Using MS Outlook Delegated Calendars¶

For users of the Email Sidebar on:

7 min read

Tip

Also see this article to learn how to process emails in RG Email Sidebar over Delegated access and this UVM article to learn how to configure and work with Delegated mailbox access

The Delegated calendars feature allows Delegates, RG Email Sidebar users with granted delegate access permissions in MS Outlook to view, manage, and sync in Salesforce calendar items of other users, calendar Organizers (Delegators), also viewing the contextual Salesforce data about associated records in RG Email Sidebar.

When a meeting or appointment is created, modified, moved, or deleted in delegated access scenario, its associated Salesforce records and Salesforce calendar are updated correspondingly through RGES synchronization, so other concerned individuals in your Salesforce Org can see the changes in the records immediately and react to them.

Please refer to this article for detailed information on how calendar items are processed by RG Email Sidebar selectively or automatically.

Prerequisites and Permissions¶

Delegated Calendar access and Delegated Inbox access have the same prerequisites; either of these mailbox data access scenarios or both can be configured if the below prerequisites are met. Handling of MS Outlook Tasks or Contacts by RG Email Sidebar via delegated access is currently not supported

To carry out scenarios through delegated access both involved mail accounts should have RGES Add-In installed and Sync activated. Both accounts should have a dedicated RGES license
The two accounts should belong to the same MS Exchange instance and Salesforce Org
All RGES functions are only available if the mailbox Owner (Delegator) grants Calendar Editor permissions for the Delegate, so it is the recommended permissions level
For the feature to work, the Delegate must be using EWS connectivity, not MS Graph

Also see the section “Supported RGES Actions for Delegated Scenarios for Calendar Items” below for details on all available use cases.

MS Outlook versions that support delegated calendars¶

Delegated Calendars feature is only available to the users of the MS Outlook versions that support API requirement set 1.8. MS Outlook on Windows with a Microsoft 365 subscription and a retail one-time purchase MS Outlook support 1.8 API set starting from the Version 1910 (Build 12130.20272).

To find out what MS Outlook version you are using, either refer to this Microsoft Help article or follow the instructions provided below

Open the Desktop version of MS Outlook, click File in the upper left-hand corner of the interface
Depending on your version, select Office Account, Account or Help from the list on the left
Under Product Information, find the information about your MS Outlook version

If you are using an MS Outlook version older than 1910 or version older than Office 2021, you should consider upgrading to the latest versions to ensure the support of delegated calendars feature in RG Email Sidebar.

Tip

For more information about your MS Office version, refer to the update history for Office 2021 or Microsoft 365

Setting Up Delegated Calendar Access in MS Outlook¶

Please refer to the following Microsoft guides to learn how to set up delegated calendar permissions in MS Outlook and use this feature:

The following delegated access permission types are available:

Editor: has full calendar management permissions.

Author: has full calendar management permissions, apart from modifying or processing calendar items created by the Organizer.

Reviewer: this permissions type is insufficient for managing delegated calendars. It only allows viewing calendar entries; no item saving in Salesforce or linking to Salesforce objects is possible with this permissions type.

Managing calendar entries using the delegated calendars feature with RG Email Sidebar Add-In requires Author or Editor permissions to be set up: File > Info tab > Account Settings > Delegate Access > Calendar picklist.

Delegated calendar permissions can be set up individually: {MS Outlook Calendar view} > Folder tab > Calendar Properties

The required permissions level for RG Email Sidebar delegated calendars management are Can edit or Delegate.

Note

The Delegate can see my private items or Can view private events setting allows a Delegate with Editor or Author permissions to view as well as modify items which the calendar Organizer marked as private. With this setting enabled a Delegate can also remove the private mark from calendar items

Setting Up Shared Calendar Access in Salesforce¶

In order to allow Events in the Organizer’s Salesforce calendar to be created or modified by RG Email Sidebar via a Delegate’s Salesforce account the necessary shared calendar permissions should also be set up in Salesforce. Refer to the following Salesforce help articles to learn how to do that: article 1; article 2.

