IPLANET CALENDAR SERVER 5.

0
INDEX
1. Introduction. 2. Standards And 3. Architecture. Protocols.

4. Iplanet Calendar Server Administration.

5. Iplanet Calender Server Client.

6. Features , Functions And Benefits. 7. Conclusion. 8. Bibliography.

ABSTRACT

Over the past few years, we have seen web browsing and "surfing" the Internet become almost as common as making a phone call. In fact, nearly everyone who has access to the Internet also has an e-mail account. Chat groups and other interactive messaging programs have allowed people to use the Internet as another medium of communication. As a result, there are many large public Internet directories to help people find individuals and businesses as well as online address books for storing and organizing contact information. The next web based interactive application expected to become widespread is calendaring. To help people manage their busy lives and stay informed, many web sites currently publish calendars of events and some portals have even begun providing free calendars for their members. Like e-mail, "iplanet-calendar" will become another ubiquitous collaborative application as people experience the benefits of sharing calendar information and using online interactive scheduling to manage their time, coordinate with family and friends and track changes to fast pace work schedules. Just as friends and colleagues ask for your e-mail address, they will be asking for your calendar address.

The paper provides a detailed description of the architechture of the icalender, The client-side and server-side working , Internal services and benefits of using icalenders

INTRODUCTION
The iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 is a high performance, Internet standards based calendar server designed with the scalability to meet the needs of even the largest ISPs (internet service providers), telecommunications, and enterprise service providers. The iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 is an easily customizable Internet-based calendaring solution for both the web-oriented enterprise and the service provider markets that enables customers to offer group scheduling and personal calendaring, and to host event calendars for their subscribers. iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 provides web-based group scheduling and personal calendaring to consumers at home or at work, and lets them share calendar information with others over the Internet. Through a web browser,

subscribers can update their schedules with their own appointments and publish their calendars for viewing by others. The iPlanet Calendar Server user interface can be customized to include web links for ecommerce, banner ads, the logo/brand of the calendar server customer, and more.

The iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 is designed to perform Group Scheduling. In particular, iPlanet Calendar Express 5.0, the web-based client, allows a user to create an event to which other Attendees are invited. The Attendees can accept or decline invitations. Attendees are typically people on the same calendar server, but this is not an absolute requirement. When iPlanet Calendar Server detects that an Attendee is not on the calendar server, it can send the scheduling message (a request, reply, and so forth) via e-mail as an iMIP message. This allows iPlanet Calendar Express 5.0 users to schedule with Outlook users. Native support for iCalendar standards allows users to schedule events in a format that is easily shared across the Internet.

STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS

Internet Calendaring (iCalendar) iCalendar Transport-Independent Interoperability Protocol (iTIP) iCalendar Message-Based Interoperability Protocol (iMIP)

 Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP)

iCalendar (RFC 2445) describes a standard schema for calendar objects on the Internet. The iTIP standard (RFC 2446) describes how to use iCalendar objects to perform common scheduling tasks such as publishing an event, or inviting someone to a meeting.

The iMIP standard (RFC 2447) describes how the iTIP scheduling operations can be performed over e-mail.

The CAP standard (work in progress by the Calendaring and Scheduling working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force) will provide a real-time access protocol for client applications to talk with calendar servers

ARCHITECTURE
The diagram below illustrates the internal architecture of the iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0.

The iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 product has been built on proven components from the iPlanet mail and directory servers. The design is highly modular. iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 is implemented by way of a collection of shared libraries. The shared libraries fall into three main categories, called subsystems: Protocol, Core, and Database. These shared libraries are bound in various combinations to produce the executable daemons cshttpd, csdwpd, csadmind, and csnotifyd. There is also the daemon, enpd, that

provides an event notification service, a separately installed service that is shipped with iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0. Commands or requests enter the server through the Protocol subsystem and they are passed to the Core subsystem for processing. Database accesses go through the Database subsystem. The role of each of these subsystems is as follows:

Protocol subsystem
Commands or Requests enter through the HTTP protocol layer. This is a minimal HTTP server implementation, streamlined to support calendar requests. Clients use either SHTML or WCAP to submit requests. SHTML and WCAP are based on HTTP. WCAP is an open protocol that can perform all server commands (except for certain administrative commands). It can be used by clients that need raw, unformatted calendar information. It can also be used to obtain a JavaScript technology based user interface. This user interface was the only one available in iPlanet Calendar Server 2.x, but in version 5.0, it has been replaced with a new SHTML-based user interface. This new approach, based on XML and XSLT specifications, generates a user interface in response to commands. In response to an incoming request, the UI generator uses an XML specification to build a document tree with calendar and user data, subject to access control. The XSLT specification then traverses the document data tree and emits HTML. One of the benefits of this design is that it results in fewer interactions between the client and server and fewer bits being sent overall. Previously, in iPlanet Calendar Server 2.x, the system returned embedded JavaScript technology, which generated HTML at the client. The XML/XSLT approach generates output that is rendered faster by browsers. For backward compatibility, the iPlanet Calendar Server 2.x design will continue to work, with WCAP requests returning a combination of HTML text and JavaScript technology as the default. As in iPlanet Calendar Server 2.x, commands using the .wcap extension may also request output as XML wrapped in HTML, or as iCalendar wrapped in HTML.

Core subsystem
The Core subsystem consists of several other subsystems (Access Control subsystem, UI Generator subsystem, Caldb subsystem) and the Calendar

Server API (CSAPI) plug-ins. The Core subsystem processes the calendar requests and generates the desired UI output. The Core subsystem also handles user authentication.

Database subsystem
The Database subsystem is responsible for storing and retrieving data to and from the database. This subsystem sends the data in a low-level format to the Core subsystem for processing. The Database subsystem uses the Berkeley DB from Sleepycat. The database API is currently not public. The database is based on the iCalendar standard. The schema used for events and tasks is a superset of the iCalendar standard. The database can be backed up without shutting down the server. Event content can be loaded by administrative tools in the back end at the same time users access the server with iPlanet Calendar Express. The calendar database supports events, tasks (iCalendar to-dos), and alarms.

iPlanet Calendar Server Administration

This section provides an overview of the iPlanet Calendar Server Administrative Interface and Functions. 5.1 The Command Line Interface The iPlanet Calendar Server provides a command line interface for performing administrative tasks. This enables an administrator to develop simple scripts to automatically perform administrative functions. There are a number of command line tools available. One or more users can be assigned as calendar server administrators. Administrators typically may perform the following functions: start and stop the server create, modify, and delete calendars,users manage content feeds backup and restore the calendar database create, modify, and delete calendar resources such as conference rooms

5.2 Administrative Functions

The Calendar Server supports the following administrative functions through the command line interface:

Manage the calendar attributes in the LDAP server Backup individual calendars, a user's calendars, or the entire calendar Database Restore individual calendars, a user's calendars, or the entire calendar Database Manage calendars and their properties Manage events and tasks in a calendar Manage calendar databases Export/Import a calendar in iCalendar or XML format View, enable, or disable configured Calendar Server API (CSAPI) plugins. Manage calendar resource objects such as conference rooms and video equipment. Manage schedule entries in the Group Scheduling Engine queue (includeslisting entries in the queue and deleting entries from the queue) Start and Stop the Calendar Server

iPlanet Calendar Server Client

This Section discusses the iPlanet Calendar Express Client and a customization overview.

iPlanet Calendar Express

A web client, iPlanet Calendar Express, is provided as part of the server distribution. The web client is XML/XSLT based and it runs on NetscapeTM Communicator 4.x and Internet Explorer 5.x. It supports calendar events, tasks, and reminders (e-mail). It displays calendars in standard views such as Day, Week, Month, Year, but also displays multiple calendars side by side in a Comparison view. The image below shows the Overview, which details the current day and provides an abbreviated view of the next 6 days.

The iPlanet Calendar Express interface enables users to create and manage multiple

calendars. That is, a user can have one calendar for their work, another calendar for a
group of people with whom they work, another calendar for company holidays, and another for their personal activities. One of the most compelling features of iPlanet Calendar Express is its support for combining several calendars and displaying them in a singlecomposite view called a Calendar Group iPlanet Calendar Express supports modest access control which enables the user to create public calendars that are readable and/or writeable by others, as well as private calendars that are accessible only to the owners. The figure below illustrates

the privacy options available for each calendar

Access control for calendars is supported at the individual user level as well as the
global level in which anyone may be able to access the calendar. The type of access can also be controlled. A user may wish to grant certain users read-only access and others availability and schedule-only access. This type of access allows a user to schedule an item into the calendar but the user cannot read the appointments in the calendar. iPlanet Calendar Express was designed with world-wide calendar sharing in mind and

supports multiple time zones. The time scale for calendar views can be in any time
zone. In fact, multiple time zones can be shown, and a specific time zone can be applied to a calendar. One of the primary features of iPlanet Calendar Express is its support for

group scheduling. Group scheduling encompasses a wide range of activities from

inviting members to a meeting and providing a free-busy lookup to replying to the invitations and tracking the attendees' acknowledgments.

iPlanet Calendar Express also provides an integrated Corporate Address Book for inviting individuals to meetings.

Calendar Express Customization

There are three levels of customization progressing from the simplest to the most complex: 1. Change the look of an existing view without changing the data contained in the view. For example: Adding a new or different banner somewhere on the page Changing the position or look of elements on the page Removing some of the information on the page

2. Change the content of an existing view. For example: Adding a list of today's tasks and events to the top of the yearview Calendar Changing the one week lookahead view on the overview page to a two week lookahead. 3. Create a new view to provide the calendar data in some different way. For example: Providing a "quarterly" view showing 3 months at a time, with the days containing a task or event highlighted in red. Providing a comparison view with individual calendars lined up horizontally.

The Added Advantage

The iPlanet Calendar Server is a compelling solution for any business seeking to provide calendar access to its employees or customers. The iPlanet Calendar Server has several key features that make it an exciting addition to the breath of the iPlanet Messaging Products. High Performance Server The iPlanet Calendar Server is built on an extensible distributed scalable architecture. The server scales both horizontally across machines and vertically across CPUs. The calendar server can be enhanced to support an ever growing number of end users. Based on Standards and Proven Technology The iPlanet Calendar Server is built on standards like iCalendar, XML, HTTP, iMIP, iTIP, LDAP, and SMTP. As a result, services and applications that speak these protocols can be easily integrated into the iPlanet Calendar Server environment. The iPlanet Calendar Server integrates seamlessly with the proven highly scalable Directory Server, Portal Server and Messaging Server products from iPlanet. Flexibility and Extensibility The iPlanet Calendar Server supports multiple devices through the iPlanet

Portal Server: Mobile Access Pack. Its open APIs enable extensibility of both the server itself and the clients that communicate with it.

Features, Functions, and Benefits

CONCLUSION

The calendar server provides high performance and is highly scalable. It must be highly available so that customers can rely on their data being available when they need it. Ideally, it can also integrate easily into an infrastructure of other services such as mail and directory. The iPlanet Calendar Server will continue to evolve to support the enterprise and the service provider. Future enhancements of the iPlanet Calendar Server will include Virtual Domains, Delegated Administration, full Outlook interoperability, a shared address book, a full featured desktop client (fat client), voice enabled access and more. May this calendaring system should come into existence As soon as possible and reduce the burden of most of the enterprises and people

BIBILOGRAPHY
http://www.sun.com http://www.itpapers.com http://www.iplanet.com/products/iplanet_messaging/: Information on the iPlanet Messaging Server. http://www.iplanet.com/products/iplanet_calendar/: Information on the iPlanet Calendar Server. http://www.iplanet.com/products/iplanet_directory/: Additional information on the iPlanet Directory Server