Electronic calendaring method for confirmation of resource availability during event calendaring

Claim 1

An electronic calendaring method for use in a data processing system having a plurality of interactive type work stations connected to a host processing system in which a calendar owner can at the time of calendaring a meeting type event on his calendar send a meeting notice through said system to specified system addresses to invite other calendar owners to said meeting at a specified conference room at a designated time and in which one of said system addresses is assigned to an electronic calendar for maintaining the availability status of said conference room and in which a reply is developed automatically in response to receiving a meeting notice at said one said system address which indicates to said calendar owner calling said meeting if said conference room is available at the designated meeting time and what items of equipment are available for use at said meeting, said method comprising the steps of: (a) establishing a plurality of data structures for (1) defining different types of events to be calendared including said meeting type event, (2) storing data that is entered into said system interactively by calendar owners which further defines details of events that are calendared and assists said system in processing calendared events, (3) developing said reply in response to receiving said meeting notice indicating the availability of said conference room and said items of equipment that are available for use in said conference room during said meeting, (b) maintaining at a predefined system address said electronic calendar for said specified conference room which includes a plurality of established time slots for indicating the status of said conference room, (c) entering data interactively into said system for storage in at least one set of two similar said data structures each of which specifies the same criteria which must be met by said meeting notice before said automatic response is developed, and each of which designates a different response, and (d) selecting one of said data structures of said set depending on whether the time slot(s) on said conference room calendar corresponding to the meeting time is available.