Archibus SaaS / Reservations / Background Data - Reservations
Workplace Services / Reservations / Manage Reservations

Configuring Parameters for Meeting Space Reservations and the Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook

Note: The information you set here applies to requests for meeting space made with the Reservations Console as well as requests made with Archibus Workplace or the Workplace Services Portal mobile app. This topic does not apply to reservations for working space (hotelable rooms).

When you are setting up the Reservations application or module, you must configure three required parameters concerning email. You can optionally control other parts of the reservation system by completing other parameters.

The system uses the values for these email parameters whether or not you are using the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange.

You must configure your web server to send email notifications. For information on setting up email notifications, see the Setting Up Email Notifications topic.

To Update Application Parameters for Reservations

  1. Select the Configure Parameters task from one of the paths listed at the top of this topic.
    The Parameters Configuration view appears. All of the Reservations application configurable parameters are displayed in the left frame. Reservation parameters are assigned to the AbWorkplaceReservations application.
  2. Click Save to save your changes.

Required Parameters

The following parameters must be edited.

Parameter Description
SendEmailNotifications Set this to Yes if you want email notifications to be sent from the Reservations application. Set this to No if you do not want email notifications to be sent
InternalServicesEmail Enter the email address that will appear as the sender of the email notifications in the notifications sent to the Requested By and Requested For employees. (The other invited employees and external guests will see the Requested By email address as the sender.)
InternalServicesName Enter the name of the sender of the email notifications. This will appear at the end of each email notification message,

Optional Parameters

You have the option to edit the following parameters. Click Save to save your changes.

Parameter Description
ArrangementType

When you mark a room as reservable, to ensure that there’s at least one room arrangement and room configuration for this room Archibus creates these records if they do not exist.

For the room configuration, Archibus creates a configuration with values for config_id and config_name that match the rm_id and rm_name values of the room that you are making reservable.

Archibus searches for the arrangement type defined in this application parameter, and checks if that arrangement type exists in the database. If it does not exist, Archibus creates the arrangement type

Once it is confirmed that the arrangement type specified in the activity parameter exists, Archibus creates a new room arrangement with the specified arrangement type.
PanelBookingEmployeeId

If your site implements touch panels or tablets mounted outside a meeting room for users to make reservations with Exchange integration, set this parameter to specify the Employee ID that will be used to complete the Created By, Requested By, and Requested For fields of the meeting record.

Note: the employee specified here should have an email address other than a room email address. None of the room mailboxes should correspond to a Web Central user and/or employee.

The default value is RESERVATION HOST, which is a record in the Employees table.
HideRoomConflicts

Configure the level of filtering (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4) for room conflicts when users create a recurring reservation. The following rooms will be displayed depending on the setting. The default value is 3, but you can change this as needed.

  • 0: all rooms available for at least one occurrence
  • 1: all rooms available for at least 50% of the occurrences
  • 2: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least one occurrence;
  • 3: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least 50% of the occurrences;
  • 4: only rooms available for all occurrences.

  • 5: all rooms available for at least the first occurrence;

  • 6: all rooms available for the first occurrence and at least 50% of the occurrences;

  • 7: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least the first occurrence;

  • 8: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for the first occurrence and at least 50% of the occurrences.
PluginCapacityRequired

Enable or disable the requirement of entering a Capacity in the Plugin for saving a reservation.

  • Set to 1 to enable the requirement. When enabled, the application enforces that users must enter the capacity before proceeding with the reservation. This means that rooms are filtered to include only the ones having at least this capacity. Requiring the user to enter the Capacity can make the Capacity field a more reliable gauge of attendees in that room.
  • Set to 0 to disable the requirement. When entering the Capacity field is not required, the Capacity field defaults to five, and the user can change this at their discretion.
  • The entered Capacity value is stored in the database, and it's intended to store the actual number of attendees that will be in the room. See Capturing the number of attendees who are physically present.
DaysBeforeArchiving Enter the number of days that you want to occur before archiving of reservations takes place.
MinutesTimeUnit

Enter the units to use in the timeline. For example, if you set the units to 15, the user can only reserve at 15-minute intervals: 10:00, 10:15, 10:30, etc.

