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Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve

As many of you have already experienced, "Room and Equipment Reservations" template from Fantastic 40 Application Templates is weak and poorly designed. Default list and calendar views for lists such as Reservations only display current user's reservations and if an administrator tries to change or create a all item calendar view, this view will display all items including "non-reservation" item. This "non-reservation" item is created in Reservations list when a user creates a new resource in Resources list. This is due to Microsoft's "brilliant" hidden field called RERStatus.

The way "Room and Equipment Reservations" template works is that users with Contribute or higher permission can create a new resource (room, equipment, etc) in Resources list and the workflow will start as soon as the item is created to make the same item in Reservations list with Available status. When this happens, this "non-reservation" item is created in Reservations list. The value for the hidden field, RERStatus, is changed during the workflow and all pre-defined views in the template make a use out of it. By default, you won't be able to see the value of this hidden field nor change the value. However, Kenneth Scott has a great post in his blog on how to make the hidden field visible but not editable: http://programmerramblings.blogspot.com/2008/03/adventures-with-wss30-room-and.html.

Another thing that I found was that with you logged in as System Account, "setup" workflow in Resources list will not automatically start. Basically, if the workflow does not start automatically or fails to start, you will NOT be able to make reservations - the resource will appear as if it is fully reserved forever.

However, if you create a resource with any other account with Contribute or higher permission, the "setup" workflow will work smoothly. So, keep this in mind when you are using System Account as a service account for testing "Room and Equipment Reservations" template.

You can also customize your "Room and Equipment Reservations" template to integrate with Microsoft Outlook and Patrik Luca has a great post in his blog (Patrik Luca's Blog) that talks about this customization in SharePoint Designer: http://patrikluca.blogspot.com/2008/03/extension-to-rooms-and-equipment.html. I tried this customization but I figured out that Outlook with Exchange Server does not work - I get the javascript error.

Hope this helps!


Posted 06-11-2008 11:52 AM by tigirry

Comments

Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve wrote Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 06-11-2008 2:36 PM

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Links (6/12/2008) « Steve Pietrek - Everything SharePoint wrote Links (6/12/2008) « Steve Pietrek - Everything SharePoint
on 06-12-2008 9:11 PM

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Luis Castanheira wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 07-08-2008 6:42 AM

you can change de description of hours from 12,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

to 00,01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14...

just editing the xml in the webpart inside the portal

Nate wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 07-09-2008 3:43 PM

I have run into a strange issue, when I attempt to create a reservation I get  "The resource you are trying to reserve is not available at the time you specified"; however, the site is brand new and does not have any conflicting events.... any ideas how to resolve? Thanks!

tigirry wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 07-11-2008 9:48 AM

Nate,

Check if you created a resource using System Account. As I described above, the resource will not be available for reservation is you create a resource with System Account. Use a different user who has Full Control permission to the site to create a resource.

tigirry wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 07-14-2008 11:20 AM

Luis Castanheira,

Can you explain further in detail? Editing which xml? I am interested to know how to make the hour change as you illustrated. Thank you!

gilad wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 07-20-2008 7:11 AM

hello to you all ,

I am still facing the prob of unable to reserve an resorce becuase it's taling me that the resurce is unavlibale/....... what is the sulation???

Nate wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-01-2008 12:32 PM

Tigirry,

  The resource was created from a user with Full Control.  The resource workflow completes properly and it appears to be available at all times as the bar is all white (not purple), but when i try to make a new reservation, i get "the resource you are trying to reserve is not available at the time you specified."  The strange part is it works perfectly on my virtual machine, but we can't get it to work on our development or production servers.  Any ideas ?

tigirry wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-03-2008 4:17 PM

Nate,

It seems like the workflow associated with the reservation template is not properly firing which makes the resource unavailable. Try to edit the xml file as Kenneth Scott describes at programmerramblings.blogspot.com/.../adventures-with-wss30-room-and.html and check if the status column value is "Available" for the resource. You should also be able to make a reservation with a Contributor.

Also, check if you configured the Reservations list for users to be able to edit their own items only. I noticed that if I allow users to only edit their own items, the reservations are not properly made (others can reserve the same resource at the same time frame).

Son wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-18-2008 5:27 AM

Hi Tigirry,

I can't see any workflow in Reservation and Resouce list. why

Csam0003 wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-21-2008 6:21 AM

Hi,

I too am havign problems with reserving a resource. I have full control and when I create a resource it becomes reserved indefinitely.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Chris

Antigone wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-25-2008 9:46 PM

Hi  - I'm relatively new on sharepoint. Can anyone tell me where to download Room and Equipment Reservation template for MOSS 07?

Thanks

Antigone wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-25-2008 10:12 PM

oops sorry, just managed to find out through Microsoft's online help.

(www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx)

I'm sure I'll be in touch again after downloading it!

Rita wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-26-2008 8:13 AM

Has anyone found a way to modify the romm and equipment reservation template so we can do re-ocurring meetings

Melissa wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-26-2008 10:24 AM

Has anyone figured out how to display availability and reservations made by other users? None of my users are able to see reservations made by anyone except themselves.

Matty wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 08-27-2008 9:52 AM

I am facing an issue where having more than 21 resources causes the follwing. When a user click the calendar looking webpart the drop down list is not populated with that resource name, you are required to click the list to fill in.

Eman wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 09-24-2008 11:50 AM

How would you populate column of Resource Type? It's a lookup column. I think I would have to delete and recreate it.

Dave wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 09-26-2008 2:17 PM

Check to see if you have modified the End Date default value to anything other than none.  I had set my default to "Today", and thus whenever I created a new resource it would be available up to the date/time created, then it would be forever more Reserved.   I hope that helps out!

Eric wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 10-10-2008 8:41 AM

Melissa,

To change what you can see, go to the reservations list, view bar on right and click modify this view.  Scroll down to filters and select show all items in this view.  If this still does not work for you go into the list settings:  reservations, settings (next to new and actions tab) and select setings, list settings.  In the middle column, select permissions for this list to make sure your team has the appropriate permissions set.

Paul Flint wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 11-10-2008 5:43 PM

Hi - how can we get the "ReservationsCalendar" view (a calendar) to show ALL reservations, effectively "AllItems" .. ?  Right now it shoes only the "My ... " view.

Looking at the view it IS set to "All Items" but no go.  

Thoughts .. ?

Paul

Rami (Sharepoint admin) wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 11-19-2008 10:47 AM

hey people,

for the ones asking about how they can see all the reservations => in the My Reservation list, u click on View (on the top right) and u select All items.

for the ones asking about not being able to reserve meeting rooms because they are reserved for ever => remove the permissions from all lists, reset the permissions of the Room and equipment reservations site with the Admin user then make the list inherit the permissions of the site.

Pepek wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 11-21-2008 6:19 AM

@ Paul

Modify ReservationCalendar.aspx (via SPD) and change CAML Query in <ListViewXml xmlns="schemas.microsoft.com/.../ListViewXML> by deleting

<Eq>

<FieldRef Name="Author"/>

<Value Type="Integer">

<UserID Type="Integer"/>

</Value>

</Eq>

condition.

Here is full string showing all reservations:

&lt;View Name=&quot;{BD44AAD8-5EB5-4039-B048-07038FB5C219}&quot; Type=&quot;CALENDAR&quot; Scope=&quot;Recursive&quot; DisplayName=&quot;Reservations Calendar&quot; Url=&quot;/rezerwacja/Lists/Reservations/ReservationCalendar.aspx&quot; Level=&quot;1&quot; BaseViewID=&quot;3&quot; ContentTypeID=&quot;0x&quot; ImageUrl=&quot;/_layouts/images/announce.png&quot;&gt;&lt;Toolbar Type=&quot;None&quot;/&gt;&lt;ViewFields&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;RERStartDate&quot;/&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;REREndDate&quot;/&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;Title&quot;/&gt;&lt;/ViewFields&gt;&lt;CalendarViewStyles&gt;&amp;lt;CalendarViewStyle Title=&amp;#39;Day&amp;#39; Type=&amp;#39;day&amp;#39; Template=&amp;#39;CalendarViewdayChrome&amp;#39; Sequence=&amp;#39;1&amp;#39; Default=&amp;#39;FALSE&amp;#39; /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;CalendarViewStyle Title=&amp;#39;Week&amp;#39; Type=&amp;#39;week&amp;#39; Template=&amp;#39;CalendarViewweekChrome&amp;#39; Sequence=&amp;#39;2&amp;#39; Default=&amp;#39;FALSE&amp;#39; /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;CalendarViewStyle Title=&amp;#39;Month&amp;#39; Type=&amp;#39;month&amp;#39; Template=&amp;#39;CalendarViewmonthChrome&amp;#39; Sequence=&amp;#39;3&amp;#39; Default=&amp;#39;TRUE&amp;#39; /&amp;gt;&lt;/CalendarViewStyles&gt;&lt;ViewData&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;Resource&quot; Type=&quot;CalendarMonthTitle&quot;/&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;Resource&quot; Type=&quot;CalendarWeekTitle&quot;/&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;&quot; Type=&quot;CalendarWeekLocation&quot;/&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;Resource&quot; Type=&quot;CalendarDayTitle&quot;/&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;&quot; Type=&quot;CalendarDayLocation&quot;/&gt;&lt;/ViewData&gt;&lt;Query&gt;&lt;Where&gt;&lt;And&gt;&lt;DateRangesOverlap&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;RERStartDate&quot;/&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;REREndDate&quot;/&gt;&lt;Value Type=&quot;DateTime&quot;&gt;&lt;Month/&gt;&lt;/Value&gt;&lt;/DateRangesOverlap&gt;&lt;Neq&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;RERStatus&quot;/&gt;&lt;Value Type=&quot;Text&quot;&gt;Available&lt;/Value&gt;&lt;/Neq&gt;&lt;/And&gt;&lt;/Where&gt;&lt;/Query&gt;&lt;/View&gt;

Pete wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 12-01-2008 8:26 AM

What other alternatives are out there ??  I've been looking but with little luck so far.

Carlton wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 12-03-2008 11:08 PM

Did anyone find a way to add Resource Types to this template? I see only "Conf Room" and "Projector".

Laura wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 01-28-2009 8:52 AM

I think I found another solution to the problem of the "non reservation" items showing up when you try to create a real "all item" calendar view.

Create another field on the Reservations list and make it required.  Then, on your NEW "all item" list view (I'm calling this 'old reservations', just filter on where your new column is not equal to - then don't type anything in the last field so that the where predicate will basically be when the new column is not equal to nulls.

Am I missing something?  This seemed to be an easy, acceptable workaround for me.

sajam wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 03-03-2009 11:24 PM

I have done some customization like making the status field available in views and creating a few new views. Also added new fields Title etc. All the customization works well until I change the master page for the template site to any other but default. If I change the master page the behavior I get when I make a new reservation for any resource is that the new reservation is not created instead the "existing reservation with available status is updated with the time period as I selected for new reservation".

Has anyone faced the problem?

Thank you

sajam wrote re: Room and Equipment Reservations SharePoint Template Can't Reserve
on 03-03-2009 11:42 PM

Just to inform that even the out of the box site template is producing same behavior when changing the master page

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