MasterCal Troubleshooting:Configuring the Messenger

Q.My company is looking at this software to add events/appointments to a group of users calendars without the users receiving any notification or having to accept that the event has been added to their calendar.

We have installed the software but it still seems to send the notification that prompts the users to accept the event. What permissions does the calendar organizer need to each individuals mail box?

A.Scheduling with MasterCal is unlike scheduling with ordinary Outlook.

When you create a MasterCal Appointment in a Public Calendar Folder, you DO NOT invite people by switching to the "Scheduling" tab of the Appointment form and adding them to the Attendees list as you would on a normal Outlook Appointment.

Instead the list of Attendees is added to the Description field of the Folder itself by selecting File > Folder > Properties for "folder name". (Refer to Page 1 of the MasterCal Manual - "Here's how it works").

There are a couple important things to note with the MasterCal Setup

1. The persons listed in the Description field will be Attendees for EVERY appointment created in this folder.
2. You can have multiple Public Calendar folders at the same level in the Public Folde hierarchy, each with its own unique list of Attendees.

When creating an appointment in the public calendar all that is required is a Subject and Date/Time (Location and Notes are optional). At this point you can simply Save and Close the MasterCal Appointment - again, it is not necessary to add Attendees to the Scheduling tab of Outlook.

Regarding the Permissions needed to setup the MasterCal messenger, there are some specific requirements to meet:

1. The option labelled 'Run As' Account in the Messenger interface should be a full SMTP address (ex. MCServer@your_org.com)
2. If you plan to run the Messenger from a Scheduled Task, the Task "Owner", or the "Run As" account specified when configuring the Scheduled Task in Control Panel must have:
   a) a mailbox
   b) Local Administrator rights on the PC running the Task
   c) Read/Write/Delete access to EVERY Attendees mailbox
   d) You must log onto the PC running the Task as this account and set the Messenger's options while logged on as this account.

Access to every mailbox can be accomplished 2 ways

1. Using the Exchange System Manager and assigning permissions for the Account on the Private Mailbox Store
2. Have each Attendee give these permissions to their mailboxes through Outlook.

For more Information, please refer to "Installing the MasterCal Server" on Page 7 and "Configuring the MasterCal Server" on Page 8 of the manual.