Delegated Calendar Items Syncing in Salesforce¶

To sync a delegated calendar item in Salesforce (initial sharing), you can either assign it the blue Salesforce category in MS Outlook or find and select a relevant existing record and then click the Save button at the top of RG Email Sidebar. If RGES insta-sync is enabled, an item shared this way will be saved in Salesforce instantly. Otherwise it will be saved on the following sync session.

Important

Regardless of who modifies/updates a calendar item, for the changes to be conveyed to Salesforce the item’s Organizer must have one’s Revenue Grid synchronization enabled

Shared Calendar Items Syncing in Salesforce¶

Items from a shared MS Outlook calendar cannot be synced in a typical configuration; such attempts result in an error notification “Sync is not enabled for Organizer - please try again in 30 minutes and in case you see the same error, contact your Salesforce admin.”
The only way to handle such items is to configure a dedicated RGES Sync user for the shared calendar and sync items through it. For this scenario: items cannot be in compose more. The shared mailbox Sync user will be treated as the Organizer, the user accessing the shared mailbox will be treated as the Delegate.

Supported RGES Actions for Delegated Scenarios for Calendar Items¶

	Granted permissions	Available actions	Salesforce Destination
Calendar access	Delegate + Calendar permissions Editor [the only scenario fully compatible with RG Email Sidebar]	Manage and process in RGES calendar items created by the Owner or the Delegate, as well as inbound meeting invites (on the Owner’s behalf) All saving scenarios in the Calendar using RG Email Sidebar or custom category	Owner’s Salesforce account
Send a meeting invite (send on behalf of)	Configured as a Delegate with no special Calendar permissions set	Save created items in Compose mode using RG Email Sidebar or custom category	Owner’s Salesforce account
	Delegate + Calendar permissions Author	View Calendar and respond to meeting invites, create meeting invites and process in RGES only items created by Delegate using RG Email Sidebar or custom category	Owner’s Salesforce account
	Delegate + Calendar permissions Reviewer	No RG Email Sidebar actions available, can only view the Sidebar	n/a

RG Email Sidebar Delegated Calendars Access Troubleshooting¶

Delegated calendars sync issues may occur mainly on initial item sharing in Salesforce, caused by either one of the following issues: Revenue Grid sync errors, insufficient MS Outlook delegated calendar permissions, insufficient Salesforce permissions.

Since initial sharing (creation) of events in Salesforce is performed by Revenue Grid synchronization, the Organizer’s sync must be running for the calendar updates made by a Delegate to be applied in Salesforce. If sync is not running for the Organizer, RG Email Sidebar will not be able to save the item created or modified by the Delegate in Salesforce. The corresponding error notification will be displayed that sync is not enabled for the Organizer

Once the corresponding Salesforce event record has been created, its further updates and modifications can be performed directly from via the Organizer’s or Delegate’s RG Email Sidebar Add-In; the changes will be conveyed immediately and will not depend on the sync interval. This way, even if sync is not running for the calendar item Organizer, saving changes to an already existing Salesforce event object can be performed if the Delegate has the permissions to access this event in Salesforce
If the Delegate does not have the permissions to view the corresponding Salesforce event (however, the Add-In can still obtain the Salesforce event ID from MS Exchange), saving will not be allowed with an error notification that the user has insufficient Salesforce account permissions to save this event

Note

The same error message is displayed if the event was removed from Salesforce and RG Email Sidebar was unable to down-sync this change to MS Exchange

If the Delegate does not have the permissions to modify a corresponding Salesforce event, there will appear an error notification that user has insufficient Salesforce account permissions to update this event, suggesting to contact the Organizer to get the required permissions in Salesforce

Note

Delegated calendars also support using the Send calendar availability and Send meeting time slots features so the Delegate can generate these links for the Delegator’s calendar

Delegated Calendars and RGES Meeting Scheduler¶

RG Email Sidebar features Time Slots or Calendar Availability can be used for a Delegated access calendar. Generated meeting’s formal initiator gets auto-defined based on the content of the From field.

The resulting meeting slots reservation page also includes an indicator that displays the meeting’s actual initiator.