This chapter covers the following topics:
Once logged in to the HTML Calendar, you are taken to the calendar daily view with any scheduled appointments, tasks, or other calendar items, such as marketing objects. Select an appropriate link from the side navigation menu to have calendar displayed in weekly, monthly, yearly, or combination view. Clicking any arrow on any calendar view page allows you to view the previous or next day, week, month, or year.
When viewing tasks in calendar views including daily, weekly, monthly, combination, and public calendar views, if "Display Task Customer and Source" is set to "Yes" in personal preferences page and if a task has a source and it is not "Task Manager" or "Appointment", you can also find customer names and source names displayed in the hyperlink format along with the tasks. Click the hyperlink to see the source object if it is set up correctly in the JTF Object meta-data table.
Untimed Appointments
You might see untimed appointments shown in the untimed area on top of the daily, weekly and combination daily views. The untimed appointments, tasks or events appear because of the following reasons:
Any task that is assigned to you and has zeroes for the start time and end time.
Any appointment that is created without identifying its duration (not timed).
Note: If you have integrated both Calendar and Resource Manager with another Oracle product, you see both the Calendar tab and the People tab. These two modules share the CRM Application Foundation User responsibility.
Use the combination view to create, update, or delete an existing appointment or task. Since the combination view provides an overview of a specific day's events (daily view), along with a quick list of the current tasks, you can view the following information:
Scheduled appointments in the daily view (on the left-hand side of the window)
List of the tasks (on the right-hand side of the window) in the Tasks region: The tasks shown here are the tasks you own or that are assigned to you. The order of the list of tasks is based on the planned start date starting with the oldest. You can modify the number of rows displayed for the list of tasks by selecting the Profile icon and Display References link.
In addition, if "Display Task Customer and Source" is set to "Yes" in personal preferences page and if a task has a source and it is not "Task Manager" or "Appointment", you can also find customer names and source names displayed in a hyperlink format along with the tasks in the combination view.
It is important to note that the Create or Quick Create button displayed in the Tasks region is used to create tasks, not appointments.
Note: You will not be able to view another resource's personal or group calendar in the combination view.
Navigate to the Combination window by clicking Combination in any calendar view.
Use the Availability window to check the availability of a resource that you want to invite to an appointment. Resource availability is based on appointments assigned directly to the resources which display on the resource's calendar. This is not the same as the availability used in the Forms Calendar. Availability in Forms specifically indicates a resource's work shift availability.
Searching for Resources
To search for resource availability, first perform a search to locate the resource. In the search result window, you can see the resource name along with phone number, email, and job title information which allows you to contact the resource directly for further availability verification before adding the resource to the Availability view.
Viewing Resource Availability
After adding a resource in the Availability view, you will not only be able to view the resource availability, but also to see the selected resource's phone number displayed next to the resource name in a hyperlink format which opens the e-mail compose window. As a result, you can contact the selected resource directly either by phone or e-mail for availability check before scheduling an appointment. The unavailable time displays in red, and the available time displays in blue. The combination of all the selected resources' availability is shown in the Combined row.
In addition, you can send web mails through Oracle Collaboration Suite from the Availability window if it is set up.
Private appointments are considered as unavailable and their detailed information will not be seen by the user even if granted with full access privilege. Private appointments are exclusive to the user who has created them.
Features of the Resource Availability Window
You can perform the following tasks in the Availability window:
View additional resource availability: By clicking Add Resource, you can add additional usernames to the availability view and then view their availability information.
Create Appointments: You can create appointments by the following ways:
Click Create Appointment, you can directly create a new appointment. All your selected resources in this window for availability information are automatically added to the Attendees window if you create an appointment from this view.
After selecting different resources in the Availability window, you click the timeline hyperlink (such as 1:00 p.m.) shown in the Combined row to access the Create Appointment window. Notice that the Start Time field is displayed automatically (1:00 p.m.) and the resources that you selected in the Availability window are also automatically invited to the appointment.
