Release Notes for iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0

Updated October 9, 2000



These release notes contain important information available at the time of the version 5.0 release of iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0. New features and enhancements, installation notes, known problems, and other late-breaking issues are addressed here. Read this document before you begin using iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0.

These release notes can be found at the iPlanet documentation web site: http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/calendar.html. Check the web site prior to installing and setting up your software and then periodically thereafter to view the most up-to-date release notes and manuals.

These release notes contain the following sections:



What's New in iPlanet Calendar Server

For complete information, refer to the iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 documentation at http://docs.iplanet.com.

iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 includes the following features:

Horizontal Scalability

Supports hundreds of thousands of users through a scalable networked server-to-server, client-server architecture. Supports Horizontal scalability to allow de coupling of iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 to many front-end servers with back-end servers.

Calendar Express 5.0

Calendar Express 5.0 allows users to publish their calendars on the web and provide a URL to their calendar. Users can export their calendar data in iCalendar or XML formats. Calendar Express 5.0 allows text based searches for events and tasks. In Calendar Express 5.0, integration with the Event Notification Server 5.0 (ENS 5.0) will extend this capability to wireless devices. Calendar Express 5.0 is accessible from wireless phones via a WAP gateway. It will also be supported on wireless devices including group scheduling via wireless phones. Calendar Express 5.0 l will allow calendar printing from the day, week, month, and year views.

Free-Busy Search and Group Views

The server supports a free-busy search feature on multiple calendars. Calendar Express 5.0 also offers side-by-side group comparison views for a set of calendars to help with group scheduling.

Group Scheduling

iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 is designed to perform Group Scheduling. In particular, Calendar Express 5.0 allows a user to create an event to which other Attendees are invited. The Attendees can accept or decline invitations. Attendees are typically people on the same calendar server, but this is not an absolute requirement. When iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 detects that an Attendee is not on the calendar server, it can send the scheduling message (a request, reply, and so forth) via email as an IMIP message. This allows Calendar Express 5.0 users to schedule with Outlook users. Users can:

Resource Scheduling

Conference rooms, overhead projectors and other resources can be managed and scheduled using Calendar Express 5.0. Each resource is associated with its own calendar. In iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0, a calendar can also be configured to enable or disable the double-book option. By default, a calendar associated with a resource has this option disabled, and a person's calendar has the double-booking enabled by default.

On-Behalf-of-Owner Scheduling

The Access Control model implemented in iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 allows the owner of a calendar to specify another user as an owner that can act of behalf of them. For example, an executive can designate an administrative assistant as an owner, enabling the assistant to have complete access to all of the executive's calendars or any set of chosen multiple calendars. The administrative assistant can create group meetings on behalf of the executive and can accept or decline meetings on behalf of the executive. The executive can then decide not to give access to a personal calendar.





Installation Notes

This section contains important information you should know before installing the product. For complete installation-related information and instructions, refer to the iPlanet Calendar Server Installation Guide.

Hardware Requirements

The minimum hardware requirements for iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 are:

Supported Platforms

iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 supports the following operating systems at the appropriate version and patch levels:

Software Requirements

For Calendar Server 5.0, the following Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer versions are recommended:

Table 1    Supported versions of Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer

Windows

Macintosh

UNIX

Netscape Communicator 

4.61 

4.7 

4.61 

Microsoft Internet Explorer 

5.0 

Currently under review 

Not supported 

Data Migration from iCS 2.x to 5.0

A Migration tool is also available to sites with previously installed iCS 2.x. This tool provides data migration for calendar databases as well as for LDAP user preferences. Before using this tool, users should use csuser reset <userid> to clean up previous migration data on LDAP userprefs (if applicable). For users who did a previous iCS 2.x database migration, they should perform the migration again due to the changes in ACL. The complete instructions are provided in iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 Installation Guide.

If you are running NS Directory Server 4.12 or greater, and haven't put in any schemas, the installation program updates these schemas for you.




Known Problems and Limitations

Known Limitations and Considerations

iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 includes the following known limitations and considerations.

Calendar Server

Horizontal scalability is functional on Solaris. There are problems on NT.

Administration

If the user's default calendar is disabled using cscal, that user may still be able to login.The proper way to disable a user is to disable their login. This can be done with csuser, or by adding the calendar attribute icsAllowedServiceAccess with value http to that user's directory entry. If a user is able to login with a disabled default calendar, their default view will display a blank Current Calendar and they will not be able to view or change their default calendar.

If a user is not assigned a calendar attribute icsCalendar, they can still login and a calendar that matches their username will be automatically created and assigned as their default calendar. This can be a problem if the existing calendar was not intended to be used as that user's default calendar. For example, if you create a calendar called holidays and you have a user with a username of holidays, you should assign this user a different default calendar other than holidays. This can be done with csuser or by adding the calendar attribute icsCalendar to that user's directory entry. Other calendar attributes, such as icsSubscribed and icsSet are also assigned to users.

