9
Resources, Event Calendars and Holidays

This chapter describes the various tasks involved in creating and managing organizational resources, event calendars and holidays. Event calendars are similar to user accounts, but represent schedules such as sports matches, concerts, or other events that may be of interest to your user base. The administrative controls and functionality of resource management are also similar to those of user management, although with some important differences in an LDAP context.

The following topics are dealt with in this chapter:

• Managing holidays
• Creating event calendars
• Managing and deleting event calendars
• Creating resources
  • Internal directory context
  • LDAP Directory context
• Managing resources
• Deleting resources
• Managing resource defaults
• Assigning designates

Managing holidays

The first step in holiday management is to assign the appropriate administration rights to a user. The SYSOP, by default, does not have holiday management rights.

Web GUI

You can add holidays to a node using the Calendar Administrator as long as any user on the selected node has the right to administer holidays. For full information on the Calendar Administrator, see Appendix F, "The Calendar Administrator".

Cmd line

Use the uniadmrights utility to assign holiday administration rights. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

For example:

% uniadmrights -e "S=Sitchin/G=Zechariah" -add -hday -n 165 

Once you have assigned holiday administration rights to a user, use a desktop client to sign in as that user, and select Directory | Manage Holidays...

Creating event calendars

An event calendar is an administrative user account which exists for the purpose of informing your user base about upcoming happenings that may be of interest to them. Essentially, an event calendar is simply a user account that has the PUBLISHEDTYPE key set to EVENTCALENDAR. Other users have read-only access to the events you create in your event calendars. Web calendar users, however, may copy events and appointments from the event calendar into their own calendars. Only administrators may create event calendars, and only administrators may modify events in an event calendar.

Web GUI

Use the Calendar Administrator to create event calendars easily. For full information on the Calendar Administrator, see Appendix F, "The Calendar Administrator".

Cmd line

Use the uniuser utility introduced in Chapter 7, "Users and Groups", to create event calendars. Remember to set the value of the PUBLISHEDTYPE key to EVENTCALENDAR to make the user account an event calendar.

For example:

% uniuser -add "S=Season/G=Hockey/PUBLISHEDTYPE=EVENTCALENDAR" -n 156 

Set the GLOBALREADACCESS key to TRUE if you want any Internet user to have the ability to view this event calendar, just as you would with a user account. For full information on the use and syntax of uniuser, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

Managing and deleting event calendars

Web GUI

Use the Calendar Administrator to manage, populate and delete event calendars easily. For full information on the Calendar Administrator, see Appendix F, "The Calendar Administrator".

Cmd line

Use the uniuser utility introduced in Chapter 7, "Users and Groups", to modify and delete event calendars. For full information on the use and syntax of uniuser, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

To add new events to an event calendar, you may also sign in as that event calendar using your calendar client of choice and add the desired events or appointments. Remember to grant other users the right to view the events you create if you choose this method of managing events in your event calendars. Do this either by setting each event's access level to "Public" when you create it, or by setting the event calendar's default access right profile to allow all users to view "Normal" events.

Creating resources

A resource is an inanimate object, such as a conference room or a piece of equipment, that has its own account on the calendar server. When creating an event in their agenda, users can invite resources in the same way that they invite other users. Resources are managed by local users who act as designates. Resources can either be set up to permit more than one reservation at a time, or on a first come first served basis to prevent double-bookings.

Resources can also be used to create calendars for tracking related enterprise-wide information, such as company holidays or employees' travel schedules. For example, to create a Travel Planner for an organization, add a resource to the node and name it "Travel Planner". Whenever an employee is scheduled to travel, he/she will create an event in his/her personal agenda and invite the resource. The result is a calendar for the resource Travel Planner containing all entries related to employees' travel.

Adding new resources to the calendar server's internal directory

Web GUI

You can add resources to a node using the Calendar Administrator. For full information on the Calendar Administrator, see Appendix F, "The Calendar Administrator".

Cmd line

To add a resource:

Use unires -add to add a single resource. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

% unires -add "R=conference room/N=4" -n 786 -p <SYSOP password>
unires: added "conference room"

To add several resources:

1. Create a file of the resources that you wish to add to a node. The information for each resource must be entered following the format and syntax documented in the unires documentation in the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

   A R=conference room/N=104/CA=24/S=Alexander/G=James 
   A R=projector/N=2/S=Addison/G=Thomas/PHONE=123-4567 
   
   

2. Add the resources in the file (named "res1" in the following example) to the specified node.

   % unires -ex res1 -n 444
   Enter SysOp password: 
   unires: added "conference room" 
   unires: added "projector" 
   unires: added "lab"
   
   

Adding new resources in an LDAP directory context

You may specify a Resource Relative DN for your installation. If you do, all resources will be stored by default in that location in the LDAP tree. Alternatively, you may specify a full DN for resources as you create them.

