1 = imip-agent = 2 3 {{{#!table 4 [[/Downloads|Downloads]] || [[/GettingStarted|Getting started]] || 5 [[#Deployment|Deployment]] || [[#Notes|Design/Implementation Notes]] 6 }}} 7 8 imip-agent is an extension for existing mail systems (such as 9 [[http://exim.org/|Exim]] and [[http://www.postfix.org/|Postfix]]) 10 providing extra support for calendaring and scheduling. 11 12 * It uses the [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545|iCalendar]], 13 [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5546|iTIP]] and 14 [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]] Internet standards. 15 16 * It can inspect messages containing calendar objects and extract 17 availability information for sharing and publication. You and your users 18 decide exactly which kind of messages it will inspect, whose messages it 19 will inspect, and for whom no inspection or sharing will occur at all. 20 21 * It can provide a [[/CalendarManager|Web-based interface]] to calendar 22 information for users who cannot or choose not to use 23 [[/MailClients|mail software]] with calendaring support. This is optional 24 and your users can choose to adjust, ignore or disable this functionality. 25 26 * It supports autonomous entities such as meeting rooms and resources, 27 automatically accepting or declining invitations according to their 28 schedules. You can adjust this behaviour to implement your own policies. 29 30 * It is [[https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software|Free Software]], 31 giving you the freedom to see what the software does, as well as the freedom 32 to modify and share the software with others. 33 34 {{{#!graphviz 35 //format=svg 36 //transform=notugly 37 digraph architecture { 38 node [shape=box,fontsize="16.0",fontname="sans-serif",tooltip="The imip-agent architecture"]; 39 edge [tooltip="The imip-agent architecture"]; 40 rankdir=LR; 41 42 mail [label="Incoming mail",shape=folder,style=filled,fillcolor=cyan]; 43 MTA [label="MTA\n(Exim, Postfix, ...)",tooltip="MTA"]; 44 45 subgraph { 46 rank=same; 47 agent [label="imip-agent",style=filled,fillcolor=gold]; 48 scheduling [label="Scheduling",shape=ellipse,style=filled,fillcolor=gold]; 49 freebusy [label="Free/busy",shape=folder,style=filled,fillcolor=gold]; 50 manager [label="imip-manager",style=filled,fillcolor=gold]; 51 } 52 53 mailbox [label="Mailboxes\n(Cyrus, Dovecot, ...)",tooltip="Mailboxes"]; 54 webserver [label="Web server\n(Apache, ...)",tooltip="Web server"]; 55 client [label="Mail clients"]; 56 browser [label="Web browsers"]; 57 58 mail -> MTA -> agent -> mailbox -> client; 59 agent -> scheduling -> freebusy -> webserver -> client; 60 freebusy -> manager; 61 manager -> webserver [penwidth="3.0"]; 62 webserver -> browser [penwidth="3.0"]; 63 scheduling -> MTA -> mail [style=dashed]; 64 } 65 }}} 66 67 Unlike some monolithic groupware solutions... 68 69 * It does not require you to change your [[/MailIntegration|mail delivery]] 70 software or your [[/MailboxIntegration|mail storage]] software (subject to 71 existing support provided by imip-agent; support for other software can 72 always be added). 73 74 * It does not require your users to change their [[/MailClients|mail client]] 75 software. 76 77 * It does not insist that everybody must store their schedules on a single 78 server in order to collaboratively schedule events. 79 80 * Instead, imip-agent takes advantage of the decentralized nature of the 81 iCalendar and iMIP Internet standards. 82 83 * It allows people in your organisation to collaborate with people outside 84 your organisation without insisting that they join your infrastructure or 85 that everybody join some cloud service that keeps everyone's information 86 within a single, typically proprietary, remote service (that may also be 87 potentially vulnerable to intrusion and surveillance). 88 89 The role of imip-agent is to bridge the gap between plain e-mail and 90 "full-stack" groupware solutions, thus allowing organisations and individuals 91 to augment their existing infrastructure instead of being compelled to perform 92 costly and unnecessary migrations and infrastructure transformations. 93 94 == Adding Calendaring to E-Mail == 95 96 With just an e-mail system, users can already create and schedule calendar 97 events using any mail or groupware client software that supports calendars and 98 that already supports [[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545|iCalendar]] and 99 [[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]]. 100 101 Starting with an e-mail system, imip-agent can be used to add further support 102 for calendaring: 103 104 {{{#!table 105 '''Requirement''' || '''Solution''' 106 == 107 Your users probably want to know when other people are available and when they 108 are busy. 109 || 110 Although [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]] supports this, most mail 111 programs do not, so imip-agent will gather information about events and 112 [[/FreeBusyPublishing|publish it for retrieval via HTTP]]. It will also respond 113 to any iMIP requests for free/busy information via mail. 114 == 115 Organisations may want to coordinate access to resources using calendaring. 116 || 117 Here, imip-agent can provide [[/AgentPrograms|autonomous agents]] that can 118 respond to event invitations, allowing users to book resources and to see 119 published availability information for those resources. 120 == 121 Some users may not be using mail programs that understand calendars and 122 events. 123 || 124 Here, imip-agent can provide a [[/CalendarManager|Web interface]] to let 125 them respond to invitations and to create and schedule their own events. 126 }}} 127 128 According to your requirements, any or all of the above solutions can be 129 implemented, providing as much of a groupware solution as you need. 130 131 <<Anchor(Deployment)>> 132 == Deploying the Software == 133 134 * [[/Downloads|Downloads]] 135 * [[/GettingStarted|Getting Started]] 136 * [[/Configuration|Configuration]] and [[/Preferences|Preferences]] 137 * [[/CalendarManager|Calendar Management Interface]] 138 * [[/FreeBusyPublishing|Free/Busy Publishing]] 139 * [[/Usage|Usage]] 140 141 <<Anchor(Notes)>> 142 == Design and Implementation Notes == 143 144 Details of the mechanisms employed by imip-agent are described in the 145 following documents: 146 147 * [[/CalendaringSupport|Calendaring Support]] 148 * [[/CounterProposals|Counter-Proposals and Offers]] 149 * [[/CronIntegration|Cron Task Scheduler Integration]] 150 * [[/EventRecurrences|Event Recurrences]] 151 * [[/FilesystemUsage|Filesystem Usage]] 152 * [[/IncomingMessages|Incoming Messages]] 153 * [[/OutgoingMessages|Outgoing Messages]] 154 * [[/MailIntegration|Mail Integration]] 155 * [[/MailboxIntegration|Mailbox Integration]] 156 * [[/Testing|Testing]] 157 * [[/UseCases|Use Cases]] 158 * [[/WebServerIntegration|Web Server Integration]]