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Oracle Calendar for the Web

Introduction

Oracle Calendar for the Web is a program that can be used with any operating system to create and manage personal agendas or calendars.

What You Will Need

In order to use Oracle Calendar for the Web, you must have:

  • A web browser.
    Note: Although JavaScript is not required for the web client, a JavaScript-enabled web browser will offer a cleaner, less complicated display.
  • A faculty or staff account set up for use with Oracle Calendar. Accounts must be set up to allow access to the Oracle calendaring system. If you have not already done so, see the instructions on the Activate Your Account page.

Accessing Oracle Calendar for the Web

Once your Oracle Calendar account has been activated, you can access Oracle Calendar for the Web at www.usc.edu/its/cal. Your username and password will be the same as the username and password you use to access your USC email account.

Changing the Agenda View

By default, Oracle Calendar for the Web will launch the Daily Planner view when you log in. This view displays your events for the day in one column, with Daily Notes, Day Events, and Tasks in the second.

There are four basic ways to display an agenda:

daily_view_pc
Daily View		 Displays single-day view of agenda. Can be displayed as Daily Planner (default, shows schedule, notes, day events, and tasks), or as Daily List (compacted display, schedule and tasks only).
week_view
Week View		 Displays work-week view of agenda. Only schedule and daily notes are displayed for each day.
month_view_pc
Month View		 Displays month view of agenda. Similar to Week View, only schedule and daily notes are displayed for each day.
task_view
Task View		 Displays tasks. Task View displays only tasks, but allows selection of active, incomplete, complete, or all tasks.

Oracle Calendar for the Web starts by displaying the agenda for the current day. However, you can center the view on a specific date by clicking on either the arrows or calendar icon directly above the agenda view, or on the miniature calendar in the top left corner of the browser window.

Building an Agenda

Oracle Calendar for the Web allows you to create an agenda though adding meetings, tasks, day events, and daily notes. New events can be created by clicking on the appropriate icon on the Oracle Calendar toolbar.

new_meeting
Create a Meeting
new_task
Create a Task
new_dayevent
Create a Day Event
new_daynote
Create a Daily Note

Creating a Meeting

Meetings are events of finite length that block out sections of time on an attendee's agenda. Once you have clicked on the Create Meeting icon, you can edit the specifics of a meeting:

General

  • Title - meeting title (optional, Untitled if left blank)
  • Location - meeting location (optional)
  • Tentative - indicates unfixed meeting time
  • Date - indicates meeting start time
  • Duration - indicates length of meeting
  • Importance - indicates meeting priority (Normal, by default)
  • Access - indicates meeting visibility to other Oracle Calendar users (Normal, by default)
  • Details - additional meeting details (optional text)

Notification

  • Send email to attendees - sends an email notice when meeting scheduled (does not send to meeting scheduler)
  • Send email to other people - sends an email notice to non-attendees when meeting scheduled
  • Message text - additional text in email notice (optional)
  • Reminder options - enables email reminder prior to meeting start time

People & Resources

  • Find - finds a user based on input text box and adds to attendee list
  • Remove selected - removes selected user from attendee list
  • Check conflicts - checks for scheduling conflicts for all attendees
  • Suggest time - lists potential meeting times based on selected attendee's schedule
  • Group view - displays blocked times for all attendees based on all attendees' schedules

Repeating

  • Repeat - determines repetition interval (Don't Repeat, by default)
  • Start and end dates - determines range of meeting repetition
  • Additional date - manually adds a date for meeting repetition (cannot be combined with Don't Repeat repetition interval)
  • List dates - calculates dates of meeting repetition based on selected interval
  • Delete - removes selected repetition date (can be done without modifying repetition interval)
  • Include - includes Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays (not selected, by default)

Creating a Task

Tasks are floating events -- events not necessarily limited to a specific range of dates or times. Uncompleted tasks, if not already past a specified due date, carry over to the next day, and are displayed on the Daily Planner view. Tasks can be continually updated to reflect status or actual date of completion.

Task Options

  • Title - task name (optional, Untitled if left blank)
  • Due - due date of task. A due date can be assigned, or left undetermined (No Due Date).
  • Start - start date of task. A start date can be assigned, or left undetermined (No Start Date).
  • Access - indicates task visibility to other Oracle Calendar users (Normal, by default)
  • Description - task description (optional)
  • Priority - task priority (ascending priority)
  • Status - task completion status. Completion can be measured by percentage, or marked as complete on a particular date.

Creating a Day Event

Day Events are events that last an entire day, but do not reserve times on an agenda, as meetings do. Options for a day event are the similar to those for a meeting, except that there are no times specified, and conflicts are not checked for attendees. Like meetings, day events display on all agenda views.

General

  • Title - day event name (optional, Untitled if left blank)
  • Date - date of day event
  • Access - indicates task visibility to other Oracle Calendar users (Normal, by default)
  • Details - specific details of day event (optional)

Creating a Daily Note

A Daily Note is not really an event, but more a reminder of things to do for a specific day. The configuration options for daily notes are the same as those for day events.

Managing Access Levels

Agenda items can be created with four different access levels:

  • Public - other Oracle Calendar users can view details about this item, including title and location (displayed in green text).
  • Normal - displays Busy when viewed by other Oracle Calendar users (displayed in black text).
  • Confidential - displays Busy when viewed by other Oracle Calendar users (displayed in red text).
  • Personal - displays Busy when viewed by other Oracle Calendar users (displayed in blue text).

Viewing Agenda Items

Details of any item on an agenda view can be retrieved by clicking on the item's symbol above the event name. The resulting window will display item specifics, including location, date, time, additional details, and current attendees.

