Preceding sections of the requirements have described options for controlling various aspects of Calendar Tool operation. The scenarios in this section cover the complete details of all Calendar Tool options.
The items in the `Options' menu correspond one-for-one with tabs in an
options dialog. When the user selects one of the menu items, the dialog is
displayed with the corresponding tab selected. For example, when the user
selects the `Times and Dates' item in the `Options' menu, the
system displays the dialog shown in Figure 257.
Figure 257: Options dialog.
At the bottom of the options dialog is a row of buttons that is common to all of the tabs, and the effect of the buttons applies to all tabs simultaneously. The `Apply' button is used to apply any option changes entered in any of the tabs. `Apply' is initially disabled, becoming enabled when the user changes the options settings in one or more data-entry fields in one or more tabs. When the user presses `Apply', the system applies the changed settings to the current calendar, updating all open display windows for the current calendar.
Since the command buttons apply across all dialog tabs, pressing `Apply' has the affect of applying all changes made in any of the tabs, whether or not a changed tab is currently visible. Furthermore, switching between tabs does not automatically apply the changes in a tab that was previously displayed. All option changes remain unapplied until the user presses the `Apply' button. As soon as the changed settings are applied, the `Apply' button is reset to the disabled state. The `Apply' button remains disabled until the user changes one or more settings.
The `Save As ...' and `Load ...' buttons allow the user to save and load copies of option settings to and from files. Details of saving and loading auxiliary data files are covered in Section 2.8.6 The `Clear' button is used to clear any unapplied changes. When the user presses `Clear', the system restores all dialog settings in all tabs to their most recently-applied values. The enabled/disabled state of the `Clear' button coincides exactly with the `Apply' button. Executing `Clear' disables `Apply', and vice versa. Pressing `Cancel' in the option dialog clears any unapplied changes and removes the dialog from the screen, without applying any changes.
Option settings are calendar-specific. That is, each calendar has its own option settings. When more than one calendar is open, the system provides a separate options dialog for each calendar. Whenever the user executes the `Options' menu command, the system (re)displays an options dialog for the current calendar. Each calendar uses a single options dialog. This means that up to N options dialogs can be displayed at any time, for N equal to the number of open calendars. When more than one calendar is open, the calendar name appears by default in the banner of each options dialog. The appearance or non-appearance of the calendar name in window banners is controled by an option setting, as described in Section 2.7.4.2.
The time and date options provide formating control for the times and dates that appear in various Calendar Tool displays. When the user selects the `Times and Dates' tab in the options dialog, the system updates the display to that shown in Figure 257. The `Time Format' settings allow the user to select between 12-hour and 24-hour time, whether to show the "AM" and/or "PM" suffix, and what separation if any goes between the time and AM/PM suffix. The user can also set whether or not a leading zero character appears in front of single-digit hours and if the suffix ":00" appears in on-the-hour times. The default values for these settings are 12-hour time, show both "AM" and "PM" suffixes, one space of suffix separation, leading zero off, and ":00" suffix off. The `Separator' may be from zero to three characters. When 24-hour clock is selected, the show AM/PM and separator fields are disabled, but not cleared.
The settings under `Date Display Format' specify the format and relative order of the components in the display of dates. A full date string consists of four components:
| Date Context | Components |
| Date text fields in all dialogs and displays | date, month, year |
| Date label at the top of an item view | day, date, month, year |
| Date label at the top of a day view | day, date, month, year |
| Date label at the top of a week view | date range, month, year |
| Date label at the top of a month view | month, year |
| Month name within year view | month |
| Date columns in list views | date, month (short or number), year |
Table 12: Date display contexts.
For date strings with fewer than four components, the date display settings specify the format and relative order of those components that are present.
The four date-display list boxes have the same list of items, which is shown in
Figure 258.
Figure 258: Date format combo box lists.
| full name | three chars | one or two chars |
| Sunday | Sun | S |
| Monday | Mon | M |
| Tuesday | Tue | Tu |
| Wednesday | Wed | W |
| Thursday | Thu | Th |
| Friday | Fri | F |
| Saturday | Sat | S |
Table 13: Day of the week formats.
In all cases, the day name is capitalized. The fourth list item is for the date number, which is always an integer between 1 and 31. The fifth through seventh items specify the month name. The short name is the first three letters of the month, capitalized; the month number is between 1 and 12. The last two items specify the year as four or two digits. When the two-digit year format is selected, the two digits correspond to the current century or the previous century, which ever century contains the decade nearest the specified decade, where the decade is that specified by the first of the two digits.
