10.3  Support for the iCal standard

Kerio Connect supports publishing of calendars in user email accounts on the server and subscription of calendars stored in the mailbox from the Apple iCal. In addition to subscription to their own calendars, users can also subscribe to calendars shared by other users. This implies that if you share your calendar with your teammate, she can subscribe it and view it. Subscribed calendars cannot be edited by the subscribers, only viewed.

As mentioned earlier in this document, in Apple iCal, subscribed calendars are available only in the read-only mode. Published calendars are available on the server for reading only (this implies that it is not edit published calendars when accessed by Kerio WebMail, for example).

If calendars are published as subfolders of the default Calendar folder (the main calendar), all events will be also shown in the Free/Busy calendar (for details on Free/Busy calendars, see section 8.3  Scheduling of meetings).

Subscription to calendars

It is possible to subscribe any calendar stored on the WebDAV server in the iCal format. This implies that it is possible to subscribe to calendars stored in Kerio Connect and/or iCal calendars stored on any other server supporting the WebDAV protocol and the iCalendar format.

To subscribe your own Kerio Connect's calendar in Apple iCal, follow these guidelines:

  1. Log in the Kerio WebMail interface.

    Warning

    It is necessary to connect via HTTP (not HTTPS), otherwise, the link will not be displayed correctly.

  2. Go to Settings → Integration with Mac OS X.

  3. On the Integration with Mac OS X page, in section Apple iCal, click on the Subscribe to my calendar link.

  4. This opens Apple iCal where you just confirm the calendar offered for download.

Calendars can be subscribed through the Calendar → Subscribe menu. This option opens a dialog (see figure 10.18  URL calendar definition) where URL address can be specified and detailed authentication and refreshing parameters can be set (the entire calendar is downloaded for each refresh).

The address must follow this pattern:

http://server_name/ical[path]

To subscribe the default calendar folder which belongs to your mailbox in Kerio Connect, enter the URL in the following format:

http://server_name/ical

It is also possible to subscribe another user's calendar, if the user shares it for you. For the login URL, use the following pattern:

http://server_name/ical/user@domain

or

http://server_name/ical/domain/user_name

It is also possible to subscribe another user's calendar, if shared. The following URL format must be used:.

http://server_name/ical/public

or

http://server_name/ical/public/Calendar

When a calendar is being subscribed, it is possible to edit name of the folder. If no name is entered, the Calendar folder will be used automatically.

Warning

It is not possible to subscribe calendars via SSL connection. Therefore, use only the non-secured HTTP version for this purpose. This means that URLs of calendars must NOT start with https://.

URL calendar definition

Figure 10.18. URL calendar definition


When the URL is specified, the application attempts to connect to the server. If authentication is required, the dialog where username and password can be specified is opened (i.e. typically the username and password used for connection to your email account).

Once connected to Kerio Connect, a dialog where other details can be specified is opened (see figure 10.19  Setting details):

Setting details

Figure 10.19. Setting details


Name

Any name used for the calendar in Apple iCal. On the right, you can select a color used for items of this calendar.

Description

Any description of the calendar.

Subscribed to

URL of the calendar.

Remove

Here you can select items to be removed from the subscribed calendar: reminders, attachments and/or tasks. It is recommended to enable the reminders removal option (pop-up windows reminding of events) since the calendar is available in the read-only mode and these items cannot be disabled or moved for later. Only the calendar's owner is allowed to manipulate with them. Attachments and tasks are not supported in Kerio Mail Server.

Auto-refresh

The calendar will be refreshed in the interval set. Unless the user has a fast Internet connection, it is not recommended to set the interval too short (calendar is completely reloaded upon each refresh).

Calendar publishing

Calendars can be published to the following stores:

  • to a personal account in Kerio Connect,

  • to an account of another Kerio Connect user (username and password are required unless the user creates a new calendar folder and shares it),

  • to any WebDAV server in the Internet.

When published, the calendars will be available at the server for reading only. This implies that it is not possible to edit, add or remove events.

Calendars can be published through the Calendar → Publish menu. This opens a dialog (see figure 10.20  The Publish Calendar dialog), where URL address can be specified and other publishing parameters can be set. It is also possible to set that the calendar is re-published upon each change (the entire calendar is always published, not just changes).

The Publish Calendar dialog

Figure 10.20. The Publish Calendar dialog


Publish calendar as

By default, the entry includes the name used by this calendar in Apple iCal. The title can be edited.

Publish on

In the menu, set the a Private Server option.

Base URL

URL address of the server where the calendar would be published. The URL address must follow this pattern:

http://server_name/ical[path]

To publish a calendar in the root folder (of a particular mailbox), enter URL in the following format:

http://server_name/ical

To publish a calendar in the calendar folder (of your mailbox), enter URL in the following format:

http://server_name/ical/calendar

To publish a calendar to the mailbox of another Kerio Connect user, enter URL in the following format:

http://server_name/ical/user@domain/folder_name

It is also possible to publish a public calendar. The following URL format must be used:.

http://server_name/ical/public/folder_name

Make sure that URL address does not include forbidden characters and symbols. This involves spaces between words. The special %20 character must be used instead of spaces. Here is an example:

http://mail.company.com/ical/private%20calendar

The other forbidden characters and symbols can also be replaced by corresponding equivalents. These equivalents are represented by hexadecimal ASCII codes of the particular characters preceded by the % symbol.

Besides forbidden symbols, there are other characters that must be encoded. This includes any national diacritical characters, ?, :, etc. It is also necessary to replace these characters in URL by their hexadecimal alternatives.

Note

In Kerio Connect, standard folders (Inbox, Junk E-mail, Sent, Calendar, Tasks) are saved under their English names. Therefore, use the Calendar name to publish an iCal calendar to a default folder:

http://mail.company.com/ical/Calendar

Login, Password

Name and password used for authentication at the server where the calendar will be published. In this case, specify username and password for the corresponding Kerio Connect user account.

Publish changes automatically

This option enables/disables automatic update of the published calendar. The whole calendar is published within each update.

Publish titles and notes

If it is desirable that events' subjects and bodies are displayed on the server, enable this option.

Publish To Do items

This data will not be displayed in Kerio Connect.

Publish alarms

Alarms will be published with the calendar.

It is recommended not to publish alarms since users who subscribe it can only read it and are not allowed to close them.

Publish attachments

Attachments are not supported in Kerio Mail Server.

Sharing of calendars

Calendars published in Kerio Connect can be shared with other users who can subscribe them for their Apple iCal or view them in Kerio WebMail.

To share an iCal calendar, follow these instructions:

  1. Log in the Kerio WebMail interface.

  2. Create a special calendar folder (e.g. Shared_Calendar). Creating of new folders in Kerio WebMail is addressed in chapter 1.12.5  Shared and public folders.

  3. Share the folder with corresponding users.

  4. Publish an Apple iCal calendar to the folder just created. The URL for publishing will be as follows:

    http://server_name/ical/Shared_Calendar

Warning

It is always necessary to share the entire folder in which the iCal calendar is published. If only the calendar itself is published, the sharing will be removed upon next update (publishing of a new version). This is caused by the fact that iCal calendars are recorded on the servers in the way that the original version of the calendar is removed first (including possible sharing) and then a new version is saved to the server.