Calendar Sync (Office 365)

Overview

The Calendar Sync feature enhances the way instructors manage their schedules within Administrate. By seamlessly integrating instructors' calendars with Administrate, this feature ensures that instructors' schedules are always up-to-date with their bookings. Additionally, administrators gain valuable insights into instructor availability directly within the system, streamlining the planning process for training sessions.

 

Purpose

The primary objectives of the Calendar Sync are to:

• Establish a 2-way sync between Administrate Platform and O365 outlook calendar.
• Provide training administrators with up-to-date availability information for their instructors.
• Ensure instructors have accurate, near real-time information about their scheduled training commitments on their calendars

 

How Calendar Sync Works

1. Invitation Process: Administrators send invitation links to instructors.
2. Sync Setup: Instructors follow email instructions to set up sync via OAuth, choosing between 'Full Private Mode' and 'Default Privacy Mode.'
3. Data Flow: Calendar events are fetched from Office 365 to Administrate and vice versa.

Inviting Instructors to sync their calendars

Administrators with appropriate access controls can effortlessly invite instructors to synchronize their calendars. This process involves selecting the desired instructors and sending them an invitation link.

Administrators can effectively oversee the sync status and logs, including managing instructors who have successfully connected their calendars, tracking those with pending invitations, and more.

 

To invite instructors:

1. Navigate to Control Panel > Calendar Integration

2. Select the instructors whose calendars you want to sync.

3. Click the "Send" button to send the invitations.

4. Instructors will receive an email inviting them to sync their calendars with Administrate. They should follow the instructions provided in the email to complete the synchronization process.

 

Calendar Sync

After receiving the invite link via email, instructors will discover comprehensive instructions outlining the necessary steps and the information that will be shared. Utilizing an OAuth flow, instructors can seamlessly set up the sync and have the flexibility to choose their preferred privacy level. This includes a 'Full Private Mode,' where the sync retrieves only dates and times, without fetching any other information.

Alternatively, instructors can opt for the 'Default Privacy Mode,' aligning with Outlook's default behavior. In this mode, private events remain private, while public Events are imported as they are.

Instructors' Calendars to Administrate

The event data the calendar sync fetches are:

• Event Title (This would show 'busy' instead of the actual title when set in privacy mode)
• RSVP
• Dates and Times

Administrate to Instructors' Calendars

The events are immediately synced to the Instructor's calendar upon booking them onto Active Events.

• Event Title
• Location and Venue
• Virtual Meeting links (i.e. Zoom, MS Teams, Custom Links)
• The description will include additional information such as a backlink to the Event, other personnel on the event, the local time of the event, and resources booked

 

Sync Frequency 

Real-time

When you create or update an active event (i.e. not in draft mode), the schedule will be instantly synced with the calendars of the assigned instructors.

Scheduled Sync

The sync pulls in 12 months of event data every hour from instructors' calendars into Administrate.

 

Manual Sync

You can run a manual sync ad-hoc by selecting the instructors and clicking on the 'Sync Calendar' button.

 

Availability Calendar, Scheduler, and Instructor Assignments

You can view instructors’ external events conflicts when scheduling and planning events throughout the platform.

Availability Calendar

Assigning Instructors on Events

If they have a calendar sync enabled, you will see a calendar icon next to the instructor's name. You can also expand to view these conflicts in the event's local time.

Removing a Calendar Sync

Both administrators and instructors have the option to disconnect a calendar sync. Doing so will remove all events that resulted from the sync from both the Administrate system and the instructor's calendar.

 

Admin

• Select the Instructor
• Click on Remove Calendar

Instructors

• Navigate to your Microsoft Account Settings > Privacy > Apps and Services
• Click on Edit under the Administrate App
• Revoke permissions

 

Admin Approval

If a user attempts to connect their calendar with the Administrate App without prior admin consent, they'll encounter a screen presenting an option for an Admin to sign in.

We suggest you request an administrator of your Microsoft Entra tenant to visit the following URL, replacing “{organization}” below with the ID of your Microsoft Entra tenant.

https://login.microsoftonline.com/{organization}/v2.0/adminconsent?client_id=fc041421-0ea2-4421-847a-4f0505675f6c&scope=https://graph.microsoft.com/.default%20offline_access

After signing in to Microsoft Entra, the administrator can grant permission for all users on the Microsoft Entra tenant to use the Administrate Calendar Sync.

 

Technical Specification Document

Please refer to the technical documentation manual