Penn State Oracle Collaboration Suite Calendar

About Penn State Oracle Collaboration Suite Calendar

formerly CorporateTime

Special Note: The Oracle Calendar server was patched on April 27, 2006 to conform to the new Daylight Savings Time rules. Events scheduled between March 11, 2007 and April 1, 2007 created before April 27, 2006 may require manual adjustment by the event owner. Furthermore, events already scheduled between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in April of every subsequent year may also require manual adjustment by the event owner.

Penn State has has an agreement with Oracle that provides Oracle Collaboration Suite Calendar licenses to Penn State academic units and individual faculty and staff for a nominal fee.

Oracle Calendar is a calendaring and scheduling client, which allows its users to create meetings, events and compare schedules with others using the group agenda, as well as manage the scheduling sand use of high-demand resources such as conference rooms and equipment. While clients are available for UNIX, Linux, Macintosh, Solaris and Windows, users can easily access and update their calendars via the Oracle Calendar Web server, http://www.cal.psu.edu/ provided that they have a valid license. In addition, synchronization software can be obtained for handheld devices. At Penn State, users who apply for and obtain the Oracle Calendar client will be required to authenticate with their Penn State Access Account userid and password.

Monthly Calendar Maintenance

Beginning on Saturday, August 6, 2005, ASET will perform regularly scheduled maintenance on the first Saturday of every month, between 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Users who need to work with a particular calendar during the maintenance time frame should download a local copy prior to the maintenance start time. This way, the local copy can be maintained and then synched after the maintenance procedure is complete.

How to Apply

Those in colleges/departments/units who wish to use this service must have an active Access Account and a valid Oracle Calendar license. To apply for this service, the Calendar section of the "ITS For-Fee Services Form" must be completed. This form is available via the Account Services Office Web site at http://aset.its.psu.edu/accounts/. Upon successful application, an entry in Oracle Calendar's database is created for each user. This enables users to access the server and download the client. Details are found directly at http://aset.its.psu.edu/accounts/calendar.html.

Pricing Information

The rate for this service is $0.65 per month, per license/user.

Information about billing and how for-fee services are processed is available via the
Cost of For-Fee Services section of the ITS Accounts Services Office Web site.

Download Information

Oracle Calendar account holders can download the client and sync software at
https://downloads.its.psu.edu/. Users must authenticate with their respective Access Account userids and passwords in order to access the clients. This software is available only to licensed Oracle Collaboration Suite Calendar users.

Client Configuration Information

Using the Oracle Calendar Web server

Web client users can access Oracle Calendar via the Web at http://www.cal.psu.edu/.

• Once the splash page loads, users are prompted to enter their "User Name" and "Password" information. For "User Name" enter your Access Account users and for "Password" enter your Access Account password.
• Your agenda loads

Native Client Configuration

• Download and install the appropriate client for your platform (refer to the "Download Information" above).
• Start the client. The "Sign-In" screen appears.
• Click the <Other> button located next to the "Connect to" pull-down menu. The "Connection Manager" window appears. Click once on the <New> button to create the new connection.
• The "Connection Editor" window appears.
• Enter a connection name in the "Connection Name" field.
• Enter cal.psu.edu in the "Server" field and click the <Lookup> button.
• Click the <OK> button. This brings you back to the "Connection Manager" window. Click the <Done> button.
• Choose your new connection from the "Connect to:" pull-down menu if it already isn't selected. In the "User Name" field type your Access Account userid and in the "Password" field, type your Access Account password.
• Click the <Sign-in> button.

Palm-Sync Client for Mac OSX

The download for the Palm-Sync client for Mac OSX is available at https://downloads.its.psu.edu/.

Note: Once installed, the Palm-Sync client for MAC OSX becomes the default conduit for your address book and to-do lists. If this is not desirable, follow the instructions below to return to the original conduit settings.

