> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.superoffice.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Working with follow-ups (appointments) in API

> How to work with follow-ups (appointments) at multiple levels of NetServer.

**Follow-ups** are the foundation of the SuperOffice diary. These entities are always tied to an [associate][37] and have some form of time reference.

Follow-ups are part of a broader group of entities labeled **activities**:

* [follow-ups][38]
  * Meeting (appointment)
  * To-do (task)
  * Call (follow-up)
* documents
  * [document][36]
  * [email][35]
* mailings and form submissions
* [chat sessions][1]

When working with follow-ups, data will often intersect with the following entities:

* [company][31] (contact table)
* [contact][32] (person table)
* [project][34]
* [sale][33]

## Owner

Associate acts as the owner of the follow-up. If you don't assign an associate to the `Associate` property of the appointment, the current user will become the owner of the appointment and only one row will be added to the [appointment table][40] when the appointment is saved.

## Create appointments

You can create an appointment at multiple levels of NetServer, for example [web services][14] and in [CRMScript][5]. For other options, see the linked "working with" sections at the bottom of this page.

## Invitations

When two appointments have a shared text record and different status values it can be called an **invitation**.

### Examples

* [Create invitation - CRMScript][8]
* [Create invitation - web services][15]
* [Get invitations - web services][16]
* [Accept invitation - CRMScript][7]
* [Accept invitation - web services][17]

## Recurrence

A repeating follow-up is a series events scheduled to occur at regular intervals. For example, a weekly status meeting. A recurring appointment is stored in two parts:

* A recurrence rule, which defines the pattern of the recurrence

* All the appointments created by the recurrence are created in the appointment table, and each one points to the recurrence rule that defines it.

* [Create recurring appointment - CRMScript][6]

* [Create recurring appointment - web services][18]

**See also:**

* [recurrencerule table][41]
* [RecurrencePattern enum][45]

### Example (SQL)

The system generates appointment records for all the recurrence instances:

```SQL theme={null}
SELECT appointment_id, associate_id, activeDate, type, status, recurrenceRuleId
FROM appointment WHERE recurrenceRuleId = 1
```

| appointment\_id | associate\_id | activeDate          | type | status | recurrenceRuleId |
| --------------- | ------------- | ------------------- | ---- | ------ | ---------------- |
| 264             | 15            | 2021-11-04 11:30:00 | 1    | 1      | 1                |
| 267             | 15            | 2021-11-09 11:30:00 | 1    | 1      | 1                |
| 268             | 15            | 2021-11-11 11:30:00 | 1    | 1      | 1                |
| 269             | 15            | 2021-11-16 11:30:00 | 1    | 1      | 1                |
| 270             | 15            | 2021-11-18 11:30:00 | 1    | 1      | 1                |
| 271             | 15            | 2021-11-23 11:30:00 | 1    | 1      | 1                |

Let's look at the rule:

```SQL theme={null}
SELECT * FROM recurrencerule WHERE recurrencerule_id = 1
```

| RecurrenceRule\_id | pattern | subPattern | startDate           | endDate             | cyclicDay | cyclicWeek | cyclicMonth |
| ------------------ | ------- | ---------- | ------------------- | ------------------- | --------- | ---------- | ----------- |
| 1                  | 2       | 0          | 2021-11-04 11:30:00 | 2022-01-27 12:00:00 | 0         | 1          | 0           |

This recurrence rule has:

* pattern = 2 (weekly) (corresponds to the radio-button choice in the dialog).
* subPattern = 0 (none)
* cyclicWeek = 1  = "every 1 week(s)"

## Reference

### Frequently used database fields

| Field           | Description                                  |
| :-------------- | :------------------------------------------- |
| appointment\_id | ID                                           |
| associate\_id   | owner                                        |
| contact\_id     | company                                      |
| person\_id      | attendee if a meeting                        |
| task\_idx       | FK Task list                                 |
| type            | EnumAppointmentType                          |
| status          | EnumAppointmentStatus                        |
| mother\_id      | For group reservations and invites           |
| location        | Custom string or info from a booked resource |
| alldayEvent     | 0 = no; 1 = yes                              |
| freeBusy        | 0 = busy; 1 =  free                          |

For a complete list of fields, see the [database reference][40].

### Appointment types

| Type | Description                                              |
| :--: | :------------------------------------------------------- |
|   0  | Undefined/initializing                                   |
|   1  | In calendar, if overdue or done today, also in todo list |
|   2  | In todo list (no start time)                             |
|   6  | Meeting invite (changes to 1 when accepted)              |
|   7  | Pending assignment (changes to 2 when accepted)          |

### Appointment status

| Status | Description        |
| :----: | :----------------- |
|    0   | Unknown/ a post-it |
|    1   | Not started        |
|    2   | Started            |
|    3   | Completed          |
|    4   | Hidden             |
|  5-10  | Booking            |
|  11-13 | Assignment         |

### Timestamp values

| Field      | Description                          |
| :--------- | :----------------------------------- |
| registered | UtcDateTime of registration          |
| updated    | UtcDateTime of last update           |
| done       | When a task was completed (DateTime) |
| do\_by     | Planned deadline for task (DateTime) |
| activeDate | Display date (DateTime)              |
| endDate    | Planned completion time (DateTime)   |

### Relevant invitation statuses

| Status | Description                                                            |
| :----: | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|    5   | Invitation (initial status for a booking)                              |
|    6   | Meeting has been moved, request new response                           |
|    7   | User has seen, but not declined or accepted the invite                 |
|    8   | Meeting has been moved. User has seen, but not responded to the invite |
|    9   | User has declined the meeting                                          |
|   10   | Meeting is canceled                                                    |

### Frequency

| Value   | Description                                  | Comment                | Example                                  |
| :------ | :------------------------------------------- | :--------------------- | :--------------------------------------- |
| daily   | every working day<br />every day of the week | or custom              | every other day                          |
| weekly  | every week on given day                      | must set weekday       | every 3 weeks on Tuesday                 |
| monthly | every month on given day                     | must set day of month  | on the 5th of the month, every 4th month |
| yearly  | every year on given date                     | must set day and month | every 23rd of September                  |

A **cycle** is the number of days between each recurrence.

The enum values correspond to what you see in the **Pattern** dialog.

### Enum RecurrencePattern

| Value | Description |
| :---: | :---------- |
|   0   | unknown     |
|   1   | daily       |
|   2   | weekly      |
|   3   | monthly     |
|   4   | yearly      |
|   5   | custom      |

### Enum RecurrenceSubPattern

| Value | Name           | Type   | Description                                                                 |
| :---: | :------------- | ------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|   0   | Unknown        |        |                                                                             |
|   1   | EveryWorkday   | daily  | Mon-Fri                                                                     |
|   2   | EveryWeekday   | daily  | Mon-Sun                                                                     |
|   3   | EveryCyclicDay | daily  | cyclic interval of days                                                     |
|   4   | DayOfMonth     | weekly | repeat on day n of the month<br />ex: the 17th day of every 2 months        |
|   5   | WeekdayOfMonth | weekly | repeat on given weekday <br />ex: the 3rd Thursday of every 3 months        |
|   6   | DayOfMonth     | yearly | repeat on given date every year                                             |
|   7   | WeekdayOfMonth | yearly | repeat on given weekdays of month<br />ex: the 3rd Thursday of every August |

<Warning>
  The **sub-pattern should match the pattern**. There is little error-checking if you mix the wrong set. You can set pattern = yearly and sub-pattern = dailyEveryDay and something strange will probably happen.
</Warning>

#### Weekdays

| Value | Weekday   |
| :---: | :-------- |
|   0   | Unknown   |
|   1   | Monday    |
|   2   | Tuesday   |
|   4   | Wednesday |
|   8   | Thursday  |
|   16  | Friday    |
|   32  | Saturday  |
|   64  | Sunday    |

<Tip>
  Enumeration flag values can be combined.
</Tip>

#### Week of month

| Value | Description                |
| :---: | :------------------------- |
|   0   | Unknown                    |
|   1   | The 1st week of the month  |
|   2   | The 2nd week of the month  |
|   3   | The 3rd week of the month  |
|   4   | The 4th week of the month  |
|   5   | The last week of the month |

## How-tos by API

* [Working with appointments in CRMScript][2]
* [Working with appointments in web NetServer services and REST][19]
* [Working with appointments at the data layer (entities)][10]

[1]: /en/automation/chatbot/index

[2]: /en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/index

[5]: /en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/create-appointment

[6]: /en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/create-recurring-appointment

[8]: /en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/create-invitation

[7]: /en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/accept-invitation

[10]: /en/api/entities/howto/diary/index

[14]: /en/api/web-services/howto/diary/create-apt-services

[15]: /en/api/web-services/howto/diary/create-invitation-services

[16]: /en/api/web-services/howto/diary/get-invitations-services

[17]: /en/api/web-services/howto/diary/accept-invitation-services

[18]: /en/api/web-services/howto/diary/create-recurring-appointment-services

[19]: /en/api/web-services/howto/diary/index

[31]: ../../company/index

[32]: ../../contact/index

[33]: ../../sale/index

[34]: ../../project/index

[35]: ../../email/index

[36]: ../../document/index

[37]: ../../contact/dev/index#associate

[38]: ../learn/follow-ups

[40]: /en/database/tables/appointment

[41]: /en/database/tables/recurrencerule

[45]: /en/database/tables/enums/recurrencepattern


## Related topics

- [Working with follow-ups (appointments) in API](/en/diary/dev/index.md)
- [Create repeating follow-ups](/en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/create-recurring-appointment.md)
- [Get follow-ups belonging to a series](/en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/get-appointments-in-series.md)
- [Stop repeating follow-ups](/en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/stop-recurrence.md)
- [Edit repeating follow-ups](/en/automation/crmscript/howto/diary/update-recurrence.md)
- [Follow-ups](/en/diary/learn/follow-ups.md)
- [Repeating follow-ups](/en/diary/learn/recurrence/index.md)