If these user calendar attributes are removed, without also removing the user's default calendar, the next time the user logs in, their default view will display a blank Current Calendar. To correct this problem, remove the user's default calendar with cscal or add the calendar attributes icsCalendar and icsSubscribed to the user's directory entry using csattribute.

NOTE: It is very important to keep the external user directory in sync with the internal calendar database. If you are using non-iCS tools to manage your external user directory, be aware that changes to user's calendar attributes must be managed in sync with the calendars in the calendar database.

Calendar Express 5.0

The User Interface (UI) is new and is not Java Script-based. It is driven by an engine within the server that produces HTML based on external layout specifications (.xml,.xslt files) and sends it to the browser. The old JavaScript UI will work (in a future release), but it is not the default.

There is no address book. When inviting people to meetings, you can enter calendar ids, user names, group names, and email addresses. Note that there is a Magnifying Glass image on the Event Composer that will bring up the file cal/bin/html/en/lookup.html. You can update this file to point to your local directory application.

Press the Reload button to see the new invitations in your schedule or to see the replies that are made to your meeting invitations.

You cannot use the @ signs in user ids for calendar names. The character @ is reserved for future use. Do not use this character in usernames or calendar names.

Enabling the iCS 2.x User Interface

To enable the iCS 2.x User Interface, you need to perform the following steps.

  1. Go to the following directory:

    <installed directory >/cal/uicust/en

    In a UNIX system, become the icsuser.

  2. Rename default.html to default_original.html.

  3. Rename default-oldlogin.html to default.html.

  4. Go to the following directory:

    < installed directory >/cal/uicust

  5. Edit the uicust.pl file and verify that the value $PERL will find and run the correct version of perl 5.004 or later.

  6. Execute the following:

    perl5.004 uicust.pl

Potential Problems and Solutions

The following section details the known potential problems and solutions for the Calendar Server 5.0 release.

See also, Known Limitations and Considerations, and the following section, Corrections to the Documentation, for other issues that might affect product capability or use.

UNIX only: Incorrect error message about insufficient disk space (368819)

During the installation, the following message can come up:

The workaround is to verify that there is enough disk space on the chosen partition. Installation should complete successfully.

Solaris only: When messenger attempts to display the attachment generated by iCS5.0 it generates error: Cannot find NLS Data Directory (412288)

This is a problem native to the Navigator mail client on Solaris

Currently, there is no workaround.

Invite and Inform have the same function (400990)

If you create an event that will include attendees that should be invited and informed, both will be able to reply to the event, instead of invitees only.

Currently, there is no workaround for this problem.

Timezone information does not display correctly in the New Groups Dialog Box (507201)

Selecting the Timezones tab from the New Group Dialog Box, shows the three main areas in the top banner as truncated.

Currently, there is no workaround for this problem.

Initial login and creation of default calendar is case-sensitive (512133)

When you first log into Calendar Express, a default calendar is created with the exact login name you typed, this includes upper and lowercase letters. If you do not log in with the exact name, another default calendar will be created.

The workaround is to type the exact name you logged in with when your default calendar was created.

Availability tab - small arrows next to the date do not work properly (512254)

In the Availability tab there are small arrows next to the date. These arrows do not work properly.

The workaround is not to use these small arrows to move forward or backward to a date.

Link to "Edit Properties" does not work if user does not have permissions (512953)

If you do not have permission to modify properties of a calendar, the "Edit Properties" link in the Calendars tab does not bring up a dialog.

There is currently no workaround. This action is not allowed if you do not have permissions.

Cannot change current calendar if you resize the window (514446)

If you have created or subscribed to multiple calendars, and you resize the window from the View tab, you will not be able to change the Current Calendar from the drop-down menu.

The workaround is to reload the page.

Split days setting only works in Comparison view (514856)

If you set the option for the calendar to split days other than the "every hour" default, it only shows up correctly in the Comparison view. Your default, day, and week view will still show the day split into "every hour."

Currently, there is no workaround.

Double booking cannot be disabled (514857)

You can "double book" events for calendar users and resources that have their calendar properties set to "not allow double book". No error will be reported.

Currently, there is no workaround.

Changing colors cause unpredictable results (515135)

If you use the change colors setting from the Options tab, the changes may not all take effect until you log out. It might also effect the font size.

The workaround is not to change the colors, or log out and log back in if you made a color change.

Options tab - Export, can only export data from your default calendar. (515218)

If you are using the Export feature from the Options tab, you can only export data from your default calendar.

The workaround is not to export data from any calendar except your default calendar.

