This is a problem for me as well. Anybody know what is going on? I
used Ethereal to look for associated network traffic and there is
none, so I don't think that Evolution is even trying.

I looked through the code and did not get a complete picture of what
is going on, but it looks like maybe Evo only looks for the Free/Busy
file if the entry comes from LDAP. I don't know why.

Please help. If F/B does not work, my company could very well install
MS Exchange for no other reason ;-(

I too am seeing this.  I setup my ifb file on an apache server, and clicking the
icon next to the free/busy textbox opens a browser window with the contents of
the free/busy file-- so evolution can find it.  Here is how I reproduce the problem:

1. right clicking in the calendar, click 'New meeting'
2. click Scheduling
3. click Contacts
4. add the contact with the http url for free/busy information as a required
participant
5. click Options/update free/busy

Results: nothing happens.  Nothing in access_log on the server, nothing shown in
tcpdump.  Tried running evolution with --debug and also with CAMEL_DEBUG=all,
but evolution was silent.  Evolution 1.4.6 works fine.  Please advise on how to
debug this, as it would be great to get this regression fixed.

Incidentally, bug 273560 looks to be a duplicate.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-2-386
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages evolution depends on:
ii  evolution-data-server  1.0.4-1jds1       evolution database backend server
ii  gconf2                 2.8.1-6           GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gnome-icon-theme       2.8.0-4           GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii  gtkhtml3.2             3.2.5-1           HTML rendering/editing library - b
ii  libart-2.0-2           2.3.17-1          Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0            1.8.0-4           The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libaudiofile0          0.2.6-6           Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii  libbonobo2-0           2.8.1-2           Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0         2.8.1-2           The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                  2.3.2.ds1-22      GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libcompfaceg1          1989.11.11-24     Compress/decompress images for mai
ii  libdb4.2               4.2.52-18         Berkeley v4.2 Database Libraries [
ii  libebook8              1.0.4-1jds1       Client library for evolution addre
ii  libecal6               1.0.4-1jds1       Client library for evolution calen
ii  libedataserver3        1.0.4-1jds1       Utily library for evolution data s
ii  libegroupwise6         1.0.4-1jds1       Client library for accessing group
ii  libesd-alsa0 [libesd0] 0.2.35-2          Enlightened Sound Daemon (ALSA) -
ii  libfontconfig1         2.3.1-2           generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6           2.1.7-2.4         FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgail-common         1.8.4-1           GNOME Accessibility Implementation
ii  libgail17              1.8.4-1           GNOME Accessibility Implementation
ii  libgal2.2-1            2.2.5-1           G App Libs (run time library)
ii  libgal2.2-common       2.2.5-1           G App Libs (common files)
ii  libgconf2-4            2.8.1-6           GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libgcrypt11            1.2.0-11.1        LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglade2-0            1:2.4.2-2         library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0           2.6.4-1           The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-keyring0      0.4.2-1           GNOME keyring services library
ii  libgnome-pilot2        2.0.12-1.2        Support libraries for gnome-pilot
ii  libgnome2-0            2.8.1-2           The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0      2.8.0-1           A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeprint2.2-0     2.8.2-1           The GNOME 2.2 print architecture -
ii  libgnomeprintui2.2-0   2.8.2-2           GNOME 2.2 print architecture User
ii  libgnomeui-0           2.8.1-3           The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0         2.8.4-4           The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgnutls11            1.0.16-13.1       GNU TLS library - runtime library
ii  libgpg-error0          1.0-1             library for common error values an
ii  libgtk2.0-0            2.6.4-3           The GTK+ graphical user interface
ii  libgtkhtml3.2-11       3.2.5-1           HTML rendering/editing library - r
ii  libice6                4.3.0.dfsg.1-14   Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libjpeg62              6b-10             The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG
ii  libldap2               2.1.30-8          OpenLDAP libraries
ii  libnspr4               2:1.7.8-1         Netscape Portable Runtime Library
ii  libnss3                2:1.7.8-1         Network Security Service Libraries
ii  liborbit2              1:2.12.2-1        libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0          1.8.1-1           Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpisock8             0.11.8-10         Library for communicating with a P
ii  libpisync0             0.11.8-10         Synchronization library for PalmOS
ii  libpopt0               1.7-5             lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14   X Window System Session Management
ii  libsoup2.2-7           2.2.3-2           an HTTP library implementation in
ii  libtasn1-2             0.2.10-3          Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libx11-6               4.3.0.dfsg.1-14   X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxml2                2.6.16-7          GNOME XML library
ii  xlibs                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-14   X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configu
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.2-4.sarge.2 compression library - runtime

This is with evolution 2.0.4, btw

This seems to be fixed, can you try this with the latest version(s) of evolution ?

is there a cvs commit for this?  cvs browse doesn't seem to be working on
cvs.gnome.org right now.

I tried on gnome 2.10 in ubuntu, and it doesn't work.  I also tried the gnome
2.12 livecd, but it would crash when trying to schedule a meeting (it had an
evolution 2.3.x version though...).

As of latest ubuntu live cd (with evolution 2.4.0) this is still broken.  Will
attach the (evolution 2.0.4 created) ifb file.

Created attachment 52679 [details]
ifb file doesn't work

Here is the ifb file that doesn't work.  I changed the URL to example.com, but
it is retrievable here (ie in the Contact manager, you can click on the browser
button next to the Free/Busy text box and firefox retrieves it).

