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Posts Tagged ‘2011’

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

2011/09/28 1 comment
  1. 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
  2. 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
    1. can display many (=aggregate) ICS-based calendars in overlay mode.
    2. 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).
    3. In live@edu, this looks promising:
    4. uncc-lrc-calendar-aggregation-with-names
    5. 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).
    6. 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.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-infrastructure, Reception-desk Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

How not to book LRC equipment: Scheduling conflicts

2011/09/23 3 comments
  1. Do not send a meeting request to an item for a time when the item has a prior meeting request.
  2. The tab: scheduling assistant within the meeting request you edit is there to tell you when items have prior meeting requests.
    1. scheduling-assistant-timelines-marked-no-yes
    2. A “blocked” timeline denotes a prior meeting request: The item has already been booked (solid block) or requested (hatched block) during the start and end time of your meeting. Do not crash their party.
    3.  “blank” timeline means “item is free”. Go ahead: You can request a meeting with this item between your start and end time.
    4. Once you have this overview, you can easily remove, by right-clicking on the resource, extra resources that you cannot book or could, but which you do not need: scheduling-assistant-remove-resource
  3. Once the university has mail-enabled your cloud-accounts on campus, we will have a computer decline such conflicting requests automatically, and force you to start over with a new meeting request. It will be still worth your while memorizing the above: You can save time and avoid disappointment.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Protected: Exchange 2010 Resource Mailboxes: Running Log

2011/09/22 Enter your password to view comments.

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Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How students can view resource "Calendars from the Internet" in web browser and OWA

2011/09/20 5 comments
  1. Want a shorter version?
  2. Students, unless specifically TBA:invited, will encounter a permission problem when trying to view calendars like staff.
  3. Instead, students can use the scheduling assistant to view a basic version of the resource’s calendar. This works “out of the box”.
  4. Students can also view an advanced version of the resource’s calendars (one-time, or bookmark this link in your web browser – hope you know how to synch your bookmarks between all the devices you use…). This requires little work: click on the “view” link  in the “student calendar” column of our  list of LRC resources that you can book or check out, to see the current calendar in your web browser: student-internet-calendar-in-browser
  5. For students  who check the calendar of a resource regularly (e.g. to see when the LRC main classroom is available for your self-access/the tutor in your language, for help), it is better to “bookmark” the resources’ calendars in NINERMAIL. Here is how:
    1. Copy the URL for the calendar you just opened, from the web browser address bar: student-internet-calendar-in-browser-uri-marked
    2. Go to NINERMAIL,  click on the lower left “Calendar-icon” calendar-icon_thumbto unfold the “My Calendars” list my-calendar-icon_thumb in the left pane, then right-click on “My Calendars”, choose “Add Calendar”owa-mycalendars-add1_thumb1 .
    3. In the “Calendar URL” field, paste URL of the calendar you just opened, but replace “html” at the  end with “ics”: student-internet-calendar-in-owa2-marked, click “OK”.
    4. For on-premise users in OWA (seems OWA stirs on-premise users to the superior intranet calendars, which would be good. But what if the intranet calendar has not been shared with this user, but internet sharing is intended?), This may not work as advertised (neither with protocol http and webcal) OR just need a lot of time (~12hours?) to synchronize,student-internet-calendar-in-owa-errorwhile it works (both with protocol http and webcal) when subscribing from Windows Live? student-internet-calendar-in-windows-live-works. Most importantly for us (as we have now tested), it works for students with accounts in the cloud from NINERMAI.
    5. OWA remembers your internet calendar subscriptions, and you can easily display or hide them, using the checkboxes it provides. To keep an overview over your calendars added from the internet, you need to rename them, by right-clicking on them, like so: student-calendar-adding-renaming
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Time-zone issues when creating meeting requests

2011/09/14 4 comments

Do the clouds change with the time zones you are in, or can the cloud also change your time zone? Smile We are seeing strange inconsistencies of time zones in meeting requests with on-premise resource mailboxes from hosted student accounts…

When students say they see the “correct” time in *their* calendar, they should verify their time zone settings. In OWA/NINERMAIL, upper right corner: Options / See All Options / left menu: Settings / top menu: Calendar / you can check your time zone. In OWA / upper right corner: Options / See All Options / left menu: Settings / top menu: Regional / bottom drop-down:, you can change your time zone, like in the last dropdown here:

owa-options-all-options-settings-calendar-time-zone-change

From setting up calendaring infrastructure for a university using Windows Live Accounts only, I remember that users, when they manually created their accounts, failed to look at the time zone dropdown. So instead of at Greenwich time, they ended up at Pacific time which seems the default for MS products.