Some events and tasks do not show up in Day view (515221)

If you create events that are before or after the span of time you set for your Day view, you will not see them in your Day view.

The workaround is to switch to another view, other than Day view.

Or,

Increase the time span for the Day view from the Settings panel in the Options tab from the Start of Day and End of Day fields. This allows you to view more events and tasks in a Day view.

Alarm monitoring for cshttpd is not functioning (515223)

The cshttpd alarm monitoring is not functioning.

There is currently no workaround for this problem. You can emulate similar functionality by creating a Perl or Shell script that follows this logic:

  1. Use csping to hit the server.

  2. If you receive an OK response, sleep an amount of minutes and return to Step 1.

  3. If you do not receive an OK response, send an email to the System Administrator's pager.

User with preferredlanguage not "en" may crash server (515281)

If a user has the ldap preference for preferredlanguage set for anything other than "en" it may crash the server.

Currently, there is no workaround. iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 is not localized.

Problems when user id and calid are not the same (515756)

Using csuser, if the calid is different then the uid when creating a new user, the command finishes successfully but you cannot save any events or tasks when accessing the calendar.

There is no workaround. Currently, the calid and userid must be the same.

Corrections to the Documentation

iPlanet Calendar Server Installation Guide

Chapters 2 & 3, Step 18, the description of the Administrator Bind DN should be changed to:

The DN of the account that will be used to bind to the LDAP directory to search for a calendar user's DN during authentication. The default is to bind anonymously. If your LDAP directory does not allow anonymous bind or does not allow this anonymous search, you must enter a valid DN that has these rights.

iPlanet Calendar Server Administration Guide and iPlanet Calendar Server Programmer's Reference Manual

Chapter 1, under What's New in Version 5.0?, the bullet titled Migration from Netscape Calendar Server 4.0 is not relevant to this release.

Chapter 1, under csadmind, the second paragraph is not relevant to this release.

Chapter 1, under Directory Server Services, the correct version is Netscape Directory Server 4.12.

Chapter 1, Figure 1-2, the boxes labeled dir services server config, dir services virtual domain, dir services certificates, and dir services ULD/CLD are not relevant to this release.

iPlanet Calendar Server Administration Guide

Chapter 2, under Using the ics.conf file, the correct description of an ics.conf line is as follows:

A parameter and it's value(s) are separated by an equal sign (=), with spaces or tabs allowed before and after the equal sign.

A comment line must have a bang sign (!) as the first character of the line.

Chapter 4, a section describing the iPlanet Calendar Server log files was left out:

Each calendar service (csadmind, csdwpd, cshttpd, csnotifyd) logs to it's own logfile. These log files can be found in the logs directory, named after each service name. These logfiles will be rolled-over based on configurable time and size limits. When log files rollover, they are named as follows:

<ServiceName>.<TimeStamp>.<#>, for e.g. admin.20000801115354 .1, http.20000801115354 .2 etc.

Chapter 2, Calendar Log Information Configuration, for more details on how to configure these logfiles.

On a regular basis, these logfiles should be monitored for Critical, Error, and Warning events and if found, should be examined for possible problems with your Calendar Server. The Notice and Information events are normal and are provided for monitoring activity in your Calendar Server. When requesting technical support from iPlanet, you may be asked to provide these logfiles for help in resolving your problems.

Appendix A, Command Line Utilities, under csresource, the Syntax should be changed to:

csresource [-q | -v] [-a aces] [-b basedn ] -c CALID [-d description] [-k no | yes] [-o owner] [-y otherowners] create name

csresource [-q | -v] [-b basedn] delete | disable | enable | list name

Appendix A, Command Line Utilities, under csstart, the references to an administration part are not relevant to this release. The valid [servicename] targets used with all commands are:

admin, dwp, ens, http, or notify.

Appendix A, Command Line Utilities, under csstats, the session subsubystem was left out.

Appendix A, Command Line Utilities, under csstop, the valid [servicename] targets used with all commands are:

admin, dwp, ens, http, or notify.

Appendix A, Command Line Utilities, under cstool, the only valid [servicename] target used with the ping command is http. For the refresh command, the valid [servicename] targets are:

admin, dwp, http, or notify.




How to Report Problems

If you have problems with iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0, contact iPlanet customer support using one of the following mechanisms:

So that we can best assist you in resolving problems, please have the following information available when you contact support:




For More Information

Useful iPlanet information can be found at the following Internet locations:


Use of iPlanet Calendar Server 5.0 is subject to the terms described in the license agreement accompanying it. (See link_to_licensing_info.)

Copyright © 2000 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Some preexisting portions Copyright © 2000 Netscape Communications Corp. All rights reserved.


Last Updated October 09, 2000