Re: Clarification for Free/Busy

[Tim Hare <TimHare@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

One mapping that makes sense to me in my reading of RFC 2445 (others
might disagree) - hope the tabs format this correctly:

       

|  STATUS
of
VEVENT

     

        

        

        

|
 VEVENT in period

     

|
TENTATIVE

     

        

|
CONFIRMED

     

        

|
CANCELLED

     

| not there
 abd
TRANSP

     

        

|

       

        

        

|

       

        

        

|

       

        

|
 ===============

        

|=================

      

|=================

      

|===========

    

|==========
 No  / (none)

        

        

|
FREE

  

        

        

|
FREE

  

        

        

|
FREE

  

        

|
FREE
 Yes/ OPAQUE

    

|
BUSY-TENTATIVE

        

|
BUSY-UNAVAILABLE

      

|
FREE

  

        

|
BUSY
 Yes/
TRANSPARENT

       

|
FREE

  

        

        

|
FREE

  

        

        

|
FREE

  

        

|
FREE

Notice the last line is all "FREE" - this is because
TRANSPARENT is explicitly identified as being transparent to free-busy
searches.

Tim Hare
Interested Bystander, Non-Inc.


At 09:52 AM 11/24/03 -0800, you wrote:
> I am
> hoping that someone can clarify how to map from a VEVENT component's
> properties to what should be returned for a Free/Busy request.
>   
> RFC 2445 states unambiguously that TRANSP is
> the property that is to be used to return Free/Busy status. From
> "4.8.2.7 Time Transparency": 
>   
> Description: Time Transparency is the
> characteristic of an event that 
>     determines whether it appears to consume time on a
> calendar. Events 
>     that consume actual time for the individual or
> resource associated 
>     with the calendar SHOULD be recorded as OPAQUE,
> allowing them to be 
>     detected by free-busy time searches. Other events,
> which do not take 
>     up the individual's (or resource's) time SHOULD be
> recorded as 
>     TRANSPARENT, making them invisible to free-busy time
> searches. 
>   
>
> This seems clear until I read the description of the free busy time type
> parameter, FBTYPE (a parameter of FREEBUSY, which is a property of a
> VFREEBUSY component). From "4.2.9 Free/Busy Time Type"
> (fbtype): 
>   
> Description: The parameter specifies the free
> or busy time type. The 
>     value FREE indicates that the time interval is free
> for scheduling. 
>     The value BUSY indicates that the time interval is
> busy because one 
>     or more events have been scheduled for that interval.
> The value 
>     BUSY-UNAVAILABLE indicates that the time interval is
> busy and that 
>     the interval can not be scheduled. The value
> BUSY-TENTATIVE indicates 
>     that the time interval is busy because one or more
> events have been 
>     tentatively scheduled for that interval. If not
> specified on a 
>     property that allows this parameter, the default is
> BUSY. 
>   
> The above clearly states that there are four
> (4) levels of free/busy: 
>   
> FREE 
> BUSY 
> BUSY-UNAVAILABLE 
> BUSY-TENTATIVE 
>   
> What I'm missing is a way to map from an
> Event's TRANSP property which has only two states (FREE or BUSY) to these
> four states. 
>   
> Is the intention that free/busy should be
> reported by combining TRANSP with some other property or properties? If I
> just look at the value "tentative", I see that there are
> actually two places in an Event where I could potentially derive that
> value: PARTSTAT and STATUS. I don't see any explicit instruction in RFC
> 2445 for this. 
>   
> Let me rephrase this a bit in the hope of
> getting a more exact answer. And instead of looking at a VEVENT and
> deciding what the FBTYPE should be, can we look at what the desired
> FBTYPE is and work backwards? 
>   
> What does the VEVENT look like that would
> generate, for example, the following property in a VFREEBUSY component:
>   
> FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=BUSY-TENTATIVE:20031201T130000Z/20031201T140000Z
>   
> or to get even more explicit let's take several
> cases: 
>   
> 1. An attendee has been invited to an event and
> replied with a tentative acceptance. What does the Attendee's copy of
> that VEVENT look like in order to return 
>  FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=BUSY-TENTATIVE: <dates > 
>   
> 2. An attendee has been invited to an event and
> replied with a decline. If the attendee retains that event (maybe he want
> to be able to change his mind later?), what does his copy of that VEVENT
> look like? I assume that he should report that timeslot as being
> "FREE": 
>  FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=FREE: <dates > 
>   
> 3. An attendee has been invited to an event and
> replied with an acceptance. The organizer has then canceled the event,
> but the Attendee retains a copy (for whatever reason). What does the
> Attendee's copy of that VEVENT look like in order to return 
>  FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=FREE: <dates > 
>   
> 4. What does anyone's (organizer or attendee)
> VEVENT copy look like to generate: 
>  FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=BUSY-UNAVAILABLE: <dates > 
>   
>
> In case it's not clear, I'm looking for someone to help me out by telling
> me that the associated VEVENT would look like: 
>   
> TRANSP: <value > 
> STATUS: <value > 
> ATTENDEE: <whatever > 
>   
> or any appropriate fields and values that are
> involved. 
>   
>   
> I'd appreciate any help the list can give.
>   
>   
>
>