ICal Server email invitations - how to test and get this feature working

Question

iCal Server email invitations - how to test and get this feature working
Thanks Apple for introducing this nice little feature into iCal but then completely neglecting to write any sort of useful manual that can explain what to do when it doesn't work after you set it up for the first time.
At long, long last we have finally got there after about 6 months of fiddling on and off, so I thought I had better post up the process since many have similar issues and it is hard to ascertain what is going on.
Using an external email server was just a waste of time and it still wouldn't handle the replies properly even though it was supposed to handle '+addressing'. In the end I set up a special gmail account for the iCal server and finally got it working. I list here the process of configuring and testing the system to check that each little stage is working.
Set up a Gmail account in Apple Mail to access and test in the usual way for any email account (e.g. [email protected].);
Set the iCal server email to access the same email using the following settings:
IMAP
SMTP
[email protected]
smtp.gmail.com
Port: 993 [x] Use SSL
Port: 587 [x] Use SSL
User & Pwd
Login
User & Pwd
To test the settings:
send out a test email from Apple Mail to a non-server email address that you can access to check it has been received;
send out a test email from your non-server email account to [email protected] and check that it is received;
this tells you that the GMail account is setup correctly and working
Testing iCal:
I noted that iCal was deleting any emails that arrive in the inBox in Apple Mail as soon as they arrived (this is to be expected);
test that the invites are being sent from iCal by setting an event in iCal and inviting your non-server address (you may not see any sign of this in Apple Mail but you should catch it in the iCal server log and possibly in the Gmail sent mail box);
check that the invite is received at your non-server account and Accept it in iCal on another machine - the reply is automatically sent back;
the replies appear in Apple Mail but are quickly deleted by iCal. But their record for you to see is left in Gmail under 'All Mail';
Accepted invites appear as a notification button on the top left hand bar on iCal where you click to acknowledge them and then the attendee is shown as a green circled tick instead of a grey circled ?.
this shows that iCal invitations are working correctly. Whenever an event is updated, all invitees should be updated by email automatically.
I hope this helps anyone - I could certainly have done with something similar when I started with looking at this.
Anatole
The Error and Access logfile in the Server app under iCal server are very useful in determining any errors. I got lots of imip errors when I didn't quite have the settings right. The port is critical and it won't tell you this is the problem if it fails.

Answer 1

iCal Server email invitations - how to test and get this feature working
Thanks Apple for introducing this nice little feature into iCal but then completely neglecting to write any sort of useful manual that can explain what to do when it doesn't work after you set it up for the first time.
At long, long last we have finally got there after about 6 months of fiddling on and off, so I thought I had better post up the process since many have similar issues and it is hard to ascertain what is going on.
Using an external email server was just a waste of time and it still wouldn't handle the replies properly even though it was supposed to handle '+addressing'. In the end I set up a special gmail account for the iCal server and finally got it working. I list here the process of configuring and testing the system to check that each little stage is working.
Set up a Gmail account in Apple Mail to access and test in the usual way for any email account (e.g. [email protected].);
Set the iCal server email to access the same email using the following settings:
IMAP
SMTP
[email protected]
smtp.gmail.com
Port: 993 [x] Use SSL
Port: 587 [x] Use SSL
User & Pwd
Login
User & Pwd
To test the settings:
send out a test email from Apple Mail to a non-server email address that you can access to check it has been received;
send out a test email from your non-server email account to [email protected] and check that it is received;
this tells you that the GMail account is setup correctly and working
Testing iCal:
I noted that iCal was deleting any emails that arrive in the inBox in Apple Mail as soon as they arrived (this is to be expected);
test that the invites are being sent from iCal by setting an event in iCal and inviting your non-server address (you may not see any sign of this in Apple Mail but you should catch it in the iCal server log and possibly in the Gmail sent mail box);
check that the invite is received at your non-server account and Accept it in iCal on another machine - the reply is automatically sent back;
the replies appear in Apple Mail but are quickly deleted by iCal. But their record for you to see is left in Gmail under 'All Mail';
Accepted invites appear as a notification button on the top left hand bar on iCal where you click to acknowledge them and then the attendee is shown as a green circled tick instead of a grey circled ?.
this shows that iCal invitations are working correctly. Whenever an event is updated, all invitees should be updated by email automatically.
I hope this helps anyone - I could certainly have done with something similar when I started with looking at this.
Anatole
The Error and Access logfile in the Server app under iCal server are very useful in determining any errors. I got lots of imip errors when I didn't quite have the settings right. The port is critical and it won't tell you this is the problem if it fails.