Business object properties needed to configure a record's calendar

Although every record has a calendar associated with it, to see a record's calendar in the user interface, the business object it was created from must be configured with its Has Calendar check box checked. The properties of business objects, including the Has Calendar check box, are discussed in "Business object properties".

If the Has Calendar check box for a business object is checked and the Show Calendar check box is checked for a form, the form will be displayed with a tab named Calendar that otherwise would not appear.

You should also build a tab named triCalendarDetails in your form. The purpose of a Calendar Details tab is to specify details that are needed to schedule events for the resource that a record represents. The Calendar Details tab looks like the following figure.

The image is explained in the text. — Figure 1. Calendar Details tab

The system does not depend on this tab existing in your form to function properly. Instead there are two things you must add to your business object in the Data Modeler. For the scheduling engine to work properly you should add a field to your business object named triTimeZonesCL. You also should make an association to the triCalendar business object in the triSetup module with the association name Has Calendar and reverse string of Calendar For. This field and association are not added automatically.

The Time Zone field (triTimeZonesCL) is used to specify the time zone that is used to schedule the resource represented by the record.

Another field used if working in conjunction with the Reserve product is the Reservable flag. If the Reservable (triReservableBL) check box is checked it means that the resource can be reserved for an event. This is normally checked for things like conference rooms and audio-visual equipment, but not for people.

If you want the calendar to include events from an external Microsoft Exchange server or a Lotus Notes server that the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform environment has been configured to work with, specify the appropriate login information in the Mail Server Login field (triExternalLoginTX).

Note: If using Microsoft Exchange 2007, be sure to configure Plain text logon (Basic authentication) in Microsoft Exchange > Server Configuration > Client Access > IMAP4 Properties > Authentication tab.

The Availability Calendar section is used to specify when the resource is available. This section can reference multiple Calendar records. If there are multiple triCalendar records, the resource is available at any time that any of the calendars say it is available. The Query section here is based on the association named Has Calendar.

The information about when a resource is available is in a separate record because it is usually the case that availability of multiple resources follows the same pattern. For example, if the resource is a person, it will usually be the case that multiple people work the same hours. Putting this common information in a shared place makes it easier to maintain.

Calendar records are located in Tools > System Setup > General > Calendars.

The Scheduling Assumptions section identifies the working hours per day, working days per week, and working days per month for resources using this calendar.

The Working Hours section is used to specify ranges of time that resources are available during days of the week. When you select the Quick Add action to add an entry to this section, an open line appears at the top of the section; enter the new day, start time, and end time. Click the down-arrow, up-arrow, or circle icon in the column header to sort the information shown.

The Non-Working Events section is used to specify individual days on which resources are not available. In the example shown, it is used to indicate non-working holidays for people. When you select the Quick Add action to add an entry to this section, an open line appears at the top of the section; enter the date and the name of the new event. Click the down-arrow, up-arrow, or circle icon in the column header to sort the information shown.

The Calendar tab is shown automatically in your form if the Show Calendar option is selected. In addition to just showing dates, it shows scheduled events and three numbers. The three numbers are labeled P, S, and A. This is what they mean:

P: The planned number of hours of availability.
S: The overall number of hours that at least one event is scheduled. If events overlap in time, the overlapped period of time is counted just once, no matter how many events are scheduled at the same time.
A: The remaining available time.

The three numbers have this relationship: A = P - S

There are four buttons to the right of the year that allow you to select the view that you want. The buttons are:

Y: Press this for a year view.
Q: Press this for a quarterly view.
M: Press this for a monthly view.
W: Press this for a weekly view.

Everything we have looked at doing with a calendar so far is done manually by a person interacting with the user interface. However, there is no entirely manual way to add events to a calendar. At least one step involved in putting an event in a calendar must be done by a workflow.