Each of the four components of a date must specify exactly one of the day, date, month, and year. The separators must be at least one character each. The separator defaults are ", ", " ", and ", ".
In some displays there are restrictions on date formats, such that the options apply only partially or not at all. The format restrictions are the following:
The settings under `Date Input Format' specify the order and separation of date components when input by the user. Each of the three list boxes contains the list of `date #', `month', and `year'. Both separators must be the same single character, with the default a space character. The system provides the user a good deal of flexibility when inputting dates, in order to reduce the amount of typing the user must do. Once dates are input, they are confirmed for validity and converted to the format specified in the `Date Display Format' settings. Complete details of date input rules, including the precise interpretation of input format settings, are covered in Section 2.11.5.
Figure 259 shows the user having changed the time and date option settings.
Figure 259: Changes to time and date options.
Figure 260: Effects of time and date option changes on different displays.
The fonts options provide control over the text fonts used in all Calendar Tool
windows. When the user selects the `Fonts' tab in the options dialog,
the system updates the display as shown in Figure 261.
Figure 261: Fonts options tab.
The same two data-entry fields are available for both forms of text. The `Name' and `Size' menus are platform-specific lists of available fonts and their sizes. With only a few exceptions, the same relative font size is used throughout all Calendar Tool display windows. The exceptions are the following:
The font options tab provides no control of font style or color. The normal, boldface, or italic style of text is controlled entirely by the system. The user can change the text color of scheduled items using the category editing features described in Section 2.5.5. No other control of text coloring is available.
The font options settings do not apply to the text in the banners of display windows. The format of banner text is considered to be under the control of the underlying operating environment, and is therefore not settable from within the Calendar Tool.
Figure 262 shows the user having changed font option settings.
Figure 262: Changes to font options.
Figure 263: Monthly view with font changed applied.
The scheduling options provide control over the commands in the
`Schedule' menu. When the user selects the `Scheduling' tab
in the options dialog, the system updates the display as shown in Figure 264.
Figure 264: Scheduling options tab.
The `Defaults' tab allows the user to control the default values that
appear in scheduling dialogs when they are initially displayed and when the
user presses `Clear'. To set the default values for a scheduling
dialog, the user presses one of the buttons to bring the dialog up. When the
user does so, the system displays a normal scheduling dialog that is augmented
for the purposes of setting default values. For example, when the user presses
the `Appointments ...' default-setting button, the system displays the
dialog shown in Figure 265.
Figure 265: Appointments scheduling defaults dialog.
Operationally, the regular scheduling dialog and defaults-setting dialog differ as follows:
Figure 266: Appointments scheduling defaults dialog with values filled in.
When the user presses `OK' in
Figure 266,
the system records the entered values and removes the default-setting dialog
from the screen; the options dialog remains on the screen. The recorded
default values become part of the changed option settings that the user can
apply by pressing the `Apply' button in the options dialog. When the
user executes `Apply', the default settings come into effect for all
subsequent scheduling operations. For example, Figure 267 shows the default
state of the appointments dialog after the user has applied the settings in
Figure 266.
Figure 267: Appointments dialog with updated default settings.
The initial default values for all scheduling dialogs are defined when the
calendar tool is configured for installation (see
Section 2.15
). Table 14 shows the default values for all fields in all four types of
scheduled item.
| Data field | Initial default value |
| Title | empty |
| All Date fields | empty |
| All Time fields | empty |
| Duration | empty |
| Recurring? | off, weekly, all days off |
| Category | empty (none) |
| Location | empty |
| Security | public |
| Priority | must for appointments and meetings; 0 for tasks |
| Remind? | off, 15 minutes before, on screen |
| Attendees | empty |
| Details | empty |
| Minutes | empty |
| Completed | off |
Table 14: Default field values for all four types of
scheduled item.
Figures 6, 84, 124, and 128 illustrate the initial default settings for each type of scheduled item.
The two radio buttons in the defaults tab are used to select the values that appear in scheduling dialogs when they are reopened after having been opened one or more times previously. The first selection specifies that values in reopened dialogs are those that were entered by the user the last time the dialog was open. The second radio button selection specifies that values in reopened dialogs are the dialog defaults, independent of the most-recently entered values. A scheduling dialog is considered to be "re"opened when the user re-executes a scheduling command after having executed `Cancel' or `Close' in the previously-open dialog. Deiconifying or moving an already open dialog to the front on the screen does not constitute reopening in this context.
When the user selects the `Overlaps' tab, the system updates the
options dialog as shown in Figure 268.
