Only publish free/busy information to iCalendar

[deviantintegral]

Is there a way to have an iCal file published which only contains free busy information? I want to be able to publish a calendar to the world which says when I'm available, but privacy policies in my organization prevent me from exposing the information or attendees to those not in the organization.

Thanks!
--Andrew

[mmorse]

Welcome to the forums,

The basic free-busy data:
https:// server.domain.com/zimbra/home/username/calendar.ifb
(.ics or no extension on the end is the regular ICS format)

If you want to export the free/busy data in the calendar folder for the next 60 days you would:
https:// server.domain.com/zimbra/home/username/calendar.ifb?start=0d&end=60d
(Note that this is the free/busy data for the specific calendar folder name only.)

If you wanted to get the info from multiple calendars on an account then you'd want to use the following URL instead:
https:// server.domain.com/zimbra/home/username/?fmt=ifb
https:// server.domain.com/zimbra/home/username/?fmt=ifb&start=0d&end=60d

That URL will return free/busy data across all calendars that are configured to be included in free/busy data, not shown if you right click the cal > edit properties > and check "exclude this calendar when reporting free/busy times".

In 5.0, we added the ability to go to http:// server.domain.com/home/username/Calendar.html to see an easily readable day/week/month view. (The publisher must share the calendar specifically or publicly in order for you to see it.)

Another new & cool ability in 5.0.1+ is to get free busy info by visiting http:// server.domain.com/home/username?fmt=freebusy which will display an aggregate HTML calendar for all the user's free-busy data without having to share it public. (Of course you can always choose to select "exclude this calendar when reporting free/busy times" if you wish.)

[deviantintegral]

That's perfect! The HTML view is awesome.

I've tried playing around with the ifb's and I haven't found a client which will properly display them. I've tried iCal on OS X 10.5, Kontact, and the calendar module for Drupal. I can subscribe to the calendar without errors, but I don't see a way to actually display the data. Any suggestions?

--Andrew

[eas]

the web page for free / busy schedules on version 5.0.1 is good but is there a way to open it on Outlook? I use HTTPS for my zimbra server and I can't install the certificate successfully. But I read somewhere that you can add this webpage to a new folder in outlook? Does anyone know how to do that?

Forgot to mention, the web page showing the free/busy schedule is showing the times as 2 hours later?

Release 5.0.4_GA_2101.RHEL4_64_20080321130744 RHEL4_64 NETWORK edition

[deviantintegral]

I actually think Outlook might be the only client which actually supports IFB!

How to use the Internet Free/Busy feature in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003

I think you can add the self-signed certificate to the system farily easily, assuming that's your problem. Even if the certificate fails validation, Outlook should still give you the option to continue anyways.

As for the timezone issue, make sure that your local timezone exists on the server. I had problems with timezones as some of the timezones in OS X didn't exist on the server.

--Andrew

[supd]

Hi,

I am new to Zimbra and really need some assistances here. I would like to know how can I make Thunderbird/Lightning and KOrganizer to view others free/busy schedule.

Thank you very much!

[eas]

Thanks Andrew. That was a useful link for Outlook. Strangely I was able to install the certificate from IE 6 just now. It never used to work with the NE 4.5.9 version. So with that, I was able to put this in the Outlook free/busy search url:
https://mydomain.com/service/pubal/f...name%@%server%

I also managed to answer my own question about adding the webpage in outlook. I created a new folder and went to the properties of that folder, and set the default home page to: https://mydomain.com/service/user/<user>@mydomain.com/?view=week&fmt=freebusy

This still shows the timezone issue but won't have to worry about it now. Thanks for your help!

[jholder]

Try This:
http://domain.server.com/home/<user>/Calendar?fmt=ifb&start=...&end=...

[matthewhsu]

Another new & cool ability in 5.0.1+ is to get free busy info by visiting http:// server.domain.com/home/username?fmt=freebusy which will display an aggregate HTML calendar for all the user's free-busy data without having to share it public. (Of course you can always choose to select "exclude this calendar when reporting free/busy times" if you wish.)

1. The Free / Busy HTML Calendar defaults to GMT-06:00 (Central Time) on my machine, even thought my system is set for GMT-0800 (Pacific Time). Is there another flag on the URL that can set the display time zone?

2. Is there a way to access the .IFB Free / Busy calendar publicly without logging in? That is, my site requires a login to access the .IFB, so wouldn't the user be able to change the .IFB to .ICS and get the full detailed calendar info?

Thanks,
Matthew

[tonythemediaguy]

Hi,

when I subscribe to:

https:// server.domain.com/zimbra/home/username/calendar.ics I can see all of the details of the calendar. Is there a way to only see the free/busy schedule? I'm trying to build something on my webpage that lets potential clients schedule appointments online. I was going to use php icalendar or something to parse the file to show it correctly.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Tony