UpdateDepartment

Organisation service 1.9: Update a department


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/UpdateDepartment`
Content-Type	`text/xml; charset=utf-8`
Authentication	A token from GetToken
Changes data	Yes
Safe to retry	Yes

How it works

Full replace. Every field you do not send is cleared (text emptied, numbers set to 0, booleans set to false). Read the record first, change what you need, and send it back complete.

This is the only way to activate a department created with CreateDepartment, and the way to reactivate one deactivated with DeactivateDepartment. Other stored attributes are not touched. A changed name is also pushed to the Resource Planner service.

Parameters

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

departmentGuidguid

Required

GUID of the department to update.

namestring

Required

New name. Null / empty -> 'Department is not in an invalid state to be saved'; whitespace-only is accepted.

nostring

Optional. Default null -> the number is CLEARED. New department number. Not checked for uniqueness.

parentDepartmentGuidguid

Optional. GUID of the new parent - send the current ParentDepartmentGuid to keep it.

departmentManagerGuidguid

Optional.

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/UpdateDepartment"

<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:UpdateDepartment>
      <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:UpdateDepartment>
  </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/UpdateDepartment"' \
  --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/UpdateDepartment"'

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:UpdateDepartment>
      <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:UpdateDepartment>
  </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 saved department. 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>
    <UpdateDepartmentResponse xmlns="http://www.timelog.com/api/tlp/v1_9">
      <UpdateDepartmentResult 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>
      </UpdateDepartmentResult>
    </UpdateDepartmentResponse>
  </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 'Unable to retrieve department from … with DepartmentGUID {guid}'	departmentGuid or parentDepartmentGuid does not exist.	Take the GUID from GetDepartments or GetDepartmentByNo.
Error	40001	Error during call on TimeLog.API, Message 'Department name is not allowed to be empty'	name null or empty - here with the domain-validation text 'Department is not in an invalid state to be saved'.	Send a non-empty name.
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'	New parent on level 4, the moved sub-tree would exceed four levels, or the parent is the department itself / one of its descendants.	Choose a parent higher in the tree.

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