Conflicting appointments in public folder calendar

[Lance]

We have a network using Exchange Server 2003 SP1 with Outlook 2003 SP1. We
have set up public folders (calendar items) to book resources such as meeting
rooms and vehicles. It appears that users can make conflicting appointments
without being refused or receiving an error message. Is this normal? Is
there a way to prevent users making appointments/bookings which conflict with
existing ones? We have a particular problem with existing all-day bookings,
which are not obvious to users. I think this issue was mentioned in another
post.
Should we be taking a different approach to bookings? Any suggestions would
be appreciated.

 

[Steve]

Hi Lance,

I think the problem occurs when people try to invite the resource to
the meeting. There are two ways to get around this.
1. Open the resource calendar seperately and book the time.
2. Invite the resource and in the scheduling tab make the resource a
"resource" (right-click on the space to the left of the Resource Name).

Hope this helps.

Steve

 

[Lance]

Hi Steve,
Actually the problem is that no error message appears when a user makes a
conflicting booking. We have instructed users to go to the public folder
directly and make their booking. Several users are able to make a booking
for the same time (conflicting). This is not normally a problem because
common sense will prevail and users will avoid doing this. However all-day
bookings are not highly obvious and mistakes can be made.
I am happy if someone comes back and says "there is no way around this",
because then I will stop looking for one! Also if we should be using a
different approach for bookings, please advise.
TIA

 

[kj]

There's nothing there to determine a conflict exists when using a public
folder as a resorce calendar.
Creating a resource email account (&calendar) and setting the calendar to
decline conflicting meeting requests will do what you want, but it won't
then be a public folder.

see if the following is something that might work better;
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;196534

 

[Sorry]

You can show the resource calendar in a public folder.
Look in the Q&A section of www.ExchangeGroupCalendar.com

 

[Lance]

Thanks to the above contributors for clarifying this. I'll have a look at
the Q&A