The Calendar Apparently has allowed a Scheduling Conflict.

[aebrown]

You can attach a screen shot to your post.

Not a good idea -- it's got lots of personal information.

He sent me the screen shot privately. I'll respond shortly with what I saw.

[aebrown]

I say that the calender DID allow two events to be scheduled at the same time in the same location. Three wards meet at my building the "North Shores, Roseville, Warren" building. There are, right now, two events (baptismal services) that are scheduled for the same room, the Baptismal Font, at overlapping times. One event is from 2:45 - 4:15 pm on Jan 14 and the other is at 3 - 6 pm on Jan 14. One service was scheduled by a Roseville ward member and the other was scheduled by me on behalf of a North Shores Ward member.

Well, the screen shot your stake clerk sent me doesn't show quite as much as I had hoped, since it doesn't show the locations for anything but the test event you are in the process of trying to create. But based on what you said, and what I see in the screen shot, here's what it looks like happened:

• The person in the Roseville Ward created an event from 2:45 - 4:15pm on Jan 14. You say that it included the baptismal font; I can't see that on the screen shot, but it is reasonable. I certainly can verify that I see a named event for that ward at that time on that date in the potential conflict list on the screen shot.
• Then you created a reservation from 3:00-6:00pm on Jan 14. Again, I'll trust that you included the baptismal font. The reservations show up on the potential conflict list on the screen shot with a ward name (but no event name). That makes me think that it is a reservation and not an event.
• Then the stake clerk tried to create a test event, reserving the whole building for that day. That of course conflicted with the first event, which had actually booked the baptismal font, and so he could not save it. Multiple reservations and events showed up in the potential conflict list, including the two above.

From what I can tell, everything is working perfectly -- but not how you intended. The misunderstanding seems to be in the second bullet point above. You created a reservation in an attempt to book the baptismal font for the Warren Ward. But the Roseville Ward had an event at an overlapping time that actually booked the baptismal font. Had you instead chosen to create an event for the Warren Ward, you would have seen a hard conflict reported and you would have been unable to save.

I may not have the sequence of events entirely correct, but I think this is indeed what happened. The bottom line is that it is never a good practice to use a reservation in an attempt to book a location; always use an event to do so.

If I am making any incorrect assumptions, please help us understand which items are events, and which are reservations, who scheduled each (not by name, but by role), and the sequence in which these items were created.

[scote]

One configuration problem that has led to this problem is having multiple locations with the same name. It's possible to have one location assigned to one or more wards, and a separate location with the same name assigned to different wards. I'm not saying that's the case here, but it is worth checking out.

Also, there was a particular bug that did allow conflicting events for building schedulers who scheduled events on top of reservations; I thought it was fixed, but I just tested it again and it is not. Does the detailed description I linked to seem to fit your situation?

Could you please supply some details to help us understand:

• What reservations exist at that time (and what location/rooms are reserved)?
• What events exist at that time (and what location/rooms are booked by those events)?
• The role(s) of the people involved in creating these reservations and events.

I don't think we have multiple locations with the same name.

The particular bug that did allow conflicting events for building schedulers who scheduled events on top of reservations is a possibility. There is an all day reservation for the day and both events were posted by schedulers. However, I booked the first one and do not know if the 'soft confict' message slowed down the second scheduler.

Here is something else to think about: A member of my ward have some admin role (see role paragraphs below) by record only (she has not been trained), and prefers to use Spanish on lds.org. It's possible, that this is why I see Spanish when I book an event and select rooms for the event. It may be the lds.org allows the double booking because it sees 'Fila Bautismal' and 'Baptismal Font' as two different rooms.

Aebrown, you write the phrase 'at that time' twice in your bullets quoted here, but you do not indicate what time you are asking about. I will assume you mean at the time that the second event was scheduled, causing a conflict.
There was an all day reservation in effect for the Roseville Ward for the whole location. The first baptism event existed at the time for three rooms: Cultural Hall, Kitchen and Baptismal Font.

You ask about the role(s) of the people involved. I am confused about roles and I do not want to make any assumptions. The website 'Administrators' tab shows the words "You are viewing Warren Ward". I am on the list so I must be an administrator. I created the Roseville Ward reservation for the whole day last year. I also created the first of the two events in the conflict. A Roseville Ward bishopric member created the second event causing the conflict, but I do not know his role since I can only see the administrators in my own ward. The sister who uses Spanish is not on the list of administrators, but somehow has an admin role because her name is listed in an appropriate calling on the MLS soltware used at the ward building.

By the way, the help screens mention roles like 'member', 'Editors', 'Building Schedulers', 'Ward Administrator' and 'Stake Administrator'. However, it is VERY confusing that none of these terms are mentioned on the website itself. Okay, having the words "You are viewing Warren Ward" under the word 'Administrators' is close to saying 'Ward Administrator', but does not say it. If someone with website power reads this, then please, 1) review the terms and make them consistent between the help screens and the website and 2) an indicator word or set of words that is visible when using the calendar that indicate what role or roles that you currently have 3) if someone has an admin role through MLS, that person should be listed in the list of Administrators when viewing the site 4) if an administrator tries to schedule an event on top of a reservation then they should be given a 'soft conflict' message, not just allow them to violate the reservation without knowing.

I had high hopes for the new calendar, since it has great potential as a multiple calendar system. However, I am close to suggesting to the stake president that we go back to using the lds.org\units calendar. The old system has the advantage of keeping control of double booking events in resources.

