How is the Outlook Connector actually supposed to work?

[mwyant]

I've been searching around and I can't seem to find anything that definitively says, "The Outlook Connector does this and doesn't do this..."

Here are the items that I thought were offered using the Outlook Connector on Office 2003 (NOTE: all of the items listed below are assumed to be available via Outlook directly):

1: Synched mailboxes
2: Synched calendars
3: Ability to share calendars via Outlook
4: Ability to modify share permissions on own shared calendars
5: Ability to view and edit shared calendars from other co-workers

Are any of these unrealistic or just wrong? If any of these items are not available through Outlook using the Outlook connector, what is the exact, approved method of performing these tasks?

Thanks,
Mike

[fsiegel]

You can do everything you mentioned with the Outlook connector.

[mwyant]

Perhaps I should start another thread then, but I'll start here.

In our installation, rPath ZCS Network Edition 4.5.4, we have had nothing but inconsistencies with the Outlook Connector.

For example, multiple users who had the 4.5.1 connector installed as well as those who are running a fresh Office 2003 install with the 4.5.4 connector, have inconsistent synching issues when it comes to Calendars and Email; ie., what they see in Outlook using the connector is not what they see in the web interface.

Additionally, sharing calendars via Outlook seems to be a feature that has disappeared. When right-clicking on your own calendar, the Sharing option is grayed out; going into properties does not reveal any additional sharing settings. Sometimes viewing other users' shared calendars works just fine, sometimes Zimbra seems to get picky about what calendars will sync, causing an obvious problem.

I must say that I'm thoroughly confused since the Apple iSync connector works perfectly and the rest of the services work well via the web interface. Is there someplace I should be looking to troubleshoot only the Outlook Connector?

[fsiegel]

There have been bugs in this area in the past-- these are getting cleaned up. I notice that you are running 4.5.1 and 4.5.4. We are up to 4.5.6 now, and many issues have been fixed.

To share your calendar, right click on the folder and go to Properties -> Sharing. If the sharing tab doesn't show up, perhaps the sharing addin is not installed.

Of course you need to sync after sharing your calendar.

Also, you can file support cases with any specific problems. But again, many bugs have been fixed in this area since 4.5.1 and 4.5.4.

[mwyant]

We currently are only running 4.5.4 - the test server was 4.5.1 so some people had that connector installed.

I would love to install the 4.5.6 upgrade, but I haven't seen any instructions for upgrading an rPath installation. I'm under the impression that it should update itself via the rPath configuration, but I could be misreading that.