iaadmjw@prism.gatech.EDU (WOOLEN JAMES) (07/11/90)
Georgia Tech is looking into automating the president's schedule (calendar)
using Oracle as a platform. This will be done in several phases eventually
it will consist of a room scheduler, event scheduler, etc. Is there any
public institution that may have already done this sort of application???
Would be interested in hearing from those who have done this sort of thing,
or any positive suggestions as to availability of existing packages to run
preferrably under Unix and must be Oracle-based.
--
WOOLEN JAMES
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!iaadmjw
ARPA: iaadmjw@prism.gatech.educameron@kirk.nmg.bu.oz (Cameron Stevenson) (07/13/90)
From article <11207@hydra.gatech.EDU>, by iaadmjw@prism.gatech.EDU (WOOLEN JAMES): > Georgia Tech is looking into automating the president's schedule (calendar) > using Oracle as a platform. This will be done in several phases eventually > it will consist of a room scheduler, event scheduler, etc. Is there any > public institution that may have already done this sort of application??? > Would be interested in hearing from those who have done this sort of thing, > or any positive suggestions as to availability of existing packages to run > preferrably under Unix and must be Oracle-based. > > -- > WOOLEN JAMES > Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 > uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!iaadmjw > ARPA: iaadmjw@prism.gatech.edu We are establishing a fairly comprehensive facility management system at the University based around Oracle and MicroStation (a CAD system). Part of the specification for this system includes room scheduling. This is slightly different from timetabling, in that it's focus is on the room rather than the person (as a user of that room). We intend to firstly overlay all regular room booking (classes), then allow the on-site hotel access to whatever timeslots are left, then allow anybody on campus to book a room on an adhoc basis. Most of the campus is populated with Mac's, and Unix boxes, so the adhoc room booking can be done by most people from their office (ie what rooms are available from 1-3 on Monday, that can seat 6, and have an overhead projector, etc..) Now where is that room?? Up pops floor plan with room highlighed in red. Great, give me a print/plot... etc, etc. At this stage we have been concentrating on establishing the as-built database, which tells us what we've got (how can you do any planning if you don't know what you've got??!!). From there we are slowly identifying task related applications for this as-built data. At this stage, these include maintenance (preventative, corrective, etc.), space planning (when are we going to have to build more offices, small classes, etc.), key control (who's got access to this room), ROOM SCHEDULING, and security, in that order. Each of these are really stand-alone applications in their own right, but what I think is unique about what we're doing is we're aiming to have all those applications sharing the same data, from anywhere on campus. So that for instance, if somebody moves office, you only have to move them on the system, and the applications which access that information will know immediately of the change (ie not having to change it for each application). This is all deviating from your original enquiry. In short we will be doing what you are about to try, and yes it will be done on Oracle, but as you can see from the order we are attacking this thing, room scheduling is down the list for us. Like you, I would be keen to hear from anybody who has tackled this problem, and from anybody doing anything similar to us. The tools we are using are Oracle (non-graphic data), MicroStation (graphic data), and HyperCard (front-end for Mac's) all linked to each other 'seamlessly' and 'transparently' from the user. Cameron Stephenson Telephone +61 75 951220 Bond University Gold Coast Australia
wes@loft386.uucp (Wes Peters) (07/27/90)
From article <11207@hydra.gatech.EDU>, by iaadmjw@prism.gatech.EDU (WOOLEN JAMES): % Georgia Tech is looking into automating the president's schedule (calendar) % using Oracle as a platform. This will be done in several phases eventually % it will consist of a room scheduler, event scheduler, etc. Is there any % public institution that may have already done this sort of application??? % Would be interested in hearing from those who have done this sort of thing, % or any positive suggestions as to availability of existing packages to run % preferrably under Unix and must be Oracle-based. In article <1216@kirk.nmg.bu.oz>, cameron@kirk.nmg.bu.oz (Cameron Stevenson) writes: > We are establishing a fairly comprehensive facility management system at > the University based around Oracle and MicroStation (a CAD system). Part > of the specification for this system includes room scheduling. This is > slightly different from timetabling, in that it's focus is on the room > rather than the person (as a user of that room)... > ... > ............ Like you, I would be keen to hear from anybody who has tackled > this problem, and from anybody doing anything similar to us. The tools we > are using are Oracle (non-graphic data), MicroStation (graphic data), and > HyperCard (front-end for Mac's) all linked to each other 'seamlessly' and > 'transparently' from the user. I am working on a training system for a government agency where we do scheduling of class rooms and instructors using Oracle. Our planning and scheduling software is developed with a combination of SQL*Forms and Pro*FOR, which is Oracle's SQL-imbedded-in-Fortran product. These have turned out to be workable tools for our system. Our Oracle database runs on VAX/VMS unfortunately. We use Silicon Grahpics Iris-4D workstations running Unix for graphical displays, and communicate with Oracle on the VAX via Wollongong TCP/IP software for VMS and our own database server processes written in Pro*FOR. This has proven to be a VERY clunky way to do this - I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I keep trying to get my management to look into SQL*net to connect the workstations directly to the Oracle server on the VAX, but they won't even THINK about it - too much money. Our planning and scheduling is really quite involved, we do a lot of financial cost accounting and reporting after a particular training session is done, and we schedule a lot of 'things' other than rooms and instructors as well. Oracle has proven to be a reasonable tool for implementing this, but we have some rather severe performance problems with Oracle. Granted we are using outdated, low-performance hardware (3 VAX 8250s in a cluster, 12MB memory each) to run the database on, but I have heard of better performance from other DBMSs. Unless you are already an Oracle shop, I'd look around first. If you are already an Oracle shop, make sure you have at least a couple of people around who REALLY know Oracle, or plan on sending a couple of people to Oracle's training classes. Reply to: wes@loft386, uunet!loft386!wes