1 = imip-agent = 2 3 {{{#!table 4 [[/Downloads|Downloads]] || [[/GettingStarted|Getting started]] || 5 [[#Deployment|Deployment]] || [[#Usage|Usage]] || 6 [[#Development|Development]] || 7 [[/CalendaringSupport|Support for Standards]] 8 }}} 9 10 imip-agent is an extension for existing mail systems (such as 11 [[http://exim.org/|Exim]] and [[http://www.postfix.org/|Postfix]]) 12 providing extra support for calendaring and scheduling. 13 14 * It uses the [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545|iCalendar]], 15 [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5546|iTIP]] and 16 [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]] Internet standards. 17 18 * It can inspect messages containing calendar objects and extract 19 availability information for sharing and publication. You and your users 20 decide exactly which kind of messages it will inspect, whose messages it 21 will inspect, and for whom no inspection or sharing will occur at all. 22 23 * It can provide a [[/CalendarManager|Web-based interface]] to calendar 24 information for users who cannot or choose not to use 25 [[/MailClients|mail software]] with calendaring support. This is optional 26 and your users can choose to adjust, ignore or disable this functionality. 27 28 * It supports autonomous entities such as meeting rooms and [[/Resources|resources]], 29 automatically accepting or declining invitations according to their schedules. 30 You can adjust this behaviour to implement your own policies. 31 32 * It is [[https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software|Free Software]], 33 giving you the freedom to see what the software does, as well as the freedom 34 to modify and share the software with others. 35 36 ######## A diagram showing a summary of the imip-agent architecture. 37 38 {{{#!graphviz 39 //format=svg 40 //transform=notugly 41 digraph architecture { 42 node [shape=box,fontsize="13.0",fontname="Helvetica",tooltip="The imip-agent architecture"]; 43 edge [tooltip="The imip-agent architecture"]; 44 rankdir=LR; 45 46 mail [label="Incoming mail",shape=folder,style=filled,fillcolor=cyan]; 47 MTA [label="MTA\n(Exim, Postfix, ...)",tooltip="MTA",href="MailIntegration"]; 48 49 subgraph { 50 rank=same; 51 agent [label="imip-agent",style=filled,fillcolor=gold,href="AgentPrograms"]; 52 scheduling [label="Scheduling",shape=ellipse,style=filled,fillcolor=gold]; 53 freebusy [label="Free/busy",shape=folder,style=filled,fillcolor=gold, 54 href="FreeBusyPublishing"]; 55 manager [label="imip-manager",style=filled,fillcolor=gold, 56 href="CalendarManager"]; 57 } 58 59 mailbox [label="Mailboxes\n(Cyrus, Dovecot, ...)",tooltip="Mailboxes", 60 href="MailboxIntegration"]; 61 webserver [label="Web server\n(Apache, ...)",tooltip="Web server", 62 href="WebServerIntegration"]; 63 client [label="Mail clients",href="MailClients"]; 64 browser [label="Web browsers"]; 65 66 mail -> MTA -> agent -> mailbox -> client; 67 agent -> scheduling -> freebusy -> webserver -> client; 68 freebusy -> manager; 69 manager -> webserver [penwidth="3.0"]; 70 webserver -> browser [penwidth="3.0"]; 71 scheduling -> MTA -> mail [style=dashed]; 72 } 73 }}} 74 75 ######## 76 77 Unlike some monolithic groupware solutions... 78 79 * It does not require you to change your [[/MailIntegration|mail delivery]] 80 software or your [[/MailboxIntegration|mail storage]] software (subject to 81 existing support provided by imip-agent; support for other software can 82 always be added). 83 84 * It does not require your users to change their [[/MailClients|mail client]] 85 software. 86 87 * It does not insist that everybody must store their schedules on a single 88 server in order to collaboratively schedule events. 89 90 * Instead, imip-agent takes advantage of the decentralized nature of the 91 iCalendar and iMIP Internet standards. 92 93 * It allows people in your organisation to collaborate with people outside 94 your organisation without insisting that they join your infrastructure or 95 that everybody join some cloud service that keeps everyone's information 96 within a single, typically proprietary, remote service (that may also be 97 potentially vulnerable to intrusion and surveillance). 98 99 The role of imip-agent is to bridge the gap between plain e-mail and 100 "full-stack" groupware solutions, thus allowing organisations and individuals 101 to augment their existing infrastructure instead of being compelled to perform 102 costly and unnecessary migrations and infrastructure transformations. 103 104 == Adding Calendaring to E-Mail == 105 106 With just an e-mail system, users can already create and schedule calendar 107 events using any mail or groupware client software that supports calendars and 108 that already supports [[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545|iCalendar]] and 109 [[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]]. 110 111 Starting with an e-mail system, imip-agent can be used to add further support 112 for calendaring: 113 114 {{{#!table 115 '''Requirement''' || '''Solution''' 116 == 117 Your users probably want to know when other people are available and when they 118 are busy. 119 || 120 Although [[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6047|iMIP]] supports this, most mail 121 programs do not, so imip-agent will gather information about events and 122 [[/FreeBusyPublishing|publish it for retrieval via HTTP]]. It will also respond 123 to any iMIP requests for free/busy information via mail. 124 == 125 Organisations may want to coordinate access to resources using calendaring. 126 || 127 Here, imip-agent can provide [[/AgentPrograms|autonomous agents]] that can 128 respond to event invitations, allowing users to book resources and to see 129 published availability information for those resources. 130 == 131 Some users may not be using mail programs that understand calendars and 132 events. 133 || 134 Here, imip-agent can provide a [[/CalendarManager|Web interface]] to let 135 them respond to invitations and to create and schedule their own events. 136 }}} 137 138 According to your requirements, any or all of the above solutions can be 139 implemented, providing as much of a groupware solution as you need. 140 141 <<Anchor(Deployment)>> 142 == Deploying the Software == 143 144 Initial activities: 145 146 * [[/Downloads|Downloads]] 147 * [[/GettingStarted|Getting Started]] 148 149 References: 150 151 * [[/Administration|Administering imip-agent]] 152 * [[/Changelog|Changelog]] 153 * [[/Configuration|Configuration]] and [[/Preferences|Preferences]] 154 * [[/CalendarManager|Calendar Management Interface]] 155 * [[/FreeBusyPublishing|Free/Busy Publishing]] 156 157 <<Anchor(Usage)>> 158 == Using the Software == 159 160 * [[/Usage|Using imip-agent]] 161 162 <<Anchor(Development)>> 163 == Development == 164 165 Some topics related to development: 166 167 * [[/Developing|Developing imip-agent]] 168 * [[/FuturePlans|Future Plans]] 169 170 Details of the mechanisms employed by imip-agent are described in the 171 following documents: 172 173 * [[/AgentPrograms|Agent Programs]] 174 * [[/CalendaringSupport|Calendaring Support]] 175 * [[/CounterProposals|Counter-Proposals and Offers]] 176 * [[/CronIntegration|Cron Task Scheduler Integration]] 177 * [[/DataStore|Data Store]] 178 * [[/EventRecurrences|Event Recurrences]] 179 * [[/FilesystemUsage|Filesystem Usage]] 180 * [[/IncomingMessages|Incoming Messages]] 181 * [[/OutgoingMessages|Outgoing Messages]] 182 * [[/MailIntegration|Mail Integration]] 183 * [[/MailboxIntegration|Mailbox Integration]] 184 * [[/Resources|Resources]] 185 * [[/Testing|Testing]] 186 * [[/UseCases|Use Cases]] 187 * [[/WebServerIntegration|Web Server Integration]]