Adding a calendar and scheduling function to a Drupal site
One site I support recently had a calendar problem. We were using the Event module from Drupal, although Date has made improvements so that it could be used today. Events were posted on the calendar that corresponded with the organization's most important external events. They maintained an internal schedule of all rooms and meetings using a Microsoft Access tool that had been developed by a former employee, and it could not accept a date beyond December 31, 2009. (Can you say Y2K plus 10?)
We decided to look at several Drupal and non-Drupal options. The leader of the organization favored an application that had been in use when he was with another organization. I suggested that we should look at a Drupal module. Neither option worked out. The cost of the application was more than they could afford right now, and I couldn't find a Drupal module that would work for their needs: to schedule rooms using a web-based tool, and to be able to use that schedule as the organization's calendar to be published on the web site. There were several Drupal modules for reserving equipment, or scheduling rooms by the day, but that wasn't good enough. There was a promising new module, but it was being done as part of Google SOC, and I was concerned that support would be a problem later, and the module wasn't ready yet, anyway.
There were, of course, more requirements than those two, but they provide a good summary of the needs.
After searching for a Drupal solution, I decided to pursue other web-based possibilities. One Drupal module was to integrate Drupal's user accounts with MRBS, but MRBS wouldn't satisfy all of the needs. (I said there were more. There alwaya are.) That got me thinking: were there other similar open source applications that would work? After searching a bit, I found a short list of half a dozen, mostly in the documentation for phpScheduleIt. I reviewed those possibilities, and recommended phpScheduleIt. After some review, they accepted it, with some changes needed.
phpScheduleIt is well structured, for the most part, so I was able to make the modifications. They are reviewing the application now, but I believe they will go with it as their solution. Organization members will be able to request booking a room, and the administrator will then approve requests. The public weekly calendar will suffice, I believe, as both the web calendar and the printed calendar, which is posted in the lobby.
I'll comment as this progresses.
Comments
Fully implemented
Our old calendar app expired in 2010, so something had to be done. The administrator started moving all events to the new calendar, and although it took over a month, the phpScheduleIt app is now the only app for the schedule. Since then, there is a new administrator who is much more tech-savvy, and she has embraced it. She identified some issues that needed addressing, and all but one have been done. The one remaining issue is that the prior administrator created some recurring events for 10 years out, which took up a lot of space in the database, and may have slowed things down. I need to learn the database structure so I can reduce the length of future events without having to re-enter all recurring events. And while I am at it, I will also see how to remove past events, which the app doesn't seem to do.
All in all, the move has worked well. phpScheduleIt is recommended, although it was key to be able to make some mods to satisfy the users.
A milestone
We reached a milestone this week. The church administrator is cutting over to the new calendar as the only calendar. She has gained appreciation for the app and is ready. We had a few problems printing the event listing which is posted. I know we must turn on printing of graphics in the browser, but that didn't seem to work for all printers or all browsers. We found a combination that worked, but it was inconsistent. Has anyone else experienced inconsistent printing of graphics from a web browser?
Progress
We are continuing to prepare the app for rollout. I made several more changes. Both the weekly and monthly calendars are available to anonymous viewers. I added some navigation links to make it easier to get around without having to return to the "links" page. We are starting to prepare for rollout in early October, and I will need to develop some training and help materials. A church has some sharp technical people, but more non-technical people that want it really easy, and computer apps just aren't transparent, much as we would all like them to be.