About This Reference


This document describes the architecture of iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0, and gives detailed instructions on the use of the following two APIs and one protocol that you may use to customize your server installation:

• Calendar Server Application Program Interface (CSAPI), to modify server functionality.

• Proxy Authentication SDK (authSDK), an external plugin to use a portal authenticaion service.

• Web Calendar Access Protocol (WCAP), to access calendar services.

In addition, this book includes a chapter on the Single Sign-on (SSO) alternate authentication scheme for single-domain instances of iPlanet Calendar Server.

Topics covered in this chapter include:

• Who Should Read This Book

• What You Need to Know

• How This Book is Organized

• Document Conventions

• Where to Find Related Information

• Where to Find This Book Online

Who Should Read This Book

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This guide is for programmers who want to customize applications in order to implement iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0.

What You Need to Know

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This book assumes that you are a programmer with a knowledge of C/C++ and that you have a general understanding of the following:

• The Internet and the World Wide Web

• Calendaring concepts

• LDAP

• RFC2445, RFC2446, RFC2447

  These RFCs describe in detail the format and definition for times, strings, parameters, etc. used in WCAP commands, unless otherwise specified.

  The RFC's may be found at the IETF web site:

  • http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt

  • http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2446.txt

  • http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2447.txt

How This Book is Organized

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This book documents three APIs, an SDK, and a protocol inside iPlanet Calendar Server, as well as containing an overall architecture discussion of the product. For each interface there is an overview chapter, followed by a reference chapter, where available.

A list of the chapters follows:

• About This Reference (this chapter)

• Chapter 1 "Architecture Overview"

  This chapter contains an overview of the whole iPlanet Calendar Server, and a brief discussion of each API or protocol included in this Reference.

• Chapter 2 "Calendar Server API (CSAPI) Overview"

  This API allows programmers to customize server functionality in five areas: access control, authentication, calendar lookup, data format translation, and user attribute access.

• Chapter 3 "CSAPI Reference"

  This chapter describes the CSAPI interfaces and their methods.There are two types of interfaces: client and server.

• Chapter 4 "Event Notification Service (ENS) Overview"

  ENS is a publish and subscribe service, which acts as a dispatcher for events and todos. The API allows you to customize or replace the default mechanism.

• Chapter 6 "Proxy Authentication SDK Overview"

  This chapter discusses one of the three authentication schemes shipped with the server. This API allows you to integrate your portal service with iPlanet Calendar Server.

• Chapter 7 "Proxy Authentication SDK Reference"

  This chapter describes the five functions that make up the SDK.

• Chapter 8 "Single Sign-on Authentication"

  This chapter describes one of the three authentication mechanisms offered with the product. Single Sign-on works on single-domain installations and allows users to sign on once and use all applications in the trusted circle.

• Chapter 9 "Web Calendar Access Protocol (WCAP) Overview"

  This chapter give an introduction to the WCAP protocol. WCAP is a command based system for transmitting calendar data.

• Chapter 10 "WCAP Commands"

  Details of individual commands, and some common topics, comprise this chapter.

Document Conventions

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Monospaced font—This typeface is used for any text that appears on the computer screen. It is also used for filenames, distinguished names, functions, and examples.

Italicized font— This is used to represent text that you enter using information that is unique to your installation (for example, variables). It is used for server paths and names and account IDs.

All paths specified in this manual are in UNIX format. If you are using a Windows NT-based iPlanet Calendar Server, you should assume the Windows NT equivalent file paths whenever UNIX file paths are shown in this book.

Where to Find Related Information

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In addition to this guide, these other documents are available:

• iPlanet Calendar Server Administration Guide

• iPlanet Calendar Server Installation Guide

Where to Find This Book Online

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You can find the iPlanet Calendar Server Programmer's Reference online in PDF and HTML formats. To find this book, use this URL:

http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/calendar/ics50/pr/contents.htm

Use the following URL to see all the Calendar Server documentation:

http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/calendar.html