Last updated on April 05, 2019

Create and configure Room Schedule card with Google Calendar

This article provides the instructions to create a Room Schedule card in the Appspace console, and configure it with Google Calendar provider settings.

Important

The Room Schedule card is currently supported on iOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Crestron based devices only.

When the Room Schedule card is configured and displayed on a tablet or device outside the respective meeting room, the following features will be available to you:

  • Room information: the room name and status indicating if the room is available, offline, or occupied is displayed.
  • Meeting information: details of current meeting and upcoming meetings for the day.
  • Booking functions:
    • Book now – ability to book 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 1.5 hours from the current time, based on room availability.
    • Book in advance – book future time slots (on the same day only) or up to 7 days in advance, based on room availability.
    • Check in - option to check in to a meeting from 10 minutes before until 10 minutes after the start of the meeting.
    • Extend meeting - extend current meeting by 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 1.5 hours.
    • End meeting - end current meeting, and make the room available.

Note

If you are a user looking for information on booking a scheduled meeting via our card or your calendar, please refer to Manage room scheduling.


In order to use the room booking and scheduling service with our Room Schedule card, you must do the following:

  1. Create a booking account, add resources, and delegate access, with G Suite Administrator credentials.
  2. Create Room Schedule card in the Appspace console.
  3. Create a playlist channel and add the Room Schedule card.
  4. Assign the playlist channel to a registered device (tablet) installed with the Appspace App.
  5. Book a room directly on the tablet or via your email calendar.

Note

Click here if you are looking for the Microsoft Outlook Calendar configuration article.


Prerequisites

  • A supported device. Check out the Appspace Supported Cards table to view compatibility: Compatible operating systems and devices

  • Appspace App 1.28 and above, installed and registered on a supported device. Click here for instructions: Register a device

  • Content Administrator or Account Owner role in Appspace to create and configure the Room Schedule card.

  • It is recommended that the device clock is set to automatically retrieve time from a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server with the correct time zone, in order for it to sync correctly with the calendar provider.

    Appspace Cloud servers retrieve time from a NTP server by default. If an Appspace on-prem server is used, configure the on-prem server to retrieve time from an NTP server with the correct time zone.

  • If using an Appspace on-prem deployment, configure the on-prem server and network to allow constant access to https://*.cloud.appspace.com and its subdomains, to ensure each device is able to attain new authorization tokens from the calendar provider on a regular basis via Appspace API services.


Create a booking account, add resources, and delegate access, with G Suite Administrator credentials

Important

The instructions in this section must be completed first by a G Suite Administrator prior to configuring a Room Schedule card in the Appspace console.

Follow the instructions in the order listed below:

A. Enable API access in Google Admin console

  1. Follow the instructions in this article to enable API access in the Google Admin console, to ensure the Room Schedule card will be able to retrieve resource data: https://support.google.com/a/answer/60757?hl=en

  2. Proceed to section B below.


B. Create a booking account in G Suite

We recommend creating an account in G Suite. This account will be used for authentication when configuring the Room Schedule card. We will call this the booking account.

  1. To create the booking account, follow the instructions in the Add users individually article here: https://support.google.com/a/answer/33310?hl=en

  2. Add the basic account information, such as:

    • First and Last name
    • Primary email address
    • Password

    You may skip all optional information.


  3. Proceed to section C below.


C. Configure resources (meeting rooms) in Google Calendar

Note

We recommend gathering all meeting room information based on the Format for all resources in the article: https://support.google.com/a/answer/1033925, prior to configuring the resources.

All meeting rooms in an organization are known as resources in Google Calendar. Follow the instructions below to configure all resources available in your company:

  1. Follow the instructions in the Manage Calendar resources article: https://support.google.com/a/answer/1686462?hl=en

    • Follow the instructions in the 1. Create buildings, features, and resources step to add each meeting room in your organization as a resource to the calendar.

      Note

      Take note of the resource id from the Edit resource page, which will be required for the ‘Automatic room assignment from a player property’ option when configuring the Room Schedule card.

    • Follow the instructions in the 2. Add resources to My Calendar list step to add all available meeting rooms to the calendar’s list.


    • Follow the instructions in the 3. Share calendar resources step, and ensure the following settings are selected:

      • In Step 4, select the Auto-accept invitations that do not conflict option.

      • In Step 5, follow the instructions to share the calendar with everyone in the organization.


  2. You may skip steps 4 and 5 in the Google article, and proceed to section D below.


D. Delegate access for resource’s calendar to booking account

You now need to provide your booking account with access to each meeting room’s calendar, a process known as delegate access. This will allow the Room Schedule card to make bookings on Google Calendar via the booking account that is used to authenticate calendar access. To do this, you have two options:


Create Room Schedule card in the Appspace console

To create and configure the Room Schedule card, please follow the instructions below:

  1. Log in to Appspace Cloud at https://cloud.appspace.com with your Appspace credentials.

  2. Click the Quick Actions menu, and select Create Card to create the room schedule card.


  3. Select the Room Schedule card.


  4. Select the Google Calendar data provider, and click Connect.


  5. Enter in your booking account credentials (created earlier) to authenticate the Room Schedule card.

    Note

    Please contact your G Suite Administrator for credentials. Some large organizations may have one account for each room.

  6. Once authentication is successful, assign a room to the card by selecting one of the two options provided:

    • Automatic room assignment from a player property

      This option allows you to use the same card (with the defined configuration and branding themes) for multiple rooms.

      • You must then add a device property (card.room.roomid = <resource id>) to each device and ensure it points to the desired meeting room. (One specific tablet for each meeting room.) Example:

        Device property for Meeting Room 1 & Device 1: card.room.roomid = 47563454656

        Device property for Meeting Room 2 & Device 2: card.room.roomid = 34547409516

      • The resource id is obtained from the GSuite Calendar Resources page for each physical meeting room configured; refer to the C. Configure resources (meeting rooms) in Google Calendar section above.

      • Click here for instructions to Add a device property. You will need Network Administrator or Account Owner privileges to add a property.


    • Manually selecting by room name

      This option allows you to assign one room directly to this card. If you have 10 rooms, you must create 10 cards for each room.

      Note

      If this manual option is selected, while the device is also configured with a player property for automatic room assignment, then the manual assignment of the room takes precedence.


  7. Click Finish.

  8. Configure the booking options that will be available to the user, by checking the Enable bookings check box, to display the following Booking Options:

    • Allow naming of meetings.
    • Allow users to end meetings.
    • Allow users to extend meetings.
    • Enable advanced booking.
    • Enable time slot availability on front page.
    • Enable meeting check-in.
    • Allow 7 days advance booking.


  9. In the Styling section, check the Show upcoming meetings checkbox to display upcoming meetings of the day. To display the time in 24 hour format, check the 24 hour clock checkbox.

  10. You may further customize the Room Schedule card, with the following options:

    • Room Name
    • Room Label
    • Layout
    • Logo
    • Background color or media
    • Background Mask Color
    • Available State Color
    • Occupied State Color

    Note

    You may set an image or a video as the background media.

    Additionally, you may manually add the Room Name, Room Label, Room Facilities, and Room Capacity via the following device properties (added individually for each registered device):

    Name Device Property Value
    Room Name card.room.roomname <Alphanumeric and special characters>
    Room Label card.room.label.room <Alphanumeric and special characters>
    Room Facilities card.room.facilities
    • Ethernet
    • Phone
    • Projector
    • VideoConference
    • WhiteBoard
    • WiFi
    Room Capacity card.room.capacity <numeric>

    • To display more than one room facility, add the values separated by a coma.

      Example: card.room.facilities: Ethernet, Phone, Projector

    • The Room Schedule card will display the room capacity from 1 to 100, anything more than 100 would be displayed as >100.

      Example: card.room.capacity: 20

    • Click here for instructions to Add a device property. You will need Network Administrator or Account Owner privileges to add a property.


  11. The preview pane displays the card. Click the Card Configuration icon to preview the Occupied or Offline status, change the room, or to log out from the card.

    Note

    The booking status of the meeting room is only a preview and is not indicative of the real status in this preview.

  12. Click Next.

  13. Enter in the card Title, and click Save.

    Optionally, you may enter in details for the Article, Caption, Content Tags, and add a Custom Thumbnail for the card.

    Important

    Please leave the Expires on field blank. Do NOT enter an expiry date.


Create a playlist channel and add the Room Schedule card

  1. Click the Quick Actions menu, and select Create Channel to create a playlist channel. Enter in the Playlist channel name.


  2. Click ADD CONTENT, and select the Room Schedule card from the Library. Click Add once done.


  3. We recommend setting the Content Duration of the card to 30-minute intervals, (current default is 8 seconds) so that the card does not refresh while you are updating the booking details.


  4. Click the Apply button to save the settings.

    Important

    You will need Network Administrator or Account Owner privileges to perform the steps below.

Assign the playlist channel to a registered device (tablet) installed with the Appspace App

  1. Register your device (tablet) as per the Register a device article.

  2. Go to the Appspace menu, and select Devices.

  3. Select the name link of the device that will be used for the meeting room.

  4. In the Device Information page, click the Settings tab, and select Admin assigns a single channel option from the Channel selection mode drop-down menu.


  5. Navigate back to the Overview tab, and click the Select channel button, and select the playlist channel with the Room Schedule card, created earlier.


  6. Click Save. The meeting room booking service can now be viewed on the device.


Book a room directly on the tablet or via your email calendar

For booking instructions, please see Manage room scheduling.