service.getServerTimeZones() returns a list of invalid TimeZoneDefinitions

[vik34]

None of the TimeZoneDefinition objects will be valid, since no Transition, TransitionGroup and TimeZonePeriod are set. The only way I can create an Appointment is to enable the Exchange2007Compatibility flag, which I can only set when I switch them to public.

I haven't yet tested Ex2010 and Ex2013, but I still would have to enable Compatibility since I can't get a valid TimeZoneDefinition.

Is there a step I am missing to actually get this information?
At the moment they're just generated from the static method TimeZone.getAvailableIDs(), however only .name and .id are set.

[kentongray]

I personally think the verify method on this class is broken, as it doesn't really need to have that data to create appointments. @vik34 See my upcoming pull request for some examples of how to use java timezones with exchange

[serious6]

@kentongray if you want to provide a small tutorial on this please also make use of the wiki.

[pranjaljain]

Hi @kentongray can you share the link of pull request that shows examples of how to use java timezones with exchange?

[kentongray]

Sure it is really simple if you pass it in to a set timezone it will "just
work" but I'll try to provide a a simple example /explanation
On Jun 25, 2015 5:58 AM, "pranjaljain" notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi @kentongray https://github.com/kentongray can you share the link of
pull request that shows examples of how to use java timezones with exchange?

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#127 (comment)
.

[serious6]

@kentongray thanks for your support

An alternative solution could be refactoring of current method ExchangeService.getServerTimeZones() to use GetServerTimeZonesRequest. This will allow to get all TimeZoneDefenitions from server and use them, for example, for writing appointments with specified time zone.

There are some issues to fix to make this request work properly:

• EwsUtilities.PATTERN_SECONDS.
  Dot in matcher is not escaped and matches any char
  https://github.com/OfficeDev/ews-java-api/blob/master/src/main/java/microsoft/exchange/webservices/data/core/EwsUtilities.java#L238
• EwsUtilities.getXSDurationToTimeSpan()
  LOG.debug(m.group()); will crush, if no match found. It will be better to remove this debug message
  https://github.com/OfficeDev/ews-java-api/blob/master/src/main/java/microsoft/exchange/webservices/data/core/EwsUtilities.java#L878
• TimeZoneDefinition.compare() method performs unsafe casting. Objects of other classes can also appear (RelativeDayOfMonthTransition and AbsoluteDayOfMonthTransition)
  https://github.com/OfficeDev/ews-java-api/blob/master/src/main/java/microsoft/exchange/webservices/data/property/complex/time/TimeZoneDefinition.java#L117
• TimeZoneTransition.tryReadElementFromXml() method check if array does not contain object, and then attempts to get this object from array
  https://github.com/OfficeDev/ews-java-api/blob/master/src/main/java/microsoft/exchange/webservices/data/property/complex/time/TimeZoneTransition.java#L123
  https://github.com/OfficeDev/ews-java-api/blob/master/src/main/java/microsoft/exchange/webservices/data/property/complex/time/TimeZoneTransition.java#L130

[serious6]

@itbw thanks for the feedback. As you already pointed out some solutions feel free to provide a PR.

@serious6 pull request is created (#367)