LDS Building Scheduling Software

[HansenSD]

For those interested now there is a program at LDSbuildingscheduler.com designed a writtn over a period of four years that is available and in use for no charge.
The program and the instructions for installtion and operation can be downloaded from that site.

Some of its salient points are:
Can handle up to four buildings and one recreation property. It shows events scheduled at all four buildings for a given day at one time. So if one facility is being used he can quickly see if another is available.

The program won't let the scheduler double book a room.

It provides for what is called the generic schedule for the wards in a given buidling, YM/YM, Relief Socity, Cubs etc in a way that you can populate a years calendar in less than a minute. You don't have to enter each by hand.

It has wizards to help through many of the process.

It prints schedules that can be put in the buildings each week.

It has some failings.
It is written in Paradox.
It does not have the ability to handle the building layout as discussed in this forum.

At one time there was talk about the ICS setting up a process where programmers throughout the church could lend their assistance in writting programs like this as free ware. I don't know what happened to that initiative but this would be a great project for that type of effort.

If some one knows what happened to that initiative or who is managing it would you let me know.

[russellhltn]

Personally I'd like to see this as part of the ward website, but it needs to tie in to the main calendar. Otherwise there's too great a risk that an event will be scheduled and forgets to book resources or resources kept booked when the event is canceled. Syncing is something the computer needs to do, not humans.

[thedqs]

This is why at least there could be an API so this 3rd party site could be able to interact with the ward's site to sync. (Example the Ward Webmaster decides to use this 3rd party booking system and gives the site access by letting it use his private-key connection (former suggestion). The booking site then can grab info from the ward calendar and also post to the calendar when people book the room.

[atticusewig]

While adding the blueprints/maps to the scheduling software
is really nifty; Until all of that is worked out, here's an
open source project I discovered the other day that
can help you schedule the building right now.

MRBS - Meeting Room Booking System
http://mrbs.sourceforge.net/

It is a PHP / MySQL App, so the interface is a standard web browser.

If you want to run it locally, I highly recommend the XAMPP project
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

which will install Apache, MySQL, and PHP for you - everything you
need to run this program.

One of the nice things about MRBS is that you can create event-types
(albeit in a configuration file) that will highlight the calendar entry in a
different color. By setting these types to the different wards that will be
using the building, you can have it color-coded by ward.

Since it is sql-based, you could use the .csv file for a ward-website resource
calendar to build a sql script to populate the calendar. To be more clear, you
could take all the information from the resource calendar and fill it into this
program. Using sed and grep to generate the sql script from the .csv would be
a bit of work, initially - but once done, simple whenever you need to update it.

It looks like it might be a little work to setup, but should be a breeze to use
once it gets going.

Also, if we were to create an open-source Building Scheduling Software with
the map-support as discussed earlier in this thread, it might be useful to fork
this project and save ourselves a lot of time.

Atticus Ewig

[WelchTC]

At one time there was talk about the ICS setting up a process where programmers throughout the church could lend their assistance in writting programs like this as free ware. I don't know what happened to that initiative but this would be a great project for that type of effort.

If some one knows what happened to that initiative or who is managing it would you let me know.

From the Church's perspective, we have to get our hands around how to properly guide and maintain this type of effort. There is certainly a lot of willing people to help. We are working on figuring out how to effectively, securely, and efficiently manage such an undertaking. Meanwhile, we encourage you to share your ideas and projects you are working on and let others help you build those apps.

Tom

[margiestroble]

We listed a single resource labeled as the "Stake Center" as one of the resources available from the Stake's website. We then developed a set of codes to use to represent the various parts of the buillding that could be scheduled (e.g., KIT = Kitchen; CH = Cultural Hall; MP = Multi-purpose room; HC = High Council room; etc.). Then we informed members of the wards that they could access the resource calendar from the stake page to submit an event request. Requestors could either use the codes or type out the name of the rooms that needed to be used in their request.

We just recently did something similar. There is a feature (in the stake admin area) that you can check the boxes of all of the wards in the stake that you want to link their wards scheduling calendar with the stake scheduling calendar so that members can go to their own ward webpage, click on RESOURCES, and it automatically opens up the stake building scheduling page to schedule the stake center. It is a shorter way to do it than telling everyone to go to the stake page. For those wards who their ward is the only ward that meets in their building, they just use the ward resources feature.

[ihenpecked]

Tom
I've read about the church's plans to improve the ward web sites. Does that include better building scheduling? Where exactly do they want to go with this?

[WelchTC]

Tom
I've read about the church's plans to improve the ward web sites. Does that include better building scheduling? Where exactly do they want to go with this?

I don't have a road map of what that team plans to implement. In fact, there is still a lot of discussion around the feature set from what I understand. As I learn more and have permission to post, I'll do so.

Tom

[HansenSD]

We have come up with some good ideas for a solution. I have found in the past that although I can see a need for this(my wife scheduled buildings for four years) the view is not shared in the trenches. Our stake did not consider other solutions until the problems with scheduling in the stake good pretty bad. And then they did not know what direction to take. I have had my program in use in a number of locations only to find that later it is abandoned. Most of the time interest dies because the assignment is given to someone who is not computer literate. This is when scheduling is handled at the ward level. I have found that when the scheduling task is made a stake calling it is most successful. The stakes get a one stop shopping experience and more uniformity at enforcing buidling use policy. Where multiple buildings are being handled the Stake leaders also called individuals with computer experience who do a great job with the calling( people who do great jobs in whatever they are called to). A former stake presidency member was called in one stake. Does anyone know of a way we can get some additional stakes involved in working on a solution? Perhaps you are close enough to members of stake presidencies that you can discuss the possibility with them. Then we can getting additional input as to what the program needs.

[rexwatkins]

I'm a new administrator for our branch website that shares a building (not the stake center) with another ward. I can't find a way for our resources (i.e. - building scheduling) to synch with the other ward in the building. Is there a way to schedule the building so that branch members and ward members will be able to see that the building is scheduled by the other unit? If not, this would be a very useful feature.