Chapter 6. Calendar Configuration

Table of Contents

Outlook Free/Busy Calendaring
About the Free/Busy Calendar ftp Server
Enabling Client Free/Busy Publication
SCOoffice Mail Connector for Microsoft Outlook

This chapter describes SCOoffice Mail Server integrated calendar support for:

Outlook Free/Busy Calendaring

To provide Free/Busy calendar support to Outlook clients:

Note

This feature is provided for Microsoft Outlook clients but not Outlook Express.

About the Free/Busy Calendar ftp Server

Microsoft Outlook has the ability to distribute calendar data by storing an individual's Free/Busy information in a publicly shared directory. The shared directory is specified in Outlook as an http:// or ftp:// reference. When an individual publishes their Free/Busy information, it is written into a file (identified by the user's account name) in the referenced directory. When the same individual re-publishes updated Free/Busy information, their file in the shared directory is overwritten.

Note

The SCOoffice Mail Server enables ftp service to support Free/Busy calendaring for other iCalendar compatible mail clients such as Microsoft Outlook. However, be aware that ftp presents potential security problems in an Internet environment. For LAN usage, the best way around this is to simply secure your network ftp port from external connections. If you are providing this service over the Internet, you might want to investigate a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution.

Before Outlook Free/Busy information can be published, the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web Publishing Wizard add-on component must be installed on the client system. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

The SCOoffice Mail Server provides a pre-configured protected shared directory for use with the Outlook Free/Busy feature. It is configured by default when the Outlook Configuration Tool is run (see “Enabling Outlook Client Users”).

For Outlook 2000 and XP clients, the Outlook Configuration Tool configures WebDAV, which provides secure, efficient transfers over HTTP and automatic client authentication. It configures these Free/Busy parameters:

Publish at this URL

http://hostname/pub/calendar/userid.vfb

Search at this URL

http://hostname/calendar/%NAME%.vfb

When calendar information is first published, Outlook prompts for the SCOoffice Mail Server UserID password.

For Outlook 98 clients, the Outlook Configuration Tool configures these Free/Busy parameters:

Publish at this URL

ftp://userid:password@hostname/pub/calendar/userid.vfb

Search at this URL

http://hostname/calendar/%NAME%.vfb

  • hostname is the SCOoffice Mail Server IP hostname and %NAME% is a macro used by Outlook to substitute for the name portion of the user's email address (everything up to but not including the @ character) when publishing or searching for Free/Busy files. It is used in the search URL to locate Free/Busy information for a user that has been invited to a meeting. For example, Tom invites Betty to a meeting. Outlook substitutes Betty for %NAME%, then search for the file Betty.vfb, which contains the Free/Busy information for Betty.

     

  • For Outlook 98 clients, userid is the user's SCOoffice Mail Server login name and password is their SCOoffice Mail Server password. They are used to publish to the shared directory on the SCOoffice Mail Server using ftp. The ftp service is configured to validate user access using the SCOoffice Mail Server's LDAP directory, which ensures that only valid mail users have access to this directory.

Enabling Client Free/Busy Publication

Although the Free/Busy publication and search URL's are set by default, the actual publication of an individual's Free/Busy information is not enabled. This decision has been left to the individual user. If the user wishes to enable publication of their Free/Busy information, they can do so within the Outlook Free/Busy configuration dialog depending on their version of the Outlook client:

Outlook XP and Outlook 2000
  1. In the Outlook Tools, click on Options, then Calendar Options.

  2. In the Free/Busy Options dialog box, check Publish my Free/Busy information.

  3. Click on Apply to complete the procedure.

The first time you publish your calendar information, you will be prompted for your password.

Outlook 98
  1. In the Outlook Tools, click on Options, then Calendar Options.

  2. In the Free/Busy Options dialog box, check Publish my Free/Busy information.

  3. Enter your SCOoffice Mail Server password in the ftp://URL in place of the string password_for_yourname_here.

  4. Click on Apply to complete the procedure.

SCOoffice Mail Connector for Microsoft Outlook

Shared calendar features can be made available through the separateSCOoffice Mail Connector for Microsoft Outlook product, which provides access to advanced features of Microsoft Outlook. SCOoffice™ Mail Connector provides complete mapping and synchronization of the user's mail and special folders to the Cyrus IMAP server using the IMAP protocol. This feature enables the sharing of the special folders such as calendar, contacts, journal, notes, and tasks.

SCOoffice Mail Connector for Microsoft Outlook is a separately licensed product provided on a separate CD with the SCOoffice Mail Server product. See the documentation on that CD for more information.