Many people are not aware, but Microsoft has a free tool (officially categorized as a resource kit tool), called the Office Communications Server 2007 Web Scheduler (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=96B42DC8-E769-4EFD-B7A6-ECA03058F8AD).
August 20, 2009 Update: OCS 2007 R2 – Web Scheduler Now Available for Download. The OCS Web Scheduler now works for R2 is has been released as a web download. Read all about it and download it here. The R2 version can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6d6848ec-e7d6-41f4-82d9-5bed3526fcbd.
This is not a web based replacement for Live Meeting; rather it is targeted as a web based replacement for the Outlook Conferencing Add-in. In fact, one key requirement is that the Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 client must be installed. The Web Scheduler just allows users to Schedule, View, Join, and Modify a Live Meeting conference through the Web interface.
The OCS Web Scheduler functionality installs on the OCS Web Components server, and users access the functionality by navigating to the appropriate URL. For example, to join a conference, a users would open the following URL in their web browser: https://<internal web fqdn>/conf/int/Join.aspx. A screen shot of the main screen is shown below.
Important Notes about this Tool:
- If you are installing this tool, there is an undocumented restriction that the 2 accounts you use during the LCSCMD.exe stage cannot exceed a 20 character limit.
- It is a tool. It is officially not supported and the installation and usability is very ‘tool-like’. The installation is crude and requires some awkward command line work to properly activate it.
- The ability for users to send email invitations to conference participants requires an SMTP mail server that allows the RTCComponentService account the ability to relay e-mail on behalf of any enterprise user.
- In a nutshell, only deploy and use this if you have a specific need for some users schedule and join a conference via a web interface.
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Slacker is a good reason
I could see how the most common management functionality (e.g. enable users) would be useful through a web page – no matter what host you are on, it would allow you hit a web page and take those actions.
Curtis:
Really the only reason I want this functionality is because I guess I am a slacker and don’t want to have to log into the server every time to enable a new employee for OCS. It would be nice to just have a password protected webpage that I can browse to (I always have a web browser opened) and just provide a username.
Also, I don’t have any specific examples, but I feel like this could come in handy for other purposes too. I could be a little optimistic on that though.
Hi Paul, there is no easy way to manage OCS through a web page (I would be interested to know your driver/need for doing this). If you can call a Windows Script or PowerShell from PHP, and if you can install the OCS management tools on that same machine, you have several options outlined in my post: Provisioning OCS From the Command Line.
An important note: if my memory serves me correctly, you will not be able to use any method that uses WMI (via PowerShell or a Windows Script) to enable a new AD user for OCS (i.e. the user had to have been previously enabled). If that is the case, there are additional options outlined here: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/communicationsserversetup/thread/8c0de5ed-3157-4f8f-b1c4-be55635baeef. Hope that helps.
This may not be the exact place to post this, but it’s somewhat pertinent. Does anyone know of a way to do basic OCS management via a webpage? I just want to be able to enable new users with a simple PHP script page that I can write, but I’m not sure how to do that. I imagine I’d want to fire off a PowerShell command with PHP. The only thing I’ve found so far is PoshBoard, and it looks cool, but way too complicated.
The Web Scheduler for R2 has been released.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=6d6848ec-e7d6-41f4-82d9-5bed3526fcbd
No news yet. I’ll be attending the Microsoft Interact 2009 Conference (http://www.interact09.com) next week; I’ll provide an update if I get one.
Curtis
Any news when a R2 realease of the webscheduler will be out? We relied heavely on this for our mobile force and would liek to get this functionality back up and running now that were OCSr2 deployed.
Derek
Yes, I don’t think it is supported for OCS R2. It installs on the OCS Web Components server (role), which is only available in 64-bit for R2. The Web Scheduler download is a 32-bit download, so it will not work.
Thank you for your post! I have a quick question for you.
I tried to install Web Scheduler on OCS 2007 R2 and it would not install. Is this because it is a 32bit app and not a 64 bit app?
Thank you for your time