View resource availability for current date and a specific date: By clicking Today, you can view all the selected resource availability for the current date. By clicking appropriate arrows surrounding the day, you can move forward or backward to compare the list of your selected resources' availability for the next or previous day.
Use the Availability window to add a resource's schedule to your availability view.
Note: Resources added to your availability view are only present while the user is logged in. Once you log out of your calendar, any resources added to the availability view are deleted and you must add them to the window again once you log back in.
A calendar user can view all existing public calendars. Public calendars appear in monthly view only. If the description information of a public calendar is very long, then you will see the information displayed in a wrapped text format.
Navigate to the Public Calendar window by clicking Public Calendar in any calendar view.
You can enter the name of the public calendar or search for a public calendar.
In addition to the Quick Find search, HTML Calendar also allows you to use advanced search functionality to search for appointments based on the following search criteria:
Name
Appointments between two dates
Type
Priority
Description
Show All Invitations
To access the advanced search window, you must first select "Appointment" from the Quick Find drop-down list. Click the Advanced Search hyperlink to access the Appointment Advanced Search window.
Enter at least one search criterion and perform a search to see the appointments that match the search criteria populated in the Appointments window. When clicking the appointment link listed in the search results, you can either view the appointment details or respond to the appointment invitation if searching by "Show All Invitations".
For example, you can search for all your appointment invitations specifically for next week. After entering appropriate date range and selecting the "Show All Invitations" check box, you will see all appointments that you are invited to next week listed in the Appointments window. You can respond to each appointment invitation by clicking the appointment name hyperlink or the name with prefix "INVITE" to access the Appointment Invitation window where you can accept or decline the invitation. Once you accept the invitation by clicking the Accept button for the appointment with prefix "INVITE", when performing a search next time, the same appointment will still be retrieved, but listed without the prefix "INVITE". You can then decline the invitation if necessary.
Use the Appointment Details window to view details for any of your existing appointments. You can access the appointments menu in the side navigation bar once you create an appointment.
Note: Click the source number link to view the source or the name link to view the details of the record.
Use the Create Appointment window to create an appointment for yourself or another resource.
Be aware that if an appointment is created for a group or public calendar, then the "Private" check box is removed from the appointment creation page. Therefore, all group calendar appointments are public to all group calendar subscribers.
If an appointment is created without specifying starting time, then the appointment will be displayed in the untimed area in the calendar views.
HTML Calendar defaults appointment Type to "General" in the Create Appointment window. You can change the default type from the Type drop-down list. The available types shown in the list are only the types that are mapped to the source object "Appointments". However, if no task types are mapped to the object "Appointments", then all of the types will be displayed in the drop-down list.
In the Reference region, you can relate the appointment to a business object, such as an opportunity. Appointments do not follow the Tasks data security rules for the "Relate To" (or Reference) list of values.
Note: You cannot create a private appointment in association with a public or a group calendar.
Steps
Enter a name for the appointment.
The start date reflects the current date and is automatically populated. You can change the date if necessary.
Click the Go button to select the time zone where the appointment is scheduled. This overrides the client time zone set in your calendar profile.
Using the drop-down lists, define the following information for the appointment:
Start Time: If you accessed this window by clicking the + icon in the daily or weekly view, the default is the time you selected. If this field is left blank, then your appointment will be displayed in the untimed area in the calendar views.
Duration: If you accessed this window by clicking the + icon in the daily or weekly view, the default is one hour.
(Task) Type: You can update the default type "General" to other type if needed.
(Task) Category
Priority (Status)
Select when you want to be reminded of an appointment:
Do Not Remind Me
15 Minutes Before
30 Minutes Before
1 Hour Before
2 Hours Before
1 Day Before
2 Days Before
3 Days Before
1 Week Before.
The default value is "Do Not Remind Me". If you choose to receive a reminder, you will receive a workflow notification in your Personal Home Page Worklist. However, You will not receive an e-mail notification since you cannot receive both e-mail and a notification in your Personal Home Page.
