FortiMail (v5.3) Calendar Sharing in Thunderbird

FortiMail supports calendar sharing over a variety of mail clients, making it easier for you to schedule meetings and organize your daily routine.

This recipe overviews calendar sharing for Mozilla Thunderbird. It provides detailed instructions on how to configure FortiMail to enable sharing, how to set-up Thunderbird to publish your calendar, how to set-up your Free/Busy settings and how to subscribe to other people’s calendars.

Thunderbird users should skip the administrator steps.

Note: Two add-ons for Thunderbird are required for these steps to work: Lightning and Free/Busy. Detailed instructions on how to install add-ons in Thunderbird are located here.

Administrators: Configuring Fortimail for Sharing
Before publishing your calendar in Thunderbird, configure FortiMail to enable calendar sharing and then create a calendar resource for sharing:
1. Select Mail Settings from the FortiMail menu bar and select Calendar.
2. In the Settings tab, you’ll see two checkboxes. Select and enable both WebDav and CalDav.	Enabling CalDAV and WebDAV.
3. Select the Resources tab and select New.
4. Enter the required information.
Thunderbird Users: Getting the URLs
Now that FortiMail is properly configured for sharing, you need to acquire some important information before you can begin publishing your calendar.
Open your FortiMail webmail account.
2. Select the Preferences button under the User dropdown menu.
3. Select View in the Account Settings section beside Service URL. Copy the the WebDAV URL.
Thunderbird Users: Publishing Your Calendar
Thunderbird users can publish their calendar and subscribe to other people’s calendars from the FortiMail WebDAV server.
1. Select the Events and Tasks menu in the menu bar and select Calendar.
2. From the Calendar drop down menu, right click on the calendar you want to share and select Publish Calendar	Publishing your calendar.
3. Enter the URL that you copied from the WebDAV URL link in the previous procedure.
4. Enter your user name and password and select OK.
Thunderbird Users: Subscribing to a Calendar
In addition to publishing your own calendar, you can subscribe to other people’s calendars via the CalDAV protocol, which facilitates calendar sharing and synchronization between FortiMail and Thunderbird.
1. Select File>New>Calendar.
2. Select On the Network.
3. Select the CalDAV format and enter the CalDAV URL from the previous procedure.	Entering the CalDAV URL
4. Enter the display name and settings and select Next.
5. Enter your user name and password for FortiMail authentication. The new calendar is available in the left calendar pane.
Thunderbird Users: Configuring Free/Busy Settings
With Thunderbird and FortiMail, you can schedule an event or meeting based on the free and busy information shared and stored on the FortiMail WebDAV server. To configure the free and busy settings in Thunderbird:
1. Navigate to Tools and select Free/Busy.	Navigating to free/busy.
2. Select the Settings tab.
3. Enter the email address and matching free/busy URL. The free/busy URL is located in FortiMail under the Calendar settings in the Mail Settings.	The Free/Busy URL location.
4. Create a new event by selecting the Events and Tasks tab and select New Event. Enter all the necessary information and select Invite Attendees.