Figure 268: Scheduling overlaps options tab.
Figure 269: Overlapping item warning.
If `disallow' is selected for overlapping items, then the system treats the scheduling of such items as an error. The details of scheduling error messages are covered in Section 2.12.3 Complete details on the effects of allowing overlapping items are covered in Sections 2.3.1. and 2.13.5.3
The overlap option applies only to items scheduled by the current user, not to meetings scheduled by another user. Details of overlaps in meeting scheduling are covered in Sections 2.4.1 and Section 2.5.2.2.3.
When the user selects the `Meetings' tab, the system updates the
options dialog as shown in Figure 270.
Figure 270: Scheduling meetings options tab.
The third and fourth meeting-scheduling options control from whom penciled-in meetings and notifications are accepted. Both fields contain comma-separated lists of user IDs, per the syntax described in Section 2.11.3. If both ID lists are empty, then penciled-in meetings, and the accompanying notifications, are accepted from all users, except as excluded by a `never' setting in the previous two meeting-scheduling options. If one or more user IDs are specified under `Accept pencil-in from these users only', then penciled-in meetings are accepted only from those listed users and from no others. If one or more user IDs are specified under `Do not accept pencil-in from these users', then meetings are not accepted from those listed users, but from all other users not otherwise excluded by the other option settings. The contents of the `Accept ... and `Do not accept ID lists must be mutually exclusive, that is the same ID may not appear in both lists. The effect of excluding a user with these settings means that any meetings scheduled by those users are automatically declined, without ever appearing on central host or local calendars.
These options apply only to notifications for scheduled meetings, not for the administrative notifications discussed in Section 2.6. Administrative notifications are sent unconditionally; the user cannot choose to decline administrative notifications.
The option to `Automatically remove expired meeting notifications' controls whether meeting notifications are retained after the time for a meeting has past, as explained in Section 2.4.1.6.8. The last meeting-scheduling option specifies the maximum number of entries in a possible meeting times list, as described in Section 2.4.1.1.
When the user selects the `Reminders' tab, the system updates the
options dialog as shown in Figure 271.
Figure 271: Scheduling reminders options tab.
The `Reminder Window Placement' option controls where on the screen the reminder window appears. Details of screen positioning are covered in Sections 2.7.4.2 and 2.13.1. The `Default Redisplay Settings' in this options tab apply to the pop- up reminder dialog that appears when the time for the reminder has come. Default settings for time the reminder dialog appears initially are defined in the scheduling defaults options, described in Section 2.7.3.1.
The viewing options provide control over the commands in the `View'
menu. When the user selects the `Viewing' tab in the options dialog,
the system updates the display as shown in Figure 272.
Figure 272: Viewing options tab.
The viewing options for the day through year levels are described and
illustrated in Sections
2.3.1.1
through
2.3.1.4,
respectively. Figures 273 through 276 show the presentation of these settings
in the the options dialog.
Figure 273: Viewing day options tab.
Figure 274: Viewing week options tab.
Figure 275: Viewing month options tab.
Figure 276: Viewing year options tab.
Details of list, window, and miscellaneous options follow in the next three subsections.
Explain how the format of all five third-tier tabs is similar. Also
explain that these options work a heck of a lot like custom lists. In fact,
the only fundamentally new functionality in a custom list is the ability to
have two or three types of items in the same list. Also, the ability to name
custom lists is handy, since there's only a single default behavior for each
type of list, but with custom list naming we can have multiple selectable
listing behaviors. So, bottom line, the custom list functionality is not a
huge add-on above list options, but it's fine since custom lists and options
all work nicely alike.
Figure 277: Viewing lists options tab.
Figure 278: Viewing meetings lists options tab.
Figure 279: Viewing tasks lists options tab.
Figure 280: Viewing events lists options tab.
Figure 281: Viewing all-items lists options tab.
OLD FODDER (from here to end of subsection):
The length of each of the four categories of list is controlled by the dialog shown in figure 282. The dialog controls allow the user to specify the number of items before and after a specified date. For example, the dialog settings shown in Figure 282 show the user having specified the following format for the display of item lists:
Hmm ... now that I'm doing this, I'm thinking that maybe we should just make this part of the regular filtering section, so that we maintain orthogonality. We need to think about this. An immediate question in this regard is do we really need to provide both a list-length feature as well as start/end date means to specify the number of items in a list. Curiously, this is pretty much the same concept as specifying start/end versus start/duration item lengths.
Figure 282: Viewing windows options tab.
