[All_jlab_accounts] Jefferson Lab: Zimbra Calendar Update

[deang]

/_*Sent on behalf of IT: Zimbra Calendar Update*_/

On Tuesday, the lab moved to a new calendar system, replacing the Oracle 
Calendar. This is a significant transition, moving away from an older 
centralized calendar to one more distributed, using a modern "Microsoft 
Outlook" model of managing meetings via e-mail messages.

*Dedicated help*

We have people dedicated to help with any issues at the help desk this 
week.  Please call x7155 or e-mail helpdesk at jlab.org.

*Why did we transition?*

The new software will enhance productivity at the lab. At the core of 
the transition was the fact that the Oracle Calendar is no longer being 
supported, no longer works on some operating systems and will fail to 
function at some point. In evaluating the options, we found that Zimbra 
was most beneficial due to its low cost, widespread use, integrated 
mail/calendar, integration with Microsoft Exchange protocols, and 
enhanced support for mobile devices and other clients.
*
What are the biggest changes?*

Zimbra Calendar is fundamentally a different product than the old Oracle 
Calendar so that modern protocols can be used.  Even the basic language 
and colors used in the application may be unfamiliar or unexpected.

* Folders: In Zimbra, folders are storage containers, and everything is 
stored in a folder. Under the hood, even your calendar events are stored 
in a folder called "/calendar".

* Shares: In Zimbra, the way to view others' calendars (and let others 
view your calendar) is via "Shares". Like folders, these are the objects 
in which calendar events are stored, and you can customize permissions 
to each calendar that you have. For most people, a single Calendar 
(called "Calendar" by default) is sufficient. For tips on how to share 
your calendar, visit the Calendar FAQ 
<https://cc.jlab.org/zimbra/calendarFAQ>. 
(https://cc.jlab.org/zimbra/calendarFAQ)

* Appointments: Meetings are managed via e-mail. This is very useful, 
especially if you are trying to collaborate with people outside of the 
lab. But it can be confusing. If you want to invite someone to a meeting 
you have created, you must "Send" and not just "Save," because the 
invitation must be delivered to the invitee via e-mail. Invitation 
replies are also sent via e-mail, which means that if you are not using 
the Zimbra web client, which performs some filtering, then you will get 
unexpected e-mail messages in reply to invitation requests.

* Appointment color-scheme: It's a small detail, but important because 
it is counter-intuitive to those who have used Oracle Calendar. Whereas 
in Oracle Calendar, the color red signified "declined", the Zimbra web 
client uses this color to signify meetings invitations that you have not 
responded to. Blue is used to signify meetings that you have accepted, 
and when you decline a meeting, it shows up semi-transparent. Similarly, 
for daily notes, if the "Free-Busy" status is "free," the color shows up 
semi-transparent, and if that status is "Busy," the color will be solid.

* Reminders/Notifications: The reminder scheme has changed in Zimbra 
from Oracle Calendar, giving users a more limited list of options. You 
can choose from a drop-down list of options for how many 
minutes/hours/etc. in advance of a meeting that you want to be reminded, 
and you can also type in an arbitrary number as well. In addition, you 
can send a notification to your e-mail address -- if you have a pager 
and would like to be paged, you can use your JLab pager address 
username-page at jlab.org, or any paging e-mail address from your mobile 
phone provider. Also, if you are sitting at your desktop, the reminder 
does not pop up a window to notify you, as it did in Oracle Calendar. 
The Zimbra web page will sound an audible alarm and pop-up a reminder 
within the page, but if you are on another active open tab or window, 
you might not see a notification. If you have a mobile device, you can 
configure it to remind you as well.

*Is the migration of meetings completed?*

The migration was almost entirely complete by Tuesday morning. In a few 
cases (resources "Bldg 35" and "CC L102", as well as a handful of other 
resources and users) the meetings did not get migrated until Tuesday 
evening or Wednesday morning. Also, we made a change to the "Free-Busy" 
status of daily notes mid-morning on Tuesday, which you might have 
noticed if you tried to schedule someone for a meeting and they appeared 
to be busy.

At this point, all data has been migrated. If you notice that you are 
missing meetings, or that your meetings are missing attendees, let us 
know as soon as possible so that we can resolve any issues.

In migrating the data, we made some design choices that might not be 
clear. Multi-day meetings were not moved over as a series, but as 
individual meetings. All meetings were migrated as private, so although 
by default you can view migrated meetings on another person's calendar 
share, you will not be able to see details. We also moved over group 
calendars as "resources" in Zimbra, and meeting rooms were set to not 
share details of meetings, (although this is being changed so that 
meeting room appointment details will be viewable by all Zimbra users).

*Items under development:*

* Printable calendars: A few users and groups onsite use printable 
calendars for easy access to their schedules. The Oracle Calendar 
provided an easy-to-use tool for printing calendars for this purpose. We 
hope to have a replacement solution in place in the next day or so.

* Tasks: A few users have asked that their tasks be migrated from Oracle 
Calendar to Zimbra. We are currently developing the process to do this, 
and expect to be able to start migrating in the next couple of days. If 
you would like your tasks migrated, please let us know by submitting a 
CCPR or contacting the Helpdesk (please specify how far back you want to 
go).

* Reminders: We did not migrate any reminder data from Oracle Calendar. 
Reminder settings in Zimbra will depend on the defaults set up by 
organizers and attendees.

* Notifications: We are looking into additional options for desktop 
notification, to make it more obvious than the current sound and subtle 
visual notification of a flashing tab in the web browser.

* Offsite calendars: The option of integration with certain offsite 
calendars is being investigated.

We realize that the transition has been involved for some users due to 
the complex ways they used the old Oracle Calendar, and we expect that 
things will improve soon, as we implement new solutions and as the new 
software becomes more familiar. We want to hear your feedback -- please 
send us any comments and questions you might have to: Andy Kowalski: 
kowalski at jlab.org and Kari Heffner: heffner at jlab.org.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://mailman.jlab.org/pipermail/all_jlab_accounts/attachments/20120905/a7ceba15/attachment.html