Calendar Management - update Calendars by uploading Excel spreadsheet
It is very time-consuming updating calendar exceptions each year in the Alma interface. Using Tools, It is possible to export calendars to Excel so please could you make it possible to import them as well because it would be so much quicker and easier to make the changes in Excel. In most cases, I just need to adjust the dates slightly rather than adding a new record.
Like other University libraries, our opening hours pattern is quite complex: 4 campuses with different hours, night opening for part of of the year at 2 campuses, early closing during the summer rotated round the campuses. And in order to manage our fines/fees requirements, we have separate libraries for Desk Loans and Laptop Loans at each campus - I have 14 different calendars to update. See attached screenshot of one campus laptop loan library calendar - each exception will need to be edited each year and it is a slow and cumbersome process in Alma doing them one by one.
An import action is now available on the Calendar Management page to allow you to bulk update calendars using an Excel spreadsheet.
for more information please see Alma April release notes at:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/010_2019/Alma_2019_Release_Notes
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Jamen McGranahan commented
doesn't look like it made it to the API afterall
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Hello. This is tentatively planned for January 2019.
The tentative plan is as follows:
In addition to the current open-hours GET API:
https://api-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/almaws/v1/conf/open-hours?apikey=01234567890There will also be support for an open-hours PUT and POST.
In this way institutions will be able to display, update and create open-hours calendars without the use of the Alma user interface. -
Sylvain Courret commented
Definitely a very good idea. We spend hours (yes, hours) managing calendars in our network, counting more than 120 libraries. The tool provided is unable to offer quick and easy management. Good news is that an API for writing calendars is in the roadmap. Bad news is that we can no longer wait for this feature.
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Michelle Becker commented
YES to this!!!