CalDAV Component

Properties Methods Events Configuration Settings Errors

The CalDAV Component implements an easy-to-use interface to the Calendaring Extensions to the Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol (WebDAV). In this manner the CalDAV protocol specifies a standard way of accessing, managing, and sharing calendaring and scheduling information based on the iCalendar format.

Syntax

nsoftware.IPWorks.Caldav

Remarks

The component allows remote management of calendar events and collections of events (the calendar itself), including creation, deletion, listing, copying, and moving. Resource locking is also supported.

The GetCalendarReport method will list the event resources contained in the calendar, and the ReportFilter can be used to limit the results returned. The EventDetails event will be fired for each matching calendar resource. You may also request a report containing a list of times that the owner is free or busy using the GetFreeBusyReport. The FreeBusy event will fire for each entry received, and the data fired in the event will also be stored in the FreeBusy property.

Single events can be added to a calendar (or updated) using the PutCalendarEvent method, and can be retrieved via the GetCalendarEvent method. Events may be copied or moved with the CopyCalendarEvent and MoveCalendarEvent.

Depth is used to determine which resources or properties are retrieved from the server. A depth of ResourceOnly will return only the resource associated with ResourceURI, or its properties. A depth of Infinity will return all resources contained within hierarchy, or their collective properties.

Note: Some servers (such as IIS 7.5) may not support a depth of Infinity by default and may return a HTTP 403 Forbidden response.

The following properties are used when creating a request with PutCalendarEvent or ExportICS, and will be filled after calling GetCalendarEvent or ImportICS. These will also be available from inside the EventDetails event, which is fired for each event received from the CalDAV server in response to a GetCalendarReport.

Each method that acts on the calendar takes a ResourceURI parameter, which points to either an event resource or to the calendar itself. Event resources have a URI that ends with a filename and the ".ics" extension. Calendar resources end in a directory path. The following methods all act on events, and thus their ResourceURI parameters must terminate in a filename with the ".ics" extension:

These methods all act upon the calendar collection resource (the calendar itself):

The LockCalendar and UnLockCalendar methods may operate on individual events or on the whole calendar.

There is no standard format for resource URIs. Google for instance, uses "https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/" plus your email address to access the default calendar. So "https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/username@gmail.com/" is the base URI for the default calendar. If you have multiple calendars, replace the email address portion above with the Id of the calendar, plus "@group.calendar.google.com/". For instance: "https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/ev3nkr4ua83jej7q32oumn5eeo@group.calendar.google.com/". For Google, calendar events are stored in the "/events/" path. To retrieve a report on a calendar, you'd add "/events/" to one of the above paths. For example:

  CalDAV.GetCalendarReport("https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/username@gmail.com/events/");

Leaving the "/events/" out of the URI will result in an HTTP protocol error: 405 Method not allowed.

To add or retrieve an event, add the UID of the event you're creating or retrieving plus ".ics" to the path. Note that when putting an event with the PutCalendarEvent method, if the resourceURI and the UID do not match Google will create the event using the UID stored in the UID property. The actual location of will be newly added event will be returned in a "Location" header. This is the resource URI you must use to retrieve the event with GetCalendarEvent. For example:

  CalDAV.UID = "1234567890";
  CalDAV.PutCalendarEvent("https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/username@gmail.com/events/1234567890.ics");

Yahoo uses a different format for CalDAV access. Yahoo's ResourceURIs always start with "https://caldav.calendar.yahoo.com/dav/" plus your user name, plus "/Calendar/" plus the name of your calendar. For instance: "https://caldav.calendar.yahoo.com/dav/username/Calendar/Your_Name" for the default calendar. (Yahoo uses your name to create the default calendar). When using the CreateCalendar event to create a new calendar, replace "Your_Name" in the URI with the desired name of your new calendar. Event resources are located directly under the "/Calendar/Calendar_Name/" path. Like Google, the UID and filename portion of the resource URI must match, but Yahoo will actually return an HTTP protocol error if they differ. The examples below show a few possible transactions:

  CalDAVS1.User = "username";
  CalDAVS1.Password = "password";
  
  CalDAV.DisplayName = "My Hockey Calendar";
  CalDAV.CreateCalendar("https://caldav.calendar.yahoo.com/dav/username/Calendar/Hockey_Calendar/");
  
