UICalendar (Oracle Calendar) Problem with 2007 Daylight Saving Time Change

• Background on the problem
• The Fixes - Require OS Patching and Possible Manual Adjustments on Your Part
• To Accommodate Manual Comparison and Adjustment, We Recommend that You...

• Starting this year, due to an Act of Congress, Daylight Saving Time (DST) will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. Previously, the dates were the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October.


• The ACCC applied a Daylight Savings Time fix patch from Oracle to the UICalendar Server sometime in early 2006 and the Server has been compliant since. Unfortunately we don't know the exact date the patch was applied, and Oracle Connector for Outlook has it's own special issues, so we recommend that all UICal users read on and follow the instructions for patching your PC's operating system and and doing a manual check of the problematic date ranges in any calendars you own.


• Oracle has since alerted us of possible problems as described in Oracle Technical Note 399739.1 They have also explained How Oracle Plans to Prevent this Problem from Happening Again.


• Problem Issue 1 - Events Entered before the Server Patch was Applied
  Events that were scheduled using any UICal client before the server-side patch was applied by ACCC in early 2006, and that fall into the Problem Ranges displayed in the table below, may appear on your calendar to start one hour later than they should.


• Problem Issue 2 - Events Scheduled via Oracle Connector for Outlook
  If you used Oracle Connector for Outlook to schedule any meetings that fall into the Problem Ranges and these events were entered before the Windows DST patch was applied, then these may also display an hour off once you apply the Outlook patch described later. See "The Fixes" section just below for more information about the Windows DST patch.
  Oracle also explained Why Oracle Connector for Outlook has Special Problems.
  
  
• Warning for PDA or Smartphone Users: If you fix the times in UICalendar and not in your PDA or Smartphone that you sync with UICal, you risk breaking events you just fixed when you run a sync, whether by cradle of SyncML. If you don't want to change the events on the PDA or Smartphone by hand, run the first sync after you fix UICal for DST with Replace mobile device item with calendar server item.

First, Patch Your Windows, Mac or Linux System as described below.

ACCC's complete Daylight Saving Time Coverage Page
Windows Patching Instructions
Mac Patching Instructions
Linux/Unix Patching Instructions

!!!Note: You may see mention of Microsoft's Time Zone Date Update Tool (tzmove.exe). Oracle has not certified this tool and recommend against using it if you use Oracle Connector for Outlook to access UICalendar.

Then, Compare and Manually Fix UICal Events that may have been Affected.

• There is no available automatic method to correct this issue. Oracle has identified reasons why such a tool might incorrectly alter events. Dozens of other Universities that run Oracle Calendar are also recommending manual adjustments.

• Only meetings that you scheduled prior to early 2006 and that fall into the Problem Ranges displayed in the table above are affected. In most cases, these will be long-reaching repeating events that were entered before 2006. We expect few users will be seriously affected, but we do recommend that everyone check the calendars that they own, just to be certain.

• ACCC will email each calendar owner (personal, resource, departmental) with the names of possibly affected calendars.

• We have made available a special reference-only copy of the Oracle Calendar server that does not have the new DST patch so that you can see the actual time your events were originally scheduled.

  It can be accessed only via a Web browser, but you can use it to print copies that you can use for comparison against your current real UICal online calendar. This copy is static and is running against a database backup copy made on February 11, 2007.

Then Sync with your PDA or Smartphone if you normally do so.

• If you fix the times in UICalendar and not in your PDA or Smartphone that you sync with UICal, you risk breaking events you just fixed when you run a sync, whether by cradle of SyncML. If you don't want to change the events on the PDA or Smartphone by hand, run the first sync after you fix UICal for DST with Replace mobile device item with calendar server item.

1. Point your web browser to: http://uical-old-dst.cc.uic.edu which is configured with the "old" Daylight Savings Time dates.

   !!! Ignore and bypass any SSL certificate mismatch warnings you receive from your browser.
   

2. Always login to your own personal calendar first, even if you want to check other calendars.
3. If you do want to view other calendars then:
   • Click the View Agendas icon (a person standing next to a calendar).
   • Select the proper search button: Name Search for personal calendars and departmental calendars or Resource Search for resource (room) calendars.
   • click View or click Add To Favorites With Designate Rights, then click and highlight that entry in the Favorites window, then click Act as Designate (if you have designate privileges).
     
     
4. Go to the Monthly view by clicking the third monthly calendar icon near the top left.
   (The first calendar icon highlights a day, the second a week, and the third highlights the entire month.)
5. Use the black arrows on the mini-calendar at the top left of the screen navigate to a month that includes part of the Problem Ranges listed in the table above (March 2007 for starters).
6. Click the Printer-friendly format link near the top right and print that month using your browser's print icon.
7. Repeat these steps to print the other months that also include the other Problem Ranges listed in the table above.
   Do not modify this calendar - it is a reference copy only!
   
   
8. Once the printing is complete, login to the UICalendar production online calendar server using your usual Oracle Calendar Desktop Client, Connector for Outlook, or the UICal Web client (http://uical.uic.edu.)
   
   
9. Compare the events in the Problem Ranges with those on your printouts.
   
   You can identify Problematic meetings because they will appear on your screen as starting one hour later than they do on your printout.
   
   
10. Manually move the start time of any Problematic meeting to be one hour earlier.

!!!Note: You can only adjust meetings that you "own" (that you initiated). You can tell if you own a meeting because meetings owned by others will display something similar to the following near the top of the screen:

• Proposed by: (someone other than you)
  
  
• or, if the meeting was entered by someone acting as designate for another:
  Proposed by: (someone other than you) on behalf of (someone else other than you)
  Outlook will show: Organized by (someone other than you)
  
  

If you don't own a meeting that has the wrong time you may wish to contact the owner of the meeting and ask them to fix the start time.

Warning for PDA or Smartphone Users: If you fix the times in UICalendar and not in your PDA or Smartphone that you sync with UICal, you risk breaking events you just fixed when you run a sync, whether by cradle of SyncML. If you don't want to change the events on the PDA or Smartphone by hand, run the first sync after you fix UICal for DST with Replace mobile device item with calendar server item.

If you encounter difficulties, please send a detailed email message to systems@uic.edu