Advanced calendar configuration

Jan 23, 2018

Continuing on from the article about basic calendars, here we look at customising your calendar and school timetable to suit.

Configure Plans to reflect each different Timetable day

With the SOBS plans you can configure the normal cycle length for your timetable, do this in the Plan record (in Configuration | Periods).  If you school runs a 7 or 9 or 12 day timetable cycle you can set that length in the Plan record and SOBS will then provide check boxes for each day, go through and check the days that this plan applies to.  For example, if you have a 7 day timetable cycle then set the length as 7, and the current plan applies to days 2-7 then check the boxes for days 2-7.

Use the ‘Duplicate’ link to duplicate this current plan (and the periods associated) adjust the Plan name to an appropriate description, update the periods to reflect this alternate timetable, and then check the boxes on the Plan record to reflect which days in the cycle this plan applies to.  For example this alternate timetable might only apply to day 1, so edit the Plan record and check the box for day 1.  If the check box is not selectable it must already be checked in another plan, locate the other plan that is already checked and uncheck day 1, you will then be able to check the day 1 in the required plan.

Automatic Configuration

With the term defined in the ‘Calendar’ page, and the timetable cycle length and appropriate days checked in the Plan records (in the ‘Periods’ page) SOBS will then provisionally allocate a Plan to each day.  A school day can only have a single plan allocated to each day.  If you have multiple plans for a day then you must have separate campuses (eg Junior and Senior) and therefore you should purchase separate subscriptions for each campus (there are discounts for additional campus licenses).

So we have a provisional allocation of Plans to School days, we call this ‘Preview’ in the ‘Calendar’ page.  If you click the ‘Preview’ radio button for a particular term you will see the provisional allocation of Plans and School days.

At this point there is normally a ‘Publish’ link that appears in the ‘Calendar’ page for each term.  If you click the ‘Publish’ link this will lock-in this provisional allocation in the system.  Clicking the ‘View’ radio button is how you can now display the “locked-in” allocation.

If you modify the School days or Plans you will be able to see these changes in the provisional allocation (using the ‘Preview’ radio button), but they will not be in use until you ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ the calendar of this term.

Manual Configuration

Once you have completed the automatic configuration you will be able to click the ‘View’ radio button in the ‘Calendar’ page to see the current allocation of Plans and School days.  In this view you will also have the ability to update each individual day with a new plan and day number by clicking the button with the date to be changed. (The button will only appear if the school has defined multiple plans).

NOTE: THE ‘PUBLISH’ AND ‘UPDATE’ LINKS WILL STORE THE PROVISIONAL ALLOCATION OVER TOP OF ANY CHANGES YOU MANUALLY APPLY HERE

While most schools don’t need any manual configuration there are occasions when it is required, for example where a particular day of the week does not follow the normal timetable cycle.