paul@6 | 1 | Introduction
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paul@6 | 2 | ============
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paul@6 | 3 |
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paul@6 | 4 | The fburl software provides an extension for Lightning/Iceowl (the calendar
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paul@6 | 5 | extension for Mozilla Thunderbird/Icedove) that can obtain free/busy URL
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paul@6 | 6 | details from LDAP directories registered as address books. Thus, when the
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paul@6 | 7 | free/busy dialogue is opened, availability information for event participants
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paul@6 | 8 | may be shown if their contact details are supplied by an LDAP directory, if
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paul@6 | 9 | those details include an FBURL property, and if that property refers to a
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paul@6 | 10 | valid iCalendar VFREEBUSY component residing on an accessible Web server.
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paul@6 | 11 |
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paul@6 | 12 | More information about FBURL can be found in the following document:
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paul@6 | 13 |
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paul@6 | 14 | http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2739
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paul@6 | 15 |
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paul@6 | 16 | Other Sources of Free/Busy Information
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paul@6 | 17 | ======================================
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paul@6 | 18 |
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paul@6 | 19 | Although not currently supported by this software, FBURL information could be
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paul@6 | 20 | obtained from vCard objects:
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paul@6 | 21 |
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paul@6 | 22 | https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6350#section-6.9
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paul@6 | 23 |
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paul@6 | 24 | In Thunderbird, this would involve opening an address book and obtaining a
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paul@6 | 25 | card object (from a non-LDAP source) that can provide the FBURL property.
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paul@6 | 26 | Unfortunately, the built-in address books do not seem to support the FBURL
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paul@6 | 27 | property. Moreover, when vCard information is imported, properties such as
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paul@6 | 28 | FBURL that are not part of the traditional set of vCard properties are
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paul@6 | 29 | discarded.
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paul@6 | 30 |
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paul@6 | 31 | Although not directly related to FBURL and over-the-Web free/busy resource
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paul@6 | 32 | retrieval, such information may also be exchanged using iMIP and normal e-mail
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paul@6 | 33 | communications:
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paul@6 | 34 |
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paul@6 | 35 | https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047
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paul@6 | 36 |
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paul@6 | 37 | Thunderbird supports iMIP for VEVENT and VTODO components but not for
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paul@6 | 38 | VFREEBUSY components. Support for VFREEBUSY would require received components
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paul@6 | 39 | to be recorded in a suitable repository so that they may then be consulted by
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paul@6 | 40 | a specific free/busy provider when scheduling events. The sending of VFREEBUSY
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paul@6 | 41 | components would involve access to the user's schedule and the construction of
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paul@6 | 42 | iCalendar output from such information. Control over free/busy sharing would
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paul@6 | 43 | need to be exercised, probably requiring configuration settings to indicate
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paul@6 | 44 | whether such information is sent along with other iMIP payloads and with whom
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paul@6 | 45 | such information may be shared.
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paul@6 | 46 |
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paul@6 | 47 | With iMIP, the effective "FBURL" of a contact would in fact be the e-mail
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paul@6 | 48 | address of that contact or, more accurately, the address expressed using the
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paul@6 | 49 | mailto URI scheme. Thus, wider support for FBURL in vCard-handling and in
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paul@6 | 50 | Thunderbird address books would let users indicate that they can expect
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paul@6 | 51 | free/busy information via iMIP from certain contacts and, in their own vCard
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paul@6 | 52 | details, that they will publish their own availability details via iMIP.
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paul@6 | 53 |
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paul@6 | 54 | Contact, Copyright and Licence Information
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paul@6 | 55 | ==========================================
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paul@6 | 56 |
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paul@6 | 57 | See the following Web pages for more information about this work:
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paul@6 | 58 |
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paul@6 | 59 | http://hgweb.boddie.org.uk/fburl
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paul@6 | 60 |
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paul@6 | 61 | The author can be contacted at the following e-mail address:
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paul@6 | 62 |
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paul@6 | 63 | paul@boddie.org.uk
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paul@6 | 64 |
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paul@6 | 65 | Copyright and licence information can be found in the docs directory - see
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paul@6 | 66 | docs/COPYING.txt for more information.
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