Netscape Calendar Server 4.0: Administrator's G uide

Managing Users and Groups

This chapter describes the different tasks involved in managing users and groups in a Calendar node. As users must be in the Directory Server before they are added to a Calendar node, administrators must be familiar with user creation and management for the Directory Server, or should refer to the appropriate on-line help.

The following topics are dealt with in this chapter:

 

Creating Calendar users

 Each employee in your company, or member in your organization, who plans to use Netscape Calendar must first become a user. Once a user's profile has been created and added to a node, the employee can then use a Netscape Calendar client to connect to the node and manage his/her personal calendar.

 

Creating Calendar users

  1. Click the Users and Groups button under General Administration on the Server Administration Page to go to the Users and Groups area of the administration server. The forms in this area provide an interface for adding, modifying and deleting entries in the Netscape Directory Server.

  2. If the Directory Server already contains the user or users whom you wish to make Calendar users, proceed to the next step. For persons who are not yet entered in the Directory Server, select Users and Groups | New User and click the Help button in the New User form to activate the context sensitive on-line help. Follow these instructions for completing the form.

  3. Proceed to "Creating Calendar users one by one" if you want to create only one Calendar user, or alternatively, follow the procedure for creating several Calendar users at one time outlined in "Creating several Calendar users".

 

Creating Calendar users one by one

  1. After completing the previous section, click Create and Edit User if you wish to create only one user and immediately add it to a Calendar node.

  2. A form will be displayed with all of the information in edit boxes for the newly created user. At the top of the form is the message "<user name> has been added" under which is another heading displaying <user name>, <organization>. Immediately underneath this heading are a number of boxes or "views", one of which is labelled Calendar. Click Calendar.

  3. The next form will have the heading <user name>, <organization> under which is the phrase "Add User to a node" and the same boxes or views as in the form above. The Calendar view is highlighted. Three fields are displayed, two of which require values. Click Add when the form is complete.

    Calendar Host: set value; cannot be edited

    Node-ID: enter the Node-ID of the Calendar node that you wish to add this user to

    SYSOP Password: the password of the Calendar administrator for the node indicated above

  4. A message in a pop-up box will notify you of the successful addition of the user to a node.

 

Creating several Calendar users

  1. If you plan to create several Calendar users at once, complete the "New User" form under Users and Groups | New User.

  2. Click Create User.

  3. If the action is successful, the next screen will display a blank "New User" form with the message "The user <user name> has been added" at the top. Continue to create the desired number of new users in the same manner.

  4. Proceed to the next section to complete the user creation process by adding the users to (a) node(s).

 

Adding users to a node

  1. Select User Management | Add Users to Node from the Calendar Server Manager. In the user list on the "Add Users to Node" form, you will see displayed any Directory Server users who are not configured Calendar users. To select users to add to a node, click on an entry to select a single user, <Ctrl> click on each desired entry to create a subset of the displayed users, or click Select All to activate the complete list.

  2. Select the Node-ID for the node that you wish to add the selected users to from the Node-ID pull-down menu.

  3. Enter the SYSOP password.

  4. Click Add to add the user(s) to the specified node.

 

Managing Calendar users

  1. To edit user entries, select Users & Groups | Manage Users from the Administration Server Manager.

  2. Follow the on-line instructions to make changes to a user's record.

You may also view and modify various Calendar user attributes from the command line using the uniuser utility. See Appendix G for full instructions on the use of this utility.

 

Moving Calendar users

A variety of circumstances -- organizational changes, employee relocation, or the need to redistribute node capacity -- may result in a situation where the Calendar administrator needs to move one or more users from one node to another. This operation is achieved through the use of the unimvuser utility. See Appendix G for full instructions on the use of this utility.

 

Managing user defaults

A Calendar administrator may wish to set certain client display preferences, administrative rights, viewing privileges or other parameters for a group of users by first defining a default user profile before adding these users to the node.

Note
The default value is assumed if a parameter is not set in the /users/unison/misc/user.ini file.

 

To define a default user profile:
  1. From the Calendar Server Manager, select User Management | Manage User Defaults to open the "Manage User Defaults" form

  2. All configuration parameters for the user profile are displayed under the heading "Section: [GEN]".

  3. To edit the default profile, click "Section: [GEN]" to open the "Section Editor".

  4. All configurable parameters are displayed with the default value in an edit box. This value can be changed according to the information and limits defined in the following section "Parameters for user profile".