  CalDAV.StartDate = "20100401T040000";
  CalDAV.EndDate = "20100401T060000";
  CalDAV.UID = "qwerty1234567";
  CalDAV.Summary = "First Practice";
  CalDAV.Location = "Rink on 1st and main";
  CalDAV.EventType = vEvent;
  CalDAV.PutCalendarEvent("https://caldav.calendar.yahoo.com/dav/username/Calendar/Hockey_Calendar/qwerty1234567.ics");
  
  CalDAV.GetCalendarReport("https://caldav.calendar.yahoo.com/dav/username/Calendar/Hockey_Calendar/");

Property List

The following is the full list of the properties of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Alarms	An alarm related to the event.
Attendees	Defines one or more participants that have been invited to the event.
Authorization	The Authorization string to be sent to the server.
AuthScheme	The authentication scheme to use when server authorization is required.
Categories	Used to specify categories or subtypes of the calendar event.
Classification	Defines the access classification for a calendar component.
Completed	Date and time that a to-do was actually completed.
Connected	Shows whether the component is connected.
Cookies	Collection of cookies.
Created	Date and time calendar information created.
CustomProperties	List of extra properties that may be used to extend the functionality of this component.
Depth	The depth associated with the current operation.
Description	Provides a complete description of the calendar event.
DisplayName	Provides the display name of the calendar being created.
Duration	Duration of the calendar event.
EndDate	Specifies the date and time that a calendar event ends.
ETag	Identifier returned by the CalDAV server which is used to synchronize edits.
EventType	Indicates the type of calendar object resource.
Firewall	A set of properties related to firewall access.
FollowRedirects	Determines what happens when the server issues a redirect.
FreeBusy	Specifies the times when the calendar owner is free or busy.
Idle	The current status of the component.
LastModified	The date and time that the information associated with the calendar event was last revised in the calendar store.
LocalHost	The name of the local host or user-assigned IP interface through which connections are initiated or accepted.
Location	Defines the intended venue for the activity defined by a calendar component.
LockProperties	Fields used when locking and unlocking a calendar resource.
Organizer	Defines the organizer of a calendar event.
OtherHeaders	Other headers as determined by the user (optional).
ParsedHeaders	Collection of headers returned from the last request.
Password	A password if authentication is to be used.
Priority	Defines the relative priority for a calendar event.
Proxy	A set of properties related to proxy access.
Recurrence	Defines the recurrence set for the event.
ReportFilter	Criteria used to filter reports.
Sequence	Defines the revision sequence number of the event within a sequence of revisions.
StartDate	Specifies the date and time that an event begins.
Status	Defines the overall status or confirmation for the calendar event.
StatusLine	The first line of the last server response.
Summary	Defines a short summary or subject for the calendar event.
Timeout	A timeout for the component.
Timestamp	Specifies the date and time that the instance of the event was created.
Timezone	Specifies a time zone on a calendar collection.
Transparency	Defines whether or not an event is transparent to busy time searches.
UID	A persistent, globally unique identifier for the calendar event.
URL	Location of the event resource on the CalDAV server.
User	A user name if authentication is to be used.

Method List

The following is the full list of the methods of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


AddCookie	Adds a cookie and the corresponding value to the outgoing request headers.
AddCustomProperty	Adds a form variable and the corresponding value.
Config	Sets or retrieves a configuration setting .
CopyCalendarEvent	Copy events to a new location.
CreateCalendar	Creates a new calendar collection resource.
DeleteCalendarEvent	Delete a resource or collection.
DoEvents	Processes events from the internal message queue.
ExportICS	Generates an event from the properties in the iCal (.ICS) format.
GetCalendarEvent	Retrieves a single event from the CalDAV server.
GetCalendarOptions	Retrieves options for the ResourceURI to determines whether it supports calendar access.
GetCalendarReport	Generates a report on the indicated calendar collection resource.
GetFreeBusyReport	Generates a report as to when the calendar owner is free and/or busy.
ImportICS	Imports iCal data (contained in an ICS file) into the component's property list.
Interrupt	Interrupt the current method.
LockCalendar	Obtain a lock for a specified calendar resource.
MoveCalendarEvent	Moves one calendar resource to a new location.
PutCalendarEvent	Adds a calendar resource at the specified ResourceURI using the CalDAV PUT method.
Reset	Reset the component.
UnLockCalendar	Unlocks a calendar resource.

