Enhancement request for Working Time Calendars - Add "Inclusion Dates"

[samwoo]

Good evening,

I would like to request the ability to add "Inclusion Dates" (for lack of better terminology) to the Working Time Calendars to allow specific dates to be included alongside the standard configuration.

I have set up a CAB Calendar which is set for 10:00:00 to 11:59:59 every Monday, so users can select which CAB date they are submitting the Change Request for. But if the Working Day falls on a Bank Holiday (for example on a Monday), I would like to be able "include" an alternative date CAB date, i.e. the next working day which is a Tuesday which will be visible in the Calendar associated with the Date Field on the Intelligent Capture form.

Thanks,

Samuel 

[Gerry]

@samwoo

When I first read this I thought, that makes sense, could not be that hard.  Then I thought about it a little more and I am not sure we could do this, at least not in a way that would allow WTCs to work for their intended purpose. 

The primary goal of a WTC is to allow the measurement of SLA's over working times (as opposed to time elapsed). When doing such calculations, we use WTC's for example, to take a point in time, and determine a future date/time based on the number of working seconds from the starting time point.   Our use of WTC's rely on these predictions to be correct.  So for example, if an SLA is working towards a time where it has calculated an escalation, taking into account (correctly) a bank holiday on Monday next week, then you suddenly add that day back in as an inclusion, then even though the escallation has already happened, all of a sudden according to the referenced WTC that escalation point has no longer been reached. 

Now of course, we happened to have used WTC's for other things, like calendars and appointments, which I think is where you are referring to, so probably this is something that would need to be accommodated outside of the WTC. Or we would have to have different types of WTC's, some for SLA related time calulcations and some for managing available working hours in calendars.  Not sure really, I was just responding with an initial brain dump, I am not completely familiar with all the places WTC's are employed so we would need to give this requirement some consideration so we did not inadvertently cause other unexpected problems. 

 

Gerry

[Steve Giller]

13 hours ago, samwoo said:

I have set up a CAB Calendar

Would a better question be "Can we add a Change Calendar that fulfils [certain functions] that are not available or practical for a Working Time Calendar?"

If so, you'd need to spec out the requirements so Gerry and his Team can assess them.

[Gerry]

@Steve Giller

Yes I think thats exactly right, its more of a calendar (change specifically) thing, than a WTC thing, one for the Service Manager dev team to consider.

@James Ainsworth fyi...

Gerry

[samwoo]

Hi @Gerry and @Steve Giller,

Yes, you are both right, it's not really a WTC thing at all - when I made my posts it didn't even click, and the clue is in the name. So, as you both have said it is more of producing a Calendar, where dates can be included/excluded etc.

Any integration to any Bank/Public Holidays APIs would be great, if possible, configurable per calendar as other countries might have different days. i.e. https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays.json for the UK Bank Holidays, but otherwise we could import using the Hornbill API and PowerShell as I do with the WTC.

The simplest use cases would be, as in my example, for the CAB Calendar to be used within the Intelligent Capture.

Also, I've just remembered there is an item on the roadmap related to "CAB Meeting Manager" could that incorporate a potential calendar solution?

If this were to be developed into a fully featured app, ie. Calendar Manager:

• Allows multiple calendars to be configured (like Board Manager)
   
• In its simplest form would just be used to hold dates and works like how the current WTC solution works
  • With the ability to include dates 
  • Can be used in the Intelligent Capture and Workflow
     
• In its complex form would be used for more advanced calendar features such as creating events into the Calendar
  • Can be used in the Intelligent Capture and Workflow
  • Integrates with Service Manager (ie. for Bookings, Services, Requests, Tasks)
  • Integrates with Board Manager
  • It has Calendar View(s)
  • Advanced
    • Allows integration to Office 365 and other Mailboxes
    • Allows Auto Tasks to be trigger on certain events/scenarios (such as when an event is created, or deleted)

I hope I haven't messed up anything with any extra requirements, but we would be happy if there was a simple implementation that works similar to how the WTC are configured currently.

Thanks,

Samuel

[samwoo]

2 hours ago, samwoo said:

Can be used in the Intelligent Capture and Workflow

I forgot to be a bit more specific about this bit:

In its simplest form in the Intelligent Capture, one could choose a Calendar or WTC to be used in the Date Field, Date and Time field and Between Dates field types.

In its complex form, the ability to display a clickable Calendar would be brilliant. I suspect this would require an enhancement to PCF2 (if that's what it's called).

2 hours ago, samwoo said:

Integrates with Service Manager (ie. for Bookings, Services, Requests, Tasks)

And for this bit, especially regarding bookings, if there was a dedicated Calendar Manager app, there could be additional functionality that would allow time slots to be included as well. A bit like how online booking systems for Barbers or Contractors works.

Our use case for something like this would be for when we do drop-ins at the office, users can book any available time slots.