How to extend Calendar Entries to include time billing information

[greenrenault]

G'day Community!

Love Zimbra - fantastic product. I'm investigating what ways we could integrate our time billing system with Zimbra so that:
1. Users can easily view time billing entries in their Calendar (or a special Time Billing Calendar), providing a view of billable time vs non-billable
2. Assign time billing information to calendar entries, eg. select client account, job#, work order
3. Read/write the billing information to an external system

(Or any other suggestions!)

I've read this partially completed series of Wiki articles:
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=User:JoshPrismon

It's pretty inspiring stuff, but incomplete. So I was wondering if anyone has done this before? Or can provide some directions/URL's on how this may be done or tips on how to start.

Any help greatly appreciated!

[KevinH]

Hey there!! Sorry for the late'ish reply been backed up with stuff so a little slower than usual.

You can use the REST interface to auto-create events in user's calendars or you can create and manage the calendars from a central admin mailbox. The extra meta data about client#, job etc can all go in the notes. If you structure it or add a Zimlet you can make this data *live* so a hover over the client# brings up customer information or a job number brings up the work order.

Again for sync'ing the external system you can use the REST or SOAP api. A tech could update the event when they complete it and you can read that information for a external system update.

[greenrenault]

Thanks Kev. Can you show me where the documentation is on the REST interface? Doco & some examples would be good.

[greenrenault]

For those reading this thread, Zimlet doco is available on this page:
http://www.zimbra.com/products/zimlets.html

And specifically, here:
http://www.zimbra.com/pdf/Zimbra%20Z...Whitepaper.pdf

(And yes I am slightly embarrassed at not noticing that link!)