Cal Tool policy is realative to menubar, staggered down and to the right in multi-window mode.
The `in menbar banner only' setting does not apply to view windows for other-user and group calendars, since the banners of these windows unconditionally contain the user or group name.
`In all windows' means all windows of the current user, not other users or groups, which is consistent with the most recent clarification of the specialness of other user and group windows).
Add `External Email Program' and explain that it's the program launched
when contacting the admin; it's not launched from the cal tool for receiving
any notifications, only for sending. If possilbe, the system will
determine the user's preferred or default email program by querying the
underlying operating environment, and use
Figure 283: Viewing miscellaneous options tab.
Re. `Initial View' level, to be consistent with the way things are explained in specific-date-viewing, the default level cannot be at the item level. Nor do I think it makes particularly good sense to have it be some list. Therefore, the default initial view level is one of four day through year levels, and perhaps a "no window" option. Remember also the bit about the initialization file and how it deals with the default view level always happening, including how a "no window" option value affects things initialization-filewise.
When the user selects the `Administrative' tab in the options dialog,
the system updates the display as shown in Figure 284.
Figure 284: Administrative options tab.
Add options for default caltool user ID and password. These are the ones tried first for connect. NOT -- IDs and passwds are now in connect dialog. NOT NOt -- they're not in the connect dialog, so we do want options here for default ID and passwd.
For a regular user running the Calendar Tool, there are no options for the administrative database commands, since these commands operate in read-only mode for regular users. For adminstrative users running the Calendar Tool Adminstration program, there are additional administrative options, as described in the immediately following section of the requirements.
NOTE: There needs to be a place for privileged admin-specific options, in particular these:
The options dialog that runs under Calendar Tool Administration has the same overall format as for regular users, except that the buttons along the bottom of the dialog are limited to, Save, Clear, and Cancel. There separate dialog `Save' and there is no `Apply' button. Since there are no calendar viewing commands in the Calendar Tool Administration program, setting options does not apply to a calendar being viewed, but to the initial default values for those options for Calendar Tool users, as stored in the Options file.
NOTE: This paragraph needs to be fixed per the latest and greatest options set up. The default option values set by the administrator are available to users in two ways. When running the Calendar Tool, the user can select the `Defaults' button in the `Options' dialog. This allows the user to set options to the default values set by an administrator, as described above.
The other way that administrator-set options values are made available to regular users is through a Calendar Tool program distribution created by the administrator. That is, when an administrator creates a program distribution using the `Admin Distribution' command, the option values that have been set by the administrator are installed in the distribution program as the defaults for that program.
Here's the deal for "inheritance" of options:
Explain how the first three kind of options are ?all? settable by user and are therefore explained in the next section. The difference between what the admin does versus what a regular user does is that under `Admin->Global Options', the admin is setting the global defaults for all users, some or all of which may be changed by users on an individual basis. I think it's also worth mentioning that an admin can be a regular user if she wants to be. I.e., there need not be a special user account that is "the" admin; there can be if that's how a group of users wants to set things up, but there need not be. If an admin wants to be are regular user, she needs to be aware that functions performed under the `Admin' menu have potentially global effects, and must exercise according care in the execution of the functions.
The Admin options are viewable by regular users but settable only by system admins, so they're described here in this section of the requirements. .sh 4 "Administrative Options" .sh 5 "Root System Administrator" .sh 5 "Group Leader Privileges"
A bit of rationale: Since we're nixing pencil in, there was a bit of thought just now that group leaders may not be all that necessary. However, there are other useful reasons to have them. Also, I think it's reasonable to say that group leaders are the only ones who can schedule meetings for which online notification will be sent by the tool. So in effect what we've done is demote pencil power in to notify power.
With that bit of rationale, here are the group leader privileges as we currently see them:
As of 23jul02, I'm saying a firm (as possible with me) NO to this.
Although we'd like to avoid it, it may be necessary to at least plan for platform-dependent options that may be needed for networking connections. If at all possible, I'd like to avoid these. They sound like a cop out to me.
The definition of this is as displayed in each of the initial tab figures above. The base default settings are those defined internally within the Calendar Tool application when it is initially installed. Can be overridden when an admin creates a custom distribution.
Some operating environments may have specific conventions for the organization
of the functionality described in
Section 2.7
of the requirements. For example, this functionality is classified as
"Preferences" in some environments, with conventions for the placement and
layout of the Preference user interface. Implementors of the Calendar Tool may
follow such conventions, as long as the hierarchical organization and content
of the options functionality is maintained as described here.