Used with the latest ubuntu live cd which includes evolution 2.4.1.  Still
doesn't work.  Used tcpdump to see if evolution was trying to get the
information, but it did not.  Steps to reproduce:

Add a new contact with Name, Email address and Free/Busy information.  Verified
that I can retrieve the free/busy file by clicking the icon with a plug on it
next to the Free/Busy text field.

Go to the Calendar, right click on a time and date and click New Meeting

Click Scheduling tab

Click Contacts button, and add the newly added contact as a required
participant.  At this point, both the local default user and the newly added
contact show in the scheduling calendar 'no information'.

Click Options/Update Free/Busy and the local default user's line in the
scheduling calendar goes gray (ie it's free busy is updated), however the newly
added contact's line still show 'no information'.  Tcpdump reveals evolution
didn't even try to download the file.

This is still marked as NEEDINFO, but I supplied a lot of info.  Please let me
know what else is needed.  I'd like to get this fixed.

273560 appears to be a duplicate

What information can I give that will help you to diagnose and fix this?  I have spent a lot of time on this since the last post, but can't make any headway.  Please note that this is a *regression* over evolution 1.4-- it works, as can be seen by this log from apache:

192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:17:05:26 -0500] "GET /calendars/test HTTP/1.0" 200 1812 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.2.5"

However, as stated before, evolution 2.0 and higher do not work-- no traffic is seen on the webserver.

Seeing that evo 1.4 used gnome-vfs, I thought I would see if gnome-vfs worked ok with gnome 2.8 (the version I currently have installed).  So I fired up nautilus, and used this in the Location bar:
dav://www.example.com/calendars

and saw on the server:
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:43:53 -0500] "OPTIONS /calendars HTTP/1.1" 200 0 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:43:54 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars HTTP/1.1" 207 5764 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:43:54 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars HTTP/1.1" 207 869 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:43:54 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars/jamie HTTP/1.1" 207 833 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:43:54 -0500] "HEAD /calendars/jamie HTTP/1.1" 200 0 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"

Then I used this in the Location bar:
http://www.example.com/calendars

and saw this:
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "OPTIONS /calendars HTTP/1.1" 200 0 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars HTTP/1.1" 207 5764 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars/jamie HTTP/1.1" 207 833 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars HTTP/1.1" 207 869 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars/dat HTTP/1.1" 207 826 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "HEAD /calendars/dat HTTP/1.1" 200 0 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "OPTIONS /calendars HTTP/1.1" 200 0 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"
192.168.2.9 - - [01/Mar/2006:18:45:38 -0500] "PROPFIND /calendars HTTP/1.1" 207 5764 "-" "gnome-vfs/2.8.4 neon/0.24.6"

Both prove that gnome-vfs on gnome2.8 is working, but I don't know if evolution >= 2.0 is using gnome-vfs properly (if that is even the problem).

*** Bug 322982 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(been triaging the remaining bugs targetted to 2.2)
reassigning the last six bugs which need to be retested to poornima (i myself cannot test them because i don't have a "company setup" here).
adding harish to CC.

poornima, please update the status of these bugs and retarget them, as i already requested some time ago. thanks.

setting status to NEEDINFO.

This was marked as NEEDINFO-- but what information is needed.  This still doesn't work with evolution 2.6 (Ubuntu Dapper).

I just confirmed that this also doesn't work with free/busy being looked up via LDAP either (evo 2.6 on Ubuntu Dapper).  The free/busy uri does show up via LDAP contact lookup in evolution, but when adding a meeting with this contact as a required participant, the calendar server is not contacted.

I found a way to get this to work, partially for evolution 2.6 (haven't checked earlier versions):

1. Edit/Preferences/Calendar and Tasks

2. click the Free/Busy tab

3. Enter the template as something like:
http://cal.example.com/calendars/%u

4. Publish free/busy information for testuser@example.com to http://cal.example.com/calendars/testuser

4. Schedule a meeting -- it works!

Basically, this means that people must publish their calendars to http://cal.example.com/calendars/<username> where '<username>' is whatever is before the '@' of their primary email address.

It turns out that the bug isn't that evolution won't lookup the free/busy info via http, but that it ignores the Free/Busy information in Personal Inforamtion/Web Addressses for the Contact (which is incidentally is why LDAP didn't work either).

Hope this helps.  I can now roll this out to my clients and just work around the bug.

reopening.

seems related to bug 273560

Could you please confirm if this bug is still happening at your end ? Please try in 2.24.x / 2.26.x and report back, thanks. 

This is working as of 2.26.1-0ubuntu2 in Ubuntu 9.04. That said, its usefulness is greatly diminished due to http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=543517.

Shall we close this bug and track the issue in 543517 as it's a separate one.

IMHO this bug can be closed.

Reproduced with evolution-2.28.1-0ubuntu1 . Any hints on where to look for why this bug got back?

@esben, which provider are you using ?  

When you request for free/busy, have you selected correct calendar in left side panel ?

I am using Zimbra.

But I also tried putting a plain ifb file on our own Apache server, and trace Evolution's work with wireshark.  And the Free/busy URL in Contacts seems to be blankly ignored.  But setting the default Free/Busy template in Preferences, is looked up.  But of two contacts tested, one of them showed a new bug, completely breaking the %u in my template.  But that's a different story :-)