[thelist] Inexpensive Intranet Group Calendering Solution?

[chris h]

On May 15, 2004 12:06 pm, Bob Haroche wrote:
> My non-profit client is set up on a Novell network with Win2k
> workstations. They want to utilize simple group calendaring. Outlook
> doesn't support this without Exchange server or third party plug-ins,
> and they don't like Novell Groupwise.
>
> As an alternative, I'm looking for a very simple, inexpensive group
> calendaring solution we can set up on an apache or iis intranet
> server. I've seen a number of web calendars in the past and most
> haven't appealed to me, so I'm looking for suggestions. The software
> should allow any intranet user to view/add calendar events, including
> recurring events.

One of the best gpl solutions out there currently is http://opengroupware.org 
Calendar support is outstanding and with the addition of Cyrus-IMAP and the 
closed source pluggin (third party addition) is functions well as an exchange 
replacement. If you need calendar support integrated with native Outlook 
clients its one of the few that can provide this for windows clients. There 
is also a product from N&H called exchange4linux. Here is a rather old but 
comprehensive review:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/groupware.html

Please note the info on OpenGroupware is completely wrong. I will have to get 
the author to consider updating it. While the historical sketch is almost 
accurate the product details are not even close. Another one to consider is 
Kolab but not sure of its Outlook integration capabilities as I have not 
tested it. 

As said if you need integration with exchange or Outlook you will need to pay 
for a pluggin from someone as the protocals to talk to exchange are 
proprietary if the vendor is using a MAPI connector. If not don't go near it 
as it will cause havoc with your Outlook clients and grow the local file 
system exponentially due to replication techniques. 

If its a simple shared calendar the is required without Outlook integration 
then Moz is not bad, but http://www.k5n.us/webcalendar.php is the best I have 
found.

Hope that helps

Chris H.