Forum OpenACS Development: synchronize calendar with outlook 2000
I'm porting the calendar module at the moment and i'm thinking of
enhance the functionality
of the calendar by synchronize with outlook 2000. I'm doing some
research on that and I
couldn't find anything useful. I was wondering if anyone can give me
some link or books that i should look at? or any idea where I should
start?
Thanks for your help
Lilian
"From RFC 2445: There is a clear need to provide and deploy
interoperable calendaring and scheduling services for the Internet.
Current group scheduling and Personal Information Management (PIM)
products are being extended for use across the Internet, today, in
proprietary ways. iCalendar is an internet RFC that addresses
communication between calendaring clients. It defines a set of
objects and a method for writing those objects to a character output
stream. Any client which understands the iCalendar protocol should
be able to share appointment , to-do, and other calendar information
with any other calendar client or server. "
and vCalendar also at imc.org
its probably much more useful to stick to standards than whatever
the current version of a ms product does.
from for outlook2k
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q257/8/24.ASP
"Outlook is designed for use with the Internet (SMTP, POP3, and
IMAP4), Exchange Server, or any other standards-based communication
system that supports Messaging Application Programming Interface
(MAPI), including voice mail. Outlook is based on Internet standards
and supports today's most important e-mail, news, and directory
standards, including LDAP, MHTML, NNTP, MIME, and S/MIME, vCalendar,
vCard, iCalendar, and full support for HTML mail."
iCalendar format is what we used and it works well. I can e-mail you a copy of the code that implements this for ACES 3.4 if you'd like, and can also answer questions you might have about iCalendar format as
I've been through RPC 2445 in detail.
- iCalendar format is a proposed standard by Lotus and Microsoft and is supported by others, too. So supporting this format means that folks will be able to synch with software as diverse as Lotus Notes and KDE"s Korganizer, in addition to Outlook.
- acs-events should really provide the utility to transform an event into iCalendar format as well as the download filter. Calendar is the only client of acs-events at the moment but there will be other
clients as well. For instance, the SDM will want to create releases with dates noted in acs-events. While you'll be able to see these from the calendar page or portlet, you'll also see these in the SDM and there's no intrinsic reason why we'd want to force users to go to the calendar page/portlet in order to synchronize. The SDM should be able to provide the UI to download (say) upcoming release dates into Outlook, too.
Having the "create iCalendar" utility in acs-events would make this easy.
- Which means that this should be a service provided by acs-events using the not-quite-finished acs-services-contract package (you wouldn't have to worry about this for a first cut at the functionality).
- Walter and I only did website->Outlook synch'ing, not the other direction.
First, they have some html generated on as part of the web page, in which is embedded all the needed info:
Then, when you click on the link, the following text is generated and sent to the browser as a download able file (eventInfo.ics) Then, depending on your browser, outlook opens the file and you can add it to your calendar.