Move the Address Conduit and ToDo Conduit from the folder: /Library/Application Support/Palm HotSync/Disabled Conduits
to the folder: /Library/Application Support/Palm HotSync/Conduits

Move the Oracle Calendar Address Conduit and the Oracle Calendar Tasks Conduit from the folder: /Library/Application Support/Palm HotSync/Conduits
to the folder: /Library/Application Support/Palm HotSync/Disabled Conduits

Oracle Mobile Data Sync for Other Devices

Please review Oracle's Mobile Data Sync - Getting Started documentation for details and instructions.

Penn State SyncML server settings

• SyncML Server URL: https://www.cal.psu.edu/ocst-bin/ocas.fcgi
• User: Penn State Access Account user ID
• Passwd: Penn State Access Account password
• Addresses Server Path: ./Contacts
• Calendar Server Path: ./Calendar/Events
• ToDo Server Path: ./Calendar/Tasks

Archiving Calendar Data from the Native Client

From the native client, choose "Export Data" from the "File" menu. Then, choose either iCal or vCal format and click <Continue>. From here, choose the amount of data you wish to archive and the file to which you want to save the data.

iCal and vCal: What's the difference? What should be used?
iCal (.ics) and vCal (.vcs) are just two different ways of representing the calendaring data. The only time it should matter to the user is if he/she were trying to import the data into a different calendaring system. In that case, the destination may require one type or the other. Oracle supports both and both will work; however, it is recommended that users choose iCal (.ics).

Is archived data simply a backup or is it truly an archive of data?
Archiving calendaring data in this context serves as both a backup and an archive. It serves as a backup in the sense that it does not remove data from the server; however, it can also be used as an archive when data over two years old is deleted once-per-year.

Once the data is archived, how can it be retrieved/read?
Again, from the native client, choose "Import Data" from the "File" menu. Then, choose the file type and file to import.

For assistance with archiving calendar data, please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@psu.edu.

Converting Meeting Maker to Oracle Calendar

***This service is unavailable until further notice.***

The following is a summary of the process in place to convert from the Meeting Maker calendaring system to Oracle Calendar. By following the steps outlined below, network administrators, technical support staff, etc., should be able to migrate a group of individuals to Oracle Calendar.

• A request to convert should be sent to l-calendar-support@lists.psu.edu to arrange a meeting with the Oracle conversion team.
• Provide the team with your Meeting Maker data file for conversion. ITS will create Oracle accounts for all users who are to be converted.
• After the Oracle accounts are created, the network administrator will need to contact the ITS Accounts Services Office at accounts@psu.edu. This needs to be done so that billing can be set up for the newly created Oracle accounts.
• Resources (meeting rooms, equipment, etc.) cannot be converted. These will need to be established by the ITS Accounts Services Office as well, so that such resources can be used in the Oracle calendar system.
• Due to resource limitations, ITS will convert the data over a weekend.
• The customer (in this case, a network administrator or technical support staff, etc.) is to verify with the Oracle conversion team that the data is complete.

Of Special Note:

• The only version of the software that has been successfully converted is version 8.X.
• Users' Meeting Maker passwords will not convert to Oracle; the Penn State Access Account userid and password pair will be required for authentication to Oracle calendar.
• The Oracle calendaring server maintained by ITS only retains two years of Oracle data; depending on the size of files, users might consider purging some of their respective calendar information.

Documentation Information

Oracle Collaboration Suite Calendar documentation is available at
http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/collab.html.

A Penn State Oracle Calendar FAQ, handouts and other resources provided by ITS Training Services, is available via the Oracle Calendar Resources Web page.

Getting Help

If you need assistance, please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@psu.edu and include the following information:

• Your Access Account userid
• The time the error occurred
• The error messages received, if any
• The client you use (Web-based or native client). If you use the native client, specify the platform and operating system (for example, Mac OSX). If you use the Web client, specify the Web browser type and version (for example, Netscape 6.2)