1 imip-agent
2 ==========
3
4 This software implements an agent that can interpret e-mail messages
5 containing calendar information, maintain availability records for scheduling
6 participants, act on behalf of resources and other entities that need to
7 participate in scheduling, and support user interfaces for end-users whose
8 e-mail programs do not understand calendar data.
9
10 Getting Started
11 ===============
12
13 Eventually, this information should be incorporated into packages for various
14 operating system distributions, and the accompanying instructions should be
15 largely superfluous for most users.
16
17 See: docs/wiki/GettingStarted
18
19 Configuring Mail Systems for Mail Recipients
20 ============================================
21
22 The software should operate independently of the way mail recipients are
23 identified in any given mail system, and thus does not dictate things such as
24 routing or account querying. However, example configuration files are provided
25 that demonstrate the use of various techniques to identify mail recipients.
26
27 Naturally, these recipient identification configuration examples can be
28 disregarded in favour of other ways of defining mail recipients, subject to
29 the needs of any given environment.
30
31 See: docs/wiki/MailIntegration
32 See: docs/wiki/MailIntegration--LDAP
33 See: docs/wiki/MailIntegration--Simple
34
35 Configuring Mail Systems for Mail Delivery
36 ==========================================
37
38 The agent software assumes that delivery of mail to recipients may be
39 performed either using local SMTP or by using LMTP to a suitable mailbox
40 provider.
41
42 See: docs/wiki/MailIntegration
43 See: docs/wiki/MailIntegration--LMTP
44 See: docs/wiki/MailIntegration--LocalSMTP
45
46 Configuring Web Servers for Free/Busy Publishing
47 ================================================
48
49 Each user may request the publishing of their free/busy information by
50 configuring certain settings. The conf/apache/imip-agent.conf file provides a
51 configuration file for deployment with the Apache Web server software that
52 exposes a directory for Web publishing containing the published free/busy
53 information.
54
55 Access to free/busy information may not be moderated, but Web server
56 directives can be introduced to impose access controls. Mail programs that
57 wish to consult the free/busy information may have problems in dealing with
58 authentication mechanisms, however, and it may be regarded as acceptable in
59 certain environments to expose such information publicly or with
60 network-specific access constraints.
61
62 Configuring Web Servers for the Calendar Management Interface
63 =============================================================
64
65 A calendar management interface is provided to allow users to view and
66 interact with their calendars through the Web. The
67 conf/apache/imip-manager.conf file provides a configuration file for
68 deployment with the Apache Web server software that enables this interface.
69
70 The management interface is deployed as a CGI program, meaning that a suitable
71 module must be enabled in the Apache configuration. On Debian, this is done as
72 follows:
73
74 a2enmod cgi
75
76 Since such access to calendars should only be performed by identified
77 users, access controls are suggested in the configuration file. Modules
78 providing additional authentication support may need to be enabled. For
79 example, on Debian, the LDAP authentication/authorisation support is enabled
80 as follows:
81
82 a2enmod authnz_ldap