Technology on a Budget:
Building a Desired Room Scheduler
with Drupal
Weiling Liu
University of Louisville
w.liu@louisville.edu
Background

University of Louisville
◦ 21,761 Students (Fall 2008 enrollment)
◦ 6,174 faculty and staff (excluding instruction/research
assistants)

University Libraries (2,191,091 volumes)
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Art Library
Ekstrom Library (main)
Kornhauser Health Science Library
Law Library
Music Library
University Archives and Records Center
Instructional labs/classrooms in Ekstrom Library
◦ 5 labs/classrooms ( 2 with PCs, 2 with laptops for students,
and one with instructor station and projector only)
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Applications Used for Room
Scheduling in Ekstrom Library
The five labs/classrooms in Ekstrom Library
are managed by the Office of Information
Literacy
Applications used prior to Drupal solution:
◦ MRBS - Meeting Room Booking System (version 1.2.3)
 For Web calendar display
◦ Web form and MS Access
 For scheduling requests, records and statistics
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Workflow with MRBS+MS Access
Solution
End user submits a
request via a Web
form
Submission is sent to
room manager via
email
Room manager
verifies and confirms
the request
Room manager
enters the approved
request into MRBS
for calendar display
Room manager
enters the approved
request into MS
Access for records
and statistics
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MRBS – Day View
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Why Looking for a New Solution
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University’s Web form server would be changed and all the
forms must be migrated by a relatively short deadline (The
migration was a fee-based service if using the University’s
new form system.)
Limited personnel resources to investigate if the latest
version of MRBS has been improved and can meet our needs
No spam protection for the HTML Web form
Limited options in MRBS to build custom forms if allowing
end users to submit requests directly into MRBS
Login is required if allowing end users to submit requests
directly into MRBS
The same data need to be handled twice for each request by
the room manager with MRBS+MS Access solution
Notices to all the related personnel are sent from a separate
email system if there is a request of special needs
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Why Using Drupal

Free
◦ Open Source
◦ Available on a “free” Web hosting server
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Easier to implement
◦ Script install
◦ Little custom programming
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Workflow with Drupal Solution
End user submits a
request via a Web
form
Submission is saved
on the server
The request is
displayed for
public access once
it is approved.
Room manager
verifies, confirms
and approves the
request online
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Features of Drupal Solution
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Data entry – entered once by end users via a
Web form with spam protection
Login – not required for end users
Web form - fully custom created with required
field and spam control
Notices to related support personnel on special
needs - emailed online without using a separate
system
Requested schedule - visible to the public only
after approval
Statistics report – instantly available and can be
browsed by date/time, class or room, etc.
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Schedule Request Page
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Scheduling Request - 1
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Scheduling Request - 2
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Drupal (5.x) Key Add-on Modules
Used (selected examples)
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Actions – for workflow action control
Captcha – spam protection for input control
CCK and CCK-taxonomy – for form fields
Taxonomy_hide – for field access control
Content_access – for page access control
Event – for calendar display
Eventrepeat – for recursive classes
login_destination – for default page control
Mass_contact – for contact lists
Moderate and modr8 – for workflow
control
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Add-on Modules - 1
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Add-on Modules - 2
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Add-on Modules - 3
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Forms – Content Type
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Form - Fields
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Form – Access Control
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Settings - Workflow Module - 1
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Settings - Workflow Module - 2
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Settings – Workflow Module - 3
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Settings – Actions Module
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Settings – Modr8 Module
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Settings – Taxonomy_hide Module
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Examples – Moderated Content
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Examples – Moderation Log
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Examples – Statistics Report
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Next Step
Create a calendar view in Drupal that is
similar to the one in MRBS
 Automate the new submission or update
alert emails
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URLs
MRBS – http://mrbs.sourceforge.net
 Drupal – http://drupal.org
 UofL Libraries’ Room Scheduler:

http://kla-itrt.org/ulibcal/
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Thank You
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Questions?
◦ w.liu@louisville.edu
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