Arbor: how to set up Arbor integration for Room Booking
If you would like Tes Room Booking to integrate with Arbor, this article takes you through the steps to set this up - either as part of the initial set up of Room Booking, or using a system that's already up and running.
Why Integrate with Arbor?
Arbor integration allows you to automatically sync the complete timetable, rooms & term dates automatically every day.
How does this work?
We sync your data from Arbor into Tes Room Booking on a daily basis in the early hours of the morning. This is done by using the Arbor API (please contact Arbor direct if you need any information on this). The sync is read only, no data is written back to Arbor.
Setting up Arbor integration
- Send an email to schoolcloud@tes.com requesting the integration be set up.
- We will send a request to Arbor for access and let you know by email that this has been done.
- On receipt of our email you need to log into Arbor to authorise our request (please see Arbor's Guide on how to do this).
- Please reply to the email confirming that the request has been authorised along with confirmation of your periods and their timings as in Arbor. For example:
Period 1: 08:44 - 09:34
Period 2: 09:34 - 10:40
Break: 10:40 - 10:55
etc
This is important, since Arbor syncs them with the timeslots in Room Booking by matching up the start and end times. - We will then run the first sync of your system. Once this has completed successfully we will advise you of this by email.
Match Room/Timeslots (Existing Customers Only)
Note: If you are setting up a new system you can ignore this section and continue to What's Next?
When setting up the integration for an existing system you now need to match the timeslots and rooms that have come across from Arbor to those already set up on Tes Room Booking:
- Login to Room Booking as an administrator - or if logged in already, click Home.
Follow the on screen instructions to match up the rooms and timeslots that have been extracted from Arbor (in the drop down boxes) to those already on your system.
If the on screen instructions don’t show, ensure that your initial sync completed correctly and that (under Manage Admins) your administrator account has permission to access System Settings.
Please ensure that you match this information accurately, as matching Rooms and Timeslots allows us to correctly sync timetable information into existing rooms in Room Booking.If any bookings previously made on Room Booking clash with the timetabled information received from the sync then those bookings will be removed and the user associated with the booking will be emailed to advise them of this.
Existing bookings which do not clash with timetable information from the sync remain on the system. - Once you have matched the rooms and timeslots the main administrator panel will appear, with the message below.
Any rooms from Arbor that have not been matched will be automatically created in Room Booking under Manage Resources in the resource category of 'Unassigned'.
This category is hidden from administrators & users when making bookings and does not count against your licence limits. If you would like the rooms to be made bookable see What's Next below. - Let us know once you have matched the rooms and timeslots and we will run an up to date sync for you to ensure all details are updated on your system.
Any rooms from Arbor that have not been matched will be automatically created in Room Booking under Manage Resources in the resource category of 'Unassigned'. What's Next?
Your set up of Arbor integration for Room Booking is now complete! An automatic sync will run daily for you from now on.
Here are some extra steps you may need to take:
- If you are setting up your system for the first time you will need to assign categories to any rooms that you would like to be made bookable. How do I set up my rooms and make them bookable?
- As long as your rooms have categories assigned you can check your timetable is showing correctly by going to the Calendar tab and viewing the timetable information for each room. The timetable information will be displayed in yellow.
- If you are setting your system up for the first time you can now continue to to set up your users. Users are not synced from Arbor. Please see Users: How to add users to your system or How to Set Up Single Sign-On (SSO).