While users are typically in the directory server before they are added to a calendar server node, resources are added directly to the calendar server and directory server in a single operation.

Web GUI

You can add resources to a calendar server node easily using the Calendar Administrator. For full information on the Calendar Administrator, see Appendix F, "The Calendar Administrator".

Cmd line

To add a resource:

Use unires -add to add a single resource. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities." This example specifies a full DN for the new resource.

%  unires -add "DID=cn=Room614,o=Acme,c=US" -n 134 
Enter SysOp password:
unires: added "cn=Room614,o=Acme,c=US" 

This example specifies only a resource name, leaving the resource's location in the LDAP directory to be determined by the Resource Relative DN and the calendar server base DN.

%  unires -add "R=Room614" -n 134 
Enter SysOp password:
unires: added "R=Room614" 

To add several resources:

1. Create a file of the resources that you wish to add. The information for each resource must be entered following the format and syntax documented in the unires documentation in the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities." This example specifies full DNs for the new resources.

   A DID=cn=Room24, o=Acme, c=US 
   A DID=cn=projector3, o=Acme, c=US 
   A DID=cn=lab5, o=Acme, c=US 
   
   

2. Add the resources in the file (named "res1" in the following example) to the specified node.

   % unires -ex res1 -n 444 
   Enter SysOp password:
   unires: added "cn=Room24, o=Acme, c=US"
   unires: added "cn=projector3, o=Acme, c=US"
   unires: added "cn=lab5, o=Acme, c=US"
   
   

   The resource now exists in the directory server and on the calendar server node.

Managing resources

Web GUI

You can manage resources easily using the Calendar Administrator. For full information on the Calendar Administrator, see Appendix F, "The Calendar Administrator".

Cmd line

View and modify resource attributes using the unires utility. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

Admin GUI

To edit resource information:

1. Select Resource | Properties to open the Search dialogue box.
2. Click Search without entering any information for a complete list of resources on the node network. To restrict your search, enter a valid Resource Number or the first letter(s) of a resource name and click Search.
3. Select a resource name from the list box and click Properties, or double-click a resource. Although the list box may contain resources from connected nodes, you can view and modify properties only for resources located on the node that you are signed into.
4. Click OK when you have finished editing the record.

Deleting resources

When a resource is deleted from a node, the resource's records and directory entry are removed from the local node. This means that the resource will no longer appear as invited in user's agendas, nor will it appear in any directory listings. If required, the resource's agenda can be copied out using the unicpoutr utility, and subsequently copied back in to any calendar server node using the unicpinr utility. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

Web GUI

You can delete resources easily using the Calendar Administrator. For full information on the Calendar Administrator, see Appendix F, "The Calendar Administrator".

Cmd line

Remove the resource(s) from the calendar server node using the unires -del (single deletion) or unires -ex (multiple deletions) commands. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

Admin GUI

To delete a calendar resource:

1. Select a resource, following the procedure outlined under "To edit resource information:" above.
2. Select the desired resource name and click Delete.

Managing resource defaults

You may wish to define a default resource profile to apply as you add resources to the database. This profile can also be applied to existing resources.

Defining a default resource profile:

• All configuration parameters for the resource profile are stored in the /users/unison/misc/resource.ini file. Edit this file using a text editor supplied with your operating system.
• Default values can be changed according to the information and limits defined in the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix A, "User and Resource Parameters."
• To make changes, delete the old value and insert a new value.
• The default value is assumed if the parameter is not included in the /users/unison/misc/resource.ini file.

Applying a default resource profile:

• The resource profile is applied during resource creation (using either the unires utility or the Admin GUI).
• The default resource profile is outlined under the section heading [GEN] in the /users/unison/misc/resource.ini file. Multiple profiles can be created from this template and appended to the file under different section heading names. These profiles can then be specified during resource creation or modification using the unires command. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."
• The default profile of one or more resources can be modified using the unires -ex command. For full information on use and syntax, see the calendar server Reference Manual, Appendix C, "Utilities."

Assigning designates

Designate and other access rights are set according to the default resource profile at the time the resource is added to the node. They can also be set later by using a calendar client to log in as the resource and modify its access rights.