ScheduleWorld

Hello,
Not sure if this is a schedule world problem or not, but curious to everyones opinion. I use Evolution and syncevolution for my calendar syncing. Recently I added the google calendar sync in to the mix. The issue I am seeing is that once a new calendar event is created in Evolution then synced to schedule world and then synced with google calendar, google calendar adds the following information to the calendar entry:

Code:

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 BEGIN:VCALENDAR                          BEGIN:VCALENDAR                       
 
 VERSION:2.0                              VERSION:2.0                           
 
   BEGIN:VEVENT                             BEGIN:VEVENT                        
 
   SUMMARY:google test again                SUMMARY:google test again           
 
                                        >   CLASS:PUBLIC                        
 
   DTEND;TZID=America/Phoenix:20081219      DTEND;TZID=America/Phoenix:20081219 
 
    T100000                                  T100000                            
 
   DTSTART;TZID=America/Phoenix:200812      DTSTART;TZID=America/Phoenix:200812 
 
    19T090000                                19T090000                          
 
                                        >   ORGANIZER;CN=Sean XXXX:MAILTO:se 
 
                                        >    an@XXXXXXX                   
 
                                        >   STATUS:CONFIRMED                    
 
   TRANSP:OPAQUE                            TRANSP:OPAQUE                       
 
   UID:20081219T183437Z-5718-1000-1-15      UID:20081219T183437Z-5718-1000-1-15 
 
    349@shizeon-eeepc                        349@shizeon-eeepc                  
 
   END:VEVENT                               END:VEVENT                          
 
   BEGIN:VTIMEZONE                          BEGIN:VTIMEZONE                     
 
   TZID:America/Phoenix [...]               TZID:America/Phoenix [...]          
 
   END:VTIMEZONE                            END:VTIMEZONE                       
 
 END:VCALENDAR                            END:VCALENDAR                         
 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The result of this is in evolution, my appointments change to meeting request types. It appears that when there is an organizer, Evolution sees these as meeting events, vs appointment events, maybe even correctly so.

So what do you think? Is this an issue in the scheduleworld sync code or an issue in the way evolution handles having this data in place? I'm going to investigate changing my sync routine, possibly using gcaldameon or something just for the google calendar sync part. I would love to have this just working though with one sync :)

Thanks for any thoughts you might have!

Regards,
- Sean

Did some more investigation, while not conclusive, it does point at the scheduleworld google sync mechanism.

I created a new google calendar with both a 'meeting' and one without any attendees. When exporting this via iCAL, google is not setting the organizer for the non-meeting. This leads me to believe that schedule world is adding it 'somehow'

Code:

 BEGIN:VEVENT
 
 DTSTART:20081219T170000Z
 
 DTEND:20081219T180000Z
 
 DTSTAMP:20081219T200752Z
 
 UID:pgqafqhk1k0l9afk9rldds3nrk@google.com
 
 CLASS:PRIVATE
 
 CREATED:20081219T200610Z
 
 DESCRIPTION:
 
 LAST-MODIFIED:20081219T200610Z
 
 LOCATION:
 
 SEQUENCE:0
 
 STATUS:CONFIRMED
 
 SUMMARY:This is just an appt
 
 TRANSP:OPAQUE
 
 END:VEVENT

While the meeting entry looked like this:

Code:

 BEGIN:VEVENT
 
 DTSTART:20081219T190000Z
 
 DTEND:20081219T200000Z
 
 DTSTAMP:20081219T200752Z
 
 ORGANIZER;CN=Org Test:mailto:XXXXXX.com_e1ancm10k953gjim2jgmur4drk@group
 
  .calendar.google.com
 
 UID:5h0heeh5mr9gekjfqog9bfg2ik@google.com
 
 ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;CN=XXXX@XXX.com;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:XXXX@XXX.com
 
 CLASS:PRIVATE
 
 CREATED:20081219T200705Z
 
 DESCRIPTION:
 
 LAST-MODIFIED:20081219T200705Z
 
 LOCATION:
 
 SEQUENCE:0
 
 STATUS:CONFIRMED
 
 SUMMARY:This is a meeting
 
 TRANSP:OPAQUE
 
 END:VEVENT

Thoughts?

