Create and edit calendars

Civic Platform manages four calendar types (Inspection, Meeting, Agency Holiday, and User). You can create or edit calendars according to the four calendar types.

To create or edit a new calendar

1. From the Administration menu, select Calendars > Calendar.

2. Create a new or open an existing calendar.

   To create a new calendar, either:

   • Select New.

     or

   • From the navigation tree, right-click any calendar node and select New calendar.

   To edit an existing calendar, either:

   • Select a calendar from the calendar list.

     or

   • From the navigation tree, navigate to an existing calendar and select that calendar.

3. Complete or edit the calendar fields.

   Note: The available fields change depending on the type of calendar you are creating.

   Field	Description
   # Scheduling attempts	(Required) For inspection calendars. Indicates the number of times Civic Platform attempts to schedule a calendar event or an inspection before displaying an error message.
   # Units allocated per day	(Required) For inspection calendars. This field determines the default number of units in the daily unit setting (see Assign daily units).
   ACA schedule time block	For Citizen Access inspection calendars, this field specifies the time of every time block available for scheduling inspections in an inspection calendar. Example: If you enter 30 minutes in the field, every inspection unit is 30 minutes by default in the inspection calendar. Note: The time of each time block is not necessarily the same as the time that an inspection unit takes.
   Calendar name	(Required) Enter a distinct name for the calendar you want to create.
   Comments	Enter specific comments related to the calendar, if applicable.
   Default block	(Required) For Civic Platform inspection calendars, this field specifies the default block of time that an inspection unit takes in an inspection calendar. Example: If you enter 30 minutes in the default block field, every inspection unit is 30 minutes by default in the inspection calendar.
   Department	For a user calendar, select the department to which the calendar applies.
   Enable for ACA	For an inspection calendar, select this option to enable an inspection calendar for Citizen Access. If you do not select this option, the calendar is not available for Citizen Access inspection scheduling.
   Meeting reason	For a meeting calendar, enter the reason for the meeting.
   Hide inspection times in ACA	For an inspection calendar, select this option if you want inspection time intervals to be visible to public users with inspection scheduling permissions.
   Location	For a meeting calendar, select the location that the meeting takes place.
   Priority	(Required) For an inspection calendar, enter a numeric value to designate priority over other calendars. The lower the number, the higher the priority. Civic Platform searches calendars, with a 1 priority, for available units before calendars with a priority of 2.
   Schedule # of days out	For an inspection calendar, enter the maximum number of future days available for calendar scheduling. Enter a value of 0 to make the calendar unavailable for scheduling. For no scheduling restrictions, leave the field blank. You can enter up to three integers in this field. Examples:  If the current date is June 5, 2009 and you enter a value of 10, then scheduling for the selected calendar is only available from June 5, 2009 to June 15, 2009. Use this feature to limit calendar scheduling. You might have an inspection calendar set up for electrical inspectors. If some of the electrical inspectors in your agency plan to be out of the office for a conference, or if other inspectors have planned vacation days, you can limit calendar scheduling availability in advance. This prevents users with scheduling authorization on your agency’s calendars, such as supervisors, inspectors, and agency employees, from scheduling inspections when inspectors are unavailable. Similarly, you might limit scheduling availability for event calendars based on the planned absence of agency personnel.
   Schedule cut-off time AM/PM	For an inspection calendar, use these fields to set a cut-off time for inspection scheduling. If users make a inspection scheduling request after the cut-off time, the earliest possible inspection date is one day later than the date counted directly using the Schedule days in advance setting (when they make the scheduling request before the cut-off time). Example: See theInspection scheduling example table below.
   Schedule days in advance	For an inspection calendar, use this field to configure the preparation time needed by agency staff for inspections. Examples:  If you configure the Schedule Days in Advance as 3 and a user wants to schedule an inspection on July 12, 2014, the user must make the inspection scheduling request on July 9, 2013, so that the agency staff have 3 days to prepare for the inspection. See theInspection scheduling example table below. Note: The Schedule days in advancesetting works jointly with the Schedule cut-off time setting.
   Status	(Required) Indicates whether the calendar is available for use. The default calendar status is Active. The status field is inactive for Agency holiday calendars. Note: This field designates calendar availability on the user side. Enable the calendar to give users the calendar option in the user daily calendar list. Disable the calendar to keep the calendar in the administration list, but omit it from the user calendar list.
   Type	(Required) Select the type of calendar from the Type list, such as Agency holiday, Inspection, Meeting, or User. Note: You cannot edit this field after a calendar has been created.
   User	For a user calendar, select the user to which the calendar applies.

4. Select Submit.

   Inspection scheduling example

   Example schedule days in advance setting	Example schedule cut-off time setting	Possible inspection date
   		If scheduled before 2:00 PM	If scheduled after 2:00 PM
   -	2:00 PM	The same day or later	1 day later
   5	-	5 days later	6 days later
   5	2:00 PM	5 days later	6 days later
   -	-	The same day or later	The same day or later
   Notes: The settings described in the first two columns work in Citizen Access and do not apply to supervisors. Block out days in the inspection calendar are excluded during counting.

You can assign permissions to inspection and meeting type calendars. You can assign Full, Read, or None as the calendar permission for user groups and individual users.

To assign user permissions or group permissions to a calendar type

1. From the Administration menu, select Calendars > Calendar.

2. Either:

   • Select a calendar from the calendar list.

     or

   • From the navigation tree, navigate to an existing calendar and select that calendar.

3. Select the Permissions tab.

4. From the Permissions tab, you can assign a new permission, edit an existing permission, or remove a permission from the calendar.

