XML for resource scheduling / calender management

Ted Carroll & Claire Samson (106551.310@compuserve.com)
Fri, 6 Nov 1998 15:30:11 -0500


I've been interested in software for scheduling groups of resources,
such as staff members within a workgroup, organising meeting rooms
within a company or booking equipment - as a way of producing a 'virtual'=

office wall planner'. I've developed a multi-user program for this =

type of activity and have also developed a free-standing viewer for =

displaying a virtual 'wall planner' file. This uses XML - XML
provides a good way of formating fairly complex data of this type.
XML is also used to allow remote updates to the schedule - i.e. a =

remote request to book a room could be made using a small applet =

that sends a message in the appropriate XML format.

I would be interested to know if anyone on the list is aware of
any other developments in the use of XML for diary information
such as maintaining shared calendars/scheduling information. I am =

sure there is a huge potential for an open format based on XML. =

The free software (both the multi-user program and the XML-based =

'wall planner' viewer can be downloaded from www.screenplan.com =

(It's Windows 95/98/NT at the moment - a Java viewer may follow!)

J.C.Samson