2.4. Advanced Schedule Generation and Editing

In addition to basic generation, the Scheduler provides administrators with more advanced tools to flexibly generate, modify, and improve schedules. Specifically, the Scheduler must be able to process instructor preferences, constraints, and schedule preferences. Instructor preferences are part of the Instructor Database described in section 2.3.1.1. Adding Instructor Information. The fairness attribute of a schedule is determined by how well these preferences are met. A conflict is defined as a constraint violation or a preference violation. Constraints are physical limitations that can never be violated by the Scheduler. For example, the Scheduler does not allow a room or instructor to be double-booked. Schedule preferences are added to a database by administrators. Although the schedule generation algorithm tries to meet these preferences as best as possible, they may still be violated. The defined types of schedule preferences include not overlapping certain courses, assigning specific rooms to courses, offering courses on certain days, and keeping labs in close proximity with their corresponding lectures.The quality attribute of the schedule depends on the number of schedule preference violations and the degree to which they are violated.

      -Preferences
      -Administrator Preference Settings
      -Manual Editing
      -Conflict Resolution
      -Viewing Attributes

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