Office of Information Technology at Ohio University

Office of Information Technology at Ohio University

Converting Outlook Entries into Oracle Calendar

Activate your account and download the client before converting

The following instructions detail how to export existing Outlook entries from Outlook and convert these entries into Oracle Calendar. The ability exists to convert Outlook data as far back as 1/1/1991. Please note: The following items are not included in the conversion from Outlook and will not appear in Oracle Calendar:

Attendees to meetings- Only your time is booked for a meeting.

Resources are not booked for meetings.

Contacts

Due to the fact that the resource bookings are not converted, and attendees will not see their meetings until they accept them in Outlook and convert them into Oracle Calendar, your time may be better utilized to convert past entries only and reschedule all future events in Oracle Calendar. If you do choose to convert your future events you must rebook your resource in Oracle Calendar and add attendees to future meetings in Oracle Calendar.

Instructions to convert existing Outlook entries to Oracle Calendar

Accept/Reject all meeting invitations in your "messages" view.
In Outlook click "File/Import and Export"
Choose "Export to a file"
Choose "Tab separated values (Windows)"
Select "Calendar"
Select where you want to save the file, name the file, file type is .TXT. Write down where you are saving the file. Click Next.
Click Finish.
Select the timeframe that you wish to export. (To reduce the amount of time needed to convert this data, it is suggested that the end date for conversion be set no later than 12/31/2004). Click "OK"
Go to the following website: https://redbud.cats.ohiou.edu/cgi-bin/ct/ctconvert and enter Oak ID and Password.
Choose "MS Outlook text export." Browse to find the Outlook export file you saved in step 6. (You may have to select "All Files" under the file type dropdown box to find your file.) Click "Open"
Click "Convert".
At the file download page select "Save."
Select where you want to save the file. Write down where you are saving the file. Click "Save." (Depending on your Operating system, you may receive a "Download Complete" page, if so, click close.)
Open Oracle Calendar. Do not connect to "OU Schedule," you will be performing this in TestNode8 to verify that the data is converted correctly. In the "Sign In" window click "Other." Under connection name type click "New."
In the connection Name space, type testnode8.
In the server space, type schedule.ohio.edu and click "Lookup."
Click on the dropdown box next to Node and choose "testnode8," Click "OK."
At Connection Manager screen, Click OK again.
At the Sign in Screen select the "Connect to" dropdown box and choose "testnode8." Make sure you are logging into testnode8.
Click "Sign-in."
Choose File/Import Data.
In the Import Utility screen highlight "vCalendar file" and click "Continue."
In the vCalendar file screen click what you would like to import. Select "All" for "Period." Choose "Browse" under file name, locate the file that you saved in step #13 and save the file as a ".vcs" file type. Click "OK."
You may receive the following "Conflict Found" screen. You may elect to view the meeting and choose if you want to paste it. The decision is your choice. Note: You will receive this prompt for each one of the conflicts identified between Outlook and Oracle Calendar.
Review the information that you imported into Oracle Calendar to make sure it is correct.
If the conversion is correct, the test is complete. If the conversion is not correct, please contact the Support Desk at 740-593-1222.
Log out of Oracle Calendar.
Open Oracle Calendar and choose "OU Schedule" from the dropdown menu.
Repeat this process beginning on Step #21. This will convert your data into the production database. You must perform this step if you want your converted Outlook data to appear in the production version of Oracle Calendar.

Please note that Outlook is not an officially supported application at Ohio University. You still are welcome to call the Support Desk if you have problems; however, our technicians have limited experience troubleshooting Outlook.