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.

Differences with Exchange Extension

The differences with the Exchange Extension are:

• With Exchange integration, the Room Reservations form also presents the free/busy time of all invited attendees based on the Exchange calendar. Without Exchange integration, the free/busy time is based only on the existing reservations in the Web Central database.
• With Exchange integration, the Exchange Server handles all notifications except notifications that approval is overdue. Without Exchange integration, the Reservations application handles all notifications. See Email notifications.
• When using Reservations without Exchange integration, and selecting to send email notifications, users receive .ics files to add or remove meetings from their calendars.

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.

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.

See

• Configuring the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange in System Management Help
• Reservations and Email Notifications
• Work with Email Notifications