CreateDepartment

Organisation service 1.9: Creates a department under a parent - the new department is INACTIVE until UpdateDepartment is called.


Service	Organisation 1.9
Endpoint	`POST https://app{server-number}.timelog.com/{account}/WebServices/Organisation/V1_9/OrganisationServiceSecure.svc`
SOAPAction	`http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9/OrganisationService/CreateDepartment`
Content-Type	`text/xml; charset=utf-8`
Authentication	A token from GetToken
Changes data	Yes
Safe to retry	Only when you send your own departmentGuid: a retry after an ambiguous failure either creates the department or fails with 'Unable to insert new department'.

How it works

The department is stored with IsActive = 0: the domain object is created inactive and Create never activates it. It therefore does not appear in GetDepartments, and the contract has no IsActive member to show it - call UpdateDepartment with the same values to activate it.

Parameters

Each parameter has one label: Required, Conditional (required depending on other values) or Optional. Send them in the order shown.

departmentGuidguid

Optional. GUID for the new department.

namestring

Required

nostring

Optional. Default null -> stored as NULL, read back as empty string. Department number. Not checked for uniqueness - a duplicate breaks GetDepartmentByNo for that number.

parentDepartmentGuidguid

Optional. GUID of the parent department.

departmentManagerGuidguid

Optional. Any existing employee.

tokenSecurityToken

Required

The token from GetToken: Initials, Expires and Hash, sent back unchanged.

Request

POST /{account}/WebServices/Organisation/V1_9/OrganisationServiceSecure.svc HTTP/1.1
Host: app{server-number}.timelog.com
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
SOAPAction: "http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9/OrganisationService/CreateDepartment"

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
                  xmlns:org="http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9"
                  xmlns:tok="http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_3">
  <soapenv:Body>
    <org:CreateDepartment>
      <org:departmentGuid>{departmentGuid}</org:departmentGuid>
      <org:name>{name}</org:name>
      <org:no>{no}</org:no>
      <org:parentDepartmentGuid>{parentDepartmentGuid}</org:parentDepartmentGuid>
      <org:departmentManagerGuid>{departmentManagerGuid}</org:departmentManagerGuid>
      <org:token>
        <tok:Initials>{Initials from GetToken}</tok:Initials>
        <tok:Expires>{Expires from GetToken, unchanged}</tok:Expires>
        <tok:Hash>{Hash from GetToken}</tok:Hash>
      </org:token>
    </org:CreateDepartment>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

curl -X POST "https://app{server-number}.timelog.com/{account}/WebServices/Organisation/V1_9/OrganisationServiceSecure.svc" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8" \
  -H 'SOAPAction: "http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9/OrganisationService/CreateDepartment"' \
  --data-binary @request.xml

import requests

URL = "https://app{server-number}.timelog.com/{account}/WebServices/Organisation/V1_9/OrganisationServiceSecure.svc"
SOAP_ACTION = '"http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9/OrganisationService/CreateDepartment"'

envelope = """<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
                  xmlns:org="http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9"
                  xmlns:tok="http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_3">
  <soapenv:Body>
    <org:CreateDepartment>
      <org:departmentGuid>{departmentGuid}</org:departmentGuid>
      <org:name>{name}</org:name>
      <org:no>{no}</org:no>
      <org:parentDepartmentGuid>{parentDepartmentGuid}</org:parentDepartmentGuid>
      <org:departmentManagerGuid>{departmentManagerGuid}</org:departmentManagerGuid>
      <org:token>
        <tok:Initials>{Initials from GetToken}</tok:Initials>
        <tok:Expires>{Expires from GetToken, unchanged}</tok:Expires>
        <tok:Hash>{Hash from GetToken}</tok:Hash>
      </org:token>
    </org:CreateDepartment>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>"""

response = requests.post(
    URL,
    data=envelope.encode("utf-8"),
    headers={"Content-Type": "text/xml; charset=utf-8", "SOAPAction": SOAP_ACTION},
    timeout=60,
)
result = parse_result(response)  # see "Responses and errors"

Replace every {…} placeholder with your own value.

Response

The call returns the standard response envelope. Check ResponseState first: a failed call still returns HTTP 200.

ResponseStatestring

Required

Success, Invalid or Error.

ErrorCodeinteger

0 on success, otherwise the error code. See Errors.

ReturnDepartment[]

Response<Department>: Return holds the department as SENT - ID, Name, No, ParentDepartmentGuid, DepartmentManagerGuid - with DepartmentID = 0. Success message names return type 'Department'. Never - failure is an Error envelope with an empty Return.

Example response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8

<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <s:Body>
    <CreateDepartmentResponse xmlns="http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9">
      <CreateDepartmentResult xmlns:a="http://api.timelog.com"
                              xmlns:b="http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9"
                              xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
        <a:Return>
          <b:Department>
            <a:Action>Original</a:Action>
            <a:IsCustomFieldsLoaded>false</a:IsCustomFieldsLoaded>
            <a:CustomFields i:nil="true"/>
            <a:IsExternalKeysLoaded>false</a:IsExternalKeysLoaded>
            <a:ExternalKeys i:nil="true"/>
            <b:ID>3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-305000000001</b:ID>
            <b:Name>Example </b:Name>
            <b:No>1001</b:No>
            <b:ParentDepartmentGuid>3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-305000000002</b:ParentDepartmentGuid>
            <b:DepartmentManagerGuid>3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-305000000003</b:DepartmentManagerGuid>
            <b:DepartmentID>1001</b:DepartmentID>
          </b:Department>
        </a:Return>
        <a:ReturnTypeDescription>Department</a:ReturnTypeDescription>
        <a:Request>…</a:Request>
        <a:ResponseState>Success</a:ResponseState>
        <a:Messages>
          <a:APIMessage>
            <a:Message>Duration of call was 0,0421337 sec.</a:Message>
            <a:Severity>Message</a:Severity>
            <a:ErrorCode>0</a:ErrorCode>
          </a:APIMessage>
        </a:Messages>
        <a:ErrorCode>0</a:ErrorCode>
        <a:IsReturnPaged>false</a:IsReturnPaged>
        <a:TotalPageCount>0</a:TotalPageCount>
      </CreateDepartmentResult>
    </CreateDepartmentResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Illustrative example: built from the service description (WSDL) in the same format as a real response, with made-up values. The Request block is shortened.

Errors

All errors come back with HTTP 200: check ResponseState, ErrorCode and Messages. The errors every operation can return (expired or invalid token, API not enabled, HTTPS required, general errors) are listed once in Responses and errors.

Errors specific to this operation:

ResponseState	ErrorCode	Message	What it means	What to do
Error	40001	Error during call on TimeLog.API, Message 'Your site doesn't have departments enabled'	The department reads are not gated.	Enable departments on the account, or do not maintain departments through the API.
Error	40001	Error during call on TimeLog.API, Message 'Department name is not allowed to be empty'	name null, empty or whitespace.	Send a non-empty name.
Error	40001	Error during call on TimeLog.API, Message 'Unable to retrieve department from … with DepartmentGUID {guid}'	parentDepartmentGuid does not exist.	Take the GUID from GetDepartments or GetDepartmentByNo.
Error	40001	Error during call on TimeLog.API, Message 'No employee with ID "{guid}" found.'	departmentManagerGuid is not an employee GUID.	—
Error	40001	Error during call on TimeLog.API, Message 'The Department violates the Business Rules for Departments'	Parent already on level 4.	Choose a parent higher in the tree.

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