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Workplace Services / Reservations

Configuring Parameters for the Reservations Application and the Reservations Plugin for Outlook

When you are setting up the Reservations application, you must configure the SendEmailNotifications, InternalServicesEmail, and InternalServicesName parameters.

The application uses the values for these email parameters whether or not you are using the ARCHIBUS Extension for Microsoft Exchange. You also have the option to configure other Reservations application parameters, including archiving days, timeline blocks duration, timeline start time, and timeline end time.

You must configure your web server to send email notifications. For information on setting up email notifications, see the Setting Up Email Notifications topic.

To update Reservations application parameters:

1. In the Process Navigator, select the Workplace Services / Reservations / Manage Reservations / Configure Parameters task.
   The Parameters Configuration view appears. All of the Reservations application configurable parameters are displayed in the left frame.
2. The following parameters must be edited. Click Save to save your changes.

• SendEmailNotifications - Set this to Yes if you want email notifications to be sent from the Reservations application. Set this to No if you do not want email notifications to be sent.
• InternalServicesEmail - Enter the email address that will appear as the sender of the email notifications in the notifications sent to the Requested By and Requested For employees. (The other invited employees and external guests will see the Requested By email address as the sender.)
• InternalServicesName - Enter the name of the sender of the email notifications. This will appear at the end of each email notification message.

3. You have the option to edit the following parameters. Click Save to save your changes.
• HideRoomConflicts. Configure the level of filtering (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4) for room conflicts when users create a recurring reservation. The following rooms will be displayed depending on the setting. The default value is 3, but you can change this as needed.
  • 0: all rooms available for at least one occurrence
  • 1: all rooms available for at least 50% of the occurrences
  • 2: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least one occurrence;
  • 3: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least 50% of the occurrences;
  • 4: only rooms available for all occurrences.

  • 5: all rooms available for at least the first occurrence;

  • 6: all rooms available for the first occurrence and at least 50% of the occurrences;

  • 7: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least the first occurrence;

  • 8: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for the first occurrence and at least 50% of the occurrences.

• PluginCapacityRequired - Enable or disable the requirement of entering a Capacity in the Plugin for saving a reservation.

  • Set to 1 to enable the requirement. When enabled, the application enforces that users must enter the capacity before proceeding with the reservation. This means that rooms are filtered to include only the ones having at least this capacity. Requiring the user to enter the Capacity can make the Capacity field a more reliable gauge of attendees in that room.
  • Set to 0 to disable the requirement. When entering the Capacity field is not required, the Capacity field defaults to five, and the user can change this at their discretion.
  • The entered Capacity value is stored in the database, and it's intended to store the actual number of attendees that will be in the room. See Capturing the number of attendees who are physically present.

• DaysBeforeArchiving - Enter the number of days that you want to occur before archiving of reservations takes place.
• MinutesTimeUnit - Enter the units to use in the timeline. For example, if you set the units to 15, the user can only reserve at 15-minute intervals: 10:00, 10:15, 10:30, etc.
  

  Note: The MinutesTimeUnit parameter determines the units that can be used for Pre-block and Post-block settings that are defined in the Room Arrangements and Resources tables. For example, if the MinutesTimeUnit is set to 10, then the Pre-block time must be in units of 10, such as 10, 20, 30, etc. For information on defining the Pre-block and Post-block settings, see Define General Resources and Define Room Arrangements. 

• TimelineEndTime - Enter the end time for the timeline.
• TimelineStartTime - Enter the start time for the timeline.
• TimelineMaxRoomsPerBuilding - This number sets the maximum number of rooms displayed on the room’s time line when creating or editing a room reservation or conference call reservation. A lower number increases performance and reduces the height of the room’s time line. A higher number can yield more rooms to choose from in each building.
• MaxRecurrencesToCheckFreeBusy-- Limits the number of dates to check for attendee availability. Having a large number of dates can cause performance issues if rooms and resources are reserved for recurring schedules that have many occurrences into the future. The default value is 10.

  Note: The MaxRecurrencesToCheckFreeBusy parameter applies only in the Web Central Reservations application (with and without with the ARCHIBUS Extension for Microsoft Exchange). It is not applicable to the Reservations Plugin for Outlook.

• MaxRecurrencesToCreate - Limits the number of occurrences to process when creating a recurring reservation for either a room or a resource. By default, this is set to 250. Note that this parameter determines the maximum number of occurrences for all recurring reservations, including resource reservations and also reservations created from Web Central and from the Reservations Plugin for Outlook.

  Note: Because of performance and technical limitations, it is not recommended to enter a numeric value higher than 500 for the MaxRecurrencesToCreate application parameter.

• ApplyVpaRestrictions -- Set this parameter to determine if VPA restrictions are enabled for the Reservations application, the Reservations Plugin for Outlook, and the Workplace Services Mobile App when creating room, resource, or conference call reservations. If users have a VPA restriction based on geography, this prevents them from booking outside of their VPA. The VPA restriction affects the reservations that are shown, and the buildings available when creating reservations. A setting of 0 means the VPA restriction is disabled; a setting of 1 means that it is enabled.

  If users have a need to make reservations for buildings from which they are restricted (such as when traveling or when booking for others), disabling the VPA enables them to do so. If this application parameter is not defined, the VPA restriction is applied as usual. As with all application parameters, this is a global setting, not per individual user.

  Note:  When working in the Reservations application, the VPA restriction works in all places for Bl VPA, Site VPA and custom VPA, except in the selection lists shown in pop-up windows used to select floor or room values. For most of the views in the application (Create Room Reservation, Create Resource Reservation, Create Conference Call Reservation, View Room Reservations, and View Resource Reservations), these selection lists are not correctly filtered when the connected user has been assigned a custom VPA. This issue only occurs when using selection lists from pop-up windows; other actions, such as creating a new reservation, or even listing the reservation in the View and/or Edit My Reservations will be correctly restricted by the user VPA.

4. If you are using the ARCHIBUS Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook, you can set these options:

• PlugInFullReservationView -- Sets the view loaded by the ARCHIBUS Room Reservations Plugin for Outlook when the user loads the full Web Central View
• PlugInRoomInformationView -- Sets the view loaded by the ARCHIBUS Room Reservations Plugin for Outlook when the user presses the "I" button in the Plugin to get more information on the room.
• PlugInOptionalLocationFilters -- Sets the list of location filters shown in the Plugin. To show a location, include it in the parameter value; to hide a location, remove it from the parameter value. The building must always be shown. The optional locations are country, state, city, site, and floor. To enable all optional filters, enter country;state;city;site;floor as the param_value. The parameter can also be configured using the Workplace Services / Reservations / Manage Reservations / Configure Outlook Plugin task.
• ApplyVpaRestrictions -- This application parameter applies to the Reservations Plugin for Outlook, as well as to the Reservations application and the Workplace Services Mobile app. See Step 3 above for a description.