Calendar Server API's and SDK's

Calendar Server includes the following API's and SDK's:

• Web Calendar Access Protocol (WCAP)

• Calendar Server API (CSAPI)

• Event Notification Service (ENS) API

• Proxy Authentication SDK (authSDK)

Web Calendar Access Protocol (WCAP)

Calendar Server supports WCAP 3.0, a high-level, command-based protocol that allows communication with clients. WCAP commands, which use the .wcap extension, allow clients to get, modify, and delete calendar components, user preferences, calendar properties, and other calendar information such as time zones. WCAP elements such as times, strings, and parameters generally follow RFC 2445, RFC 2446, and RFC 2447 specifications.

WCAP returns output calendar data in an HTTP message in the following formats:

• Standard RFC 2445 iCalendar format (text/calendar)

• XML format (text/xml)

Using WCAP commands, a Calendar Server administrator who logs in using the login.wcap has the following capabilities:

• To override the access control of WCAP commands

  The administrator can use WCAP commands to read (fetch), alter (store), or delete other user’s calendars. For an administrator to have this privilege, the following parameter in the ics.conf file must be set to "yes":

  service.admin.calmaster.overrides.accesscontrol="yes"

• To retrieve and modify user preferences for any user

  The administrator can use get_userprefs.wcap and set_userprefs.wcap to retrieve and modify any user’s preferences. For an administrator to have this privilege, the following parameter in the ics.conf file must be set to "yes":

  service.admin.calmaster.wcap.allowmodifyuserprefs="yes"

For more information, see the Sun Java System Calendar Server 6 2005Q4 Developer’s Guide.

Calendar Server API (CSAPI)

The Calendar Server API (CSAPI) allows you to customize functional areas of Calendar Server such as user login authentication, access control, and calendar lookup. For example, by default Calendar Server uses entries in an LDAP directory server to authenticate users and to store user preferences. The CSAPI allows you to override the default Calendar Server authentication by implementing another authentication mechanism that is not based on an LDAP directory server.

For information about CSAPI, see the Sun Java System Calendar Server 6 2005Q4 Developer’s Guide.

Event Notification Service (ENS) API

The Event Notification Service (ENS) is an alarm dispatcher that detects events on an alarm queue and sends notifications of these events to its subscribers. The ENS API allows programmers to modify publish-and-subscribe functions used by Calendar Server to perform functions such as subscribe to events, unsubscribe to events, and notify a subscriber of events. The ENS API's consists of these specific API's: Published API, Subscriber API, and Publish and Subscribe Dispatcher API.

For information about the ENS API, see the Sun Java System Communications Services 6 2005Q4 Event Notification Service Guide.

Proxy Authentication SDK (authSDK)

Calendar Server provides the authSDK for user authentication. With authSDK, you can integrate an existing portal service with Calendar Server, thus allowing users to access various applications without requiring re-authentication. The authSDK consists of the functions packaged in a DLL/shared-object library and a header file.

A connection established between Calendar Server and the authSDK forms a trusted relationship. If a user logs in and successfully authenticates to the authSDK, Calendar Server accepts the certificate generated by the proxy for its functions.

For information about authSDK, see the Sun Java System Calendar Server 6 2005Q4 Developer’s Guide.