imip-agent

Downloads

Getting started

Deployment

Usage

Development

Support for Standards

imip-agent is an extension for existing mail systems (such as Exim and Postfix) providing extra support for calendaring and scheduling.

architectureIncoming mailMTA(Exim, Postfix, ...)imip-agentSchedulingMailboxes(Cyrus, Dovecot, ...)Free/busyimip-managerWeb server(Apache, ...)Mail clientsWeb browsers

Unlike some monolithic groupware solutions...

The role of imip-agent is to bridge the gap between plain e-mail and "full-stack" groupware solutions, thus allowing organisations and individuals to augment their existing infrastructure instead of being compelled to perform costly and unnecessary migrations and infrastructure transformations.

Adding Calendaring to E-Mail

With just an e-mail system, users can already create and schedule calendar events using any mail or groupware client software that supports calendars and that already supports iCalendar and iMIP.

Starting with an e-mail system, imip-agent can be used to add further support for calendaring:

Requirement

Solution

Your users probably want to know when other people are available and when they are busy.

Although iMIP supports this, most mail programs do not, so imip-agent will gather information about events and publish it for retrieval via HTTP. It will also respond to any iMIP requests for free/busy information via mail.

Organisations may want to coordinate access to resources using calendaring.

Here, imip-agent can provide autonomous agents that can respond to event invitations, allowing users to book resources and to see published availability information for those resources.

Some users may not be using mail programs that understand calendars and events.

Here, imip-agent can provide a Web interface to let them respond to invitations and to create and schedule their own events.

According to your requirements, any or all of the above solutions can be implemented, providing as much of a groupware solution as you need.

Deploying the Software

Initial activities:

References:

Using the Software

Development

Some topics related to development:

Details of the mechanisms employed by imip-agent are described in the following documents: