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Gravitybox Schedule.NET
1998-2005 Gravitybox Software LLC
Page 8 of 90
The need for GbSchedule.NET
In today’s world, there is a need for a general-purpose scheduling utility. More
applications are requiring at least some scheduling as part of their functionality. Many
developers dreading this task save it for last only to realize that it is a much larger task
than at first they thought. A high-quality schedule inside of your application is an
application in and of itself. You could spend your entire allotted time developing just this
part of your application.
This is where the Gravitybox Schedule component comes in. All of the complicated
scheduling routines have been incorporated into it, including conflict resolution and
warning. Also added is the ScheduleProperties control that allows you to create in
minutes a customized property sheet for appointments. Almost all default behaviors
may be overridden with customizations. And most importantly, very little code is needed
to perform even complex tasks. The schedule may be dropped on a form, be fully drag-
drop enabled, moving appointments across windows or even different programs with file
loading and saving functionality in 30 lines of code or less!
All of this creates a component that has a small learning curve. Most of the properties
are self-explanatory. An intermediate developer can read though the properties and look
at examples and be an expert in no time. This allows you to add first-rate scheduling to
your application with ease.
Goals of GbSchedule.NET
The goals of GbSchedule.NET are several. These are the guidelines on which the
software was developed.
To create a high-quality component
To have a small learning curve
To have the maximum functionality with a minimal of code
To add user requests in a timely fashion
Real-World Uses
When evaluating a software product, its usefulness is its most important attribute. No
matter the time and care expended to create a software program, if it does not solve
any real-world problem, it is useless. GbSchedule.NET has been designed to resolve
many scheduling situations. The original goal of the component was to produce a
module that could be dropped into an application to create a scheduling application for a
doctor’s office. This did prove an ambitious goal in and of itself. The necessary
functionality has been added to accomplish this task.
As stated, this component may be used to create applications that have significant,
differing scheduling purposes. The first use is an office application. Some of the
program features follow. It should graphically display clients that are scheduled to come
into the office on any given day. It should be able to list services provided and cost. It
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