LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How to display a Room/Staff/Tutor calendar aggregate at the reception desk using live@edu

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2011/09/28 plagwitz Leave a comment Go to comments

The LRC needs an overview aggregate calendar of its many rooms and services for clients in the entrance area. This should be always on display on the higher one of the reception area dual screen computers when screens are in extended mode
From the calendar mailbox in OWA , these calendars can and have been published to the internet.
1. LRC assistants can load and bookmark multiple (published or shared) calendars in their OWA, but there are limitations
  1. We do not want to clutter LRC Assistants OWA with LRC calendars more than we have to.
  2. OWA displays calendars (currently = 2011) only side-by-side, there is no overlay (=aggregate) mode like in Outlook 2010, and only up to 5 simultaneously, again unlike Outlook 2010 (30) (Students do not have Outlook (although it is being considered installing it on student staffed computers).
2. A standard web browser allows for display of only one (HTML) calendar at a time in a web browser.
3. ICS compatible applications like live@edu

can display many (=aggregate) ICS-based calendars in overlay mode.
In addition, it is easy to change the display color (like in Outlook 2010) and display color (unlike in Outlook 2010, for me at least).
In live@edu, this looks promising:
To display more meaningful/less misleading subjects than “Busy” for pseudo-rooms (“offices” like LRC assistants or language tutors), add a subject (office name “LRC Assistant”or max class-level tutored).
To have LRC assistants easily and consistently load this aggregate calendar view,
1. we need to give tutors the password to uncc-lrc credentials – being “friends” not enough (which makes their own access to SkyDrive which we finally achieved yesterday useless – unless they log in as themselves and as uncc-lrc in 2 different browsers)
2. However, I have not found a way to aggregate calendar ics files and display them without password (ideally in Joomla)
3. Workaround: use a AutoIT auotmation script that runs when LRC Assistant logs in form the All users Startup Folder.

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