Select the Private check box if this is a private appointment. If the appointment is created for a group or public calendar, then you will not be able to see the Private check box in the creation page.
Enter a description for the appointment.
Select the related business object.
Use the Reference Type drop-down list to select an object to reference a person, organization, or opportunity.
Enter the related object name.
Click Create to save the current appointment and return to the Appointment Details window where you can update or delete the appointment. Click Create and Create Another to save the appointment and proceed to the Create Appointment window again to create another appointment.
Use the Attendees window to send an appointment invitation to another resource. When searching for resources, you can search either by resource name, such as Jeff Walsh, or by user name, such as jwalsh. After a search, both resource name and user name of the selected resource are displayed for your selection.
Click the source link to view the source or the name link to view the details of the record.
It is recommended that you do not invite attendees to public calendar appointments.
Note: Do not modify the assignee status of the invitee in the Forms-based version of Task Manager. Not all Task Manager assignee statuses are available in the HTML Calendar.
Perform the following steps to invite an employee resource to an appointment.
Prerequisites
Steps
In the Appointment Details window, click Attendees in the side navigation bar.
Enter either the resource name or user name of the employee you want to invite to the appointment or perform a search using the lookup tool.
Click Add. The resource name is moved to the multi-select text box.
Select the resource and click Availability to view the individual's availability for the scheduled appointment time in a graphical format.
Click Send Invite to add the resource to the invitees list with invitation status such as "Invited", "Accepted", or "Rejected".
To create a note for the appointment, click the Notes link on the side navigation bar and click Create Note.
When you receive an invitation to an appointment, it displays on your calendar with the word INVITE. You can respond to an invitation either through HTML Calendar or through Workflow notification.
When you respond to the invitation by either accepting or rejecting it, HTML Calendar sends a workflow notification to the appointment owner. The notification is similar to the invitation and contains key information of the appointment, such as start date and time, duration, priority, type, description, and repeating rule details if for a repeating appointment.
Once you accept the invitation, the status changes from "Invitee" to "Attendee" and you can attach notes to it. For a repeating appointment or task, you can either reject all or accept all of them, instead of responding to each invitation individually.
Note: If you reject an invitation, then it will be deleted and you are not able to retrieve it.
Use the Repeating window to create a series of appointments for a regularly scheduled appointment. See Creating a Repeating Task or Appointment for instructions.
You can view or update existing attachments created for an appointment, a task, or a note through the HTML Calendar, Tasks, Notes or other integrated applications.
Use the Attachments window to view existing attachments for a selected appointment, task, or note. You can find attachment summary information including creation date, description, file size, data type, created by, and the actual attachment link.
By clicking the source or name hyperlink, you can view the details of the selected source document. To view the actual attachment, click the attachment link to directly access the attachment details.
See Using Attachments, Oracle Applications User's Guide for detail information on creating, updating, and deleting attachments.
You can create and add an attachment to an appointment, a note, or a task. You can link unstructured data such as images, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, URLs, or text to application data.
Note: Click the source link to view the source or the name link to view the details of the record. Use the First, Previous, Next, and Last links to view all existing attachments in the system.
Use the References window to relate an appointment to a business object. For example, if an appointment relates to a specific business campaign, you can relate it to that campaign so the information appears to anyone who views the appointment.
Note: Appointments do not follow the Tasks data security rules for the "Relate To" (or "Reference") list of values.
Bins provide a quick look at the current days appointments and tasks. The calendar bin shows the current calendar month, the task bin shows a modified task summary, and the appointment bin shows the current day's appointments, which appear in the daily view of your calendar. Only tasks and appointments (including task and group calendar items) to which the user has access, are shown in the task and appointment bins. The following topics provide additional information on bins:
If you are running Calendar integrated with another Oracle module, use calendar bins as a quick look at your daily calendar and appointments.
The calendar bin shows you the monthly view of your calendar while the appointment bin shows you all the items that appear on the daily view of your calendar including tasks and appointments.