That’s one of the reasons why I am glad not having to use Windows Live Accounts for the enterprise anymore.  Now how can time zones be not set up properly for student accounts in a hosted environment? And this time we see not only the Pacific, but also Monrovia… time-zone-issue-in-appointment

The answer seems to be: Even though large institutions may be creating 25000 accounts when they start using live@edu, there seems to be no way to set a default time zone in live@edu to where the client predominantly does business. It seems still the server time that sets the default offered to the new user on login. I could tell you a story or two why that needs fixing…

Categories: audience-is-IT-staff Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Room and Equipment handling using MS-Exchange Resource Mailboxes: Sharing Resource Calendars with Students in Outlook Live. A running log

2011/09/13 6 comments
  1. Our users can view the free/busy information of our Resource mailboxes in the Scheduling Assistant of their Meeting request – and also, though even less convenient and more limiting, in the GAL.
    1. This includes student accounts (hosted) being able to view resource mailboxes (on premise) free/busy – which seems the default, different from the solution to achieve this here – or are resource mailboxes permissions more liberal than regular mailboxes?
  2. To allow users the more convenient access to the calendar of the resources (without being able to book through this interface), we have used this: 
  1. # permissions: make default user a reviewer (read-only) of resource mailbox calendar

     

    # so that default user cannot schedule through the calendar & bypass resourcescheduling attendant

     

    Set-MailboxFolderPermission

     

    -Identity LRCLcdproject01@uncc.edu:\Calendar

     

    -AccessRights Reviewer -User Default

     

    # work around apparent permissions bug:

     

    # http://www.flobee.net/found-a-bug-with-set-mailboxfolderpermission/

     

    Set-MailboxFolderPermission

     

    -Identity LRCLcdproject01@uncc.edu:\non_ipm_subtree\freebusy data

     

    -AccessRights Reviewer -User Default
  2. Based on this, we have successfully tested sharing our resource calendars with staff accounts (which are on premises).
    1. We have been hoping to share calendars of our resources also with our student user accounts (which are hosted).  However, “Default” in the above does not seem to include these. When students use the built-in “Add Calendar”feature from their  Outlook Live/NINERMAIL, they receive a permission error: “The calendar for the mailbox you chose can’t be opened. You may not have permission to open this calendar”.calendar-add-error-student 
  3. Student staff cannot view the resource calendars. A limited workaround could be to share calendars with individual student staff, so that they can display these calendars to walk-up clients. However, we cannot even share such resource calendars manually with individual students. While, when  impersonating the resource,  I can send out an invitation email to student staff, the student again gets an error when clicking the “Add calendar” link in the invitation mail: “This folder could not be opened. you might not have permission to open it, or it might not exist anymore”. calendar-share-error 
  4. We also cannot see our student staff’s  busy time, even if this busy times when working for us: “No information (Error code: undefined”): scheduling-assistant-student-no-information

  1. A similar issue elsewhere  seems to have been addressed successfully by adding federation for
    1. multiple tenancies within live@edu in “Sharing Free Busy across the cloud”, example: 

      Get-FederationInformation

       

      –DomainName <the other Live@edu tenant> | New-OrganizationRelationship

       

      –Name <the other Live@edu tenant>

       

      -FreeBusyAccessEnabled $true

       

