iCalendar Functionality

Axigen Documentation

iCalendar support is deprecated and no longer supported.

Starting with Axigen X1 (10.1), CalDAV is the newly supported standard for calendar sync.

The iCalendar compatibility and support built into Axigen aims to provide data (contacts, meetings, tasks, etc.) and option setting synchronization between the email service and an external email client accessing the stored information across the network. These features facilitate the administration and maintenance of the user mailbox, as well as provide access to calendaring features for users of email clients that support the ICS standard.

Minimum requirements

This section lists the software requirements that the systems and software products used for iCalendar integration and syncs should meet. The hardware requirements are not listed in this section as they can vary to great extent from one environment to another. For details on the hardware required in specific scenarios you should contact our Sales Team.

Mandatory Software Packages: 

  • An operating system compatible with Axigen version 7.0 or newer

  • Axigen version 7.0 or newer

  • The WebMail service must be enabled in Axigen

  • An email client or application that has native support and full compatibility with the iCalendar standard (.ics)

Only the Mozilla Thunderbird / Lightning, Apple iCal, Outlook 2003 (Internet free / busy), Mozilla Sunbird, and KOrganizer clients are supported.

Outlook 2007, 2010, and 2014 are not supported due to their inability to authenticate via HTTP for free / busy requests. For these, we recommend the usage of the Axigen Outlook Connector.

Feature design

The use of built in support for ICS / iCalendar is only available for a selected number of clients because the HTTP based protocol is by no means standardized throughout the industry. In this sense, any other clients except the ones mentioned in the “Requirements” page are not supported.

iCalendar is a computer file format which allows users to send meeting requests and tasks and appointments to other users, via email, or sharing files with an ICS extension. Recipients of the iCalendar data file can respond to the sender easily or counter-propose another meeting date / time. The iCalendar data is usually sent by traditional email and shared using the HTTP protocol.

For this feature to work, the Axigen Webmail HTTP Service includes an extension to provide ICS / IFB-based access to users' calendars and tasks. Thus, by using a specific URL, an external client can retrieve and save calendar information stored normally by Axigen. Additionally, free / busy information is available at a different URL with similar properties.

Once the support for iCalendar is enabled by the administrator, the users can access their task and calendar information by configuring a couple of standard HTTP addresses within the client and then authenticating with their respective credentials (same as for the email account). The complete list of addresses can be found below:

These are the address endings only. The first section of the webmail link will be identical to the one used for Webmail access. So if the base address for the webmail is http://webmail.company.com/, the final ICS connection link will be http://webmail.company.com/ical/main.ics.

  • Standard – /ical/main.ics – this address will allow individual users to access their own account information (tasks and calendar);

  • Custom Folder – /ical/folder/<path_to_folder>.ics – this address changes according to the folder name created for tasks or calendar content management; this should only be used if you have created additional calendars in addition to the default;

  • Shared Calendars – /ical/~<username>/main.ics – by using this type of address ending, the user can access other users’ calendar and task related information;

To be able to accomplish this task, the user accessing the address must have full read and write access to the calendar itself.

  • Shared Calendar in custom folder – /ical/~<username>/folder/<path_to_folder>.ics – an example combination of the two previous situations;

  • Public Folders – /ical/pf/<path_to_folder>.ics – by using this type of address, one can see calendar and task information stored in a public folder;

The “pf” particle is always the same, regardless of the public folder root configured in Axigen

  • Free / Busy – /ical/~<username>/freebusy.ifb – this address allows access to the Free/Busy status.

The free / busy status address also includes the user’s credentials so it can be a potential security breach. Unfortunately this cannot be avoided due to the technology design. This information is stored on the client computer for that account and is not dependent upon the Outlook profile being used.

Axigen configuration

Starting with Axigen version 9.0, the iCalendar configuration options reside in the "Services → Mobility & Sync" context.