<FORM method="post" name="vCalendar" action="http://www.cvent.com/EventManagement/Summary/eventInfo.ics">
<input type="hidden" name="planner" value="boston@yahoo.com">
<input type="hidden" name="title" value="Weekly Email - December 12, 2000">
<input type="hidden" name="start" value="20011215T010000Z">
<input type="hidden" name="end" value="20011215T030000Z">
<input type="hidden" name="loc" value="Caprice Bar & Club">
<input type="hidden" name="desc" value="DIRECTIONS TO DECEMBER HAPPY HOUR DIRECTIONS: By Car: From the South - Take the Expressway (Rt. 93) North towards Boston. Take Exit 20 (Chinatown/Kneeland Street), turning left at the ramp light onto Kneeland Street. Go five blocks. Make a left onto Tremont Street. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. From the West - Take the Massachusetts Turnpike East towards Boston. Take the Downtown Exit (bearing right at the end of the highway). Take a left at the light at the end of the off-ramp onto Kneeland Street. Go five blocks. Make a left onto Tremont Street. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. From the North - Take the Expressway South (Rt. 93) toward Boston. Take Exit 21 (Chinatown/Kneeland Street). At the light at the end of the off-ramp, bear slightly to the left for one block. Turn right onto Kneeland Street. Go five blocks. Turn left onto Tremont Street. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. From Storrow Drive - Exit at Back Bay/Arlington Street. Stay on Arlington Street to the end of the Boston Public Garden. Make a left onto Boylston Street. Go one and one-half blocks. Take a right onto Tremon Street and continue for 2 blocks. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. By Public Transportation: The most convenient MBTA stops to Caprice are the Orange Line/New England Medial Center stop and the Green Line/Boylston Street stop. Both are located one block away from Caprice. The Red Line/Park Street stop is two blocks north of Caprice on Tremont Street. Parking: There are several parking lots located near Caprice: The Tremont Street Garage adjacent to The Wang Theatre; the parking lot at the corner of Tremont and Stuart Streets; the 57 Hotel on Stuart Street; CityPlace Garage in Park Square; the Kinney Motor Mart on Stuart Street and the Fitz-Inn Lot on Kneeland Street. There are also several metered spots along the surrounding area streets, but pay attention to the signs and good luck! ">
<input type="hidden" name="createdate" value="20010822T014533Z">
Friday, December 14, 2001 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM <a class=detailsLinks href="javascript:document.vCalendar.submit();">Add to my calendar</a>
</FORM>
Seems pretty straight forward...
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID🤔/Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 9.0 MIMEDIR//EN
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
ORGANIZER:MAILTO:boston@yahoo.com
DTSTART:20011215T010000Z
DTEND:20011215T030000Z
LOCATION:Caprice Bar & Club
TRANSP:OPAQUE
SEQUENCE:0
UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E00800000000D0CEF827CB1CC0010000000000000000100
00000B7B8052D1CDECF4E887AA1942D58507E
DTSTAMP:20010822T014533Z
DESCRIPTION:DIRECTIONS TO DECEMBER HAPPY HOUR DIRECTIONS: By Car: From the South - Take the Expressway (Rt. 93) North towards Boston. Take Exit 20 (Chinatown/Kneeland Street), turning left at the ramp light onto Kneeland Street. Go five blocks. Make a left onto Tremont Street. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. From the West - Take the Massachusetts Turnpike East towards Boston. Take the Downtown Exit (bearing right at the end of the highway). Take a left at the light at the end of the off-ramp onto Kneeland Street. Go five blocks. Make a left onto Tremont Street. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. From the North - Take the Expressway South (Rt. 93) toward Boston. Take Exit 21 (Chinatown/Kneeland Street). At the light at the end of the off-ramp, bear slightly to the left for one block. Turn right onto Kneeland Street. Go five blocks. Turn left onto Tremont Street. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. From Storrow Drive - Exit at Back Bay/Arlington Street. Stay on Arlington Street to the end of the Boston Public Garden. Make a left onto Boylston Street. Go one and one-half blocks. Take a right onto Tremon Street and continue for 2 blocks. Caprice is on your right hand side next to the Tremont House Hotel. By Public Transportation: The most convenient MBTA stops to Caprice are the Orange Line/New England Medial Center stop and the Green Line/Boylston Street stop. Both are located one block away from Caprice. The Red Line/Park Street stop is two blocks north of Caprice on Tremont Street. Parking: There are several parking lots located near Caprice: The Tremont Street Garage adjacent to The Wang Theatre; the parking lot at the corner of Tremont and Stuart Streets; the 57 Hotel on Stuart Street; CityPlace Garage in Park Square; the Kinney Motor Mart on Stuart Street and the Fitz-Inn Lot on Kneeland Street. There are also several metered spots along the surrounding area streets, but pay attention to the signs and good luck!
SUMMARY:Weekly Email - December 12, 2000
PRIORITY:5
CLASS:PUBLIC
BEGIN:VALARM
TRIGGER:PT24H
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:Reminder
END:VALARM
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR