Policy Event Overview

A Policy Event is a period of time over which a Policy applies to a Group and its member clients.  Policy Events do not belong to Policies, and Policies do not belong to Policy Events.  Rather a Policy Event ‘activates’ a Policy.  A Group may have multiple Policies and Policy Events.

Policy Events allow you to set more restrictive or less restrictive Internet filtering at different times of the day or night for a group of Clients.  Only one Policy is active at any time for a Group.

Policy Calendar and Policy Events

You can add, modify, or delete Policy Events directly on the Policy Calendar page.  You can create new Policies ‘on the fly’ while adding or editing Policy Events. The duration of a Policy Event can be multiple days or have ‘No End Time’. Multiple Policy Events can be created with the same duration starting on different days. You can also create your own color scheme for reviewing Policy Events on the Policy Calendar.

Creating a Basic Policy Event

1.    To create a basic Policy Event, go to the Policies tab for a Group and click the Create button to open the ‘Create’ window.  We want to add a single Policy Event for the lunch period at a school. 

2.    In the window, choose Monday as the Start and the Stop Day.  Enter the Start Time as 11:30 and the Stop Time as 13:30.

3.    There is no Lunch_Hour_Policy yet, so create it in the window by typing the name and the description.  Apply a color and click Save.

Please note that Policy names can only contain alpha-numeric characters with no spaces and colors are not assigned to the Policy Event but to the Policy.

4.    The Lunch Hour Policy Event displays.

About Dragging and Dropping Policy Events

You can drag a Policy Event by the Title.  If the Policy Event spans multiple days, you cannot drag it down.  You can only drag it left, right or up.

Keystrokes for Policy Events

·       Pressing the Enter key when on any of the fields, excluding Description, will save the Policy Event addition/edit.

·       Pressing the Del key with Start Day / Stop Day or after either check box check, will delete the Policy Event.

·       Pressing Esc will close the add/edit Policy Event pop-up.

Importing and Exporting Policy Events

You can export and import Policy Events.

About the Policy Event Export

Each Policy Event export contains the time durations, the Policy, and the Policy color.  For SysOps, the ‘Policy Events' permission is required for the Import/ Export feature. 

Export a Policy Event

1.    Click the Export button.

2.    In the ‘Export Policy Events’ window enter an optional file name or accept the default. You can include or exclude column headers.

3.    Select the Field Delimiter of Excel CSV, Comma Delimited or Tab Delimited.

4.     Click the Export button.

5.    The file is downloaded to the default download folder.

About Policy Event Imports

·       When importing Policy Events, the time durations and the Group Policy are used.

·       If the Group has no Policy, the Policy:

o   Can be ignored

o   Can be created

o   Can use a specified Policy provided in the import wizard

·       If the Policy is created, the color from the import will be used for the Policy.

·       If a Policy already exists in the Group, the existing Policy is used.

1.    To import a Policy Event, click the Policies tab and then click the Import button.

2.    Select the Field Delimiter and click the Choose File button to select your file. 

3.    Click Import.

On the second page of the Import Wizard, choose from these choices.  In most cases you can accept the defaults.

Click Import.  A message displays indicating the number of records added.

Example: Advanced Policy Events Creation for a School

In this example, we will create multiple Policy Events for a school week.  We have created four Category Templates with different blocked Categories: After School, Lunch Hour, School Hours and Weekend.  We will apply these Category Templates later after we create some Policies.

Delete the Default Time Event

Open a Group and click the Policies tab. By default, the default Policy Event displays in red.  We want to delete this event.  Click the Policy Event to display the edit window and choose Delete to delete the Policy Event.

The screen displays with no Policy Events. 

Click the Create button or click anywhere on the calendar. The ‘Create’ window displays.  We want to add a ‘School Hours’ Policy Event attached to ‘School Hours’ Policy.  This will be applied from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday.

Creating a School Hours Policy Event

Clicking the Create button displays the ‘Create’ window.  The example below will create a Policy Event from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday to Friday. We have selected ‘Multiple Days’ and then selected the days to apply the Policy Event. We have also used this window to create ‘School_Hours_Policy’ and have designated a color 8OCBC4.

When we choose Save, the Policy Events display in the Policy Calendar.  Please note that you can drag the title bar of the Policy Event to move it.

Adding a Lunch Hour Time Event

We now want to add a lunch hour Policy Event with different filtering.  This Policy Event is like the ‘School Hours’ Policy Event but we will overlay this on the ‘School Hours’ Policy Event.  Enter the options as shown here and click Save.

The Lunch Hour Policy Event displays.

Creating a Weekend Time Event

We now want to add a ‘Weekend’ Policy Event and Policy.  This will span over multiple days with no time duration specified.  We choose the ‘Start Day’ of Saturday with a ‘Start Time’ of 0:00 and our ‘Stop Day’ will be Monday with a ‘Stop Time’ of 0:00.  This is the end of Sunday night.  We will create a ‘Weekend_Policy’ and apply a color.  Click Save.

The Weekend Policy Event displays.

Warning Message for Empty Sections

If there are sections of the Policy Calendar that are not covered by a Policy Event, a warning message displays.

Creating an After School Time Event

We will now create an ‘After School’ Policy Event and Policy.  This Policy Event and Policy will act as the default Policy for this Group and it will use ‘No End Time’ and not ‘Multiple Days’.  Here is a brief description of these two options.

No End Time: This option will disable ‘Multiple Days’. If this is enabled, no end time will be used for the selected Policy Event. 

Multiple Days: This option is disabled if ‘No End Time’ is enabled. Use this option if you wish your Policy Event’s duration to be replicated across multiple days.  If this option is selected, a ‘Day Selection’ field dropdown menu displays where you can click to add additional days. 

Choose Monday as the ‘Start Day’ and enter a ‘Start Time’ of 0:00.  Select ‘No End Time’ and create the new ‘After School’ Policy.  Apply a color and choose Save.

The ‘After School’ Policy Event displays.  Please note that because this Policy Event has ‘No End Time’, if other existing Policy Events are deleted, this Policy Event will display in its place.

Change Group Timezone

Use the Change Group Timezone button to change the Timezone for the Group. The Group specific Timezone affects Group Policy Events for a Group. It can be useful if some Groups reside in a timezone that does not match the Policy Server timezone and the Group has multiple Policies that should be switched independent of the time of the day or day of the week.