There is no FAQ describing the accounts.xml file that I am aware of, although the subject of XML configuration has been discussed in previous posts to this list (I do recall promising to help out with the FAQ part and will do so once I get back on the calendar project).

The syntax and options of accounts.xml are formally described in the file <DCS root>/conf/accounts.dtd, and as such must adhere to this syntax [link]. The accounts-test.xml file is a good example on how the file should be structured. If you make changes to accounts.xml (or whatever you decide to call it - this is specified in the caldavd plist) and they don't stick, check the logs for errors. A malformed xml file will be not accepted by the calendar server. Here's the skinny though (as always, feel free to correct/clarify me):

General info (based on DCS release 1.1)
------------
Possible account types are: user, group, resource, location

The accounts root element itself has one attribute ("realm") which can be set to any string you like (I believe this becomes important in a federation scenario).


Common elements
---------------
All account types contain the following elements: <uid>, <guid>, <password>, <name>, <cuaddr> (optional). All account elements also have a "repeat" attribute. If this is set (default is 1), one can use the special notation "%2d" to signify the part(s?) of any element of that account to be replaced by the actual repetition. Use this to quickly generate accounts; see accounts-test.xml for examples.

<uid> is the realm-wide unique identifier (e.g. "cburke"). For all resources, it determines the final path to the calendar. For users and groups, this is also the login id.

<guid> is the globally unique identifier. In the example file, this is set to the same as the uid, which is fine for testing purposes. For a live service though, you're better off using a proper GUID [link] (e.g. 572C1D4D-8FAC-4E8A-9F44-DFB1EC6B53C6). You can either generate them yourself using the "uuidgen" command on OS X (or Perl/PHP/Python/ etc) or let the server generate them for you and stick them in the accounts file afterwards [link]. Note: Open Directory also uses GUID/ UUID throughout as unique object identifiers; this is how the calendar server integrates into this directory service.

<password> is the clear-text password of the account (ugh :-) Even resources and locations have uids/passwords though they are seldom accessed this way (see below). This can come in handy in an automated calendaring workflow, though.

<name> is the plain-text name/description of the account (e.g. "Carter Burke" or "Conference Room LV-426"). It is not strictly required to be unique, though common sense dictates so.

<cuaddr> is an optional element, unique to the realm, that specifies the calendar user address for the account. This is currently a mailto URL (e.g. "mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]"). This address is used by calendaring clients to schedule a user or resource to a particular event (c.f. <auto-schedule>), c.f. iCalendar and related standards [link].


Resources and Locations
-----------------------
These account types are very much similar; they only differ in how the client uses them. They have a couple of special elements to them:

<auto-schedule>, if present, allows the resource accept invitations automatically, without the need to respond to mail sent to the <cuaddr>.

<proxies> specifies a list of accounts that have permission to schedule the resource/location.


Groups
------
Groups are special in that they both specify group calendars and group membership, but this has been addressed in 1.1:

<members> is a list of account that belong to the group. This determines both group membership and the right to use the group calendar (c.f. <disable-calendar>).

<disable-calendar>, if present, inactivates the calendar function for the group.


Links
-----
DTD syntax explained: http://www.w3schools.com/dtd/default.asp
GUIDs explained: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guid
GUID post: 
http://lists.macosforge.org/pipermail/calendarserver-users/2007-November/000454.html
Standards and protocols: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar


HTH,

/Emil


4 feb 2008 kl. 20.52 skrev tack:

I'm also new and looking for the same thing.

Is there a FAQ for this list? And if not, anybody got suggestions for accounts.xml documentation?

Cheers,
tack

On Feb 3, 2008, at 3:58 AM, Fabrizio Regini wrote:

hi! I'm a new user of calendar server.

I'm running it on a freebsd server just to test the functionalities on iCal and to explore it a little.

I'm having problems to figure out all possible configuration options for account.xml file.

There's any document describing them?
I wasn't able to find them on the website.
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