This section describes which actions, besides creating, changing and removing of events, allow connection between MS Outlook and Kerio Outlook Connector (Offline Edition). There is no doubt that the main advantage is the option of meeting scheduling and management of web calendars (only in Outlook 2007).
Meeting is a special type of calendar event allowing adding and management of other attendees (for details, refer to chapter 1.8.6 Appointments).
Open a new event dialog to enter subject and site where the event (meeting) will take place.
For successful authentication to Free/Busy, specify the Subject item in the Appointment tab.
Click on
.and enter individual participants of the meeting (see figure 5.12 Usage of the Free/Busy calendar). When attendees are added, free time of individual attendees is displayed in contrast with level of their busyness shown by blue color (MS Outlook does not support viewing of user busyness level). The users with no data on the free/busy server (users with no account, users that do not use the calendar) are marked with grey. Colors are explained in the key at the bottom of the window.
It is necessary to specify each user by their usernames and
domains (username@domain
). Aliases cannot be used to display
Free/Busy information.
The slide window in the schedule shows the time of the suggested meeting marked by a blue and a red vertical lines where the time range should start and end.
Traffic between the Free/Busy server and MS Outlook can be secured by SSL encryption. This requires SSL encryption to be enabled in the account settings and the Kerio MailServer's SSL certificate to be installed. For this purpose, you can use either a certificate issued by a trustworthy certification authority or a so-called self-signed certificate which can be generated in Kerio MailServer (for details on certificates as well as their creation and authorization, refer to Kerio MailServer 6, Administrator's Guide).
In account settings (under E-mail tab, click on the Kerio MailServer (KOC Offline Edition) account and in the account settings on the Server Details enable Use secured connection (SSL).
) on the
Run Internet Explorer and specify
the corresponding
URL to login to
the Kerio WebMail interface.
SSL-secured
protocol must be used for the connection to the server. This implies that the
URL should start with https://
(example:
https://mail.company.com/
).
The Security Alert dialog will be opened (see figure 5.13 Security Alert). In this dialog, click on .
In the dialog with certificate details displayed, click on the
button.A certificate installation wizard is opened. There is nothing to be set in the wizard. Simply confirm all settings and close the wizard to install the certificate.
Kerio MailServer now provides an electronic management of resources shared by employees of your company. Resources are rooms and devices available in the company, such as OHPs, whiteboards, cars, etc. Resource management allows to:
book a resource for a particular time,
view current resources and their reservations in the Free/Busy calendar (for details on Free/Busy calendars and information on appointments, see section 6.9 Appointments) when planning reservations,
subscribe resource calendars by using standard sharing/delegation,
set the resource manager who can decide on priorities in case of any collisions in reservations.
Resources can be booked by using the existing calendar system. Resource reservation is based on creating of en event. The feature works similarly as appointment scheduling. The main difference is that the Attendees tab must include the resource selected from the contact list (it can naturally also include contacts of attendees). In the Free/Busy calendar you can see whether the resource is available for the scheduled time or not.
To make a resource available for booking, it is necessary to create it in Kerio MailServer first. If you need to create a new resource, contact your network administrator.
The settings described are provided for MS Outlook 2007. If you use another version, settings may differ slightly.
To book a resource, follow these instructions:
Open a new event and specify its subject.
Click on the Scheduling button in the new event's toolbar (see figure 5.14 Resource reservation).
Add the resources email address to the list of attendees (e.g.
car1@company.com
). If you do not know the address of the
resource, you can find it in the public contact folder called
Resources (click on under Resources — Public
Folders).
If the Free/Busy calendar is working, information about the source is shown in the right section of the dialog. It is therefore easy to check right away, whether the source is free or already booked by another user for the suggested time (see figure 5.14 Resource reservation).
You may have noticed that there are also other attendees in the list shown in figure 5.14 Resource reservation. Resources can be reserved either for usual appointment or for meetings (see section 1.8.6 Appointments).
Each resource created in the system has its own calendar where all reservations are displayed. Calendars of individual resources can be subscribed through the standard sharing process (subscription of shared folders is focused in chapter 5.10.1 Folder Sharing).
Most user can access resource calendars in the read-only mode. Resource calendars can be edited only by the resource manager. The role of resource managers and their rights are addressed in the following section.
In certain situations, it is necessary that a resource is booked even if it has already been reserved or that there is no other way than to make the reservation by a phone call. For such purposes, there exists a user with special rights who is a manager of the company resources. Resource managers can access resource calendars with administration rights. This implies that they can edit, remove or move reservations in the particular resource calendar. They can also create new reservations.
If you are a resource manager, first it is necessary to subscribe calendars of all resources that you would manage:
Go to
.Click on the Kerio account and press
.Go to the Other Mailboxes tab and click on .
In the Attach Mailbox dialog, enter source name including the domain (see figure 5.15 Configuration dialog of the Kerio account — Other Mailboxes).
If you are a manager of multiple resources, subscribe all
calendars as described in steps 1
to 4
.
Once subscribed, calendars of individual resources are shown in the folder tree. Each resource calendar now shows all reservations of the particular item done by any users. The resource manager can edit reservation time, add new reservations or remove them if demanded.
Web calendars of MS Outlook 2007 are focused in chapter 7 Web calendars in MS Outlook 2007.