Galion ReSched is a web-based resource-scheduling application, written in Perl. It can be used to book limited resources (such as computers and meeting rooms), so that you always know who is scheduled to use any given one at any given time.
In addition, Galion ReSched now also features special program signup lists and staff schedule tracking.
There's a live demonstration so you can see Galion ReSched in action at http://cgi.galion.lib.oh.us/staff/resched-public/resched/
Unzip the downloaded Galion ReSched software in a suitable location. Issue any necessary chmod commands to ensure that the web server user can access the files and execute the cgi scripts. For security reasons, it is important to ensure that dbconfig.pl cannot be directly accessed by web users. (If .pl is associated with cgi execution, chmod ugo-x dbconfig.pl should do this.)
Ensure that you have the prerequisite software installed.
You need an RDBMS. At this time MySQL is the only one fully
supported, though it would probably only require minor changes (mostly
to db.pl) to support Postgres or any other reasonably capable DBMS.
You need a web server, of course. I've only tested with Apache. The
web server must be configured to serve out the directory where you
unzipped resched, and the .cgi extension must be associated with perl
(or may use shebangs if /usr/bin/perl is the correct path to perl on
your system).
Speaking of which, you need perl, and at least the following modules (available from the CPAN):
Open ajax.js in a text editor and change the basedir variable (on
the second line) so that it contains the public URI of the resched
directory on your installation. This value should end with a
directory separator (forward slash).
Open dbconfig.pl in a text editor and assign suitable values to the
four variables therein. (If dbconfig.pl does not exist, start with
a copy of dbconfig.pl.sample.)
Log into the RDBMS as a privileged user (e.g., root), create the
database you specified in dbconfig.pl, and grant all privileges on
that database to the user you specified in dbconfig.pl. The SQL to do
this will probably look something like the following:
CREATE DATABASE resched;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON resched.* TO username@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'somepassword';
If you have not already done so, check that the MySQL root user account is password protected. (In most distributions this should be the case by default, but check.)
Run the create-tables.pl Perl script. This will create the empty
database tables.
If you are upgrading from a previous version, check CHANGES.txt to
see if there are fields you need to add to existing tables.
Create at least one user record in the users table, which you and your
users will use to log into the web interface. You can use the
create-user.pl script to do this. (Even if you are doing
authentication by IP address, you still need a user account. The IP
authentication automatically logs users in based on their network
address, but it still needs a user account to log them into.)
If you want to do authentication by IP address, create the appropriate
record(s) in the auth_by_ip table. Each IP address should be in
the same notation the web server gives it to you in
$ENV{REMOTE_ADDR}. For Apache, this is standard dotted quad
notation (for IPv4; not sure about IPv6). The user field needs an
id from the users table.
Authentication by IP address is probably not real secure, but my users would never put up with needing Yet Another Password for this. If your users are willing to remember individual usernames and passwords, that's probably better.
Create at least one schedule. You can log into the web interface and use admin.cgi to do this. Multiple resources (e.g., rooms, computers) can be booked according to the same schedule, so you may only need one schedule record, depending on your needs. The schedule record tells what time of day you start booking and describes the positions and lengths of the booking timeslots (e.g., every hour on the hour starting at 9am).
For each resource you want to take bookings for, create a record
in the resched_resources table. You can log into the web
interface and use admin.cgi to do this.
You need certain entries in the misc_variables table. You can use
config.cgi to create these. Even if you wish to accept the defaults,
you should hit the save button at least once, so that the variables
are created.
Create sitecode.pl. There's a sitecode.pl.sample that you can
copy. If you need to do any site-specific name normalization, edit
the normalisebookedfor function here.
You may need to make a few changes to the code itself, as some things
may still be hardcoded that shouldn't be. As time goes on I am
getting more and more of that stuff moved into config.cgi and/or
sitecode.pl, but this is an ongoing process. TODO.txt might
provide some clues as to what remains, but it is not entirely
comprehensive.
Nonetheless, you should be able to start your local installation at this point.
If you have questions or comments, you can contact the author
at the email address given in INSTALL.txt. (I'm not putting
the email address in the POD, because the POD will end up as
HTML that will certainly be scraped by the spambots.)
When I originally wrote ReSched, we had three computers that we booked in one-hour timeslots, and we wanted to move from a clipboard-based system to something that we could easily access from any staff computer.
I was pretty new to Perl at the time, so the early versions were some pretty messy code. (I've since cleaned up a lot of it, and further cleanup is planned.)
I didn't really start tracking changes until version 0.4.0, when the code was finally stable enough to go several months between updates.
Enhancements in the 0.4.x series included aliases and the "Did You Mean" feature. 0.5.x enhanced aliases and improved name normalisation and overhauled the visual style. The 0.6.x series focused on refactoring the codebase and fixing bugs, but there were also some enhancements, including automatic retrieval of new bookings.
After a conversation on the OPLIN tech mailing list, it became apparent that some other libraries might be interested in using this tool. This lead to the first public release, version 0.6.7.
The public release lead to creation of the configuration interface and a number of technical improvements (including the beginnings of MSIE support, password hashing, and configurability or automatic generation for many things that were originally hardcoded) in the 0.7.x series. The "Combine Rooms" feature was also added.
The 0.8.x series introduced the program signup facility, improved security in a number of ways, made several things more configurable, introduced an administrative interface for creating (booking) schedule and resource records, and continued cleaning up the codebase for improved maintainability.
The 0.9.x series added the word "Galion" to the name of the software (in order to make it easier to find by searching), introduced the staff scheduling feature, made further enhancements to security, enhanced the admin interface, fixed a number of bugs, and added POD documentation.
This software is provided free of charge and free of restrictions (as pertains to usage, modification, or distribution) with absolutely no warranty of any kind whatsoever.
Galion ReSched was written primarily for the Galion Public Library. I am pleased if others can make use of it, but I cannot provide any warranty as to its suitability for the needs of any other organization, and I also cannot guarantee my ability to provide any technical support for the sofware.
Therefore, if you use this software, you must be responsible to determine whether it meets your needs and those of your organization and to make any needed adjustments to ensure that it does.
I am willing to receive feature requests and also bug reports, but I cannot guarantee that requested features will necessarily be implemented or that reported bugs will necessarily be fixed or even that I will necessarily always get back to you in a timely fashion. The needs of the Galion Public Library, and related demands on my schedule, take priority over any work that I may do on the Galion ReSched software. The software is provided to you on an AS-IS basis.
Permission to use, modify, and redistribute the software is granted, provided you agree that neither the original author nor the Galion Public Library is responsible.
Contributing any improvements that you have made so that they can be considered for inclusions in future versions of the software is strictly optional. I cannot guarantee that any submitted improvements will necessarily be incorporated into any version of the software that I distribute, and you are not required to submit them in the first place if you do not choose to do so.
Attribution (i.e., crediting the original author as the source) is also optional.
Monetary compensation for the software is not expected, and the author himself is unwilling to receive any. (I have already been paid by the library for the time I spent developing it.) If you wish to make a donation to the Galion Public Library, you may; but it is not required.