  5. To make changes to a value, delete the old value and type the new value in the edit box.

  6. To return to the default profile or values, click Reset.

  7. To add a new parameter, click Add Key(s) and, in the pop-up window, enter the number of parameters you wish to add. The specified number of boxes will be added to the bottom of the form for the insertion of the new parameters.

  8. To remove a parameter, click Delete Key and enter the key to be deleted in the pop-up window.

  9. Once you have made all required editing changes, click Save Changes.

 

Parameters for user profile

The information that can be specified is:

 
Display Preferences
 ShowSunday = TRUE/FALSE

ShowTuesday =TRUE/FALSE

ShowMonday = TRUE/FALSE

ShowWednesday = TRUE/FALSE

ShowThursday =TRUE/FALSE

ShowFriday = TRUE/FALSE

ShowSaturday =TRUE/FALSE

This set of parameters determines whether or not these days will be part of the week view on the client. The default is TRUE for all seven days of the week.

TimeFormat = 1/2

This parameter determines whether or not time is displayed in standard (AM/PM) or military (24h) time. The default is AM/PM.

StartDay = time_of_day

This parameter determines the time at which the user's calendar starts (day & week view only) for display purposes only. This does not affect the regular business hours of the user. The default is 08h00.

EndDay = time_of_day

This parameter is used to define the time of day the user's calendar ends (day & week view only) for display purposes, although it has little effect given that all hours of the day are displayed anyway. For example, if this is set to 15h00, or 3 o'clock PM, the remainder of the afternoon will still be visible. Other settings, such as time slot increments and the spacing height, also affect how little or how much of the day is displayed . The default is 18h00.

TimeInc = time_in_minutes

This parameter defines the time increment for the day & week views. Adjusting the value of this parameter affects how much of your day is displayed on the screen. Only the following values can be specified: 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60 (minutes). The default is 15 minutes.

 

Refresh Frequency, Notification and Reminder Preferences
RefreshFrequency = time_in_minutes

This parameter sets the refresh frequency of the client in minutes. A value of 0 would effectively disable the refresh, and is the default.

MailNotification = TRUE/FALSE

This parameter specifies whether or not the user can receive mail notification upon event creation. The default is FALSE.

Note
This setting has no effect on the user's ability to send mail notification upon event creation.

DefaultReminder = 0/1

If set to 1, the Default Reminder for Agenda Entries and Day Events is set to Pop-up Reminder. For Tasks, only the Default Task Due Reminder is set to Pop-up Reminder, the Default Task Start Reminder is NOT set. Furthermore, the Daily Notes Default Reminder is also not set. The default is 0, or no reminders.

TimeBeforeReminder = time_in_minutes

This parameter is used to set the reminder time for the Default Reminder. In other words, a value of 24 would mean that the reminder would appear 24 hours before the start of the event. Only the following values can be specified: 0, 2, 5, 10, 60, 120, 240 (minutes); 12, 24, 48, 96 (hours); 7, 14, 31 (days).

 

Default Security to Other Users
ViewNormalEvent = YES/NO/TIME

ViewPersonalEvent = YES/NO/TIME

ViewConfidentialEvent = YES/NO/TIME

ViewNormalTask = YES/NO

ViewPersonalTask = YES/NO

ViewConfidentialTask = YES/NO

The above parameters determine the default security given to other users when creating events or tasks of these designations. For example, if ViewNormalEvent was set to TIME, only the time slot of the event would be visible to other users. Conversely, if ViewNormalEvent was set to YES, all details of the event would be visible to other users. If ViewNormal Event was set to NO, the event would not be visible at all to other users.

The default value for all of the above parameters is NO.

All details of a public event are visible to other users, there is no way to modify this behavior via these parameters.

The ViewNormalEvent and ViewNormalTask settings map to the \QNormal' Access Level on the client.

The ViewPersonalEvent and ViewPersonalTask settings map to the \QPersonal' Access Level on the client.

The ViewConfidentialEvent and ViewConfidentialTask settings map to the \QConfidential' Access Level on the client.

CanBookMe = TRUE/FALSE

Setting this parameter to TRUE allows any undefined user to schedule with the user. Of course, this can be overridden by the user within the client. The default setting is FALSE.

