Web-based appointment scheduler for Exchange?

September 16, 2008 7:47 AM

Does anyone know of a web-based appointment scheduler that integrates with Exchange?

I have several advisors who see students, and I would like to add a feature to our website to allow students to see available times and schedule an appointment with his/her advisor. We use Exchange, and to really meet my requirements the system would need to integrate directly with an advisor's calendar, or at the very least allow an appointment to come through as a "proposal" that the advisor could then save directly to his/her calendar.

The closest I have found so far is this. Overall it looks ideal, but it only does RSS feeds and/or import of calendar data. However, it should give a good overview of what I'm looking for.

If a solution doesn't already exist, does anyone know if it's even possible to build something like this? Or is Exchange too locked down?

Thanks in advance!

posted by CrazyGabby to computers & internet (3 comments total)

google calendar comes with a facility to sync with outlook.

it also allows you to share you calendar with others, i'm not sure if this is exactly what you're lookin for, but it is free.
posted by xospecialk at 8:46 AM on September 16, 2008

Perhaps a Google calendar- Exchange integration is what you're looking for?

My work schedule these days is all over the place, was finding it hard to juggle personal and professional schedules, until I came up with this set-up. I now integrate my Exchange calendar with Google calendar, and then share that calendar over with family and friends, but with the details hidden. That way, if someone's, say, planning a party or something, they'll know my availability immediately and set up a meeting/event request and such.

_{[As an added bonus, there's this auto-Bluetooth sync between my phone and the laptop, so my schedule stays up-to-date all the time, without pinging the Exchange server, so I save up on mobile broadband bills as well. Find it _extremely nifty_ and can't recommend it enough! :-) ]}

Alternatively, the not-so-free answer, if you're willing to explore custom-made web solutions, is a SharePoint deployment. It's quite easy to integrate an Exchange server and a MOSS deployment out-of-the-box; if you have access to cheap student labour :-), your workplace (I'm assuming it's an educational institution of some sort, perhaps a university) has one of them Academic licenses, and have some spare boxen lying around, you could perhaps get someone to set it all up for you. Of course, be warned that it's the protracted, enterprise-y solution, more suited for corporate intranet sites and such.

There could be similar software in the open-source world as well, but off the top of my head, I can't think of any.
posted by the cydonian at 9:08 AM on September 16, 2008

www.timedriver.com is exactly what you are looking for.
posted by revan at 9:13 AM on September 16, 2008