1 = imip-agent = 2 3 imip-agent is an extension for existing mail systems (such as Exim and 4 Postfix) providing extra support for calendaring and scheduling. 5 6 * It uses the [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545|iCalendar]], 7 [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5546|iTIP]] and 8 [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]] Internet standards. 9 10 * It can inspect messages containing calendar objects and extract 11 availability information for sharing and publication. You and your users 12 decide exactly which kind of messages it will inspect, whose messages it will 13 inspect, and for whom no inspection or sharing will occur at all. 14 15 * It can provide a Web-based interface to calendar information for users who 16 cannot or choose not to use mail software with calendaring support. This is 17 optional and your users can choose to adjust, ignore or disable this 18 functionality. 19 20 * It supports autonomous entities such as meeting rooms and resources, 21 automatically accepting or declining invitations according to their 22 schedules. You can adjust this behaviour to implement your own policies. 23 24 * It is licensed as Free Software, giving you the freedom to see what the 25 software does, as well as the freedom to modify and share the software with 26 others. 27 28 Unlike some monolithic groupware solutions... 29 30 * It does not require you to change your mail delivery software or your mail 31 storage software (subject to existing support provided by imip-agent; support 32 for other software can always be added). 33 34 * It does not require your users to change their mail client software. 35 36 * It does not insist that everybody must store their schedules on a single 37 server in order to collaboratively schedule events. 38 39 * Instead, imip-agent takes advantage of the decentralized nature of the 40 iCalendar and iMIP Internet standards. 41 42 * It allows people in your organisation to collaborate with people outside 43 your organisation without insisting that they join your infrastructure or 44 that everybody join some cloud service that keeps everyone's information 45 within a single, typically proprietary, remote service (that may also be 46 potentially vulnerable to intrusion and surveillance). 47 48 The role of imip-agent is to bridge the gap between plain e-mail and 49 "full-stack" groupware solutions, thus allowing organisations and individuals 50 to augment their existing infrastructure instead of being compelled to perform 51 costly and unnecessary migrations and infrastructure transformations. 52 53 == Adding Calendaring to E-Mail == 54 55 With just an e-mail system, users can already create and schedule calendar 56 events using any mail or groupware client software that supports calendars and 57 that already supports [[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545|iCalendar]] and 58 [[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]]. 59 60 Starting with an e-mail system, imip-agent can be used to add further support 61 for calendaring: 62 63 {{{#!table 64 '''Requirement''' || '''Solution''' 65 == 66 Your users probably want to know when other people are available and when they 67 are busy. 68 || 69 Although [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]] supports this, most mail 70 programs do not, so imip-agent will gather information about events and 71 publish it for retrieval via HTTP. It will also respond to any iMIP requests 72 for free/busy information via mail. 73 == 74 Organisations may want to coordinate access to resources using calendaring. 75 || 76 Here, imip-agent can provide autonomous agents that can respond to event 77 invitations, allowing users to book resources and to see published 78 availability information for those resources. 79 == 80 Some users may not be using mail programs that understand calendars and 81 events. 82 || 83 Here, imip-agent can provide a Web interface to let them respond to 84 invitations and to create and schedule their own events. 85 }}} 86 87 According to your requirements, any or all of the above solutions can be 88 implemented, providing as much of a groupware solution as you need. 89 90 == Design and Implementation Notes == 91 92 Details of the mechanisms employed by imip-agent are described in the 93 following documents: 94 95 * [[/CounterProposals|Counter-Proposals and Offers]] 96 * [[/MailIntegration|E-Mail Integration]] 97 * [[/EventRecurrences|Event Recurrences]] 98 * [[/IncomingMessages|Incoming Messages]] 99 * [[/OutgoingMessages|Outgoing Messages]] 100 * [[/UseCases|Use Cases]] 101 * [[/WebServerIntegration|Web Server Integration]]