 

Personal Group and Administrative Rights
CreatePublicGroups = FALSE

This parameter determines whether or not users have the ability to create Public groups (i.e. groups available to all users in the database). The default is FALSE.

ManageAdmGroups = FALSE

This parameter determines whether or not users have the ability to create Administration groups. Like Public groups, Administration groups are available to all users in the database, except that Administration groups are owned by the SYSOP and not by the user who created them. Why would someone want to create a SYSOP-owned group? If you delete a user who has created a Public group, the Public group is deleted along with his/her data. Conversely, Administration groups created by that user will not be deleted. The default is FALSE.

ManageHolidays = FALSE

This parameter determines whether or not users have the ability to manage (i.e. create, modify or delete) holidays on the system.

X400 Address Information

The following parameters, when defined, can be useful for populating the database with a large number of users who share X.400 address information.

OU1 = Org_unit_1

OU2 =Org_unit_2

OU3 =Org_unit_3

OU4 =Org_unit_4

O = Organization

C = Country

A = Administrative_Domain

P = Private_Member_Domain

 

Miscellaneous
TimeZone = time zone

This parameter is used to define users in different time zones.

Admin. Groups

This section allows you to define groups that users will be placed in as they are added to the system. Note that the groups must be created beforehand, and that there is a maximum of 10 groups per section.

Group0 = group_name

Group1 = group_name

Group2 = group_name

...

Group9 = group_name

 

Designates
This section allows you to define designates for users as you are adding them to the system. Note that the designates must exist as Calendar users in the database beforehand, and that there is a maximum of 10 designates per section.

Designate0 = designate_name

Designate1 = designate_name

Designate2 = designate_name

....

Designate9 = designate_name

 

Assigning administration rights

Calendar administration rights control the ability of users to create and manage public groups and holidays. As explained in the section above, "Managing user defaults", default rights are assigned when the user is created. The Calendar administrator may change the rights assigned to a user at any time.

 

To modify administration rights:
  1. Select User Management | Administration Rights from the Calendar Server Manager to open the "Administration Rights" form.

  2. Select a node-ID from the pull-down menu.

  3. Enter the SYSOP password.

  4. Click OK.

  5. A new form will appear containing a listing of the assigned administration rights for all users on the specified node. Any user not found in the list is classified under the category "Any Unlisted User". Codes used for the assigned rights are:

    hday: the right to create, modify or delete holidays on a node

    pgrp: the right to create and modify administrative groups owned by the SYSOP

    opgrp: the right to create, modify and delete public groups

  6. Follow the instructions in one of the two following sections to either edit or add administration rights for users.

 

To edit the administration rights for a user or the group of unlisted users:
  1. Complete the steps in the section above "To modify administration rights".

  2. Click a name or "Any Unlisted User" to open the "Edit Administration Rights" form.

  3. Click the appropriate checkbox(es) to assign or remove administration rights.

  4. Enter the SYSOP password.

  5. Click Save.

 

To assign administration rights to a user not listed individually in the table:
  1. Complete the steps in the section above "To modify administration rights".

  2. Click Add to open the "Add Administration Rights" form.Using this form, you can search the node for all users with default administration rights, ie. those represented by "Any unlisted user".

  3. Enter the SYSOP password.

  4. If you wish to limit your search to a specific user, or to a group of users with a common attribute, enter an X.400 search filter. Most commonly, one might use this feature to search for all users whose surname begins with a specific letter. For example, to limit the search to all users whose surname starts with the letter "B", you would enter "S=B*". Do an unrestricted search to view the different keys that may be used to define your search.

  5. Enter the maximum number of user records to be returned for your search in the "Maximum Search Results" box. The default value is 100.

  6. Click Find once you complete defining your search limits. The results of your search will be displayed in the list box under the title "Calendar Users".

  7. Select the name of the user whose administration rights you wish to change from the list box.

  8. Click the appropriate checkbox(es) to assign or remove administration rights.

  9. Click Add.

Calendar user administration rights can also be set and modified from the command line using the uniadmrights utility. See Appendix G for full instructions on the use of this utility.

 

Managing groups

To allow Calendar users to efficiently schedule entries, tasks, events and notes with other users and resources, Netscape Calendar offers the facility to create four different types of groups:

 

Public groups
 
Private groups
  
Administrative groups
  
Members only groups