(shared) calendar and freebusy questions

[Matthias Busch]

hey,

running kolab 3.3 on debian 7.6 x64 – single domain setup – handfull of users

in short: looking for explanation how freebusy is working (or made to work), what the privacy options when setting a date will actually do and how to allow for simple, flexible control over a very limited number of persons “sharing” a calendar.

i was wondering how exactly the calendar is ment to be used when trying to manage a few users – although the amount of users should not come into play here.

imagine a family, 3 persons (father, mother, child)
they will serve for specific examples and to illustrate what i am trying to achieve...

every person wants its own private calendar to put private stuff in (like “make out with boyfriend”)
this is no problem

but then again, they need either a shared calendar or a second “own” calendar with r/w access for the others. in this calendar the shared activities will be placed (like “marriage at uncle ben”)

let us ignore the wish to have selected single-person appointments be visible to others (“going out with friends”) – which would tell the others when the person is where – if she chose to share such information (“going out to friends (mcd)”)

now, it would be best if one person could enter the shared activities for all persons. when using a shared calendar, it works.
however, first problem here: what if one of the other people have a previous engagement at that time (in private calendar)
i suppose freebusy should be able to show that a person might not be available at a specific time. i dont see that working for me right now, everybody is always free, no matter what other engagements they might have.

another problem I see here is that the shared folder does not allow to exclude persons (at least I cant see how)
its lacking flexibility, so we might need shared folders for father+mother, father+kid, mother+kid and all 3

this is getting cumbersom quickly and less than optimal. 

we might use calendars for each person, shared to the other two.
again, the problem remains that freebusy wont notify me when on person is already busy at my chosen time.

additionally, now some poor person has to enter the same date 2 or 3 times, depending on where will be coming.
here however, the problem of flexibility is solved. 
less than optimal if you ask me...


the third and most reasonable sounding solution to me would be to use invites.
if only the privat calendar exists, the date will end up there and be invisible to the others. this is not optimal either.
if we have/use a single-person calendar which is readable by others, it would work.
however, those dates need to be confirmed (or declined). might work for adults but now imagine the kid is 2 and its not about setting dates for the kid but for the parents to see what the other parent is planing with the kid and when...
i dont think it a good solution to have to login as the kid to confirm the appointment...

i feel like i am overlooking the obvious solution. or maybe i am trying to accomplish something which is not ment to be.

for now, how to set up my calendars so i have a private one (or work calendar), see my kids schedule and have the wife manage the family calendar without “losing details” (who exactly when exactly) without having her enter the details 3x eludes me.

as well as freebusy... it just seems to not work properly...?!

i tried with the kolab webinterface.
although it would be preferable to use thunderbird in the future (neccesary extensions are installed and set up accordingly)

any ideas? hints? suggestions?

thanks!
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