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Issues with Email Reminders in CalDAV and Roundcube, and PHP Integration

Felipe Antunes

Hello,

I am working with PHP to manipulate CalDAV data on my own platform. However, I am experiencing issues with the email reminder functionality in CalDAV and the Roundcube calendar client. Despite various configurations and tests, the email reminders as defined in the VALARMs of my iCalendar file are not being sent. The configuration I am using is as follows (I've substituted the real email with a generic one for illustration purposes):

BEGIN:VALARM
ACTION:EMAIL
ATTENDEE:mailto:example@domain.com
DESCRIPTION:test
SUMMARY:test
TRIGGER:-PT55M
END:VALARM

Additionally, I noticed that the Roundcube interface does not allow for direct configuration of email reminders. I would like to learn more about how VALARMs work in Roundcube and if there are any additional server-side configurations in CalDAV or cPanel/WHM required to enable this functionality.

Also, I would like to inquire if there are any plans to discontinue the CalDAV feature in cPanel/WHM.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Best regards,

Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • Andy Baugh cPanel Staff

    Howdy,

    While this question may be misfiled (it landed in a development/integrator subforum, but looks more like a question about general functionality) I took a look back at the code for roundcube and apple's caldav/carddav server (which is optionally installable) and saw no provision for emailing users based on VALARMs with an ACTION:EMAIL property set. As such, I highly doubt that either of these would send you emails at or around the time an event was scheduled to send out an alarm, which seems to match up with what you are experiencing here.

    As far as RoundCube (via the libcalendaring/libkolab plugins) is concerned, it does have code relating to ACTION types of "EMAIL", "DISPLAY" and "AUDIO", but it is highly likely these will only trigger at the relevant times *while the calendar interface is loaded*, which seems to limit the usefulness to me. I'd have to do more testing on this, but I'd highly suspect all that roundcube would be able to do is pop up a modal asking you to click a button to send an email (and interface bits appear to exist in roundcube's code in that vein).

    Suffice to say, no we are not planning to discontinue CALDAV functionality, as we are currently working on replacing Apple's server package with one we are writing ourselves (tentative goal is to release these updates in v120). Since I am on the team which is working on this, I'll take your request to the rest of the team and see whether that is something reasonable to accommodate in our current schedule.

    As to why Apple's calendar server might not be doing anything with email VALARMs, I could certainly understand from a developer's point of view why *not* implementing this might make sense:
    * The CALDAV server has *no* control over the destination server, and with greylisting being a *very* common practice nowadays, there's no guarantee your alarm will actually be received in a timely manner *unless* the person setting the alarm is savvy enough to get the recipient address added to a list of emails/domains to exclude from greylisting *on the receiving server*. The average user is most certainly *not* this sophisticated, moreso the average *cPanel* end user.
    * Most CALDAV *clients* do not have an interface for even setting this property to be "ACTION:EMAIL". Why support something most clients will not be able to assist you with setting up?

    Thanks,

    Andy Baugh
    Software Development Engineer IV
    cPanel, L.L.C.

    1
  • Felipe Antunes

    Dear Andy,

    First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude for the prompt attention given to my query and the depth of your response, which has provided me with valuable insights.

    Regarding your point about the lack of interface in most CalDAV clients for setting up an "ACTION:EMAIL" property, I see several reasons why this might. The most significant one might be that no one incorporates this feature in the interface because it would have no effect if implemented. This lack of functionality might lead development teams to create their own engines for triggering relevant reminders. This approach aligns with the path I intend to follow in order to achieve the fundamental reminders required for my application.

    I appreciate the comprehensive work that is being done on cPanel's end, especially the efforts towards developing a new server package. Your decision to consider incorporating email reminders in your future updates is encouraging and suggests a forward-thinking approach.

    In addition to expressing my appreciation, I would like to offer my assistance in this project. If there is any way I can contribute to the development or testing of these new features, especially given my keen interest and current focus in this area, I would be more than willing to collaborate.

    Thank you once again for your thorough response and for considering my request. Your team's commitment to evolving the platform is evident and greatly appreciated.

    Best regards,
    Felipe Antunes

    0

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