Good job posting the relevant info.
I've changed ScheduleWorld so it only sends the organizer if there are attendees.
Patch will be in production tomorrow.

Awesome. That is great news and unbelievable response on the issue. Thanks for such a great service.

Hi,
I am hoping you haven't yet had the chance to work out a patch for production because I am still seeing the same behavior. Not trying to be impatient, just wanted to pipe up in case there was a patch that maybe didn't work as expected.

Thanks,
- Sean

It just went into prod now.
Let me know.

Still seeing the same behavior on a sync I just ran. Does it take a little while before the new code is active?

Thanks,
- Sean

No, the code would be active immediately.
Please tell me what event from which calendar you are referring to.
Also, post of pm the username you sync with.

Hi Mark,
I PM'ed you my login. I only have the one calendar under my account. Below is a new event, I just synced.
On first sync of a new calendar event in to scheduleworld

Code:

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 BEGIN:VCALENDAR                          BEGIN:VCALENDAR                       
 VERSION:2.0                              VERSION:2.0                           
   BEGIN:VEVENT                             BEGIN:VEVENT                        
                                        >   SUMMARY:Testing Organizer Add       
                                        >   DTEND;TZID=America/Phoenix:20081223 
                                        >    T130000                            
                                        >   DTSTART;TZID=America/Phoenix:200812 
                                        >    23T120000                          
                                        >   TRANSP:OPAQUE                       
                                        >   UID:20081223T180321Z-5834-1000-1-37 
                                        >    @btekeee                           
                                        >   END:VEVENT                          
                                        >   BEGIN:VTIMEZONE                     
                                        >   TZID:America/Phoenix [...]          
                                        >   END:VTIMEZONE                       
                                        > END:VCALENDAR                         
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 Now on second sync
 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 BEGIN:VCALENDAR                          BEGIN:VCALENDAR                       
 VERSION:2.0                              VERSION:2.0                           
   BEGIN:VEVENT                             BEGIN:VEVENT                        
   SUMMARY:Testing Organizer Add            SUMMARY:Testing Organizer Add       
                                        >   CLASS:PUBLIC                        
   DTEND;TZID=America/Phoenix:20081223      DTEND;TZID=America/Phoenix:20081223 
    T130000                                  T130000                            
   DTSTART;TZID=America/Phoenix:200812      DTSTART;TZID=America/Phoenix:200812 
    23T120000                                23T120000                          
                                        >   ORGANIZER;CN=Sean XXX:MAILTO:XX 
                                        >    XX@XXXXXXXXXX.com                   
                                        >   STATUS:CONFIRMED                    
   TRANSP:OPAQUE                            TRANSP:OPAQUE                       
   UID:20081223T180321Z-5834-1000-1-37      UID:20081223T180321Z-5834-1000-1-37 
    @btekeee                                 @btekeee                           
   END:VEVENT                               END:VEVENT                          
   BEGIN:VTIMEZONE                          BEGIN:VTIMEZONE                     
   TZID:America/Phoenix [...]               TZID:America/Phoenix [...]          
   END:VTIMEZONE                            END:VTIMEZONE                       
 END:VCALENDAR                            END:VCALENDAR                         
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been using scheduleworld for a couple years now and just started seeing this when I enabled the google sync option. So I think it has to be related one way or another :)

I just did a test and verified that the organizer is not sent to Google.
The basic.ics file presented by Google also does not have the organizer:

BEGIN:VEVENT^M
DTSTART:20081223T090000Z^M
DTEND:20081223T103000Z^M
DTSTAMP:20081223T185702Z^M
UID:x
CLASS:PRIVATE^M
CREATED:20081223T185527Z^M
LAST-MODIFIED:20081223T185527Z^M
SEQUENCE:0^M
STATUS:CONFIRMED^M
SUMMARY:test organizer^M
TRANSP:OPAQUE^M
CATEGORIES:http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#event^M
END:VEVENT^M

I'm not sure what to think.
Can you think of a reason why my test is different than yours?

