[kronolith] Free/busy URLs

[Kevin M. Myer]

What is a Free/Busy URL?

A Free/Busy URL does just what it says:  it provides Free/Busy 
information about something, via a URL.  Generally, this will be in 
iCalendar format, with a VFREEBUSY component.  Applications generate 
these in different ways and publish them in different ways, but since 
this is Kronolith, that's what I'll try to explain.  And, depending on 
what version of Kronolith you have, you have more granularity over the 
number and which calendars are used to generate the data.

In Kronolith 2.0.X, you can only do a per calendar URL.  So if you want 
to have two calendars, say one with public events, and one with 
private, and you want the combination of events on both of them to 
constitute your Free/Busy info, you can't, because the URLs are 
calendar based only (of the form 
http://www.example.com/horde/kronolith/fb.php?c=kronolith_share).  As 
Jan noted, you access this on the My Calendars screen - pick the 
calendar and your Free/Busy URL is generated in the field below that.


In what will be Kronolith 2.1.X or higher (currently unreleased), there 
is a new preference available that lets you specify one or more 
calendars, whose entries are to be merged to generate your Free/Busy 
information.  The above format still works, for a per calendar share 
basis, but a new format is added of the form 
http://www.example.com/horde/kronolith/fb.php?u=username.  If this URL 
is referenced, Kronolith generates the results based on the calendars 
you've selected, or if you've selected none, defaults to your default 
share.

Now how is this information useful?  Well, if you're using applications 
that know how to use these URLs to check if you're free or busy, it can 
facilitate scheduling of meetings or events.  So the idea is you 
publish a static URL (in much the same way that you give out an email 
address, a phone number, mailing address, etc.) and then people can use 
that to check if you're available.  Important to note is that no 
information about *what* you have scheduled is available.  It's just 
whether or not you are free or not.

To fully use this in Kronolith you need:

1) An identity setup, configured with a from_addr (this ensures that 
your FB info is returned when Kronolith is queried)
2) An Address Book that contains FB URLs for entries (this allows you 
to store or utilize existing entries when creating events)
3) Kronolith configured to use the above Address Book

Now, when you create an event, check out the "Edit Invitees" area.  
Type in one or more email addresses, and if they are in your Address 
Book, and if they have a FB URL, their availability will show up.

For others to use your URL, if they are on your system, they need to 
have you in their address book, or there needs to be a shared address 
book that contains these entries (we maintain and publish these as part 
of our organizational directory, for instance).  If the users aren't on 
your system, just give them your URL and they can plug it into whatever 
they are using that takes advantage of it.

Kevin

-- 
Kevin M. Myer
Senior Systems Administrator
Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13  http://www.iu13.org