The appointment bin has two columns. The time column shows the start time of the appointment and the name shows the appointment name. If a start time is not specified when the appointment is created, "All Day" appears in the time column. When you create an appointment, it appears in your appointment bin for the specified day.
Note: When you switch to another calendar that you are subscribed or have access to, your calendar and task bins still reflect your personal appointments and tasks.
Use Calendar preferences to control the way that you view your calendar. You can set personal calendar preferences in the following regions:
General Setup Header
This header region includes setting default values for the following fields:
Issue Notification. Select whether or not you want workflow notifications sent to invitees when an invitation is sent, as well as workflow notifications sent to an owner when invitees respond to an invitation. The e-mail notifications can also be sent only if e-mail server is set up correctly. The default is set to Yes. If No is selected which overwrites sending an e-mail to an invitee or an owner.
Display Items. Select whether or not you want to show calendar items, such as marketing objects, in your personal calendar views.
Clock (12/24 Hour). Select if you want your clock to display in intervals of 12 or 24 hours.
Display Task Customer and Source. Select whether or not you want to display task customer and source of a task in calendar views. The default is No.
Color/Prefix Setup for Items Region
To differentiate tasks and calendar items from appointments in your calendar views, HTML Calendar allows you to choose a different color and prefix for each of them so that you can easily identify them in your calendar.
For example, if green is chosen for tasks and with prefix "Task", then all tasks will be displayed in green and have prefix "Task" in front of each task name in your calendar views. This way you can easily differentiate tasks from appointments if they are in red with prefix "Apt".
This functionality is similar to the Group Calendar Subscription page to have different color or prefix selected for your subscribed group calendar events. There will be no default text for prefix. Each prefix can have up to 20 characters.
To be able to view calendar events in your personal calendars, in addition to having "Display Items" set to "Yes" and identifying desired color and prefix text, you must belong to resource groups to which the event is published.
Weekly Setup Region
Use this region to set up the following display intervals for a week:
Select in what order you want a week in your calendar to begin and end. For example, Sunday through Saturday or Monday through Friday.
Select the way you want your appointment time increments to display. For example, 15 minute or 30 minute increments.
Select the start and end time for each day of the week that you want in your calendar. For example, from 08:00 a.m. and ends at 05:00 p.m.
Use Calendar privileges to grant another user "view only" or "full access" to your personal calendar. When searching for users, you can search either by resource name, such as Jeff Walsh, or by user name, such as "jwalsh". After a search, both resource name and user name of the selected resource are displayed for your selection.
When a user gives calendar access privilege to another resource, the access for tasks is also given simultaneously. The same functionality applies while revoking the grants. Since Task Manager leverages the AOL data security model, task security can be further customized around granting access to tasks. Granting calendar access to another user will still result in granting task access to the user. However, the access to the tasks can be restricted if additional data security has been implemented for tasks.
Note: If you have a private appointment, only you are able to view it. Even if you grant privileges to a user to view your calendar, the appointment remains private.
When you request a new group or public calendar, the request is sent to the Calendar System Administrator for approval. Once approved, a workflow process is started and the calendar is created automatically.
If requesting a group calendar, you receive a notification and become the owner of the group calendar, which entitles you to administer future subscription requests to that calendar. Any subsequent subscription requests are then sent directly to your worklist for your approval.
If requesting a public calendar, you must select the Public check box to identify this group calendar is used as a public calendar. After being approved by the Calendar Administrator, you will become the owner of the public calendar who will be responsible for future appointment creation and updates for that public calendar.
To create appointments for a public calendar, the public calendar owner needs to use the switch calendar functionality. All appointments created for a public calendar must be classified as "public" appointments. They cannot be "private". As a result, any calendar users can view public calendars without subscription request.
Note: You cannot create a private appointment in association with a public calendar.
Perform the following steps to request creation of a new group calendar.
Steps
Click Group Calendar in the side navigation bar.
Click Request New Group.
Enter a name for the group.
