Can anybody point me at documentation on how calendar invites over email work? It's something I've wondered about for ages but never understood and finding info on the fine details really hard.
I know that CalDAV lets you sync calendars around.
I know that you can send a calendar invitation via email.
I DON'T know how this happens. Presumably the CalDAV server sends it via SMTP From: the organiser?
I know that you can RSVP to an invitation via email
I DON'T know how this response gets back onto the organiser's calendar. Presumably the CalDAV server is hooked into mail somehow and looking for iCal attachments?
This interplay between creating/updating events and them being sent around via email and then magically updating the calendar is the bit I'm confused about.
@frank Ah thanks! This is the type of write up I was looking for! I'd like a little more detail, but this is a great start! Thanks for writing this @damngoodtech!
@mattcen The magic words you want here are iTIP (the protocol for calendars talking to one another) and iMIP (that protocol, over email), defined in RFCs 5546 and 6047, respectively. (But beware, it's all full of snakes.)
@mattcen I was telling someone recently that I gained a lot of knowledge at FM that I’m a little sad isn’t relevant to my work any more (anything about the DNS), and that on the other hand I would be delighted to never have to think about how calendars work again.
Which is a collaborative protocol for exchanging information about calendar-scheduled events.
Using that protocol, the sender passes the information over email with an attachment using the correct data format and declared with the correct MIME type.
Then the receiving client software knows to interpret that attachment, as a scheduled event, and do what's needed to put it into the recipient's calendar.
Add comment