Archibus SaaS / Reservations
Workplace Services / Reservations

Working with Email Notifications for Meeting Spaces

Note: If you are using the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange, the requirements for setting up emails as described in this topic are needed only for the notifications sent when the approval time has been exceeded. These notifications for overdue approvals are sent if a room arrangement or resource has been configured to require them. With Exchange integration, all other invitations (create, update or cancel reservations) are managed directly by the Exchange Server, rather than through the Reservations application or module as described in this topic.

Note: This topic does not apply to requests for working space (hotelable rooms).

You may receive an email notification that notifies you of a new room reservation, a room reservation update, or a room reservation cancellation. When you receive these emails, you can update your calendar with the meeting information by importing the attached .ics files. The email notifications that approval is overdue for a room arrangement or resource do not require any updates to the approver's calendar, and so no .ics files are required.

This topic has the following sections:

Email Notification Rules

In Reservations, email notifications are set up to be sent based on the following rules:

Reservation created, updated, or cancelled: Emails are sent to the Requested By and Requested For employees any time a room reservation is created, when there is a change in the room reservation, or when the reservation is cancelled. Email notifications are also sent to any internal employees or external visitors who have been invited to the meeting. In addition, any email addresses that have been typed in the Attendees' Email Addresses box are sent an email notification.

Note: When you type an email address in the Attendees' Email Addresses box, make sure to separate each additional email by a semicolon (;).

Note: No additional email notifications are sent when a reservation has been approved.

Room arrangement or resource approval time has expired:Notification that approval is needed is sent only if the room arrangement or resource has been set up to require notification (rather than approval or rejection) when its ' # of days to approve' has been exceeded. The set up also identifies the user who should receive the notification.

Importing ICS Files into a Calendar

When an email notification is sent, it includes a message in the body of the email. It also includes one or more attached calendar .ics files. After you click an .ics file, you can import the meeting information into your calendar. You can import this file into the following calendar systems: Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, and Google Calendar.

If there are multiple .ics file attachments, make sure to click each file to import all meeting information into your calendar.

To import the meeting information into your calendar:

  1. Click on the .ics file that is an attachment in your email.

  2. Click Open to open the meeting announcement.

  3. Click the Accept button in the menu bar to add this meeting to your calendar.

  4. Alternatively, click the Tentative button if you are not sure you can attend, or the Decline button if you cannot attend the meeting.

  5. Repeat the above steps for all attached .ics files.

Email Notification Messages

When an email notification is sent, it includes a subject and a message in the body of the email. The subject of the email notification is in the following format:

The body of the email notification includes introductory text, such as "You've been invited to a meeting by...". In addition, the following information on the room reservation is provided:

Note: If the room reservation is for a recurring reservation, the information for the first meeting is displayed in the body of the email. When you import the recurring reservation .ics file into your calendar, information on all of the meetings in the recurring reservation is added to your calendar.

Meeting Time Adjustments for Time Zones

When you receive an email notification, the meeting time in the body of the email is listed in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) with an adjustment listed based on your local time zone. For example, if you are located in the Eastern Standard Time zone (EST), which is four hours earlier than GMT during daylight savings time months, then your meeting time during daylight savings time months would be listed as follows in the body of the email:

When you click the attached .ics file to import the meeting information into your calendar, then the system automatically converts the GMT time into the local time zone that is displayed in your calendar.

Email Notifications for New Room Reservations

New Single Room Reservations

For a single room reservation, the email notification lists the meeting information for the reservation. When you import the .ics file for the recurring reservation, the meeting information is loaded into your calendar.

New Recurring Reservations

For a recurring reservation, the email notification lists the meeting information for the first recurring reservation. When you import the .ics file for the recurring reservation, the meeting information for all meetings is loaded into your calendar. If there were any meeting date conflicts, these meetings are not added to your calendar.

Note 1: If a user imports a room reservation .ics file for a meeting that was created in another time zone, the meeting date conflicts may not be registered in your calendar.

Note 2: If you import an .ics file for a recurring reservation into a Lotus Notes Calendar, the first and last recurring reservations of the date range may be lost and some additional reservations may be added at the beginning. This is due to Lotus's non-standard implementation of the iCal format.

Email Notifications for Updated Room Reservations

Updates for Single Room Reservations

Email notifications are sent when either the time or date of a single room reservation is updated. When you receive a notification of an updated single room reservation, you simply import the .ics file to update your calendar.

Updates for Recurring Room Reservations

Email Notifications are sent when one of a recurring room reservation's meetings is updated.

When only the time of one of the recurring reservation meetings is changed, one .ics file is attached to the email notification. In this case, you simply import the .ics file to update your calendar.

If the date of one of the recurring reservation meetings is changed, two .ics files will be attached to the email. In this case, you import the first .ics file to cancel the original reservation date. You then import the second .ics file to import the new meeting date information into your calendar.

Note: When you have updated the date of one of a recurring reservation's meetings, then your calendar program will not allow you to delete the updated meeting from your calendar.

Email Notifications for Cancelled Room Reservations

Cancellations for Single Room Reservations

Email notifications are sent when a single room reservation is cancelled. When you receive a notification of a cancelled single room reservation, you simply import the .ics file to update your calendar.

Cancellations for Recurring Room Reservations

Email Notifications are sent when one of a recurring room reservation's meetings is cancelled. When one of a recurring reservation meetings is cancelled, one .ics file is attached to the email notification. In this case, you simply import the .ics file to update your calendar.

If all instances of a recurring reservation are cancelled, the number of attached .ics files will vary. First, there is always an .ics file to cancel the entire reservation set. In addition, there will be an .ics file for each individual instance of date modifications to the reservation. For example, if you changed the date of a recurring reservation twice, then there would be a total of three .ics files: the .ics file that cancels the reservation set and two .ics files to cancel the two modifications. In this case, you must import all .ics files to update your calendar.