Virtual Classroom Schedule

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Introduction

This will be an overview of the "virtual schedule" that will replace the paper schedules on the doorways of the classrooms and labs. It is a Mac Mini mounted to the wall with power and network, it has a flat panel display securely mounted on top of the mini and is locked.

Behind the scenes is a screen saver called IdleWeb which will display a web site on a screen saver. The web site loaded is a set of custom pages that rotate between the Room Number, The Schedule for the Room, and a .php page that will check the Library's schedule database to see if there is a class in session.

What is the Virtual Schedule?

The virtual schedule will replace the paper schedules on the doorways of the classrooms and labs.

It is a Mac Mini mounted to the wall with power and network, it has a flat panel display securely mounted on top of the mini and is locked.

Behind the scenes is a screen saver called IdleWeb which will display a web site on a screen saver. The web site loaded is a set of custom pages that rotate between the Room Number, The Schedule for the Room, and a .php page that will check the Library's schedule database to see if there is a class in session and display a page telling us whether a class is "in session" or the classroom "is open".

Software Used

IdleWeb - 1.3 - Free
Screensaver module that loads Web sites

phpScheduleIt 1.1.1 - Free
A web-based resource scheduling system that allows administered management of reservations on any number of resources. Typical applications are conference room or machine reservation management.

How it Works

The Online Scheduler
This is where a professor would go to schedule a classroom for a specific date and time from any computer.

Example: I scheduled Room 12345 for 12:00pm - 1:00pm

The Virtual Schedule
Rotates through the following series of web pages.

The Room Number

The Room Specific Schedule
This is a custom page that has all of the "Extras" taken out of it to format it for the display. The machid=sc1432b1d6aef428 is the room specific ID from the database.

Then it will rotate to the index.php, this file query's the database and returns a page depending on the availability of the classroom.

If the Classroom is IN USE the following page is displayed

If the classroom is AVAILABLE the following page is displayed

Security

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