Back-up strategies
This section is intended to provide you with several ways that you can make a back-up of your calendar entries, including daily notes and tasks. Some of these strategies may be employed everytime you exit Oracle calendar; others might be used when a backup copy is needed prior to a scheduled calendar outage, or, as ITD rolls out 10g and implements the Data Expiration Policy, some of you may want or need to keep a back-up of your calendar data for longer than 2 years. (For more information on the data expiration policy, please refer to the Data Expiration Policy page. ) Any of the strategies discussed below will meet any of these needs.
In terms of backup strategies, we strongly recommend that prior to a scheduled calendar outage, you make some type of backup of your calendar entries. ITD's Oracle calendar server does require regularly scheduled maintenance; this maintenance is typically done over the weekend, but the outages are scheduled to last 8 hours. Having a regular backup strategy also protects you in the event of a server failure anytime your calendar is unavailable.
The strategies we will discuss are:
- offline agenda
- printing out your agenda
- exporting calendar files
- synching with a mobile device
Using an offline agenda
An offline agenda generates a copy of your agenda and places it on your local machine. Use of an offline agenda is optional; it depends upon your needs. If you are heavily dependent on your calendar to keep track of daily meetings, you may wish to make use of this option. An offline agenda is an option for only desktop clients, but it is an excellent option for retaining access to your calendar agenda when the server is down and/or you do not have access to a network.
Some points to keep in mind are:
-
Having an offline agenda allows you to work offline if your network connection is lost or the calendar server is down. You can have an offline agenda on each machine that you use, if this would be helfpul (e.g., on your work desktop and your laptop).
-
You can view your agenda and make changes; these will be uploaded to your online agenda once your connection is re-established.
-
You can choose to have your offline agenda updated:
-
automatically everytime you exit (keep in mind that this process takes a few moments and may slow your exiting the calendar)
-
by prompting you everytime you exit (since it takes a few moments, some people prefer to be prompted
-
For instructions on setting up an offline agenda, please read our "Creating an Offline Agenda" documentation.
Printing a copy of your agenda
Perhaps one of the easiest ways to have a copy of your agenda and to not worry about computers and connections is to simply print out a copy. The format choices are many for printing and printing can be done from any client (desktop or web) as long as you have access to a printer. If you are a resource manager, you may wish to print a copy of the schedule for the resource(s) you manage in case it is needed.
For instructions on printing, please read our "Printing your Agenda" documentation. While this documentation is for the web client, if you are using a desktop client, you can use your regular print menu for printing. Be sure to preview the agenda pages to make sure you are printing out all the information you may need.
Exporting calendar files
Exporting files allows you to save your calendar entries in a format that is usable by other calendars or programs. When you choose the Export option from your File menu, choose the iCal format for exporting. You'll need to provide some additional information to Oracle, such as the types of entries to export, the time frame you would like exported, you can choose to export resource agendas or other people's agendas, and finally provide it with a file name.
For instructions on exporting files, please read our "Exporting calendar entries" documentation.
Synching with a mobile device
If you already have a moblie device and use it regularly, this is another great way to have a back-up of your calendar entries. If you'd like to begin using a mobile device, see the documentation on our Training page.
And finally . . .
For more information on preference settings or general use questions, please refer to the documentation on our Brickyard Training page. This page also has some tips and hints on calendar etiquette.
11/06/2006 11:33 AM by shn