Note: The MinutesTimeUnit parameter determines the units that can be used for Pre-block and Post-block settings that are defined in the Room Arrangements and Resources tables. For example, if the MinutesTimeUnit is set to 10, then the Pre-block time must be in units of 10, such as 10, 20, 30, etc. For information on defining the Pre-block and Post-block settings, see Define General Resources and Define Room Arrangements. 
TimelineEndTime

 

TimelineStartTime 		Enter the start time and end time for the calendar
TimelineMaxRoomsPerBuilding his number sets the maximum number of rooms displayed on the room’s time line when creating or editing a room reservation or conference call reservation. A lower number increases performance and reduces the height of the room’s time line. A higher number can yield more rooms to choose from in each building.
MaxRecurrencesToCheckFreeBusy Limits the number of dates to check for attendee availability. Having a large number of dates can cause performance issues if rooms and resources are reserved for recurring schedules that have many occurrences into the future. The default value is 10. This parameter applies only in the Web Central Reservations application (with and without the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange). It is not applicable to the Reservations Plugin for Outlook.
ApplyVpaRestrictions

Set this parameter to determine if VPA restrictions are enabled for the Reservations application, the Reservations Plugin for Outlook, and the Workplace Services Portal mobile app when creating room, resource, or conference call reservations. If users have a VPA restriction based on geography, this prevents them from booking outside of their VPA. The VPA restriction affects the reservations that are shown, and the buildings available when creating reservations. A setting of 0 means the VPA restriction is disabled; a setting of 1 means that it is enabled.

If users have a need to make reservations for buildings from which they are restricted (such as when traveling or when booking for others), disabling the VPA enables them to do so. If this application parameter is not defined, the VPA restriction is applied as usual. As with all application parameters, this is a global setting, not per individual user.

Note:  When working in the Reservations application, the VPA restriction works in all places for Bl VPA, Site VPA and custom VPA, except in the selection lists shown in pop-up windows used to select floor or room values. For most of the views in the application, these selection lists are not correctly filtered when the connected user has been assigned a custom VPA. This issue only occurs when using selection lists from pop-up windows; other actions, such as creating a new reservation, or even listing the reservation in the View and/or Edit My Reservations will be correctly restricted by the user VPA

Resource-only Reservation Parameters

The following application parameters apply to resource-only reservations:

Parameter Description
MaxRecurrencesToCreate

For the Create or Edit Resource Reservation task, limits the number of occurrences to process when creating a recurring reservation for either a resource. By default, this is set to 250. Note that this parameter determines the maximum number of occurrences for resource-only recurring reservations. This parameter is not required for the Reservations Calendar Console because you must specify either a Start Date or Number of Occurrences when specifying the recurring pattern.

For example if MaxRecurrencesToCreate is set to 250, and you specify in the Recurrence panel to create 500 resource-only reservations, the program allows you to try to confirm the reservation, and then presents an error message suggesting that you enter a smaller number of occurrences.

Because of performance and technical limitations, it is not recommended to enter a numeric value higher than 500 for the MaxRecurrencesToCreate application parameter.

Parameters for Archibus Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook

If you are using the Archibus Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook, you can set these options:

Parameter Description
PlugInFullReservationView Sets the view loaded by the Archibus Reservations Plugin for Outlook when the user loads the full Web Central view.
PlugInRoomInformationView Sets the view loaded by the Archibus Reservations Plugin for Outlook when the user presses the "I" button in the Plugin to get more information on the room
PlugInOptionalLocationFilters Sets the list of location filters shown in the Plugin. To show a location, include it in the parameter value; to hide a location, remove it from the parameter value. The building must always be shown. The optional locations are country, state, city, site, and floor. To enable all optional filters, enter country;state;city;site;floor as the param_value. The parameter can also be configured using the Configure Outlook Plugin task
ApplyVpaRestrictions This application parameter applies to the Reservations Plugin for Outlook, as well as to the Reservations application and the Workplace Services Portal mobile app. See Step 3 above for a description