This is a bit of a rant. My frustration is showing through a bit. Sorry about that. I know people are doing their best.

[russellhltn]

You ask about the role(s) of the people involved. I am confused about roles and I do not want to make any assumptions.

If you can, can you go to Settings > Locations & Rooms. Select the location that you've had a problem with, and see who is listed as "Building Scheduler".

Anyone listed there could have saved a conflicting event over top of your Reservation without ever knowing it was there.

[scote]

If you can, can you go to Settings > Locations & Rooms....

No can do. I do not have a 'Locations & Rooms' option under Settings.

Anyone listed there could have saved a conflicting event over top of your Reservation without ever knowing it was there.

Yes. Old news. No one should be surprised by a scheduler saving an event over a reservation.

I've done some testing and I now find that events that I create in the main calender are shown when I look at "Settings | Reservations". Also, when I try to edit these events that show in the wrong place, they show in the first edit screen as a reservation! When I click on 'edit reservation details' the thing shows up as an event again!

It has been asserted above that I created a reservation when I created the first of the two events that was to make up the conflict (3-6pm). This may be true, but I am confident that I not do it using the "Settings | Reservations" area! I created the thing, whatever it is, by doing the actions that should lead to an event. I suspect that reservations and events are being confused by the lds.org brain.

The Building Schedulers Quick Reference Guide says that "Settings | Reservations" option is only available to building schedulers and I have it so why is my name listed under administrators? Can I be both?

For almost a week, my events have been added with Spanish labels in the edit screens. Now that I mention it in a message above, my event labels are in English again. Is there a system developer reading here and if so, who are you?

[russellhltn]

No can do. I do not have a 'Locations & Rooms' option under Settings.

OK, that's probably only stake admins.

I've done some testing and I now find that events that I create in the main calender are shown when I look at "Settings | Reservations". Also, when I try to edit these events that show in the wrong place, they show in the first edit screen as a reservation! When I click on 'edit reservation details' the thing shows up as an event again!

Sounds like a new bug. That could be serious because if events are somehow really becoming reservations, that could easily allow a conflict.

The Building Schedulers Quick Reference Guide says that "Settings | Reservations" option is only available to building schedulers and I have it so why is my name listed under administrators? Can I be both?

Yes, you can be both.

[aebrown]

I've done some testing and I now find that events that I create in the main calender are shown when I look at "Settings | Reservations". Also, when I try to edit these events that show in the wrong place, they show in the first edit screen as a reservation! When I click on 'edit reservation details' the thing shows up as an event again!

Sounds like a new bug. That could be serious because if events are somehow really becoming reservations, that could easily allow a conflict.

That's not what is really happening here. Events are not turning into reservations, or vice versa.

Instead, the change that happened in v2 of the calendar is that building schedulers can now see both reservations and events on the Settings > Reservations screen. You can distinguish between them, because events appear in black text, and reservations in gray text.

The one point of confusion created by an unfortunate choice (I'm sure it's a minor bug) is that when you click on an event from the Reservations screen, you are initially prompted with a popup that includes a link to "Edit reservation details." That is misleading; it should say "Edit event details." If you follow that link, you will appropriately be on the Edit Event screen. If you click on an actual reservation from the Reservations screen, you are also prompted with a popup that includes a link to "Edit reservation details." But in this case, when you follow that link, you will appropriately be on the Edit Reservation screen.

The basic capability to be able to see and edit events or reservations from the Reservations screen is a very nice improvement, once you understand it. It lets a building scheduler see the whole picture of what is going on in his assigned location, and make changes as needed in one place, without having to bounce back and forth between the Reservations page and the main calendar view, as was required in the previous version.

[scote]

... From what I can tell, everything is working perfectly ...

Everything is not perfect. In fact, things are very very bad. Based on tests today, I can create two events using the same room at the same time as long as the two events are on top of an existing reservation. I believe that is is only possible because I am a building scheduler. The worst part is that with three wards in the building, and the basic members not scheduling events, it is the nine bishopric members (schedulers all) who create events. Without extensive training they will now create multiple events using the same rooms and equipment at the same times. This weirdness is clearly not going to be in the online help screens. It is a disaster. The system should be automatic and stop the second event from using the same room at the same time. The system has to be fixed! Who do I call? What do we do?

[KenRichins]

the problem is building schedulers SHOULD NOT be scheduling events. Leaders should only be scheduling events. That is the way the system is designed and it works perfectly when used as designed. Building Schedulers ONLY make scheduling reservations they do NOT schedule events for Members, the local unit (ward leaders should do ALL event scheduling. When that is done there are no problems with the system.

[TinMan]

It seems to me, scote, that if you had only one Building Scheduler, you, that would go a long ways to solve your problem. The nine bishopric members could still schedule events for their wards by virtue of their callings in the MLS system, but won't get confused with the dual reservation/event problems you are experiencing.

But I may not have a complete understanding of your difficulties. It just raised one eyebrow when you said all the bishopric members are "schedulers." For me the term "Building Scheduler" is confusing as far as the Church uses it. I think a more exact title, like "Building Schedule Coordinator" or something like that would be helpful. Something that indicates a single person for each building. There are now a lot of people in the ward who can schedule events in the building by virtue of their callings in the MLS system. But they are not all "Building Schedulers," they are "people who can schedule the building."

If all the bishopric members in the three wards are truly designated in the system as "Building Schedulers," I can see your frustration.