Two ways to provide customizable access to your calendar
With a Teamup calendar, you can share your calendar securely with account-based access or via shareable links. Account-based access (users and groups) requires the user to login with their email address and provides a greater level of security and control. On the other hand, shareable links are preferred in some situations because they are simple for anyone to access the calendar without any user account or login.
Table of Contents
- Account-based access versus shareable calendar links
- Working with customized shareable calendar links
- Choosing sub-calendars and permissions
- Managing users and calendar links
Account-based access versus shareable calendar links
Users and groups
Think of your master calendar as an office building, and the sub-calendars are the rooms and shared spaces. The administrator controls the access to the building. If you are the administrator, you give each of your employees a key and let them in. You can give a key that opens one office, or several offices, or all of the offices and shared spaces in the building. And, if needed, you can change the lock so the key no longer works. So, when you make someone a calendar user, it’s like giving them a key they can use to “open” the calendar.
Each key also comes with a set of permissions. One key might allow an employee to enter multiple offices, just to look around. Another key might allow a whole group to come in and rearrange things to suit what they’re doing. If you designate an office to one employee and label the office (a sub-calendar) with that employee’s name, you still need to give the employee a key to enter the office. The key may have the same name as the office name. For a typical Team Calendars, you may assign the Modify permission to allow the employee to change anything in his or her office, while read-only or no access to the offices of other people or some restricted areas.
Certain calendar features and benefits such as a calendar dashboard synced across multiple devices.are free to all but require account-based access.
Shareable links
Similarly, a shareable calendar link is also a key with customizable access permissions assigned, however it is not personal. It is not tied to a specific user’s email address. It is only identifiable by the name of the link. Some users or groups like the simplicity of these links since no user account is required and no need to login. This is especially helpful when the calendar is to be shared among a large group with the same access permissions, such as add-only, or a read-only link is shared with the entire company or embedded into a public website. To make a shareable link more secure, the calendar administrator has the option to add password protection to a sharable calendar link.
🔗More: How to Share Your Teamup Calendar with Users, Groups, and Links
Working with customized access
To add an account user or create a shareable link, you need administrator access to the calendar.
Go to Settings > Sharing. You will see options to add a user, group, or link. There are also several pre-configured links; you can use these as they are, modify them, or create new shareable links.
For each user or shareable link, choose which sub-calendars to include. Then set permissions for each sub-calendar you’re including. When you add an account user, the calendar will be automatically appear on the dashboard of that user once they login. If you create a sharable link, a unique calendar key is generated with ks followed by a unique 16-digit alphanumeric string which becomes part of the calendar link. You can then share the link with the respective user or group.
A user who is given the customized permissions will only have access to the sub-calendars at the permissions you set for that user or sharable link.
When you assign the permissions, be very careful with this option. Only check Yes if you want the link to include full administrative powers.
Choosing sub-calendars and permissions
You might have a calendar with forty different sub-calendars; if you add a user or create a link that includes only one and share it with someone, they’ll only have access to the one sub-calendar you included.
You can choose to include all sub-calendars or select the calendars you want to include. If you include all sub-calendars, you can set permissions globally.
There are nine different levels of access permissions that you can assign to each of the sub-calendars for a shareable link.
- Administrator: Includes all permissions and is the only permission level allowing access to the Settings interface of the calendar. Use this permission with great care!
- Read-only: Can view calendar events, including details, but not make changes.
- Read-only, no details: Can view calendar with events marked as reserved time blocks, but no further event details included. Cannot make changes.
- Add-only: Can add new events; can read but not modify any existing events. Newly added events can be modified only during the current browser session (up to approximately 30 minutes).
- Add-only, no details: Same as Add-only but the details of any existing events are hidden (marked as reserved).
- Modify: Can add new events and modify or delete any existing events on the shared calendar.
- Modify-from-same-link: Can add new events and modify any existing events that are created via the same link, but can only read (not modify) any existing events created via other calendar links.
- Modify-from-same-link, no details: Can add new events and modify any existing events that are created via the same link, but the details of any events created by others will be hidden (marked as reserved).
- Not shared: the calendar is not included in the shareable link; it will not show in the list of sub-calendars on the sidebar.
🔗More: How to Customize Access Permissions
Managing users and calendar links
You can edit users or links at any time. Keep in mind there is a limit to the number of account users included in each subscription plan. For example, if you are using the free version, you can add up to 8 account users or 50 sharable links. For the paid versions, you may add more users beyond the limit for a small fee. With a Premium subscription, you can add unlimited number of sharable links. The links can be temporarily deactivated if needed.
Users and calendar links are always under the control of the calendar administrator. If you need to grant temporary access to your calendar, you can simply add a user or create a link. To prevent a former employee from access to the calendar, delete or deactivate their access as described here.
🔗More: How to Better Protect Your Calendar Data
Header image by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash