11 Replies Latest reply on Apr 5, 2004 9:11 AM by acoliver

    Calendar Server proposal

    a_sogor

      Hi all,

      I have been prototyping a calendar server, and I am curious to hear people input on it:
      http://sourceforge.net/projects/themoses

      My goal was to create a core set of services to manage calendar, addressbook, possibly todo's since most of the free and even major commercial calendar servers lack programmable API's to schedule events.

      The implementation is based on JBoss and technologies that should be very similar to what you guys use. I got a couple of things working:
      - AddressBook.
      - Calendar/ Group schduleing.
      - Live Ical export for integration with Mozilla Calendar.
      - Templateable email notification of invitation and meeting changes.

      I am working on:
      - VCard, FBURL, VFreeBusy to allow some integration with Outlook and Evolution.
      - LDAP replication of Address Book for OutLook and Mozilla (maybe Evolution).

      I think with Mozilla Calendar and Mail it would be a viable solution.

      The reason I write to you is because I was looking to integrate with a mail server for IMIP implementation. Haveing a hook to a mailserver would allow to implement IMIP scheduleing and intercept mail for processing. It would open the door to better interoperability with Evolution, and maybe Outlook(I read somewher it does some IMIP).

      Also since the persistent state is centralized it could be exposed many other ways:
      -to the mobile too via WAP, and syncML with Sync4j.
      -CAP if somebody ever gets a free CAP client working.
      -SOAP.

      I really think that having an open and functional backoffice server would allow integration of custom workflows and IT soultions with the desktop in a much more coherent way than it is done today.

      So what you guys think?

      Aron

        • 1. Re: jboss ide - Eclipse 3.0 installer can't see features

          I have similar problem:

          I try to install jboss-ide in eclipse 2.1.1

          I did the following:
          Window->Open Perspective->Install/Update

          in Install/Update perspective I create new Site Bookmark
          add this value:
          name: jboss-ide
          url: http://jboss.sourceforge.net/jbosside/updates

          the bookmark success created, but there are no tree view
          after a while a message box appears with this message:

          Unable to access "http://jboss.sourceforge.net/jbosside/updates".
          Unable to access Site stream: "http://jboss.sourceforge.net/jbosside/updates" [http://jboss.sourceforge.net/jbosside/updates]
          Unable to access Site stream: "http://jboss.sourceforge.net/jbosside/updates/site.xml" [http://jboss.sourceforge.net/jbosside/updates/site.xml]

          • 2. Re: Calendar Server proposal
            kabirkhan

            Hi,

            I personally think this definitely sounds interesting! However, better wait till Andy is back from leave in about a weeks time to comment more.

            Cheers,

            Kab

            • 3. Re: Calendar Server proposal
              mikea-xoba

              agreed calendaring is great. but does it belong in jboss mail per se? or rather in a 'jboss calendar' module (if it existed). my question is genuine, in that i know folks tend to associate 'mail' and 'calendar' as essential and somewhat related functions (since they both involve contacts, etc), but just because some popular desktop clients associate them doesn't preclude us from making a different design decision. i'd love to come back and develop this topic a bit later when i have more time.

              • 4. Re: Calendar Server proposal
                a_sogor


                Granted mailing and calendaring are separate issues but they were tied together by some historical reasons:

                1. In my understanding(that could be wrong) Outlook acutally stores the persistent state of the calendar in Exchange in a "special" forder, managing the file"specially" but interacting over an extended Mail protocols.

                2. Notes is special, even with mailing.

                3. There is CAP but where is a free and functional CAP client or server.

                4. The most usable standard for calendaring, and group schedule lays with ITIP what is "theoretical" and IMIP what is the mail binding of ITIP. So you need a mailserver to implement it, and to manage a centralized state. You do not need mailserver integration to use it like Evolution but than you have issues of exposing your calendar for others to get IMIP fully working. Plus the there is no business logic to manipulate the state(so every cleint must implement the same logic or else ...).

                So the reason bring the issue here is to impelement IMIP with mail server hooks to process the messages and manage a central state.

                Per the issue of missdesigned clients: Well that is the reality today, that is the expectation of an "average" user. Unless one takes the burden of developing a cross platform client, market it, make it main stream we got to deal with what we have. Evolution with IMIP, Mozilla
                with LDAP address book and Calendar viewer.

                Do not get me wrong I am not trying to push a solution or attack your opinion it is just a "pasionate" converstion.

                Aron

                • 5. Re: Calendar Server proposal
                  pilhuhn

                  My understanding was that Andy wanted something like Exchange, but as OSS - I might be wrong.

                  From past experience with a tool called GenesisWorld, the key to success today is that the tool behaves like Outlook/Exchange and can do more. Most (commercial) users are used to O/E these days. They don't want to learn another tool, nor loose data when migrating away from O/E. So yes, I thing Calendaring belongs into JBossMail/JExchange/call it as you wish.

                  • 6. Re: Calendar Server proposal
                    mikea-xoba

                    agreed we want something in jboss that can serve many of the same functions as popular office suites, which definitely goes beyond mail per se. i guess i was just playing devil's advocate. sorry!

                    mike

                    • 7. Re: Calendar Server proposal
                      acoliver

                      If you look at the "case for mail services" doc you'll see that calendar was planned from day one.

                      • 8. Introduction for Caledar Server
                        a_sogor

                        Hi,

                        My name is Aron Sogor, Andy wrote me to introduce myself to the team. I have building a calendar server using JBoss and Hibernate as I indiciated in my prevous posting.

                        I expressed interest to contribute he expressed interest look at it so where could I join in?

                        It is currently packaged as an ear, and one Mbean for administration. Is there any better way to package it or integrate it with your codebase?

                        Any suggestions for integrating it?

                        It is right now builds on it's own using ant.

                        I could also start writing a WIKI page laying out what I got now and discuss it there?

                        Aron

                        • 9. Re: Calendar Server proposal
                          kabirkhan

                          Hi there,

                          The mail service is packaged as an ear file containing the sar file for mail services (mail.sar) and individual jars for the various ejb's. You should be able to modify the mail services build script to include the jar for your ejb, and to either a) put your stuff with mail.sar or to b) put it in a separate sar within the ear file. I reckon b) sounds best as maybe not everybody wants calendar?

                          I don't know too much about how calendar stuff works (even though I have obviously used Outlook), but would definitely like to know more, so I for one would be interested in a summary of how it works, how to build/run it and what sorts of client I would use to test it and some information on what specs I should be looking at.

                          Thanks,

                          Kab

                          • 10. Re: Calendar Server proposal
                            a_sogor

                            Hi,

                            I created a draft of the calendaring app I wrote. I put most of my notes in a wiki at
                            http://asogor.homelinux.net/JSPWiki/Wiki.jsp?page=CONCEPT. I did not use your wiki to allow for comments first.

                            I have my stuff in an ear file too. Same thing it has jars, ejbs, webapps. Plus I have a jar with MBean for configuration.

                            I also use Hibernate and XDoclets to generate code and DBScripts, so the build file is long. I think I get the M1 to build see how I can fit in. It will take me a couple of days.

                            In the mean time, I would love to hear your input.

                            Aron



                            • 11. Re: Calendar Server proposal
                              acoliver

                              Just jump in man, grab the jboss-mail module. See how the MBeans work. Start combining the source base, submit it as a zip + patch files. Once it looks good we'll make you a committer.