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Re: Netscape and Pilotmgr
HoltryF writes:
>Martin,
>Sounds good. We've discussed using a packet analyzer to look at the traffic
>with our server as well. I have a question, though, as to whether that would
>constitute reverse engineering. I haven't asked our legal department, but it's
>on the list of things to do if we get that far.
Usually, the license prohibits you from reverse engineering the software
code. In this case we'd be looking at data, not code, which usually
isn't frowned upon -- but I'm sure a lawyer could raise hell about it
anyway.
>If you get something that can talk to the daemon and return
>vCalendar, it should be simple to interface the two.
I got the OpenTime administrator's manual as expected, but it doesn't
contain the information I want. Most of the information contained in
the manual (my printed manual is for HP-UX, the Netscape version is for
WinNT) is available on Netscape's home page for your viewing "pleasure":
http://developer.netscape.com/library/documentation/calendar/netcal/index.htm
--> click on Calendar Server
The manual does contain a description of the "unicpu" file format, which
apparently can be used on the server to manually export and import a
user's agenda. Having boggled at the vCalendar format for a while I can
say that the conversion should be quite easy since both formats support
the same general features and have a vaguely similar layout. The files
can be converted almost on a line-by-line basis.
There is something called "uniscnd" or the unison synchronous network
connection daemon (unison-x is the name of the database) which operates
on port 5731 and seems to negotiate and maintain connections. When you
want to talk to OpenTime, you open a socket to uniscnd and ask it to
open a new connection to an "uniengd" daemon or a corporate-wide
"uniswcd" daemon, then you use this new connection (stated to be on port
5730) to do queries or transfer data.
Now for the bad news: reverse-engineering this protocol ranks only a
little below "Getting Hell to Freeze Over" and way above "Forcing the
Netscape People to Tell All About It" on the Weissenberg Difficulty
Scale. For example, the uniscnd negotiation protocol seems to use
illegible one-byte codes instead of the relatively legible ascii
commands we're used to from FTP, HTTP, SMTP and vCalendar. And I can't
start hacking OpenTime (=interesting) before I've hacked uniscnd
(=boring).
If I can't get the info from Netscape or CS&T, I'm going to look at the
local files instead. If even that fails, I'm going to use a tcp snooper
to watch the traffic from the PC conduit on ports 5730 and 5731.
>It's not clear to me, though, that OpenTime is using the same daemons that
>Netscape Calendar Manager is. I've been told, but haven't verified it, that
We have used the Netscape Calendar PC conduit to sync to and from
OpenTime, and OpenTime calendars can be opened natively in Netscape.
Though I haven't asked CS&T and Netscape for confirmation, I have no
doubt that Netscape Calendar and OpenTime use compatible daemons.
Just one more point regarding Netscape and vCalendar: all references
state (if only vaguely) that only the calendar client is
vCalendar-compatible, not the server.
--Martin
Martin von Weissenberg <http://www.hut.fi/~mweissen>
"I've been reading a C++ book recently (know thy enemy), and every
time I turn the page I see new ways to make tiny errors that are
catastrophic and impossible to debug." (Peter Lewis)
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