This user guide describes how to publish eTime Xpress employee schedules so that they can be viewed using calendar applications such as Google Calendar and Outlook. This is called iCalendar.
This user guide is for administrators of eTime Xpress. The guide is not intended for employees; they have their own user guide, iCalendar for Employees.
The following article contains the following on iCalendar in eTime Xpress:
Requirements
The Team Xpress and iCalendar modules must be licensed.
Calendar Applications
The iCalendar module of eTime Xpress publishes employee schedules to iCalendar files. Programs and applications such as Google Calendar and Outlook can subscribe to iCalendar files that have been made available over the internet. Other applications can subscribe to iCalendar files; only Google Calendar and Outlook are described in this document.
Timing and Frequency of Updates
eTime Xpress publishes an employee's schedule to an iCalendar file that can be read by a calendar application. Generally, eTime Xpress will regenerate iCalendar files once per hour so the most current schedule is available.
Although eTime Xpress regenerates iCalendar files hourly, employees will not see those changes in their calendar application until it downloads the most recent iCalendar file. The frequency which calendar applications download iCalendar files varies – some applications allow for the end user to initiate a manual download while others download iCalendars on a set schedule (e.g. once every 24 hours).
Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time
eTime Xpress is configured for your time zone. This can be further configured on a per-branch basis if the company operates in multiple time zones, and employees are assigned to the appropriate branch. Typically this is not required.
The time zone applies to all employees in the system, or in the branch if configured. The iCalendar file contains the same shift start and stop times as the Visual Scheduler. These are the times that will be seen in the calendar application schedules.
Daylight Saving Time needs to be turned on and off at the appropriate time of the year, if applicable. This is done in the Branch Daylight Saving Times section of Branch Settings.
Celayix Setup and Configuration
Within the Celayix applications the iCalendar functionality is setup at four levels: per employee in eTime Xpress, global in Web Xpress, per employee in Team Xpress, and at the overall system level.
The calendar applications, e.g. Google Calendar, are setup separately from eTime Xpress.
eTime Xpress Employee Setup
iCalendar publishing is enabled on a per-employee basis. Set the relevant employee reference field (default is Reference 10) to Yes for those employees whose eTime Xpress calendar is to be published on the internet.
Web Xpress System Administration
The iCalendar includes these fields from the schedule: shift start and end times, customer and site, service, break amount, note, and location. Any additional configured fields will be visible in the employee's Team Xpress schedule but will not be included in the iCalendar file.
The fields are configured by the Web Xpress administrator using the Module Rights Schedule View menu.
Note: Your labels may be configured differently from those shown above.
Team Xpress Employee Setup
The employee's schedule is written to an iCalendar file that is published to the internet. The internet address or URL of the file is shown on the Preferences tab of the employee's Team Xpress User Profile. The employee enters this URL into the calendar application when subscribing to their schedule.
The iCalendar file will be updated periodically with the latest version of the employee's schedule. Tap Update iCalendar to update the file immediately, rather than waiting for the next automatic refresh cycle. This will make the latest schedule available immediately on the web. Note however that the new schedule will be visible in the calendar application only after it refreshes its view, either automatically or manually.
You can change the URL of the file by tapping Get New URL. You might want to do this if the URL has become known to others. Note that if you get a new URL then you will have to re-subscribe any calendar applications with the new URL.
System Configuration
A number of parameters are configured by Celayix. These include:
The interval at which the calendars are published to the internet (default 1 hour),
The number of days before and after the current date that are included (default 30/30),
The choice of employee reference field that is used to indicate whether a given employee's calendar is published to the internet (default Reference 10).
The time zone of the system.
Quick Checklist
To publish an employee's eTime Xpress schedule to the internet, follow these steps:
In the Employees section of eTime Xpress, update the employee's iCalendar reference field to Yes.
Login to the employee's Team Xpress account, and go to the User Profile section.
On the Preferences tab, if there is no URL then tap Get New URL.
Tap Update iCalendar.
Take note of the full iCalendar URL. (It starts with https and ends with ics.)
Setup the calendar application using the iCalendar URL.