Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of jk9783
jk9783

asked on

Personal to Public Calendar - Can this be done?

We have a need for selected information put into a user's personal calendar to show up on a shared calendar.  

I was thinking that the user could categorize certain entries with standardized category (ex CoName).  Then have an agent run several times a day to put these specific entries into a public calendar.

Do you guys think this can be done?  I am like a preschooler when it comes to this stuff, so please speak slowly...huge points for whoever can help me out in my pipe dream here.

Note: Points TBD for input...all input much appreciate.
Avatar of Jean Marie Geeraerts
Jean Marie Geeraerts
Flag of Belgium image

The agent would have to run locally on the client, since the personal db is not on the server I suppose.
To enable local agents in the client go to : File, Preferences, User Preferences.
On the Basics tab, check the checkbox next to "Enable scheduled local agents".
Schedule the agent to run at a time the client is sure to be running. (at 12:00pm, weekdays only for example).

Do you know how to write the agent or do you want me to write a sample agent for you?
Make sure the agent is saved by a user who has the necessary access to the central calendar database you want the documents to be created in.
Create the agent in the template of the personal address book and then send this template to your users. Have them detach it in their notes directory and then replace the design of their personal address book.

If you need more details, let me know.
Avatar of jk9783
jk9783

ASKER

Sorry, I've been out of the office on vacation.

The mail databases are held on the server.  I was thinking that I could possibly add an additional category option for calendar items, say Public or something along those lines.  Then have an agent run every so often on the server looking for items marked as such and copying them into a public calendar.

Would this be feasible? Or an immensely difficult and impractical pipe dream?
No, I think this could be done.
If you use a category for example 'Public' in your calendar you can easily build a scheduled agent in the mail database to copy the documents to the public database.

Here's the simplest agent possible:
1. Create a new agent from the agent list in designer in the mail template of your organization
2. Give the agent a name, e.g. "Move to Public"
3. Set the agent to run "On Schedule Daily" for example and set the schedule via the Schedule button.
4. Set the agent to act on "All documents in database" and via the Add Search button add the conditions "In folder 'Calendar'" and "field Category contains Public".
5. Select simple action(s) and via the Add Action button select the action 'Copy to Database', browse to the database to copy the documents to through the Choose Database button.

And that's it.

Make sure the agent is saved by a user that has at least reader access to all mail databases (an administrator user for example) or the agent will not be able to run in all mail files.

When you've made the changes to the template, the agent will automatically be added to all mailfiles the next time the designer task runs on your server.

Before you add the agent to the template, you might want to test the agent by adding it to one mail database and see if it works as it should.

Regards,
JM
Avatar of jk9783

ASKER

Ok...

I tried using the field "category" and it didn't work.  "Categories" seems to be working just fine.

I have it set to manually run at the moment.  I noticed that initial running works wonderfully, but each additional run of the agent creates duplicate entries of previously copied items.

How can I prevent this from happening?
Avatar of jk9783

ASKER

Another is if the entry is deleted from your personal calendar, how can I get it to be automatically removed from the public calendar?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Jean Marie Geeraerts
Jean Marie Geeraerts
Flag of Belgium image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of jk9783

ASKER

I'm still sorting everything out.  As soon as I have something new, I'll be sure to let you know.  Thanks for your help thus far.
Take your time, I'm quite busy at the moment, so...
Avatar of jk9783

ASKER

Small change in plans.

Do you think it's possible to set up a Company wide calendar and several departmental calendars where the CW cal would automatically dump all of it's entries every so often (say every 2hrs) and then regenerate itself by pulling entries in from the Dept. Cals?  

Could an agent perform this?
Technically it's possible.
You would have to sign the agent with a user that has authorization on all mail files to read/write and then it can be done.
Avatar of jk9783

ASKER

Thank you for your input jerrith.

My original question has been answered, so I'm going to close this out and open another question dealing with the new scenario.

Thanks so much!
Janette
You're welcome.
I'm sure we can solve that other problem for you too :-)
Avatar of jk9783

ASKER

There's some trouble with accepting answers at the moment.  As soon as I can, I'll close this out.
Yeah, I noticed the same problem.
When you want to accept an answer after you've clicked on the link from your email it won't work.
If you reload the question, so the URL is simply https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20323635/Personal-to-Public-Calendar-Can-this-be-done.html it works.
Thanks in advance,
JM
Noticed you allready solved your problem and accepted my answer. Thanks!!