Web Calendaring System Documentation

About:

What is EMCal/WebCal?

EMCal (which stands for electron microscope calendaring) is a web application created to make it easier to use a calendar based scheduling system. The system was originally done using spreadsheet printouts and people wrote on the sheets to denote a reservation.

Now, the EMCal system allows the administrator a complete, paperless system with a great deal of flexibility and the ease of a standard web interface. The administrator can easily manipulate nearly all options in the scheduling system and then allow the system itself to enforce the changes. There is also more than just users and an administrator. The system implements a multilevel access architecture in which there are:

  1. Administrator
    • Has complete control over all aspects of the system.
    • Able to remove any reservation at anytime.
  2. Service/Maintenance users
    • Same as a normal user except has the ability to override any reservation.
    • Used for maintenance (regular as well as unplanned) and troubleshooting.
  3. Group administrators
    • Is the head of a group of normal users.
    • Has the ability to add more users to their own group.
    • Can make reservations.
    • Can remove/cancel any reservation made by anyone in their group.
  4. Normal users
    • A normal user of the system.
    • Is allowed to add reservations.
    • Is allowed to remove only the reservations belonging to them.
The different levels of authority and control make for a unique and powerful system that can accommodate nearly any situation involving the scheduling of shared resources.

EMCal/WebCal was written the entire year of 2001 for the Markey Center for Structural Biology at Purdue University by David Sierkowski under the supervision of Dwight McKay and due to the request of Michael Sherman.

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