[Phpgroupware-developers] version milestones regarding addressbook and calendar

[Geoff Robinson]

Hi team-

Out company in Chicago provides IT services to small business. We are 
attempting to build an open-source system (for various reasons). I'm 
trying to nail down a track for our groupware offering.

[questions in the last paragraph if you want to skip my exposition ;)]

I'm evaluating phpGroupware, and I have to say I'm very impressed with 
the future possibilities surrounding the xml-rpc interface, allowing 
users to plug into the same groupware system through both the web and a 
native client (a lot of "retail server space" companies offer a 
web-interface to Exchange server, which is useful).

I have some questions on the development plans, and I have not been able 
to find answers on the list archive or the (partially rebuilt) website.

For the immediate future, I would like to have at least basic 
addressbook/calendar access through a non-web interface before I make a 
system available to our customers.

I know that the addressbook is able to use an LDAP system, and that the 
calendar can be made available through an iCal interface. I have set up 
these systems and gotten each to work satisfactorily. I can see the 
addressbook through Thunderbird, and the iCal export works as well.

But these are read-only exports. As your development stands, it seems 
that the LDAP is in the middle of a major rewrite. I also saw a 
read/write iCal in the CVS development tree.

I want to be able to, say, enter a new contact through Thunderbird and 
have it show up in phpGroupware. Entering contacts into LDAP (using GQ 
browser) does not show up on the web (current SQL store is just copied 
on write to the LDAP system, yes?). I also want to be able to write to 
remote iCalendar with a client like the MacOS iCal, or Sunbird.


So, my actual questions-

- What is the current development timeline?

- Do you plan to have external read/write capabilities to 
addressbook/calendar, and if so, when (version milestone) is it scheduled?

- What is the status of the xml-rpc interface? Is it considered 
experimental?

- Does my concept of a native client + web interface system jive with 
your overall design goals?

Thanks for your help.
And if I'm on the wrong list, please feel free to move this thread.

- Geoff

--
Geoff Robinson
Tavros Technology
Chicago, IL