Re: [PHPiCalendar-DEV] Outlook and iCal addition into phpicalendar

[Greg W. <php...@gr...>]

I haven't thought about this all that closely, but I have one big  
question about this: how does authentication take place?  This e-mail  
says 'on a uid-basis', which I assume means that only e-mail  
addresses from the same domain are accepted, and from addresses are  
matched with their corresponding local users.  However, this does not  
ensure that the person adding or deleting the event in question is  
the person you think they are.  Someone could simply spoof another  
person's e-mail address to change the entire calendar.  Perhaps  
security isn't essential here, but it seems like there should at  
least be a password checked.

Maybe you can be reasonably confident that the sender is who s/he  
says s/he is if your mail server only accepts local connections and  
requires authentication, but that's such a rare condition that it  
makes the number of potential users vanishingly small.

I like the idea of being able to e-mail in events simply because I  
wish we had a system that allowed multiple users to edit a calendar,  
and programs like iCal (and Outlook, I assume) can e-mail a  
small .ics file with just one event, and most people are comfortable  
using e-mail.  However, anything beyond simply mailing the .ics file  
via an unaltered e-mail generated by iCal seems like too much -- why  
not just have a web interface?  Having administered a Mailman mailing  
list server after a Majordomo one in the past, I know that even as an  
administrator I hated having to figure out which arcane command I  
needed to use, and what address I needed to send it to; it was  
generally much easier to use the Mailman web interface unless I  
needed to script something or route the output of a command somewhere  
or something like that, and then I'd use the command line.

At the end of the day, though, if this functionality is already ready  
to go, I certainly wouldn't object to trying it out and potentially  
including it, simply noting to users that it is a method without  
security.  Hopefully in the future CalDAV will be ready to go and  
applications like iCal will support it natively, so that PHPiCalendar  
doesn't have to do all this work, but in the meantime it would be  
great if this little calendar-displaying application could support  
some basic multi-user editing to fill that void.

Greg
---
http://www.gregwestin.com
Contact Info: http://www.gregwestin.com/contact.php


On Apr 28, 2006, at 11:32 AM, svens wrote:

>
> A dedicated pop3 (could be imap) account is used to receive the  
> mail with
> the *.ics attachments;
> On each request (index, day, week, month, year) the mailserver is  
> checked
> for new additions and, if so, they'll be added into the calender  
> associated
> with the senders email address;
> It's quite easy to set it up in a way that anyone can ad through  
> this way
> into a public calendar, but who would want that??
>
> Anyway, when things can be added, they should also be delete-able,  
> by the
> adder that is. I altered the event.php in such way that the adder  
> can delete
> the item from its calendar, on uid-basis, from within the event popup;
>
> Once the delete-option was made, it was also possible to add two other
> options into the event popup: export item to outlook or to iCal,  
> also on
> uid-basis.
>
> I did it in the last three evenings, so it's not fully finished/ 
> tested, but
> also it was surprisingly simple.
> So now I just wonder why I can't find any similar addition to  
> phpicalendar.
>
> Why can mail_into_phpicalendar be preferable to just plain  
> uploading of a
> whole calendar or using webcal reference?
> Well, since anyone is used to his/her email application, one can  
> expect them
> to easily use it for emailing a calendar-item.
> Making it in your own system and then sending it, provides a  
> backup, id's
> and all the necessary data.
> Using a form to add into phpicalender, would require a lot of choices,
> possibilities, checks and balances.
>
> I am wondering if anyone has tried the same and if i have  
> overlooked any
> (future) problem.
>
>
>> It seems to me that you want to do (at the end of the dev) something
>> like Outlook, with event invitation, isn't it ?
>
> No event invitation.
> The quest:
> Around a common subject, different people are involved. I made one  
> general
> calendar, which I as moderator will update (using outlook and  
> outlook2ical
> (a vb-macro)). For each (couple of) participant(s) I've setup a own  
> calendar
> -> Petrus, Paulus, Lucas, etc...
> The solution:
> Each of them can email an event as attachment (either from Outlook  
> or iCal)
> to a certain emailaddress. Whenever a any user/viewer of the calendar
> changes view a tiny little php-script is launched, using  
> imap_mail_etc,
> checking for mail with attachments, checking attachments for  
> events, merging
> them into the existing phpicalendar *.ics that is associated with  
> their
> senders emailaddress. It works just fine!
> The alternatives:
> 1. moderation through the administrator (takes his time and delay in
> update);
> 2. update a own calendar in a shared map (needs experienced  
> participants,
> trust in macro's and the use of passwords, etc);
> 3. update a own calendar in a private map (needs experienced  
> participants,
> trust in macro's, etc);
> 4. moderation through a webform (see previous mail);
>
> Now, I reckon invitation can easily be done, but I was not  
> suggesting it.
>
>> I'm not sure for Mozilla calendar (Outlook is not dealing with
>> standard ICS format, so ...), but iCal allows you to update published
>> calendar on every changes, so this is doing what you want, no ?
>
> Now Outlook has the possibility to import *.ics calendars as a  
> whole, after
> downloading it OR to open one (generated on the fly) within Outlook  
> and save
> it, etc.
> Also Outlook has the possibility to send an opened event to send as  
> a *.ics.
> (top-menu: Actions -> Send as *.ics). It than contains all the  
> necessary
> data (uid, timezones, whatever). With iCal one can do exactly the  
> same.
>
> Given the above, the suggested (and working!!) solution is not only  
> fast and
> efficient, it's also phpicalendar-updating for dummy's. For anyone  
> who's
> able to use its calendar and emailprogramm, can than update a calendar
> (s)he's authorized to, by email-recognition.
> Again, it was very very simple.
>
>> The first goal of this project is to publish calendars on a network.
>> I agree that something interesting would be to add is a way to edit
>> calendars. Various hacks had been done on this subject, and
>> particularly something to send an email to the calendar owner to book
>> time.
> This sounds like the alternative 1., which requires an administrators
> interaction. I hope I now explained well enough that my suggestion is
> without any human interaction and yet with very limited programming.
>
> Of course than also deleting had to be added, and I did.
> Doing so also save item to outlook resp. save item to iCal was  
> easily made.
>
>
>
>
>
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