Free/Busy Schedules

[tathata]

When creating appointments in Outlook I can't see addendees free busy schedules. It just says that there is no schedule available for people I add from the GAL. So I went ahead and created the appointment anyway but it didn't show up in the calendar in the web interface for the Outlook user even though it is in the Outlook calendar.

I did the reverse of this and created an appointment in the web interface and it did show up in the Outlook calendar.

Is this a known problem, if not anyone else have the problem and know why?

I am running Zimbra 3.0 M3 Network Version with the Outlook connector that came with the install.

Thanks,
Lance

[KevinH]

Did you hit Send/Recv or let Outlook sync before checking the web UI? Also want to make sure the calnedar is updated on the web UI and hit the refresh button to force a sync.

[sam]

to see the free/busy for other zimbra users, you need to set the IFB search url. This is set in outlook by going to

tools->options->calendar options->free/busy options

and setting search location to

http(s)://<your-server>/service/pubcal/freebusy.ifb?acct=%name%@%server%

SSL won't work unless you have a valid certificate. If outlook has errors with IFB lookups, entries are written to the event log.

[tathata]

Sam,

Thanks for the info. The Free/Busy schedule is now working once configured as you said.

I still am having problems recieving mail and posting new appointments to the calendar. I have set up outlook 2003 on my machine fresh today and installed the Zimbra Connector. I then created the profile a new profile and when prompted for the connection type I picked the Zimbra Connector. After opening outlook it seems to connect fine (no warnings) but when I hit send and recieve the send/recieve window comes up and then goes away and nothing is recieved despite the fact that I have hundreds of messages on the server. So next I tried sending a message and it sent ok but I never recieved it in Outlook... so I went into the web client and I did infact see the message I sent myself but still nothing in Outlook. Posting new appointments in the calendar still doesn't show anything in the web calendar even after hitting the send/recieve and refreshing the browser (waited a good 30 seconds). Also posting a new appointment in the web calendar never shows up in Outlook after hitting the send/recieve button either.

Yesterday I was trying this on another users computer and he did recieve messages and could also send messages but today on my computer I can't even get that much to work let alone the calendar appointments :-(

[sam]

Sounds like something is going wrong with your initial sync. What we need to help diagnose is get the http trace and debug output.

First, you'll need debug view. It allows you to view the windows debug stream.

Next, downlaoad the WinHttpTraceCfg.exe trace configuration tool (part of windows server 2003 resource kit).

Read the documentation for the tool.

Turn on http tracing to the debug stream by executing the following (make sure to shut down outlook first).

WinHttpTraceCfg -e 1 -d 1

With debug view open, start outlook and click send/receive. After it has spewed all the output, save the log in debug view, zip it up, and send it to me. I'll PM you my email address.

[nicayang]

Originally Posted by sam

to see the free/busy for other zimbra users, you need to set the IFB search url. This is set in outlook by going to

tools->options->calendar options->free/busy options

and setting search location to

http(s)://<your-server>/service/pubcal/freebusy.ifb?acct=%name%@%server%

SSL won't work unless you have a valid certificate. If outlook has errors with IFB lookups, entries are written to the event log.

Hi Sam,

How do I find the valid certificate from Zimbra?

When creating appointments in Outlook I can't see addendees free busy schedules too.
We only allow SSL to connect to Zimbra. So I change the search location to
https://my_server/service/pubcal/fre...name%@%server%
But as you say, I need to import valid certiticate into outlook. But I don't know where to find it.
I export a Zimbra CA from IE (*.cer) and import a digital ID using that CA in outlook. But it can't work.

[jeffreyheinen]

I was just able to address the free/busy issue here.

Because I used internal names for the server (as opposed to the display/working name), I had to do a little more work. You may be able to skip the first step if the server name is the same as the URL you use to connect to it.

1. Rename the Server
2. Regenerate the Certs.
3. Install the certificate. You should be able to search for it. A lot of colleges put up better explanations then I ever could. (Here is one for IE6 for example.) NOTE: You have accept the "master" certificate in IE. Look at the certification path and select the top one. View and install that certificate.

I'm making better documentation for the company wiki, If needed, I'll post clearer instructions.

[niner_one]

hi.

im using wxp pro sp2 and outlook 2003 ( sp3) with zimbra v4.5.9 connector. i was able to open shared calendar without any problem but i am having problems creating an appointment. it does not show the free / busy of the invitee. also, outlook shows an error " error occured reading internet free/busy data..."

we have a valid certificate ( thawte ) and the free/busy option on outlook is correct and was able to hit it from the firefox.

any ideas?

[jeffreyheinen]

Originally Posted by niner_one

hi.
we have a valid certificate ( thawte ) and the free/busy option on outlook is correct and was able to hit it from the firefox.

any ideas?

We had this version as well. The certificate is valid, but the Windows box dosn't know that. Firefox does not save the certificate where Outlook can find it either.

You need to install the certificate. The simplest way will be to visit the site with IE. It will complain, but you should be able to view the server certificate, look at the certificate path, and view the root certificate. Once that is installed, outlook free/busy should be fine.