OL2000: Schedule+ 1.0 Users May Not See Outlook Free/Busy Times (196635)

SYMPTOMS

You are using Schedule Plus version 1.0 and trying to view the free/busy status of another person who has migrated from Schedule Plus 1.0 to the Microsoft Outlook Calendar. The free/busy information is not available for viewing. An indication that free/busy status cannot be read is that the checkmark to the left of the user name in the Attendees is a lighter shade of gray than the check box by your name.

CAUSE

Schedule Plus 1.0 has a feature that allows you to set permissions for viewing of free/busy status. When a Schedule Plus 1.0 user queries for free/busy status, Schedule Plus first checks a permission table to see if permission to read the free/busy information has been denied. If permission has been denied, then no free/busy status is available in the planner view.

The permission table is stored separately from the calendar file. When you upgrade from Schedule Plus 1.0 to Outlook, the free/busy permissions table is not changed or migrated in any way. Additionally, because Outlook (and Schedule+ 7.x) do not allow for permission settings for free/busy viewing, there is no option in Outlook to change the permission settings that were applied in Schedule Plus 1.0. If a Schedule Plus user did not have permission to view your free/busy status in Schedule Plus 1.0, that user will not have permission to view it after you upgrade to Outlook.

Setting permissions to not allow reading of free/busy status is rare. The permission exists by default, and in practice is rarely turned off.

RESOLUTION

After you upgrade to Outlook, because there is no direct option to adjust the permission table, you can use either of the methods below to change the permissions that were set using Schedule Plus 1.0.

Method 1

On the Schedule Plus Options menu, click Set Access Privileges and make the permissions changes. You can do this without adversely affecting any calendar data that has been migrated to Outlook.

Method 2

Start Outlook one time only with the "/cleanschedplus" command line switch. This will delete all Schedule Plus data (free/busy, permissions, and .CAL file) from the server and allow the free/busy information from the Outlook Calendar to be used and viewed by all Schedule Plus 1.0 users. To start Outlook with this command line switch, use the following steps:

On the Windows Start menu, click Run.
Type Outlook.exe /cleanschedplus and click OK.

MORE INFORMATION

This issue only occurs when the post office being used is a Shared File System (SFS) post office (Microsoft Mail or Workgroup Post Office). There are also other factors which affect your ability to view free/busy status. For example, Outlook users can choose not to publish free/busy times, so other users cannot see free/busy status.