Additionally, the View window can be used to confirm attendance to an event you have been listed as an attendee for (will attend, will not attend, will confirm later, and later time preferred) or to set an e-mail reminder.

Editing/Deleting Agenda Items

While the agenda views will display all events a Oracle Calendar user has created or been added as an attendee for, you can delete or modify only items that you have created or copied into your agenda.

To edit an agenda item, click the item from any agenda view. Any re-configurable item details will be active (either through dropdown menus or text fields). Make any necessary changes, and click the Update button. Oracle Calendar for the Web will reload the previous agenda view, with the appropriate updates made.

To delete an agenda item, click the item from any agenda view. Click the Delete button, and click OK when Oracle Calendar asks for confirmation. Oracle Calendar for the Web will then reload the agenda, with the deleted item no longer displayed.

Viewing Group Agendas

Oracle Calendar for the Web can be used to view general agendas for multiple Oracle Calendar users. This functionality can be used prior to scheduling an event to eliminate potential meeting conflicts, but can only compare schedules for a single day at a time.

To open Group View, click the Group View icon groupviewwin.

  • Select a date and time frame to check agendas against. A time increment can be chosen (30 minutes, by default) for the final display.
  • Select users/resources/groups by placing the name in the text box and clicking the Find button. By default, the current user's Oracle Calendar account is placed in the selected users box; any other matches will be placed in the box after they have been found. To remove any match, click the Remove selected button.
  • To view the group calendar, click the View button. This will create a display below listing each individual's blocked times (for previously scheduled meetings), as well as any potential conflict in the All column.

Viewing Other Oracle Calendar Users' Agendas

Oracle Calendar users can view items on the agendas of any other Oracle Calendar user. The amount of detail, however, depends on the Access level set when the agenda item was created.

To open View Agendas, click the View Agendas icon viewagendas_web.

  • Select a user/resource/group's agenda to view by placing the name in the Search text box and clicking Find.
  • Matches will be displayed below the Search box, and can be either viewed immediately by clicking View or added to a list of Favorites. Any Oracle Calendar users added to the Favorites list can be selected from the toolbar in the main agenda view to allow for quick switching between agendas.

Other Oracle Calendar users' agendas are navigated in the same way as your own. You can return to your own agenda by logging in again, or by viewing your own agenda through View Agendas.

Changing Oracle Calendar for the Web Preferences

A number of display and usage options can be changed by selecting the Tools tools icon and selecting Edit Preferences. Information about more important preferences are listed below:

General

  • Time format - switches between 12 and 24 hour time display formats
  • Short date format - organizes short date format (mm/dd/yy)
  • Date format - organizes normal date format (DDD, dd MM YYYY)

Display

  • Start Week - determines which day of week to display first for week/month views
  • Show Saturday/Sunday - displays Saturday/Sunday events in week/month views (off, by default)

Security

  • Allow Global Agenda Viewing - makes your Oracle Calendar calendar available to non-Oracle Calendar users

Note: Enabling this security settings may allow undesirable viewing access to your Oracle Calendar calendar if not managed carefully. Refer to the Oracle Calendar for the Web help system for more information about allowing access to your agenda.

Email Notification

  • Entries sent out - controls when email notifications are sent for new events you create
  • Entries received - controls if you will accept email notifications for new events you are added as an attendee for.
  • Email address - determines where email notifications are sent

Entry Defaults

  • Importance/Priority level - sets default importance or priority level for new meetings and tasks
  • Access level - sets default access level for new items

Creating Access Rights

Access rights to your agenda for other Oracle Calendar users can be created by clicking the Tools icon toolsand selecting Access Rights. Users can be granted rights to view aspects of your agenda--even to modify your agenda items--on an individual user basis.

Refer to the Oracle Calendar for the Web Help for a more in-depth treatment of Access Rights.

Creating Groups

Groups of Oracle Calendar users or resources can be created by clicking the Tools icon and selecting Manage Groups.

  • To create a new group, click the New button. Existing groups can also edited with Edit or removed with Delete.
  • Type a name for the group in the Group name field.
  • Select the group visibility in the Group type field. Private groups are visible only to you, while Members-only groups are visible only to members of the particular group.
  • To add new members, type the name in the text box and click Add, making sure to select the appropriate member type (people/resources/groups).

Once a group has been created, it can be used when adding attendees to a new agenda item. When searching for users to add, select Groups instead, and search for the group name you created.

Changing Your Oracle Calendar Password

When you start using Oracle Calendar, your login name and password for accessing Oracle Calendar are the same login name and password that you use for accessing other USC ITS systems, including email.usc.edu. We have software in place that will keep your login password synchronized between all of these systems, but it doesn't handle all of the places where you can change your login password.

Oracle Calendar for the Web has a feature that lets you change your login password. If you use this feature, you will de-synchronize your login passwords. To avoid de-synchronizing your login passwords, do not change your login password via Oracle Calendar. Use our Password Change web page, instead, since it will keep your login password synchronized with all USC ITS systems.

Exiting Oracle Calendar for the Web

When you have finished viewing your agenda, click the Sign Off icon signoff to log out. Oracle Calendar for the Web sessions will also automatically sign out after an idle time of 1 hour.

Getting Additional Help

Oracle Calendar for the Web provides a comprehensive help system that can be accessed by clicking the Help icon help, and selecting On-line Help. Context-sensitive help can usually be found by clicking the form button marked Help.

If you need additional help, you can send an email to consult@usc.edu or contact the Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555.



Last updated: Friday, June 19, 2009, 14:16PM PDT