      -FreeBusyAccessLevel LimitedDetails

    2. and for mixed hosted/on-premises environments “Set up Federated Free/Busy and Calendar Sharing between Exchange 2010 SP1 and Outlook Live”, which is a bit too evolved for posting a short sample/summary here.
  2. Another workaround could be to add calendar internet publishing privileges to individual resource mailboxes and sharing calendars with student staff, having them display these to walk-up clients.
    1. What data gets published needs to be careful considered. However, it should be possible to hide personal information and just display usage of resources, using the built-in sharing levels (note that organizer may have been put in subject by Resourcebookingasssistant configured with AddOrganizerToSubject, so subject should not be included for calendars “LRCAssistant” and “LRCTutor”## which are offices held/resources booked by students):
      1. CalendarSharingFreeBusySimple   Share free/busy hours only
      2. CalendarSharingFreeBusyDetail   Share free/busy hours, subject, and location
      3. CalendarSharingFreeBusyReviewer   Share free/busy hours, subject, location, and the body of the message or calendar item
    2. Code samples are given here (for hosted):
      1. New-SharingPolicy -Name "Calendar Sharing Policy"

         

        -Domains "anonymous:calendarsharingfreebusysimple"

         

        set-mailbox <all LRC resource mailboxes here>

         

        -SharingPolicy "Calendar Sharing Policy"
Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, e-infrastructure, service-is-library, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

How LRC tutors&assistants maintain their schedule

2011/09/01 1 comment
  1. In Ninermail,
  2. in the tutor calendar for your language/LRCassistant calendar (you can filter the complete list here)
  3. do this: https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/lrc-outlookexchange-2010-resource-calendaring-how-to-book-an-lrc-resource-by-making-a-meeting-request-in-owa/,
  4. for all your tutoring hours,
    1. in one block (there is an easier way to cancel part than using 30-minute increments (so that later you can flexibly cancel part or all of your time (for details see how to cancel a meeting request), if you have to, and students can sign up for tutoring timeslots));
    2. with weekly recurrence until the end of the current academic term;
    3. with the subject of the meeting request stating the levels you are tutoring for/”LRC Assistant” (do not put your name or email in the subject).
  5. Note that your resulting work schedule will appear in your own NINERMAIL calendar, and, if you have requested, you will be remindedd of your shift.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The new way from Fall 2011 how teachers and students check LRC equipment in and out with LRC student assistants

2011/09/01 2 comments
  1. After  booking an LRC resource, if the resource is a piece of physical equipment (versus a room or tutor hours), the teacher/student needs to check it out from the LRC student assistant in COED433. We are testing the following procedure:
  2. Check-out procedure when picking up
    1. On the secondary screen of the PC at the reception desk (mirroring mode), in whatever browser the LRC assistant is not using, the teacher or student that wants to check out an LRC resource
      1. logs into her university email in OWA/NINERMAIL
      2. opens their “meeting request” with the resource from her calendar
      3. or, if they have no prior meeting request, create one now
    2. the LRC assistant on her screen, views the “meeting request” to make sure
      1. that the checkout time is not in the future OR the item is not past due. If necessary and possible (= no conflicts, duraiton dos not exceed maximum allowed),  adapt the meeting request start time , and end time, but mark in the notes field if the item was returned late
      2. what the item is, including the number (if any)
    3. handles the item
      1. gets the item from storage shelves in COED436; make sure it is the same number as in the meeting request
      2. checks item, with the user, for functionality and completeness
    4. in the MS-Excelfile: checkoutin.xlsm  (auto-loaded during login of LRC assistant, if not open it from the recent files list in MS-Excel or  from c:\temp),
      1. presses button:”check-in code” which generates a unique code in the file and puts it in the windows clipboard)
      2. even if the user has multiple meeting requests in her calendar, the LRC assistant can use the same code for all her meeting requests
    5. in the “meeting request”, in the big notes field at the bottom:
      1. pastes the code at the end of the the subject line
      2. adds necessary remarks regarding broken or incomplete equipment (if any)
      3. sends the updated request
      4. logs the teacher/student out of OWA
    6. If you need large amounts of equipment for an entire class, I recommend having select students access NINERMAIL during class (or prior and wherever they are ready to book equipment), book the equipment for your class hour with meeting requests (1 for each piece of equipment required). The person who booked it has to be present during pickup and is responsible for the equipment. One student can book as many pieces as she can carry. Since I hope to have 2 reception desk computers and 2 LRC assistants at the reception desk, 2 students picking up should make for the fastest checkout process.
  3. Check-in procedure when returning: same as above, in reverse.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers Tags: , , , , , , , , ,