Using Notification Manager › Notification Manager Concepts › Basic Rules for Creating a Personal Schedule

Basic Rules for Creating a Personal Schedule

The Notification Manager architecture allows you to create a robust notification strategy using a few basic rules:

• Any number of time blocks (notification schedules) can be specified for an individual or group.
• Two or more time blocks can span:
  • The exact same period of time. For example, you can use multiple active time blocks to cause Notification Manager to attempt to contact you by phone, and if that fails, to:
    • Attempt to contact you by phone at a different number
    • Attempt to contact you by pager
    • Forward to someone else who is acting as a backup for you during a particular period of time
  • Overlapping periods of time. You can use this to tell Notification Manager that your schedule is somewhat flexible. For example, suppose you leave work anywhere from 4:00 to 6:00 in the evening. You would tell Notification Manager to try you at work from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., in the car from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., and at home starting at 5:00 p.m.
  • Completely separate periods of time.
• Time blocks can be specified either to cover a date range or to span a subset of the days of the week. If two time blocks cover the same period of time and have the same priority value, Notification Manager prefers those time blocks that specify a date range to those that specify a weekly schedule. Time blocks that are based on a date range are useful when you need to define a temporary change to your weekly notification schedule for events such as vacations.
• Time blocks can cross midnight. This is determined by the values specified for BeginTime and EndTime. When the EndTime is earlier in the day than the BeginTime, the time block is interpreted as crossing midnight into the next day. Consider the following time block:

  BeginTime: 11:00 PM

  EndTime: 7:00 AM

  This time block starts at 11:00 at night, crosses midnight, and ends at 7:00 the next morning.

  Similarly, when the EndTime is the same as the BeginTime, the time block is interpreted as crossing midnight into the next day. Consider the following time block:

  BeginTime: 9:00 AM

  EndTime: 9:00 AM

  This time block starts at 9:00 in the morning, crosses midnight, and ends at 9:00 the next morning.

  When scheduling by date, you cannot specify the same BeginDate and EndDate when your times specify that your timeblock will cross midnight. For example, you will receive an error if you specify 7/10 for both BeginDate and EndDate in either of the two previous examples. Both of those examples begin on one day, cross midnight, and end the next day. Therefore, the appropriate EndDate would be 7/11.

  In general, you can interpret that notifications will stop at the EndTime on the EndDate. The one exception is midnight. Notification Manager interprets an EndTime of 12:00 AM as the end of the current day, not the beginning of the next day. Consider the following time block:

  BeginTime:12:00 AM

  EndTime: 12:00 AM

  BeginDate: 7/10

  EndDate: 7/10

  This time block is interpreted as starting as the first thing in the morning on July 10, and ending as the last thing at night on July 10. Because a time block which ends at 12:00 AM, never actually crosses midnight, the specified EndDate should not be the date of the next day.

• A specified BeginTime/EndTime constraint is enforced separately on each individual day of a multi-day timeblock. Consider the following time block:

  BeginTime: 5:00 PM

  EndTime: 12:00 AM

  BeginDate: 7/1

  EndDate: 7/5

  With this time block specification, the person to be notified would be on-call from 5:00 in the afternoon until midnight on each of the five days of the time block. On each of those 5 days, the person will not be notified in the morning or afternoon, until 5:00 PM.

• One way to place someone continuously on-call from the StartTime on the StartDate to the EndTime on the EndDate is to use a 24 hour time block. This is accomplished by specifying the same time for the BeginTime and EndTime. Consider the following time block:

  BeginTime: 10:00 AM

  EndTime: 10:00 AM

  BeginDate: 7/1

  EndDate: 7/5

  With this time block specification, the person to be notified would be on-call continuously from 10:00 on the morning of July 1st until 10:00 on the morning of July 5th. If your BeginTime and EndTime are not the same time, you have to use multiple time blocks to achieve continuous notifications.

• Time blocks can cross into the next year. Because a year is not specified as part of the value for either the BeginDate or EndDate, if the EndDate is earlier than the BeginDate, the time block will cross into the next year. Consider the following time block:

  BeginDate: 10/1

  EndDate: 2/15

  This time block will start in October, and continue until February of the next year.

• Time blocks react to leap years. If you specify a BeginDate or EndDate of 2/29, that exact date will only occur every four years. On the years which do not have 2/29, Notification Manager interprets the other dates within the time block as if a 2/29 did exist. The difference is most noticeable when such a time block also crosses midnight. Consider the following time block:

  BeginTime: 8:00 PM

  EndTime: 3:00 AM

  BeginDate: 2/15

  EndDate: 2/29

  Every year, the person will always be notified on 2/28 from 12:00 in the morning until 3:00 AM, and again from 8:00 PM until midnight that same night. During leap years, the person will also be notified on 2/29 from 12:00 in the morning until 3:00 AM.

  This behavior is exactly what was specified by the time block. However, you must recognize that the person will be notified from 8:00 PM until midnight on the last day of February on non-leap years, but not on leap years.

  Similarly, consider the following time block:

  BeginTime: 8:00 PM

  EndTime: 3:00 AM

  BeginDate: 2/29

  EndDate: 3/5

  Every year, the person will always be notified on 3/1 from 12:00 in the morning until 3:00 AM, and again from 8:00 PM until midnight that same night. During leap years, the person will also be notified on 2/29 from 8:00 PM until midnight.

  Again, the behavior is exactly what was specified by the time block. However, you must recognize that the person's notifications will start at 8:00 PM on the last day of February during leap years, but will not start until 12:00 AM on the first day of March during non-leap years.

  Note that you should have fewer special considerations if your times do not cross midnight. There are also no special considerations if your date range crosses 2/29, as long as neither your BeginDate nor EndDate is specifically 2/29.

• If it is important to your notification policy to specify the last day of February, and the behavior described previously is not acceptable, you can use a second time block for just the date of 2/29 to override the default behavior.