Publish IBM Domino Contact Birthdays in iCalendar Format

Inspired by an article from Mat Newman, I have created a small enhancement for the users mail database. It consists of two Notes design elements (one view and one Java agent) which publishes the contact birthdays in the iCalendar format (RFC 5545). This allows the user to show the birthdays of IBM Notes contacts on any platform which supports the iCalendar format (iOS, OS X, Outlook, etc.)

Download

License

  • Open Source / “This software shall be used for Good, not Evil.”

Prerequisites

  • IBM Domino server with active HTTP task
  • Contact synchronization enabled in the user mail database

Installation

  • Import and sign the two DXL files (Domino design elements) into the user mail database or the mail template. This import can be done either with the Ytria scanEZ tool or thru an agent (Example „The missing DXL Import option„).
  • Create a website rule on your IBM Domino server to force HTTP basic authentication for the iCalendar feed:iCalendar-Website-Rule
  • Restart or refresh („Tell HTTP Refresh“) the HTTP task to activate the website rule.

How to use

  • Enter the URL „https://your.server.com/mail/xxxxxxxx.nsf/ICSBirthdays.ics“ on the platform which should receive the birthday calendar entries. You will then be prompted for your userid and HTTP password.
  • You can also use this function to add the contact birthdays in your Notes client:
    iCalendar-Birthdays

Notes

  • The published birthday calendar entries are read-only and can therefore not be altered by the client platform.
  • You may change the static string at the start of the Java agent code to reflect your company name. This name only shows up in the header of the iCalendar feed.
  • You may also be interested in the companion product to publish the IBM Domino calendar entries.
  • Please send all questions, bugs, feedback or enhancement requests to andy.brunner@abdata.ch. Thank you.

Change History

V1.03 / 21-Jan-2016

  • Change: Added two tags für Microsoft Outlook clients

V1.02 / 19-Jun-2015

  • Change: Fixed view for FullName fields containing Text-Lists

V1.01 / 09-Jun-2015

  • Change: Optimize view processing
  • Change: Support for more calendar clients
  • Change: Handle special escape characters in name

V1.00 / 31-May-2015

  • Initial program version