The "Room and Resources" feature (R&R) has been a part of Lotus Notes and Domino for many years. With Lotus Notes Domino 7, however, this feature has changed substantially in how it works under the covers.
Because of this, some Lotus Notes Domino administrators are confused about how to set it up correctly. This tip covers the basics of doing so and provides pointers to longer articles with more detail.
The first thing you need to know about Rooms and Resources is that you should not create room or resource documents within the Domino Directory (names.nsf), even though there is a convenient button there for doing so. This button is found in the view Configuration -> Messaging -> Mail In Databases and Resources (and within the Domino Admin client panel that points to the same view).
Instead, Rooms and Resources entries in the Domino Directory should be created automatically by other parts of the setup process as explained here:
- Make sure the following Lotus Domino server tasks are enabled: Sched, CalConn, RnrMgr. Note that some discussions boards on the Internet refer to the last task name as RRMgr, but this is incorrect.
- Create a database on the Lotus Domino server named Resource.nsf, with the title "Rooms and Resources," using the template resrc7.ntf. You must choose a 7.x server (not the local client) as your template library and enable the "advanced templates" option.
- In the above database, assign the role [Create Resource] to any users who need the ability to create new rooms and resources. By default, all users will be able to use the resources.
- Open the Resource.nsf database to set up sites, rooms, and resources.
- Press the button "New Site" to define each location where rooms and resources exist. A site is typically one building -- such as 15 Main St., or Headquarters -- although you are free to define a site in any way you want.
For very large buildings, you might want to define more than one site within the same building. You should keep site names short and simple, because they will appear in all your reservations appended with other information and can become crowded.
- Press the button "New Resource" to define rooms and resources at each site. Rooms and resources are essentially the same, except that rooms have a person capacity. Resources are items that people share within the company, such as overhead projectors and tradeshow booths.
After entering this information, the AdminP task will create matching room and resource documents in the Domino Directory. This process usually happens very quickly.
You can now begin to reserve rooms and resources in two ways: directly within Resources.nsf, or via scheduled meetings and appointments in your calendar.
For more information:
About the author: Chuck Connell is president of CHC-3 Consulting, which helps organizations with all aspects of Lotus Notes and Domino.
Do you have comments on this tip? Let us know.
Please let others know how useful this tip is via the rating scale below. Do you have a useful Lotus Notes, Domino, Workplace or WebSphere tip or code snippet to share? Submit it to our tip contest and you could win a prize.