Hi Mark,
It is not the organizer being sent to Google, but rather the events in scheduleworld are getting the organizer attribute set after a sync to google. At least this is what I think I see. My local client doesn't have this set until it first syncs the event to scheduleworld. Then on the next sync, the schedule world event has organizer set and pushes it down to my local client. Since the only thing that happens in the middle of this process is the scheduleworld to google part, it lead me to believe it is getting added somewhere in that process. I don't know if this makes a difference, but the google calendar I am setup to use is a google apps for domains one.

I'm going to play around more to see if I can replicate it directly within scheduleworld without involving syncevolution. The interesting thing is if I turn off the google sync option in scheduleworld, all my events stay 'normal', ie without an organizer being added.

Thanks for your help,
- Sean

Hi Mark,
I bit more information. I did the following test.

1) Created an event in the schedule world web interface
2) Downloaded the ics file
3) Clicked the google sync button in the web interface
4) Downloaed the ics file again.

Here is the excerpt of the event I tested both pre and post google sync.

Code:

 Presync
 
 BEGIN:VEVENT
 
 X-WSS-COMPONENT:51459
 
 DESCRIPTION:	 \n	 
 
 DTSTART;TZID=/softwarestudio.org/Tzfile/America/Phoenix:20081223T160000
 
 DTEND;TZID=/softwarestudio.org/Tzfile/America/Phoenix:20081223T163000
 
 LAST-MODIFIED:20081223T215301Z
 
 SUMMARY:This was added in schedule world web interface
 
 TRANSP:OPAQUE
 
 UID:fcbee9329df52ed802c68f8089e08939
 
 END:VEVENT
 
 Postsync
 
 BEGIN:VEVENT
 
 X-WSS-COMPONENT:51459
 
 CLASS:PUBLIC
 
 DTSTART;TZID=/softwarestudio.org/Tzfile/America/Phoenix:20081223T160000
 
 DTEND;TZID=/softwarestudio.org/Tzfile/America/Phoenix:20081223T163000
 
 LAST-MODIFIED:20081223T215419Z
 
 ORGANIZER;CN="Sean XXXX":MAILTO:XXXX@XXXXX.com
 
 STATUS:CONFIRMED
 
 SUMMARY:This was added in schedule world web interface
 
 TRANSP:OPAQUE
 
 UID:fcbee9329df52ed802c68f8089e08939
 
 END:VEVENT

I "think" this confirms the ORGANIZER attribute is being set upon a sync to google. The interesting thing is if I export an ics from google, it does not have the ORGANIZER attribute set.

- Sean

Ok, Google may be sending the organizer and it is getting set in SWorld.
This isn't a problem though right?
(Your original complaint seemed to be about organizer sent _to_ Google).

Sorry it wasn't clear. Kind of tough to explain, but glad you can see it now too. It is a problem, but not sure if it is schedule worlds although it is probably the only place a fix would happen anytime soon. The consequence of this happening is that Evolution treats anything with an Organizer set as a Meeting, rather than an Appointment. So any updates to your appointment you get an annoying "Do you want to update attendees" even though there are no attendees. It also makes everything look like a meeting, so it is impossible to see which ones are actually meetings and which events are just 'appointments'. It appears it looks to see if there is an organizer and if there is then it has to be a meeting request.

I find it strange that when exporting from google directly this organizer is not set on any events, only when syncing from google to scheduleworld does this get set. So I guess it depends on the ics specs where the bug lies :)

1) If google is really forcing the /organizer when it does a sync and all the code is on google that forces it, then I would say google has a bug. Not sure how to replicate/report it though as a google bug without getting in to whatever API you are using directly.
2) Bug could be considered in Evolution if the ics spec states that having an organizer doesn't mean it is a meeting request I guess. I'm going to look in the spec and see if I can file a bug against evolution also.
3) Somehow the code scheduleworld is using is inadvertantly populating the organizer or causing it to be set somehow. I'm really curious why the schedule world sync is seeing this, but an export directly from google shows this attribute isn't set

If it was an easy fix to ignore this attribute if there were no attendees then the problem would go away, but may not be fixing the 'root' cause.

What are your thoughts?

FYI, I started playing around with GCalDeamon. It doesn't suffer from this problem, so my work around for now will just be to use that and scheduleworld together. Would love to get it down to one sync program though :)

Thanks!
- Sean

Done. Google actually sends the organizer. I ignore it if there are no attendees.