entry on Doing more with Outlook filter
and SQL DASL syntax.

I had some great feedback from my previous posting, there is obviously a
need for more information about how to "do stuff" with Outlook filters.

Special thanks to Patrick for a very useful message, which showed me how to
use dynamic dates in Outlook filter queries. Previously I thought this was
impossible! Patrick's trick o) is to use the today(S) function with a
parameter in seconds (S). The parameter gives a positive or negative offset
from today and can be used to check the Due Date of tasks (or any other date
test you like).

Here is Patrick's example which he uses on the Tasks folder:

(
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"=0) AND(NOT("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/81050040" IS NULL)) AND("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/81050040" <= today(864000)))When applied to a task folder, this shows 'notcompleted' tasks that have aDue Date set in the next 10 days from today.Thissame technique should be useful for filtering on received date (etc) onemailfolders and others.-Snip end-=================================================================================

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I believe that Today(n) is the only one that allows that, but with
undocumented things they aren't documented and they can't necessarily be
relied on in all versions. I think Today(n) works across the board, but I've
never tested it.

I think you're going to have to test what Today(0) is for you. My guess is
that it's not something you would be able to rely on as a hard-coded value
except for users in the exact same time zone as you. If the time zone
changes I'd expect the offset value to change. I'd also expect it to change
with daylight savings time changes. My impression is this is not the best
way to go if you intend to distribute your code.

What I'd do is instead massage the data in that user defined field so it's
correct. Convert it to local time before you store it in the data field, or
run one-time code to convert existing data and you're done and don't have to
worry about this sort of thing.

 

[Mark B]

Yes I tend to agree.

The only downside to creating an additional user-defined field called
MileStone1LocalTime is if the add-on is stored on somebody'slaptop and they
tend to be a jet-setter (e.g. travelling salesperson) and frequently enter
different timezones. Then the hard-coded local time is no longer relevent.

I suppose the way around this is to store the UTC offset in settings and
check that it is the same on Addin startup. If it's not I'd probably need a
messagebox saying "time-zone adjustments need to be made -- this can take a
few minutes." and then proceed to loop through all emails in all folders,
updating the user-defined field value and saving each one. This would need
to be on the main thread since if I tried to do it in the background it
would appear to hang.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I think you're overthinking this.

If a user is in Florida and their settings are correct for local time zone
the data is stored as UTC, compensated by the local time zone offset. If the
user flies to California and they want UTC times to be correct for that
local time zone they can set the Outlook time zone, add an alternate time
zone and/or change the Windows time zone. Then everything is correct for
local time again.

This is the exact same thing for every single date field in every Outlook
item. If when the date values are entered the time zones are correct the
data is correct in UTC and that's all you can ever expect. If the user
changes time zones and doesn't update their settings every single one of
their date fields will be off by some offset to local time.