Archibus SaaS / Reservations
Workplace Services / Reservations

Using the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange with Reservations

You can connect the Archibus Reservations application or module to Microsoft Exchange Servers using the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange.

When using this configuration, the Archibus Room Reservations form within Web Central presents the usual Archibus room reservation information, such as scheduling for rooms, equipment, services, and catering.

Exchange Extension Features

With the Exchange Extension:

Behavior	With Exchange	Without Exchange
Free/busy time	Room Reservations form presents the free/busy time of all invited attendees based on the Exchange calendar	The free/busy time is based only on the existing reservations in the Archibus database
Email	Exchange Server handles all email notifications, except notifications that approval is overdue	Reservations application handles all notifications; users receive .ics files to add or remove meetings from their calendars

Additionally, Exchange integration supports:

Teams and Zoom meetings. You can allow users to create a meeting from Exchange and attach a Teams or Zoom meeting link there; Reservations will then include this as part of the stored reservations comments. From the Reservations Calendar Console, users can access the Zoom or Teams link from the comments. To enable this feature, you must complete the MeetingUrlPatterns application parameter. See Configuring Reservations and Join a Zoom or Teams Meeting.
Touch panels. You can make reservations from touch panels or tablets mounted outside a meeting room. This is possible because Archibus supports creating calendar items directly on the room calendar instead of only through an invitation. Complete the AbWorkplaceReservations.PanelBookingEmployeeId application parameter with the values that Archibus will enter for the Created By, Requested By, and Requested For fields of the meeting record.
Private meetings. See the Private Meetings topic.

Real-Time Check

When creating a new reservation, Archibus performs a real-time check of the room calendar and informs you if an overlap is detected.

The real-time check is applied both for single reservations and recurring reservations.

For recurring reservations, room availability is checked according to the dates for which the room is booked in Archibus; that is, room conflicts known in Archibus are not checked again in Exchange.
The check looks only for existing appointments on the room calendar that are not cancelled and that overlap with the time frame of the reservation. Archibus does not check for overlapping pre-blocks and post-blocks. Thus, adjacent meetings on the room calendar should not block a reservation.

Meetings Created by Exchange Users who do not Exist in Archibus

The calendar monitoring maps unknown email addresses (Exchange users who do not exist in Archibus) to a "dummy" user specified in the AbWorkplaceReservations.ExternalBookingEmployeeId application parameter: See Application Parameters for Microsoft Exchange Integration.

Whether such reservations are editable in Web Central depends on whether the meeting organizer can be impersonated.

If Exchange impersonation is enabled and the user can be impersonated, editing and canceling in Web Central functions as usual.
If the user cannot be impersonated in Exchange, the application treats such reservations similar to how reservations created via Exchange are treated if user impersonation is disabled:
When Web Central users cancel or decline the reservation, Archibus sends a decline message from the room mailbox to the meeting organizer; it does not remove the meeting from the meeting organizer’s calendar.
When users cancel the reservation without canceling the meeting in Web Central (i.e. disconnect the meeting from the reservation), Archibus sends a decline message from the room mailbox to the meeting organizer; it does not try to update the meeting on the meeting organizer’s calendar.

Exchange Listener

If you have configured Exchange integration, a listener can optionally be enabled or disabled.

If the listener is enabled, changes made in Exchange calendars are propagated to Web Central, and Web Central receives a notification of the new meeting from Exchange.
- Web Central compares the meeting in Exchange with the reservation in Web Central. If the reservation was created with the Outlook Plug-in, the two meetings should match.
- If they do not match (for example, because the meeting has been modified via Outlook Web Access after creating it), the reservation in Web Central is updated.

If the listener is not enabled, changes made in Exchange calendars are not applied to Web Central.