Calendar events but not in Outlook (2 Viewers)

[AccessGuyEh]

I have a client who has been publishing volunteer schedules, from a form in Access to a local Outlook Calendar. That calendar is then printed to PDF and distributed to the many volunteers who don't necessarily have access to Outlook in the office. The data is pushed, via VBA, from the Access table (bound to the form) to Outlook. The code works well, and has been working without issue for several years. This is a non-profit organization. Typically, as soon as the PDF is distributed, conflicts arise and the schedule has to be updated. That's easily done on the Access side, but constantly republishing the PDF has become more and more of a hassle as the number of volunteers increases. They've added a new "shift" which has only made the problem worse, and are looking for a better solution. They've asked if I'm able to create the calendar in SharePoint which can then be pushed out electronically to the volunteers instead of emailing PDFs. I've done some investigation, and know that I can link an Access table to a SharePoint list which can, in turn, be used to create SharePoint events but I'm not convinced it's the best solution here. I have my doubts that it will show the individual volunteers and I don't want to waste time testing various data sets only to find it's not what I need. How do the experts in the group handle this situation? Is there an easier solution than trying to create an interface to SharePoint or is this really the best way to approach this issue?

 

[DHookom]

Have you considered a shared google calendar? I have done this with several organizations.

 

[Pat Hartman]

For a volatile calendar, you need one that is online and changeable, not static like a PDF. I think that as long as everyone has access to SharePoint, that will be a viable solution. You might still want to email change warnings.

 

[Gasman]

For a volatile calendar, you need one that is online and changeable, not static like a PDF. I think that as long as everyone has access to SharePoint, that will be a viable solution. You might still want to email change warnings.

Guys, please note from this O/P's post in Introduction, that they are talking about New Outlook.
I know that is not mentioned in this thread, but if I do not post it now, I will forget.

 

[AccessGuyEh]

The client hasn't migrated to New Outlook just yet, but that's going to be pushed on us eventually, so I need to get prepared. I hadn't considered Google Calendar. I have no idea how to interface to that. Suggestions? It's easy to push events to the current Outlook using VBA. Is there code somewhere for the same process to Google? I'm interested in Google since I can test that here. I would have to be onsite at the customer to test the interface to SharePoint which makes development more difficult. As a one-man shop, I have no need to maintain a M365 business license to give me access to SharePoint myself. I'm also not convinced all these volunteers will necessarily have access to SharePoint, but I don't know enough about the product - will they need to have their own M365 account? Will they need to be set up as "employees" so they can have access to the organization's SharePoint lists? I've tried to avoid 365 - most of my clients use Perpetual license products - but that may be changing as well here.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I would have to be onsite at the customer to test the interface to SharePoint which makes development more difficult.

Why do they not give you a SharePoint account? I have to admit to a personal hatred of Google and their tactics.

 

[AccessGuyEh]

Security is a concern for them. That also makes me suspect they won't be enamored with a Google Calendar option since they'll be concerned about who might gain access to the calendar information (even though it won't contain full name info). Most of my clients would be happy to give me access, but they're an exception. Sigh.

 

[DHookom]

The client hasn't migrated to New Outlook just yet, but that's going to be pushed on us eventually, so I need to get prepared. I hadn't considered Google Calendar. I have no idea how to interface to that. Suggestions? It's easy to push events to the current Outlook using VBA. Is there code somewhere for the same process to Google? I'm interested in Google since I can test that here. I would have to be onsite at the customer to test the interface to SharePoint which makes development more difficult. As a one-man shop, I have no need to maintain a M365 business license to give me access to SharePoint myself. I'm also not convinced all these volunteers will necessarily have access to SharePoint, but I don't know enough about the product - will they need to have their own M365 account? Will they need to be set up as "employees" so they can have access to the organization's SharePoint lists? I've tried to avoid 365 - most of my clients use Perpetual license products - but that may be changing as well here.

There is an API for google calendar which I haven't reviewed. You can also import from various other calendars as well as CSV.

 

[theDBguy]

They've asked if I'm able to create the calendar in SharePoint which can then be pushed out electronically to the volunteers instead of emailing PDFs.

I'm not quite sure I get this statement. What does it mean to "push out electronically" the SharePoint calendar? How is that different from "emailing PDFs?" Also, will you be pushing the entire calendar or just the events?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Security is a concern for them.

How can you develop a solution if you can't be trusted with a developer account? Whether you use it locally or remotely, you would still have the same access credentials.

 

[AccessGuyEh]

How can you develop a solution if you can't be trusted with a developer account? Whether you use it locally or remotely, you would still have the same access credentials.

They have no issues with me setting up the process locally; they just don't want to give me remote access. The difference is that I would be using someone else's account when working locally - they'd log me in, monitor me while I do my thing and then log me out when I'm done. No paranoia here whatsoever <grin>.

 

[AccessGuyEh]

I'm not quite sure I get this statement. What does it mean to "push out electronically" the SharePoint calendar? How is that different from "emailing PDFs?" Also, will you be pushing the entire calendar or just the events?

I have no familiarity whatsoever on how they will get the list of events to their volunteers. I'm not familiar with SharePoint at all and I don't know what access these volunteers have to this data. It was suggested to me that we use this method. My expectation is they'll be sharing the document via OneDrive with View Only access rather than emailing a PDF as an attachment. I'm assuming that document will be a custom calendar of events pertaining only to the volunteers, but, again, I am not familiar with SharePoint or SharePoint calendars. I know that I can push data from Access to SharePoint via a linked SharePoint list which can be used to create events. That's the extent of my knowledge and why I'm posting here. The intent is to have those events automatically update when the Access data is changed rather than having to recreate the PDF and reshare it.

 

[theDBguy]

I have no familiarity whatsoever on how they will get the list of events to their volunteers. I'm not familiar with SharePoint at all and I don't know what access these volunteers have to this data. It was suggested to me that we use this method. My expectation is they'll be sharing the document via OneDrive with View Only access rather than emailing a PDF as an attachment. I'm assuming that document will be a custom calendar of events pertaining only to the volunteers, but, again, I am not familiar with SharePoint or SharePoint calendars. I know that I can push data from Access to SharePoint via a linked SharePoint list which can be used to create events. That's the extent of my knowledge and why I'm posting here. The intent is to have those events automatically update when the Access data is changed rather than having to recreate the PDF and reshare it.

Thank you for the clarification. If the end goal is to eliminate the need to email PDFs to the volunteers, then the simple solution might be to simply invite the volunteers as guests to the SharePoint calendar, so they can view them as needed. If so, you can continue to use Access to update the SharePoint calendar and the problem is eliminated. If the original issue was actually how to push the PDFs using the New Outlook, then that problem is still solved by using SharePoint where you can potentially use a Flow to send out those emails with PDF attachments and not worry about Outlook. In the future, you can even create Power App to update the calendar, and you'll be able to remove Access from the equation (or at least use PA as an enhancement instead).

 

[Pat Hartman]

My expectation is they'll be sharing the document via OneDrive with View Only access rather than emailing a PDF as an attachment.

I would not recommend that solution. You can't stop them from saving the document locally where it will become stale. The calendar should be a SharePoint Calendar form which they open to view when they need to see it.