Calendar Plugin Help

[dflowers]

Hello,

I hope I have not missed this somewhere, because I have looked. I am very new to AMS and started with 6.0 and now have 7.0. What I am trying to do is create a shift calendar for a fire department. At this point all I need it to do is to show the shifts A, B, C in three different colors beside the date. The fire department works a 24 hour on and 48 hour off shift and the shift would need to change at 7:00 am, not 12:00 midnight. I have found an action in Lua called DateInterval.Day that looks promising, but I have not bee able to figure out how to use it in AMS 7.0 and the calendar plugin. Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Dorian

[dflowers]

Any ideas anyone? BTW, sorry about the double post. I am not sure what happened. I would delete the duplicate if I could. IR staff? Thanks. I really could use some help with this if anyone has any ideas, I would really appreciate it.

[Derek]

any chance of posting a sample of what you have so far?

[dflowers]

Hi, and thank you for your reply, but that is the problem, I am having problems even getting it started. I tried searching for solutions, but as of yet have been unable to put anything together. I know this doesn't help, but it is all I have at the moment. Pretty much just a concept.

Thanks,

Dorian

[stickck]

I've messed with the calendar plugin before and (as far as I know) you wont be able to use just one calendar object to show the different shifts at one time. You would either have to use a different object for each shift or maybe use a listbox / combobox that has the different shift names and when you select the shift it automatically updates to the correct shift info. You could even use SQLite or even XML to store the data. I know very little about XML but it seams fairly simple to figure out. As for SQLite, there's a user on the forum named TJ-TIGGER, and he has created several training video's on how to the use SQLite Plugin. He has them posted online for everyone to use for free!

I nixed my project and just built a scheduler in Outlook and shared it on our network so everyone could see their shift schedule from their E-mail. There is ALOT you can do with Outlook.

I LOVE AMS but OutLook was a much easier solution.

HTH

Chris

[dflowers]

Chris,

Thank you very much for your reply. I will have to play around with those Ideas. I would really like to make something out of AMS, but if I can't I can't. I was able to create this in MS Excel, but I used formulas, lookup tables, and conditional formatting. Since I am so new to AMS, I am not sure what it can do and what it can't do. I will keep trying

Thanks,

Dorian

[madsen]

If you could share what you've already done in Excel, it would help in understanding the whole thing better.

[dflowers]

I will try and upload the Excel file this afternoon. Thank you for taking a look at it. The Excel version only works with the 24 hr on and 48 hr off schedule. Another popular schedule in the fire service is:

24 hr on, 24 hr off, 24 hr on, 24 hr off, 24 hr on, 96 hr off, then it starts over. Ultimately, I would like to be able to include that schedule as an otpion, but since the fire department I work for uses the first schedule, that is the one that is most important.

I also think I may have confused some people who have looked at my request for help. I stated the shifts would need to change at 7:00 am. That is not the case. Simply showing what shift is on what day is all I need.

Thanks,

Dorian

[dflowers]

Here is the Excel file that I created. I hope it gives someone a better idea of what I am trying to accomplish.

Thanks,

Dorian

[dflowers]

Ok,
I have another idea of how to make this work. Any help would be appreciated. I found a link: Lua Patterns Tutorial. What I am thinkning is use this with the calendar plugin. For example, the user types in the first date worked at the beginning of the cycle, i.e. 11/12/2007. The cycle is On, Off, On, Off, On, Off, Off, Off, Off. So, then the user types into a second box, 1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -4. The positive numbers stand for work days and the negatives stand for days off. Maybe I could even have some of these patterns pre-defined and allow the user to select from a drop down box?

Thanks,

Dorian

[dflowers]

Hello,

Anyone have any ideas on this? Just hoping someone can help me out on this one.

Thanks,

Dorian

[stickck]

I'm in the middle of moving back to the states right now (i'm actually sitting in the USO at Seattle Airport right now FINALLY ) it's been a horable trip so far, so i haven't been messing with AMS. Sorry! someone should offer you some type of help soon. (i'm reading your link above right now) i dont know the first thing about lua, but would like to learn it just to open more doors with AMS.

Chris

[dflowers]

Chris,

No problem. I really appreciate you taking the time respond anyway. I also feel for you. I hope the rest of your trip goes better. Welcome back to the states.

Thanks,

Dorian

[Intrigued]

stickck, soon you get to change your Location: information on the forum here. ;-)

[stickck]

Originally Posted by Intrigued

stickck, soon you get to change your Location: information on the forum here. ;-)

WHY YES I CAN!!!! I finally got here, there, wherever!! What a mess. it should never take anyone 5 DAYS to get anywhere in the world! My wife was in tears in Dullas AirPort because she was completely exhausted. We were up for 40+ hours straight once we got into the states. I had to change my tickets 4 TIMES!! Now i'm stuck in a hotel for the next 35 days until my house is ready to be moved into. That's STUCK because I have a 2 Year Old, 10 Year Old, 2 Dogs, 1 Wife (i would never ask for a second one after this trip! ) and 1 car (a firebird formula that we DON'T all fit in any longer).

but all kidding aside, I'm happy to be back in the states!

Oh, i just changed my location in my profile.

Quick question, how come we cant have Animated Gifs as our Avitar?
Just wondering.

Chris