[Kolab-commits] r1 - / trunk trunk/research

[scm-commit@wald.intevation.org]

Author: bernhard
Date: 2008-03-26 11:43:13 +0100 (Wed, 26 Mar 2008)
New Revision: 1

Added:
   trunk/
   trunk/research/
   trunk/research/outlook-fbtype.txt
Log:
Adding "trunk".
Adding directory "research" to hold research papers possibly more in the future.
Adding first research paper about outlook-behaviour.


Added: trunk/research/outlook-fbtype.txt
===================================================================
--- trunk/research/outlook-fbtype.txt	2008-02-05 16:45:01 UTC (rev 0)
+++ trunk/research/outlook-fbtype.txt	2008-03-26 10:43:13 UTC (rev 1)
@@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
+Outlook Support for FREEBUSY FBTYPE Parameters
+==============================================
+2007-11-12, Bernhard Herzog <bh at intevation.de>
+
+
+The Internet RFC 2445 describes the format of free/busy lists in
+iCalendar format.  This format allows a parameter for free/busy list
+entries that indicates whether the entry marks free or busy time and to
+an extent the reason why the time is busy.
+
+This document investigates whether and how Outlook supports this
+parameter
+
+Tested Versions
+---------------
+
+Windows XP SP2 (German)
+Outlook 2003 SP2 (German)
+( Toltec Connector 2.2.0 beta1 (German) was installed, but should be
+  irrelevant for the functionality examined in this document.)
+
+
+Background
+----------
+
+The RFC allows a parameter FBTYPE for the FREEBUSY entries and describes
+for values for this parameter (Section 4.2.9):
+
+     fbtypeparam        = "FBTYPE" "=" ("FREE" / "BUSY"
+                        / "BUSY-UNAVAILABLE" / "BUSY-TENTATIVE"
+     [...]
+
+   The value FREE indicates that the time interval is free for
+   scheduling.  The value BUSY indicates that the time interval is busy
+   because one or more events have been scheduled for that interval. The
+   value BUSY-UNAVAILABLE indicates that the time interval is busy and
+   that the interval can not be scheduled. The value BUSY-TENTATIVE
+   indicates that the time interval is busy because one or more events
+   have been tentatively scheduled for that interval. If not specified
+   on a property that allows this parameter, the default is BUSY.
+
+
+Test whether Outlook generates FBTYPE parameters
+------------------------------------------------
+
+To test whether Outlook can generate FBTYPE parameters, three calendar
+entries were created in Outlook, each one with a different value for
+"Anzeigen als:" ("Show as"[1]): "Gebucht" ("Busy"), "Mit Vorbehalt"
+("Tentative"), "Abwesend" ("Unavailable").
+
+To generate an iCalendar free/busy list, a file:// URL for publishing
+free/busy information was configured.  For our German Windows version,
+we used
+
+   file:///C:/Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/USERNAME/%NAME%.ifb
+
+Replace USERNAME with actual username so that the URL points to a
+directory where the user can create new files.
+
+Afterwards, the menu item "Extras" / "Senden/Empfangen" / Frei/Gebucht
+Informationen" will create an ifb file in the directory given in the URL.
+
+The tests show that the busy type does not show up in the ifb-File
+(email address modified):
+
+BEGIN:VCALENDAR
+PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 11.0 MIMEDIR//EN
+VERSION:2.0
+METHOD:PUBLISH
+BEGIN:VFREEBUSY
+ORGANIZER:user at example.com
+DTSTAMP:20071112T130626Z
+DTSTART:20071031T230000Z
+DTEND:20071231T230000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071102T070000Z/20071102T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071109T070000Z/20071109T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071112T160000Z/20071112T190000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071116T070000Z/20071116T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071123T070000Z/20071123T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071130T070000Z/20071130T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071207T070000Z/20071207T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071214T070000Z/20071214T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071221T070000Z/20071221T073000Z
+FREEBUSY:20071228T070000Z/20071228T073000Z
+END:VFREEBUSY
+END:VCALENDAR
+
+
+
+Test whether Outlook uses the FBTYPE in free/busy lists
+-------------------------------------------------------
+
+To test whether Outlook uses the FBTYPE if it finds it in iCalendar
+free/busy lists fetched from elsewhere, a free/busy list with a FBTYPE
+parameters was created:
+
+
+BEGIN:VCALENDAR
+PRODID:-//proko2//freebusy 1.0//EN
+METHOD:PUBLISH
+VERSION:2.0
+BEGIN:VFREEBUSY
+ORGANIZER:MAILTO:user at example.com
+DTSTAMP:20071112T142157Z
+DTSTART:20071111T230000Z
+DTEND:20071121T230000Z
+FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=BUSY:20071112T160000Z/20071112T170000Z;
+FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=BUSY-TENTATIVE:20071112T170000Z/20071112T180000Z
+FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=BUSY-UNAVAILABLE:20071112T180000Z/20071112T190000Z
+FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=FREE:20071112T190000Z/20071112T200000Z
+END:VFREEBUSY
+END:VCALENDAR
+
+This was placed on a web-server and an appropriate URL configured in
+Outlook, so that this free/busy list would be fetched for a certain
+email-address.
+
+Then the dialog for a new calendar entry was started and the email
+address for he prepared free/busy list added as an attendee.  Outlook did
+fetch the free/busy list (confirmed in the server logs) and showed all
+four times as busy, including the one with FBTYPE=FREE.
+
+As the same Outlook instance was used as for previous test,
+we can compare the display of appointments created by Outlook itself
+with the entries from the fetched free/busy list.
+The Outlook entries show up in the row for organiser and were displayed with
+different colors/patterns to indicate the various types of "busy".
+This shows that the dialog technically can display different types.
+
+Conclusion: Outlook ignores the FBTYPE parameters in iCalendar free/busy
+lists it fetches from elsewhere.
+
+
+Footnotes:
+[1] English translations may not match the English versions of the
+Software because they were not checked against the English versions.