The aim of this development is to allow users to link to external calendars, such as Google calendar or to use non-domain Microsoft calendars.

Profile Screen changes

We have made a number of changes to the Linked Accounts tab on the User profile screen to incorporate the new setup required for incorporating the user’s external Microsoft and Google calendars. These changes are listed below:

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Example of linked calendars

• We have separated the link buttons into the provider’s headings, “Google” and “Microsoft” respectively

• Added a new calendar section for Google and Microsoft, when the account has been linked

  • This includes a toggle to enable or disable calendar support

  • A dropdown is also shown which will fetch a list of the user’s calendars. They can then select up to 20 calendars to be included in their availability calculations

• Added a confirmation popup when unlinking an account

• A warning will be shown under the correct integration if they have been notified that the connection has expired

• Tooltip against the Google entry on Linked accounts to explain when you tick the calendar availability you consent to the connection between Google and epaPRO

Notifications

These notifications are:

• Microsoft Integration Expired - Sent to the user when epaPRO fails to automatically refresh their Microsoft link

• Google Integration Expired - Sent to a user when epaPRO fails to automatically refresh their Google link

These notifications are by default enabled for all users. We recommend they are kept enabled, as this will inform the user if an availability calculation was not as accurate, as it could be due to their Google or Microsoft link expiring.

Microsoft Individuals

We have extended our Microsoft 365 integration to add additional support for an individual user being able to link their Microsoft account.

This will provide additional data for the availability calculations within epaPRO, especially when the user is not part of the Awarding Organisation’s Microsoft organisation.

The screen changes for linking accounts are covered in Profile Screen changes, please see link on how the Linked Accounts screen has changed.

Planning Meeting Booking

The slots generated for the planning meeting booking screen will now use the user’s linked Microsoft account if they have one. This will take priority over checking the linked organisation account. The functionality of this screen remains the same and it just now takes into account additional data if it’s available.

EPA Availability

The EPA Availability calendar, shown when booking an element, will now include the new events the user has in the calendars they select when linking the Microsoft account. As with the existing organisation link this will show as “Busy” blocks if the user is not available.

epaPRO has a setting that can be enabled called “Show Events Details” under the Microsoft Teams tab. This setting for organisation accounts, will show the title of the event within epaPRO, this is not the case for a Microsoft account that a user has linked. Even if this setting is enabled, epaPRO will replace the event’s title with “Private Event”. This is because the user may be linking their personal Microsoft account, that isn’t linked to the AO’s Microsoft account.

Google Individuals

We have extended our Google integration to now support the user’s calendars and feed additional data into the availability calculations within epaPRO.

There have been some screen changes to the linked accounts tab on the user profile, see Profile Screen changes for details.

After linking Google to your epaPRO account there will now be new Calendar options, similar to the Microsoft extension, this allows the user to select calendars they would like to be used for availability calculations within epaPRO. The events on these calendars will then be fed into the Planning Meeting Booking slot system and EPA availability calendar.

As part of this development, we have also laid the foundation for creating events on the user’s Google calendar, for example when a meeting is booked, it could then be added to the user’s Google calendar too, this is not yet fully implemented and so availability information is all that is provided.

Planning Meeting Booking

The planning meeting booking calculations will now make use of any Google calendars users have linked to epaPRO. The events on their calendar that are set to “Busy” will now make them unavailable during that time.

EPA Availability

When booking elements the EPA Availability calendar will now show blocks where an event exists on the user’s link Google calendar if they have added any.

This will show “Busy” events when the EPA is unavailable due to a conflicting event on their Google calendar.

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Example of the permissions from Google

Considerations