Optionally enter a description for the group. If the description is a very long text, then it can be displayed in a wrapped text format.
Select the Public check box if you are requesting a public calendar.
Click Send Request. A workflow notification is sent to the Group Calendar Administrator who determines whether or not the request is approved.
A calendar user can subscribe to a group calendar (which is not public) from Profile > Group Calendar > Subscribe to Group. If your subscription request is approved by the group calendar owner, the group calendar appears in the Calendar Group Subscription window the next time you accesses it. The group calendar then appears in your personal calendar. Only the Group Calendar Administrator, or a calendar user granted full access to the calendar, can modify it.
Use the Switch to Another Calendar window to view a group calendar that you own or to view another user's personal calendar if you have been granted access privileges.
For example, Paul Henry can select the Key Accounts group calendar after he receives approval from Timothy Cleary, the owner of the Key Accounts group calendar. If Paul is an assistant for Elizabeth Smith, a sales director, and has view-only access privilege to Elizabeth's personal calendar, then Paul can also see Elizabeth's name shown in the User or Group Name field's drop-down list. He can switch to Elizabeth's personal calendar and view her schedule if needed, but cannot make updates, or add new appointments.
Timothy, the owner of the Key Account group calendar, can select the Key Account group calendar if he wants to create or update activities. Paul is not able to select the Key Account group calendar because Paul is not the owner of that group calendar.
It is important to note that when you switch a calendar, you can still see your tasks and notes by navigating to the Tasks or Notes subtab. Within this context if you come back to the Views subtab, you are still in the switch calendar mode. To switch back to your personal calendar, you need to go to switch calendar and switch back.
Access to appointments is based on whether you are the owner of the appointment or an attendee. For example, when you search a note whose source is an appointment, you can drill down to the appointment only if you are the owner or the attendee of that appointment. Otherwise, you cannot drill down to the appointment.
Access to calendars and the ability to view the associated contents kick in only when you switch calendar and not in any other context.
Use Calendar to create personalized task categories to classify your appointments or tasks.
Note: The default category "Unfiled" exists for all users and cannot be deleted.
Perform the following steps to create a new task category.
Steps
Navigate to the Calendar Personal Preferences window by clicking the Profile link.
Click Categories in the side navigation bar.
Enter a name for the category into a blank field under the category column.
Save your changes.
Use the time zone window to determine what time zone your appointments take place in when you are creating an appointment.
Perform the following steps to change your time zone information for Calendar and all integrated Oracle Products.
Steps
Navigate to the Calendar Personal Preferences window by clicking the Profile link.
Click Time Zone in the side navigation bar.
Perform a search to select the time zone you want to specify as your default.
Enter at least two characters in the search field and execute the search.
Select the option button of the time zone you want to define.
Save your changes.
The Calendar Administrator can approve or reject a new group calendar request. Whether the request is granted or rejected, the requestor receives a notification. If the request is approved, the requestor automatically becomes the Group Calendar Administrator, and is then responsible for approving future subscription requests for that group calendar.
You must configure your Personal Home Page (PHP) and create a worklist to receive notifications and be a Calendar Administrator to approve new group calendar requests.
Steps
Navigate to your homepage worklist in Forms.
Click on any request link.
In the lower portion of the window, select No in the response drop-down list to deny the request, or Yes to accept it.
Click an appropriate button to approve or deny the request.
When you receive an approval for a new group calendar, you become the owner and the Group Calendar Administrator, and are responsible for responding to all future subscription requests.
You must configure your Personal Home Page (PHP) and create a worklist to receive notifications and be a Group Calendar Administrator with the CRM Application Foundation User responsibility or the JTF HTML Calendar User responsibility.
Steps
Navigate to your homepage worklist in Forms.
Click any request link.
In the lower portion of the window, select read-only access from the Response drop-down list and click Approve to grant the request or Reject to deny it.
Click an appropriate button to approve or reject the request.
To view group calendar subscription information, the Calendar Administrator can see an additional drop-down menu in the Calendar Group Subscription window with the following choices:
Show Subscribed (Default)
Show All
The "Show Subscribed" lists the group calendars that the Calendar Administrator is currently subscribed to. The Calendar Group Subscription window appears with Group Calendar Name, Description, Color, and Prefix information. If "Show All" is selected, then all group calendars' names and descriptions will be shown in the Calendar Group Subscription window.
You must be the Calendar Administrator to view group calendar subscription information.
Steps
Use the CRM Application Foundation User or JTF HTML Calendar User responsibility to navigate to the Calendar Personal Preferences window by clicking the Profile icon > clicking Group Calendar in the side navigation bar.
In the Calendar Group Subscription window, review the group calendar information that the Calendar Administrator has subscribed to.
(Optionally) select Show All from the drop-down list to review all group calendars.
After the Calendar Administrator approves a new group calendar request or the Group Calendar Administrator approves a subscription request, any users can update their group calendar subscriptions shown in the Calendar Group Subscription window.
However, the level of calendar updates is based on user types. An average user can perform basic subscription updates. A user who is a Calendar Administrator or a Group Calendar Administrator can also update the list of Group Calendar Administrators (owners) shown for the selected group calendar.
After opening the subscribed group calendar, you can modify the subscription information by changing the color and prefix event title information for the selected group calendar. The Color and Prefix Event Title fields are used to differentiate which activities displayed in your personal calendar belong to the subscribed group calendar. Click Unsubscribe to revoke the selected group calendar subscription.
There is also a table listing all the Group Calendar Administrators for the selected group calendar.
Besides the basic group calendar updates, a user who is a Calendar Administrator or a Group Calendar Administrator can see the Remove check box shown in the table next to the Name field. A user with the administrator role can add more Group Calendar Administrators from the Name LOV if necessary. Any changes made to the administrators will be confirmed by a message indicating the update was successful.
Note: Each group calendar must have at least one Group Calendar Administrator.
Before removing existing administrators, you must make sure that each group calendar has at least one Group Calendar Administrator remaining in the table. Otherwise, an error message indicates that you must select a new Group Calendar Administrator before you remove all of the existing ones. If a duplicate name (administrator) is selected, then an error message indicates that the resource you selected is already a Group Calendar Administrator.
After you update the administrators, if a group calendar has more than one Group Calendar Administrator, then a subscriber's request through workflow notifications will be sent to all of the Group Calendar Administrators. The access privilege of the subscriber to the group calendar is based on the level granted by the first approver. When one administrator approves the request, notifications sent to the rest of administrators will be removed automatically from their worklists.
For example, one of the administrators approves the request and grants the subscriber an access level, such as Read. The system will first check whether the subscriber has been added or removed from the list. If the subscriber is added to the list, then it will change the notification status to "Closed" for all notifications sent to the rest of administrators.
Tips: Although you can have more than one Group Calendar Administrator for a group calendar for backup purposes, it is suggested that you grant only one additional user the Administrator access.
While responding to group calendar subscription requests, the Group Calendar Administrator can grant Full Access to a user who needs to create or update the group calendar's appointments, or grant Administrator access to a user who acts as the Group Calendar Administrator. The administrator should grant Read Only access to all other subscribers.
To update administrators for a given group calendar, you must have the administrator role meaning either be a Calendar Administrator or a Group Calendar Administrator.
Steps
Use the CRM Application Foundation User or JTF HTML Calendar User responsibility to navigate to the Calendar Personal Preferences window by clicking the Profile icon >Group Calendar in the side navigation bar.
In the Calendar Group Subscription window, view a list of your subscribed group calendars.
Click one of the group calendar names to update group calendar subscription information such as color and prefix event title.
To unsubscribe the selected group calendar, click Unsubscribe to revoke the subscription.
To update the administrators if you are a Calendar Administrator or a Group Calendar Administrator:
Select the Remove check box next to the administrator whom you want to remove.
Use the Name LOV to search by either a user name or a resource name and find the administrator you want to add to the calendar.