• To assign a new permission

  1. Select Assign.

  2. Find the groups for which you want to assign a permission.

     Note: You can use Search to narrow down your options.

  3. Select the check box(es) next to the group(s) to assign.

  4. Select Submit.

     Note: By default, Civic Platform sets the permission to Full for the newly assigned group. You may need to modify this permission depending on your business requirements.

• To modify an existing permission

  1. Find the group for which you want to modify a permission.

  2. From the Access column, select a new permission next to the group to modify. Permission options are:

     Permission	Description
     Full	Full grants users access to all functions for the associated calendar.
     Read-Only	Read-Only grants users access to view but not modify functions for the associated calendar.
     None	None denies users access to functions for the associated calendar.

  3. Select Submit.

• To delete a group permission

  1. Select the check box(es) next to the group(s) for which you want to remove all permission.

  2. Select Delete.

You can assign districts to inspection type calendars. You can assign different inspection times based on the district. When users schedule an inspection for a record, the district information in the record address, together with the settings in the inspection district calendar, determine the date and time availability for scheduling.

To assign districts to a calendar

1. From the Administration menu, select Calendars > Calendar.

2. Either:

   • Select a calendar from the calendar list.

     or

   • From the navigation tree, navigate to an existing calendar and select that calendar.

3. Select the Districts tab.

4. From the Districts tab, you can add or remove a district association.

• To add a district association

  1. Select Assign to add a district association.

  2. Select the check box(es) next to the district(s).

  3. Select Submit.

     Note: If you do not associate an inspection calendar with any district, the inspection calendar applies to all districts.

• To remove a district association

  1. Select the check box(es) next to the district(s).

  2. Select Delete.

You can assign inspection types and inspection groups to inspection calendars.

Inspection types are also one filtering criterion used for automatic inspection scheduling. For more information on working with the inspection type calendar filtering criteria, see Calendar scenarios.

For instructions on configuring inspections for automatic scheduling see Inspection scheduling.

Inspection types distinguish inspections, such as mechanical, electrical, and building inspections. Assign inspection types to inspection type calendars to define calendar scope. For example, you might want to associate mechanical inspection types with a mechanical inspection type calendar.

To assign an inspection type to a calendar

1. From the Administration menu, select Calendars > Calendar.

2. Either:

   • Select a calendar from the calendar list.

     or

   • From the navigation tree, navigate to an existing calendar and select that calendar.

3. Select the Inspection types tab from the detail portlet.

   Note: See Add, edit, and delete inspection types for information on setting up inspection types.

4. From the Inspection types tab, you can assign a new inspection type, modify an existing inspection type, or remove an inspection type.

• To assign a new inspection type

  1. Select Assign.

  2. Select the inspection type(s) you want to assign.

  3. Select Submit.

• To modify Citizen Access inspection type settings.

  1. Select the inspection group for which you want to modify settings.

  2. Modify the settings.

     Setting	Action
     Schedule inspection in ACA	Choose one of the available scheduling options in Citizen Access: None - Does not allow public users to schedule this inspection type online. Request only - pending- only allows public users to request for an inspection online. The agency coordinates the appointment for the inspection date and time. Request same day next day- allows public users to request an inspection for the same day, next day, or next available day, based on inspection type calendar parameters defined on the inspection type. For more information about inspection parameters, see Inspections. Notes: The inspection cut-off time displays on this page. If you set the cut-off time as 3:00PM and a public user schedules an inspection at 4:00PM and selects the Same day option, Civic Platform schedules the inspection for the first appropriate inspection slot on the next business day. After public users schedule inspection types that you set up for auto-assignment using the Request same day next day option, you cannot reschedule or cancel the inspections. After public users schedule manual inspections by using the Request same day next day option, they can reschedule and/or cancel them. Schedule using calendar - Allows public users to schedule inspections based on the availability on the inspection type calendar.
     Cancel inspection in ACA	Use this list to indicate if you want to allow public users to cancel inspections in ACA. Yes allows public users to cancel inspections online. No restricts public users from the ability to cancel inspections online.
     Reschedule inspection in ACA	Use this list to indicate if you want to allow public users to reschedule inspections in ACA. Yes allows public users to reschedule inspections online. No restricts public users from the ability to reschedule inspections online.
     Enable ready time in ACA	Use this list to indicate if you want to allow public users to specify ready time for inspections in the Ready time field in the ACA Request page. Yes allows public users to specify inspection ready time. No restricts public users from the ability to specify inspection ready time.

  3. Select Submit.

• Delete an inspection group.

  1. Select the check box(es) next to the inspection group(s).

  2. Select Delete.

Civic Platform integrates inspection calendars and supervisor calendars to facilitate inspection scheduling. A supervisor manages and assigns inspectors to inspections. A supervisor can change the view in the supervisor calendar to show assigned inspections for the current calendar, assigned inspections for all calendars, or unassigned inspections that require inspector assignment. For more information about assigning inspections, see Assign calendar to an inspector.

To assign inspectors to an inspection from the supervisor calendar

1. From the Administration menu, select Calendars > Calendar.

2. Either:

   • Select a calendar from the calendar list.

     or

   • From the navigation tree, navigate to an existing calendar and select that calendar.

3. Select the Monthly tab to select the monthly calendar display.

4. Display supervisor unassigned calendar inspections by selecting the appropriate option from the Show list.

5. Select the inspection to assign an inspector.

6. Select the Menu button and select Assign inspector from the list.

7. Select the Address and/or Parcel for the inspection.

8. Select Submit.

9. Select the inspector.

   Note: The inspectors on this page vary depending on the inspection type, district, and available units.

10. Select Submit.