CalDAV and Installation of Sun Java Communications Suite 7

Sun Java Communications Suite 7 is the latest release of Sun's communications and collaboration solution. As reported back in September, a multitude of new features and capabilities have been added. One of these additions is Calendaring Extensions to WebDAV (CalDAV) - Sun's preferred calendaring protocol. A Sun blog explains the evolution of CalDAV and the importance in using a standard protocol, while another provides tips on the installation process of Communications Suite 7 itself.

CalDAV

CalDAV is a calendaring and scheduling client/server protocol designed to allow users access to calendar data on a server, and to schedule meetings with other users on that server or other servers. The CalDAV Access protocol has been standardized by the IETF and published as RFC 4791. Its extensions provide interoperable exchange of calendaring and scheduling information between all servers and clients conforming to these standards.

CalDAV clients include Apple iCal, Apple iPhone, Chandler, eM Client with Calendar, ETask, Evolution, Kronolith, Mozilla Sunbird/Lightning, Mulberry, OpenConnector, Postbox with Lightning, RemoteCalendar, Sun/Symbian Connector, SOHO Organizer, TaskCal, and ZideOne.

Sun has shown its support of the protocol by incorporating it into Communications Suite 7.

Standardizing is valuable to users, as the Factotum blog describes: "lacking a standard protocol, you end up using one big file to store all your calendar events. Reading calendar info may be fine, but making changes is not. Because your calendar database is essentially one big flat file, the only way a change can be made is for the client to upload a new version of a user's entire calendar data file and overwrite the copy on the server. That's a lot of data to move, for example, when all you have to do is push out a meeting change of one hour. The situation worsens if multiple users want to update a calendar. The last user to overwrite the copy on the server wins and changes other people have made are lost.

"Having a real calendar access protocol would solve these problems and provide other nice features, such as calendar sharing, change logs, and free/busy lookups."

By supporting CalDAV, calendaring solutions enable a wide spectrum of client choices as well as more flexibility for calendar synchronization solutions, including those offered by Notify and Synchronica.

Installation of Communications Suite 7

Andreas Breuer imparts his installation experience, offering tips and solutions to some stumbling blocks he encountered while downloading the Communication Suite.

One of his first tips to installers is to ensure Java 1.6 is installed since the Instant Messaging Server and CalDAV in Suite 7 require it. He mentions that he had to manually deploy the CalDAV application and offers coding assistance. Possibly in relation to his issue with CalDAV, the JDBC resource was missing. He explains how he created the missing resource with asadmin.

Another hint Breuer shares is to be sure the email address and not the uid of the CalDAV user for the Server path in iCal is used. He writes out exactly what it needs to look like, and he does the same for the URL that is required so users can access CalDAV via a browser.

He also recommends getting the latest version of GlassFish, noting that the bundled application server is outdated.

There are other tidbits of information in his blog, which also references the Communications Suite 7 Installation Guide as a primary source for the process.

In complement to Breur's blog entry, the Factotum provides an image of the setup.

More Information

CalDAV Resources

CalConnect - Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium

Communications Suite 7 Installation Guide

New Release: Sun Java Communications Suite 7

Sun Java Communications Suite Product Page

Suite 7's Feature List

Download

Sun Java System Calendar Server 7 Product Page

Calendar Server Wiki

Sun Java Indexing and Search Service 1 Product Page