Zimbra Calendar: a Powerful Groupware Solution
Zimbra Collaboration Suite features the most robust web calendar available today. It's designed with rigorous work environments in mind and allows users to easily share schedules and create group calendars. The complete web calendar functionality is available in both the ZCS Open Source and Network Edition client and server; it is an ideal groupware solution for any organization.
Rich Ajax-Based Web Calendar
With Zimbra Calendar you will quickly see how well the rich Ajax experience rivals traditional calendar clients like Microsoft Outlook or PeopleCube Meeting Maker, yet it's completely web-based. Some examples of what you'll find:
Rich web client interface
- Fast switching between multiple time views (Day, Week, Work Week, Month)
- Drag and drop to move events, "stretch" the events to change times or create multi-day "banners"
- Powerful event detail handling such as:
- Compose rich text meeting notes; add attachments to meetings
- Easily look up free-busy times of others, rooms, and resources
- GAL auto complete to quickly create meeting invites and share calendars
- Handy event reminder "toast" which appears throughout Zimbra Collaboration
Suite
For a quick test drive try our Hosted Demo or view more screenshots.
View Multiple Calendars and Group Scheduling
Elegant Schedule View
Zimbra Calendar lets you view multiple schedules as different color "overlays" in your calendar (they can be yours or ones shared with you).
- Each can be toggled on and off with one click
- Also add calendars as remote iCal feeds
There are two ways to set up group meetings:
- Add an event directly to one of your calendar overlays shared by a colleague (see delegated access and sharing below)
- Invite others, EG use 'Schedule View' to easily see free - busy times of your meeting invitees. Meeting invites sent automatically appear other's calendar; invites are also appear in their inbox where they are accepted / declined
Full Calendar Sharing and Delegated Access
Zimbra Calendar features the same familiar sharing UI and workflow as Address Book and Documents. With just one click on one of your calendars you can initiate sharing with:
Easy to share with others
- Workgroup peers (GAL auto complete)
- Others outside workgroup (send email, set password)
- Anyone publishing to the web as a read-only view (provides URL for others to use)
Also, you can set permission levels on calendar sharing:
- Read only or full delegated access
- Permissions can be set per user (everyone doesn't have to get same access)
- Each calendar can have different permissions
Server Supports Standards and Data Portability:
- ZCS server supports iCal and CalDAV standards allowing you to import external iCal feeds or connect standards-based like Mozilla Sunbird
- It also has complete REST / SOAP programming interface for making web services calls between ZCS Calendar and other web applications to share data
- Users of ZCS Network Edition also have additional native connectivity to other clients like Microsoft Outlook (MAPI) and the Apple Desktop iCal client (iSync) as well as to popular mobile device calendars via Zimbra Mobile.
Seamless Integration with Zimbra Mail and Assistant
A convenient and powerful aspect of Zimbra Calendar is it's integrated throughout Zimbra Collaboration Suite; you save time not having to switch contexts:
- In Mail, the Calendar Widget let's you easily see your schedule or add new events without leaving
- In an email message, view your schedule in the body of an email message via Zimlet technology (eg show me what's on May 4th 2007) to make scheduling replies easy
- Create new events quickly just by typing free form text with Zimbra Assistant (eg "Appt Tue 9am Lunch with Joe") anywhere in ZCS
Other Frequently Asked Questions
Using Zimbra Calendar as a stand-alone system
We are often asked if Zimbra Calendar can run by itself (eg "can I have a cool stand-alone open source web calendar and server?"). While we agree the Zimbra AJAX Web Calendar gives applications like Meeting Maker stiff competition, currently you have to run Mail, etc side-by-side with it. (From our vantage point this is a good thing; some people in your organization may wish to POP in Mail and those who don't want to can stick with just the Calendar!)
Using Zimbra Calendar Globally
Zimbra Calendar allows you to work with global teams- it has full support for international date and time standards formatting. Also it has all time zones and daylight savings time rules fully compliant with the latest standards so you don't have to worry about scheduling mismatches with your peers or having reminders show up late.
Using Zimbra Calendar over poor internet connections
When you are using a legacy browser or are on a slower connection Zimbra Collaboration Suite provides a low-bandwidth solution - the Zimbra Basic Mode. This is an HTML-only mode that reduces the amount of code sent down to the browser. It allows you to get to your calendar data quickly!
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