[chandler-users] Subscribe/publish free/busy from chandler server?

[Brian Moseley]

On 10/24/07, Ravi Narayan Sarma <ravi at violin-memory.com> wrote:

> By which you mean I can subscribe to other people's vfb and ifb files
> (which they have published to Cosmo)?

that's right.

Cosmo is server for both WebDAV and CalDAV. both protocols have the
notion of a "collection of resources". you can put any type of
resource you like into a regular collection. Cosmo doesn't attempt to
interpret the content of these resources in any way; it treats these
resources like opaque bundles of bits. you can PUT vfb and ifb files
into regular collections in Cosmo and GET them back out without
worrying that Cosmo's going to rewrite their contents or do anything
else unexpected to them. regular dav collections are not viewable in
the Cosmo calendar or dashboard, although they are viewable in the
account browser.

CalDAV takes defines certain types of collections to contain only
calendar resources (resources containing iCalendar data, with certain
restrictions like only one event or task or journal per resource).
Cosmo takes certain liberties with resources put into calendar
resources, sometimes rewriting their content in ways that are
semantically equivalent, and it enforces the restrictions i mentioned
above. Cosmo would probably not let you put Outlook-generated ifb and
vfb files into calendar collections, although I have never tried, so I
can't say for sure. calendar collections are viewable in the Cosmo web
ui, both via the calendar and dashboard and in the account browser.

> Okay, that makes sense. I assume someone can then subscribe to my
> free/busy by using a URL like: http://cosmo.mydomain.com/dav/ravi/
> ravi.vfb. In this case, it seems, I am pretty much using Cosmo as a
> WebDAV server?

that's right.

> Chandler does not yet seem to support live scheduling using free/busy
> or other means, yes? I can send event invites but can tell when
> another person is free only by subscribing to his/her iCal feed.

correct.

> Also, can generic URLs similar to the above be supported with Cosmo?
> The URL example you give for your DAV collection seems like that's
> possible...

yep, as long as you follow a convention when you put the ifb and vfb
files into Cosmo for each user. for example, you could code your
script to always put {username}.ifb and {username}.vfb into the user's
home collection; that would allow you to use the URL template
"http://davhost.mydomain.com/chandler/dav/%name%/%name%.vfb" in
Outlook.