Exchange Calendar Integration

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Exchange Calendar Integration

This is a chargeable module/integration, please speak to your CSM if you would like any more information about this feature.

Please note that the Exchange Calendar integration cannot be used alongside the Google Calendar integration, or with Exchange On-Premises.

For our latest Exchange Integration updates, please check our our latest release notes here:

What's New

What's New: January 2023 | Exchange Integration

Where to find the Exchange Integration Options

To configure and manage your company’s master account Exchange Information, open the ‘Exchange Integration’ page from the Administration menu options:

Open

To manage the Exchange Integration per Trainer, edit your Trainer from the Resources area of your platform, and open the Exchange Integration page:

Open

Important information on the integration details

There are some settings that need to be put in place for the Exchange Integration to work correctly. The calendar will also undergo some changes when the integration is active:

Authentication Method

There are two methods of authentication that the Exchange Integration can use.

The authentication method used is dependant on your Exchange Service.

• OAuth
  If you are using Exchange Online (i.e. the Cloud-based Exchange Service), then your Exchange Integration will use OAuth for authentication.
  To use this integration, there are a couple of updates that are required from your IT Team in order to support these changes, please follow the below steps.

  1. Register accessplanit as an application within your Azure.
     See here for Microsoft’s developer guide for this process: Register the application, please note that you only need to action the linked section of the guide

  2. Set the application to have the correct levels of access (see below table)
     Microsoft’s developer guide for this process: Configure your application only authentication, please note that you only need to action the linked section of the guide

Three API / Permissions required for the application:

• Basic Authentication
  If you are using On-Premise Exchange, then your Exchange Integration will use Basic Authentication for authentication. Please note that the Basic Authentication method may become unavailable if Microsoft stop supporting it for on-premise set-ups.
  
  

The Sync Engine

This is an option that must be enabled by accessplanit. Without the Sync Engine enabled, Exchange Integration will not automatically sync. Please get in touch with a member of the accessplanit support team to ensure the Sync Engine is turned on when you are ready to start using your integration.

Enable the calendar sync for your trainers

When the Sync Engine is running, you can define per Trainer if any items that are placed into the Trainer's Outlook calendar will be Synced over to the Resource Calendar. To do this, change the following options for that Trainer in their Exchange Integration settings:

1. Check the ‘Calendar’ checkbox

2. The direction is set to "both" or "in"
   
   

    

Trainer Calendar Data pulled into accessplanit

Any items that are entered into the Trainer's calendar when the Sync Engine is enabled will show up in accessplanit as "Unavailable". They will not show the same detail as they do in the Trainer's Outlook calendar.

Common Uses for Exchange Calendar Integration

1. Pushing appointments to Outlook
   To push calendar appointments from your trainer’s accessplanit calendar into their Outlook calendar (such as courses and unavailability that you have set up for them), make sure that you have selected your exchange service in the ‘Service’ drop down box, make sure that the Calendar checkbox is checked, and select the ‘Out’ option or the ‘Both’ option in their ‘Direction’ setting.
   
   

    

1. Courses will send over to Outlook in the following format

   1. Title: ‘Training: Name of course or alias override’

   2. Start & End time: The start date & end date of the Course

   3. Location: The venue name and address (class courses only)

   4. Body: Course label, course date, venue, venue address, venue phone, venue email, trainer webinar details, a link to view more details about the course

      Here is an example of how a Class Course appears within the Calendar.
      More examples are available lower down on this page.

       

2. Pull appointments from Outlook
   To pull calendar appointments from your trainer’s Outlook Calendar into their accessplanit calendar, make sure that you have selected your exchange service in the ‘Service’ drop down box, make sure that the Calendar checkbox is checked, and select the ‘In’ option or the ‘Both’ option in their ‘Direction’ setting.

    

   Appointments pulled into your trainer’s accessplanit calendar from Outlook will create unavailability with the following information from their Outlook calendar

   1. Summary = Unavailability Description

   2. Start Time = Unavailability Start Date / Time

   3. End Time = Unavailability End Date / Time

Configuring Exchange Integration

There are two areas that need to be configured before the Exchange Integration can be used.