Event List

The following is the full list of the events fired by the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Connected	Fired immediately after a connection completes (or fails).
ConnectionStatus	Fired to indicate changes in connection state.
Disconnected	Fired when a connection is closed.
EndTransfer	Fired when a document finishes transferring.
Error	Information about errors during data delivery.
EventDetails	Fires for each calendar event received.
FreeBusy	Fires for each Free/Busy element received in the response.
Header	Fired every time a header line comes in.
Redirect	Fired when a redirection is received from the server.
SetCookie	Fired for every cookie set by the server.
StartTransfer	Fired when a document starts transferring (after the headers).
Status	Fired when the HTTP status line is received from the server.
Transfer	Fired while a document transfers (delivers document).

Configuration Settings

The following is a list of configuration settings for the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


AuthScheme	The authentication scheme to use for server authorization.
BuildEvent	Builds the current event for a multi-event calendar entry.
DueDate	Specifies the due date for a calendar event.
EndCalendar	Signifies the end of a multi-event calendar entry.
ExpandRecurringEvents	Instructs the component to return all instances of a recurring event within a timeframe.
ProductId	Specifies the identifier for the product that created the iCalendar object.
RecurrenceExceptionDatesAttrs	Specifies the attributes for the exception dates of a recurring event.
StartCalendar	Signifies the beginning of a multi-event calendar entry.
EncodeURL	If set to true the URL will be encoded by the component.
AcceptEncoding	Used to tell the server which types of content encodings the client supports.
AllowHTTPCompression	This property enables HTTP compression for receiving data.
AllowIdenticalRedirectURL	Allow redirects to the same URL.
Append	Whether to append data to LocalFile.
Authorization	The Authorization string to be sent to the server.
BytesTransferred	Contains the number of bytes transferred in the response data.
EncodeURL	If set to true the URL will be encoded by the component.
FollowRedirects	Determines what happens when the server issues a redirect.
GetOn302Redirect	If set to true the component will perform a GET on the new location.
HTTPVersion	The version of HTTP used by the component.
IfModifiedSince	A date determining the maximum age of the desired document.
KeepAlive	Determines whether the HTTP connection is closed after completion of the request.
MaxRedirectAttempts	Limits the number of redirects that are followed in a request.
OtherHeaders	Other headers as determined by the user (optional).
ProxyAuthorization	The authorization string to be sent to the proxy server.
ProxyAuthScheme	The authorization scheme to be used for the proxy.
ProxyPassword	A password if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
ProxyPort	Port for the proxy server (default 80).
ProxyServer	Name or IP address of a proxy server (optional).
ProxyUser	A user name if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
TransferredDataLimit	The maximum number of incoming bytes to be stored by the component.
TransferredHeaders	The full set of headers as received from the server.
UseChunkedEncoding	Enables or Disables HTTP chunked encoding for transfers.
ChunkSize	Specifies the chunk size in bytes when using chunked encoding.
UserAgent	Information about the user agent (browser).
KerberosSPN	The Service Principal Name for the Kerberos Domain Controller.
ConnectionTimeout	Sets a separate timeout value for establishing a connection.
FirewallAutoDetect	Tells the component whether or not to automatically detect and use firewall system settings, if available.
FirewallHost	Name or IP address of firewall (optional).
FirewallPassword	Password to be used if authentication is to be used when connecting through the firewall.
FirewallPort	The TCP port for the FirewallHost;.
FirewallType	Determines the type of firewall to connect through.
FirewallUser	A user name if authentication is to be used connecting through a firewall.
KeepAliveTime	The inactivity time in milliseconds before a TCP keep-alive packet is sent.
KeepAliveInterval	The retry interval, in milliseconds, to be used when a TCP keep-alive packet is sent and no response is received.
Linger	When set to True, connections are terminated gracefully.
LingerTime	Time in seconds to have the connection linger.
LocalHost	The name of the local host through which connections are initiated or accepted.
LocalPort	The TCP port in the local host where the component binds.
MaxLineLength	The maximum amount of data to accumulate when no EOL is found.
MaxTransferRate	The transfer rate limit in bytes per second.
RecordLength	The length of received data records.
TCPKeepAlive	Determines whether or not the keep alive socket option is enabled.
UseIPv6	Whether to use IPv6.
TcpNoDelay	Whether or not to delay when sending packets.
AbsoluteTimeout	Determines whether timeouts are inactivity timeouts or absolute timeouts.
FirewallData	Used to send extra data to the firewall.
InBufferSize	The size in bytes of the incoming queue of the socket.
OutBufferSize	The size in bytes of the outgoing queue of the socket.
CodePage	The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.