[CalendarServer-users] Multi-user XMLDirectoryService

[Cyrus Daboo]

Hi Alan,

--On March 25, 2008 5:57:09 PM +0200 Alan Levin <alan at futureperfect.co.za> 
wrote:

> As mentioned that's what I've been doing for the past 18 months. We need
> more info from you before I can rest assured. I was hoping that you would
> be able to tell us that you are full time assigned to this, together with
> a team of other specialists that you can call on at any time. Plus a QT
> available on demand.  Is this a part time job for you or are you
> dedicated?

There are several people contributing to the open source effort as 
evidenced by the logs on Trac. There is no one working full time on this.

>>>> - Is it possible to allow users to access the calendar of other
>>>> users? Either read-only or read-write but without sharing
>>>> credentials. I can see how this can be done using <location> via
>>>> <proxies>, but can it be done directly as a user? Or do I need to
>>>> hack it using a resource or location? Is there a recommended way of
>>>> doing this?
>
> ???

The <proxies> element works in the XML file for locations and resources 
only. That is a way to "hard-code" proxies for those types of principals. 
There is also the proxy/delegate mechanism that iCal uses that allows 
setting up proxies via the WebDAV protocol. That has to be done using the 
relevant protocol (as documented via spec on macosforge). Currently only 
iCal has a way to do that. The command line tool I have almost ready will 
provide another way to do that.

>>>> - What's the difference between a resource and a location?
>
> ???

We make that distinction because in iCalendar there is a difference between 
a "location" and a "resource". The key being that a "location" has its own 
iCalendar property. This actually models how people work with events as a 
"location" (meeting room) is typically thought of differently than a 
"resource" (e.g., projector) that needs to be included in the meeting. In 
time we are likely to see clear differences between these two types - e.g. 
we might want to add a "capacity" property to the location that could then 
be used to aid scheduling. Resources might have other types of property 
that can be used to describe them.

>>>> - What's the meaning of the <password> field for groups, locations
>>>> and resources?
>
> ???

It is currently not possible to login as a group, location or resource, so 
that element can be left blank for now.

>>>> - Under <proxies>, what are valid <member type=... values and what's
>>>> their meaning? Is this where I can use groups?
>
> ???

I have updated the wiki page with more details that ought to help with that:

<http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/calendarserver/wiki/XMLDirectoryService>

If you think there needs to be more on that page let me know.

Also, we do provide a DTD for the accounts xml file and that does describe 
(in its own fashion) what the allowed options are.

-- 
Cyrus Daboo