Since Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple iCal supports the CalDAV protocol. This protocol is also supported by Kerio MailServer, making it possible to use the protocol for communication between both applications.
Synchronization over CalDAV features the following options:
synchronization of calendars,
synchronization of To Do with the Task folder,
scheduling of meetings,
subscription of a folder delegated by another user,
providing information regarding availability of Kerio MailServer users.
If you use Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and you have so far used Kerio Sync Connector for synchronization of calendars, it is recommended to disable synchronization of calendars and set connection to CalDAV server, because this option provides also the option of meeting planning and delegation of calendars to other users.
Warning: If you have installed and configured Kerio Sync Connector, synchronization of calendars over Kerio Sync Connector is stopped automatically upon setting a CalDAV account. This does not affect synchronization of contacts.
The only setting to be done is setting of a CalDAV account in Apple iCal:
Run Apple iCal.
In the menu, select (see figure 11.6 CalDAV account settings — Preferences) and go to the Accounts tab.
Click on the button to create a new account.
Use the dialog (see figure 11.7 CalDAV account settings — Preferences) to define your user name following the pattern
name@domain(e.g.jsmith@company.com) and password. If the account belongs to the primary domain, login by username without domain is sufficient. You can also define description of the account.Click on Server Options and specify server name following either the pattern
http://server_name/caldavorhttps://server_name/caldav(see figure 11.8 CalDAV account settings — Preferences). It is recommended to go for thehttpsoption which provides more secure connection between the server and the client.Warning: It is not recommended to enable the Use Kerberos v5 for authentication option, since Kerio MailServer does not support this authentication method.
If the account is set correctly, Apple iCal and the mailbox get synchronized.
Now you can set intervals for automatic synchronization:
Once a CalDAV account is set, the window with calendars contains also a new tab where all calendars of the Kerio MailServer account created right in the root folder are shown (for details, see section 1.10.1 Root folder). Subfolders are not synchronized.
In Apple iCal, new calendars can be created either in personal calendars (but such calendars will not be synchronized) or in the CalDAV account where every calendar is saved also on the server. All such calendars will be available in Kerio WebMail or in MS Entourage.
The same rules are applied vice versa. If a new calendar is created in Kerio WebMail and located as a root folder's subfolder, its copy is created also in Apple iCal and it will be synchronized using the parameters set in the configuration.
Besides calendars, To Do items created in synchronized calendars (i.e. CalDAV account's calendars) will be synchronized as well. All To Do items will be synchronized with the default Tasks folder.
Tasks in the Tasks folder created for example in Kerio WebMail will be synchronized into the Calendar folder in Apple iCal.
Public calendars must be subscribed by their delegation. Instructions to be followed can be found in section 11.5.4 Delegation of calendars.
Meetings are special calendar events where email addresses of other participants can be involved. Once a meeting is created, addresses can be added to which the message will be sent — these special messages are called invitations. Invitations are special messages informing users of topics, times and place of a meeting. Invitations include special accept/reject buttons. Information derived from the participant's reaction is sent to the meeting initiator (chair member). The initiator thus know whether the persons invited come or not. It is also possible to send updates related to meetings when the initiator modifies the invitation.
Meetings are created as events:
Double-click on a calendar and create an event.
Double-click on the event and click on in the dialog just opened.
This opens an event's edit window where advanced settings can be done.
Use the attendees option to specify email addresses of invited users (see figure 11.10 Meeting settings).
Once addresses are specified in the attendees textfield, the Available Meeting Times link appears. Clicking the link opens the Availability window where free and busy times of each attendee are shown on individual timelines so you can choose the best time for the meeting. The timeline shows times for which the attendees already have scheduled any events in their calendars saved on the server (for details, see figure 11.11 Viewing Free/Busy information of the meeting attendees).
Use the button to send the invitation.
Once the invitation is delivered, the attendees may either accept or reject the meeting. In the meeting edit window the organizer can see the attendees' decisions (see figure 11.12 Meeting acceptation/rejection).
If an invitation is delivered to Apple Mail, open an attachment with the .ics extension and save the invitation in Apple iCal. Unconfirmed invitation is displayed with dashed frame in the calendar. Now double-click on the invitation and either accept it by the button or reject it by clicking on (see figure 11.13 Meeting acceptation/rejection).
Your response will be shown in the meeting's attendees section (see figure 11.12 Meeting acceptation/rejection).
CalDAV account in Apple iCal allows subscription of another delegated calendar saved in Kerio MailServer.
To delegate a calendar, connect to Kerio WebMail and set access rights for the particular user (see section 1.10.5 Shared and public folders).
If someone delegates a calendar for you, you will need to subscribe it.
Open the account settings (the Accounts tab in iCal → Preferences).
Go to the Delegation tab (see figure 11.14 Delegation of calendars).
If the calendar was delegated correctly, the list includes the delegator's username. Now simply check the Show field to view the delegated calendar.
Delegated calendars with rights set in Kerio WebMail allow the following access rights levels:
Read rights — user can view the calendar.
Write rights — user can view the calendar as well as edit it, the only action denied is removal of the calendar.
Full rights (administration) — user can view, edit and even remove the calendar.
Apple iCal distinguishes between the following access rights levels:
for reading only,
full rights (administration).
As suggested above, delegated calendars with write rights will be understood by Apple iCal as calendars with full rights access. However, users with these rights is not allowed to remove the calendar.
For these reasons it is recommended to set either read or full access rights to your calendars in Kerio WebMail.
Warning: Access rights apply to the entire account of the delegating user. If any user delegates more than one calendar, the lowest access level is set for all these calendars. This implies that if there is at least one calendar delegated with read rights, all delegated calendars will be available for reading only.