These areas are:

1. Master Account
   You can find the configuration options for this in Profile> Administration > Exchange Integration.
   The Main Account is the domain used for the Main Exchange account and Trainer’s Email Addresses. This needs to have a valid Office License

2. Trainer Accounts
   You can find the configuration options for these accounts in Resources > Manage > find a Trainer > right click > Edit > Exchange Integration. This will be repeated for each trainer that you would like to set up with your Exchange Integration.

Once both of these areas have been configured, your Exchange Integration will begin to sync!

Master Account

To get started, you will first need to have a master account set up by your internal IT department.

As this master account will be used to read the calendar appointments in your trainers' Outlook calendars, and it will be used to create new appointments in your trainers' Outlook calendars, the master account must:

1. Have full access over any of your trainers' Exchange accounts

2. Be on the same domain as your trainer’s Exchange accounts

If this master account does not have this top level of permission over your trainer’s Exchange accounts, the calendars will not be able to synchronise and the integration will not be able to work.

Within Outlook, this can be done by following the steps below:

1. Open Outlook

2. File

3. Account Settings

4. Delegate Access

5. Select the master account and then set the permissions as shown in screenshot attached ('ap exchange' is the name of accessplanit’s master account, you will see your own master account name at the top of the window)
   
   

Once your master account has been set up by your internal IT department, you can log the account’s details in your accessplanit platform! To do this, open the Exchange Integration menu option from the Administration page, and if you have multiple Training Providers, select the correct Training Provider in the Active Account drop-down box at the top of the page.

You can then complete the Exchange Information form with the master account’s Exchange Details.

When you click the Save button, accessplanit will verify if the synchronisation has been successful.

If the synchronisation was not successful, accessplanit will provide a log of information to help to diagnose the problem, if you are unsure of what is causing the problem please get in touch with a member of the accessplanit support team.

Once your master account has been successfully configured in your accessplanit platform’s Exchange Integration page, you can set up each of your trainers!

Trainer Accounts

To set up a Trainer with your Exchange Integration, find the Trainer in your Resources DataGrid in your accessplanit platform.

Right click on your Trainer to view the Context Menu Options, and select the ‘Exchange Integration’ option.

There are several options in this page to configure

1. Select your Exchange account within the Service drop down box

2. Check the Calendar checkbox to enable calendar synchronisation

3. Select the Direction of the sync

   1. In
      This option will pull calendar appointments into the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar from their Outlook calendar only

   2. Out
      This option will push calendar appointments from the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar into their Outlook calendar only

   3. Both
      this option will push calendar appointments from the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar into their Outlook calendar and pull calendar appointments into the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar from their Outlook calendar

4. Enter the Trainer's Outlook email address into the Email option, if this is not already populated (please note that this must be the email address that the master account has permission over)

5. Click Update to save these details.

Once you have completed the set up for a trainer, you can set up your next trainer!

How do courses appear within the Trainer’s Outlook calendar?

Courses will appear like as calendar appointments within the Trainer’s Outlook calendar

If the course is running in a different time zone than the trainer’s normal Outlook time zone, Outlook will display the course at the correct time for them! For example, if a UK based trainer that sees their Outlook calendar in British Summer Time is assigned to a course running in Central European Time that is scheduled to start at 9am will see the start time as 8am.

Classroom Courses

Classroom course appointments include the following information

• Title
  The word ‘Training: ’ followed by the name of the course

• Start time / End time
  The full date range of the course

• Location
  The venue name and address (this will be empty if the course does not yet have a venue assigned)

• Body
  The name of the course
  The date range of the course
  The status of the course
  The venue, the venue’s address, the venue’s phone number and email address (if one has been assigned)
  A link to view more details about the course
  
  

Webinar Courses

Webinar course appointments include the following information

• Title
  The word ‘Training: ’ followed by the name of the course

• Start time / End time
  The full date range of the course

• Location
  This will be empty

• Body
  The name of the course
  The date range of the course
  The status of the course
  The trainer’s webinar details for this course
  A link to view more details about the course
  
  

Cancelled Courses

Cancelled course appointments will include the same information as they did before they were cancelled, however the appointment title will be updated to include the word ‘Cancelled’ at the beginning.

This makes sure that the trainer is aware that their course has been cancelled.

Using the Exchange Calendar Integration

Updates to Courses syncing to Exchange

If you would like a Course in your accessplanit platform to be re-synced to Exchange, for example if you have made a change to the Course and you would like these changes to be reflected in your trainers' Exchange Calendar, you can complete any of the below actions:

• Change the name (alias) of the Course

• Add, remove, or change the assigned Trainer on the Course

• Remove a Trainer from the Course, save your change, re-add the trainer to the Course, and save the Course again

• Change the Course start date/time or end date/time

• Change the status of the Course

• Updating the Cost or Cost Type of the Course

• Updating the ‘Advertise’ setting on the Course

• Updating the ‘Sessional’ setting on the Course

• Updating the ‘Tax Exempt’ setting on the Course

• Updating the ‘Waiting List’ setting on the Course

• Updating the number of places available on the Course

Please note that the below actions will not trigger a re-sync:

• Adding, removing, or changing a Venue to a Course

• Remove a venue from the Course, save your change, re-add the venue to the Course, and save the Course again

• Updating the Trainer or Delegate Webinar Details

• Updating the External ID of the Course

• Updating the Delivery Method on the Course

• Updating the Course’s Exclusive Accounts/Account Groups

If you would like a venue change to be reflected in your trainer’s Exchange Calendar you should complete one of the actions in the re-sync list above to re-sync the Course to Exchange , such as removing a trainer from the Course, saving, and re-adding the trainer back to the Course.

Updates to accessplanit Unavailability syncing to Exchange

If you would like a Course in your accessplanit platform to be re-synced to Exchange, for example if you have made a change to the unavailability and you would like these changes to be reflected in your trainers' Exchange Calendar, you can complete any of the below actions

• Rename the unavailability

• Change the date / time of the unavailability

Updates to Exchange appointments syncing to accessplanit

If you would like an appointment in your trainer's Exchange Calendar to be re-synced to their accessplanit calendar, for example if they have made a change to the date, they can complete any of the below actions to have this update sent to their accessplanit calendar

• Rename the appointment

• Change the date / time of the appointment

FAQs

1. If the Trainer deletes the course from their calendar can they get it back?
   accessplanit will periodically sync with the Outlook calendar and override any changes the Trainer makes to the calendar item and replace any which have been accidentally deleted, to trigger a course to send to the Trainer’s Exchange Calendar you just need to make a change to the course such as a change to the label.
   
   

2. Are there any appointments in my trainer’s Outlook calendar that will not sync to their accessplanit calendar?
   Yes, appointments that are marked as ‘Free’ in Outlook will not sync to accessplanit.
   
   

3. How often do the calendars sync?
   Appointments are synchronised between accessplanit and your trainer’s Outlook Calendars every 15 minutes.
   
   

4. What is the difference between this module and the Outlook Plugin?
   The Outlook Plugin module allows you to push your Outlook emails into accessplanit, rather than calendar items.
   
   

5. Are we able to change to a new Exchange Account if we already have Exchange Integration enabled?
   Yes this is possible! Please contact the accessplanit team to let them know that you plan to update these details as this can cause issues for trainers that are included in the original Exchange Account, but not in the new Exchange Account.
   
   

6. Can I stop the calendar pushing and pulling calendar appointments for a specific trainer?
   Yes! For this trainer, access their Exchange Integration settings and change their ‘Direction’ setting to ‘None’ and uncheck the ‘Calendar’ checkbox, then click the Update button.
   
   

7. Do Private appointments in Outlook pull into my trainer’s accessplanit calendar?
   Yes private appointments are included in the sync between the two systems, accessplanit will however not receive any details about the private appointment (such as the name and description), and will only block out the trainer’s calendar during the date range of the appointment.
   
   

8. Does the integration support recurring appointments?
   Yes recurring appointments in Outlook will be sent to your trainers' calendar in accessplanit.
   
   

9. What does the re-sync button do?
   Resyncing allows you to force the accessplanit and Exchange calendars to synchronise if your appointments are out of sync.
   Resync deletes any existing appointments for all Trainers, and creates new ones based on what is currently scheduled.

10. I keep getting a ‘The remote server returned and error: 403 Forbidden Error’

Make sure permission is granted for the following roles: EWS.AccessAsUser.All & full_access_as_app

11. What do we do if we are in a different TimeZone to BST?
    If your Platform is in a different Timezone, please contact our Customer Support Team or speak with your implementation Manager at the time of integration to discuss the appointment time conversion using Exchange Integration.