Package net.fortuna.ical4j.model.component

Class VFreeBusy

  • All Implemented Interfaces:
    Serializable, ComponentContainer<Component>, FluentComponent, PropertyContainer
    public class VFreeBusy
extends CalendarComponent
implements ComponentContainer<Component>
    $Id$ [Apr 5, 2004] Defines an iCalendar VFREEBUSY component. 
      4.6.4 Free/Busy Component

     Component Name: VFREEBUSY

     Purpose: Provide a grouping of component properties that describe
     either a request for free/busy time, describe a response to a request
     for free/busy time or describe a published set of busy time.

     Formal Definition: A "VFREEBUSY" calendar component is defined by the
     following notation:

       freebusyc  = "BEGIN" ":" "VFREEBUSY" CRLF
                    fbprop
                    "END" ":" "VFREEBUSY" CRLF

       fbprop     = *(

                  ; the following are optional,
                  ; but MUST NOT occur more than once

                  contact / dtstart / dtend / duration / dtstamp /
                  organizer / uid / url /

                  ; the following are optional,
                  ; and MAY occur more than once

                  attendee / comment / freebusy / rstatus / x-prop

                  )

     Description: A "VFREEBUSY" calendar component is a grouping of
     component properties that represents either a request for, a reply to
     a request for free or busy time information or a published set of
     busy time information.

     When used to request free/busy time information, the "ATTENDEE"
     property specifies the calendar users whose free/busy time is being
     requested; the "ORGANIZER" property specifies the calendar user who
     is requesting the free/busy time; the "DTSTART" and "DTEND"
     properties specify the window of time for which the free/busy time is
     being requested; the "UID" and "DTSTAMP" properties are specified to
     assist in proper sequencing of multiple free/busy time requests.

     When used to reply to a request for free/busy time, the "ATTENDEE"
     property specifies the calendar user responding to the free/busy time
     request; the "ORGANIZER" property specifies the calendar user that
     originally requested the free/busy time; the "FREEBUSY" property
     specifies the free/busy time information (if it exists); and the
     "UID" and "DTSTAMP" properties are specified to assist in proper
     sequencing of multiple free/busy time replies.

     When used to publish busy time, the "ORGANIZER" property specifies
     the calendar user associated with the published busy time; the
     "DTSTART" and "DTEND" properties specify an inclusive time window
     that surrounds the busy time information; the "FREEBUSY" property
     specifies the published busy time information; and the "DTSTAMP"
     property specifies the date/time that iCalendar object was created.

     The "VFREEBUSY" calendar component cannot be nested within another
     calendar component. Multiple "VFREEBUSY" calendar components can be
     specified within an iCalendar object. This permits the grouping of
     Free/Busy information into logical collections, such as monthly
     groups of busy time information.

     The "VFREEBUSY" calendar component is intended for use in iCalendar
     object methods involving requests for free time, requests for busy
     time, requests for both free and busy, and the associated replies.

     Free/Busy information is represented with the "FREEBUSY" property.
     This property provides a terse representation of time periods. One or
     more "FREEBUSY" properties can be specified in the "VFREEBUSY"
     calendar component.

     When present in a "VFREEBUSY" calendar component, the "DTSTART" and
     "DTEND" properties SHOULD be specified prior to any "FREEBUSY"
     properties. In a free time request, these properties can be used in
     combination with the "DURATION" property to represent a request for a
     duration of free time within a specified window of time.

     The recurrence properties ("RRULE", "EXRULE", "RDATE", "EXDATE") are
     not permitted within a "VFREEBUSY" calendar component. Any recurring
     events are resolved into their individual busy time periods using the
     "FREEBUSY" property.

     Example: The following is an example of a "VFREEBUSY" calendar
     component used to request free or busy time information:

       BEGIN:VFREEBUSY
       ORGANIZER:MAILTO:jane_doe@host1.com
       ATTENDEE:MAILTO:john_public@host2.com
       DTSTART:19971015T050000Z
       DTEND:19971016T050000Z
       DTSTAMP:19970901T083000Z
       END:VFREEBUSY

     The following is an example of a "VFREEBUSY" calendar component used
     to reply to the request with busy time information:

       BEGIN:VFREEBUSY
       ORGANIZER:MAILTO:jane_doe@host1.com
       ATTENDEE:MAILTO:john_public@host2.com
       DTSTAMP:19970901T100000Z
       FREEBUSY;VALUE=PERIOD:19971015T050000Z/PT8H30M,
        19971015T160000Z/PT5H30M,19971015T223000Z/PT6H30M
       URL:http://host2.com/pub/busy/jpublic-01.ifb
       COMMENT:This iCalendar file contains busy time information for
         the next three months.
       END:VFREEBUSY

     The following is an example of a "VFREEBUSY" calendar component used
     to publish busy time information.

       BEGIN:VFREEBUSY
       ORGANIZER:jsmith@host.com
       DTSTART:19980313T141711Z
       DTEND:19980410T141711Z
       FREEBUSY:19980314T233000Z/19980315T003000Z
       FREEBUSY:19980316T153000Z/19980316T163000Z
       FREEBUSY:19980318T030000Z/19980318T040000Z
       URL:http://www.host.com/calendar/busytime/jsmith.ifb
       END:VFREEBUSY
    Example 1 - Requesting all busy time slots for a given period: 
    
 // request all busy times between today and 1 week from now..
 DateTime start = new DateTime();
 DateTime end = new DateTime(start.getTime() + 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 7);

 VFreeBusy request = new VFreeBusy(start, end);

 VFreeBusy reply = new VFreeBusy(request, calendar.getComponents());
    Example 2 - Requesting all free time slots for a given period of at least the specified duration: 
    
 // request all free time between today and 1 week from now of
 // duration 2 hours or more..
 DateTime start = new DateTime();
 DateTime end = new DateTime(start.getTime() + 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 7);

 VFreeBusy request = new VFreeBusy(start, end, new Dur(0, 2, 0, 0));

 VFreeBusy response = new VFreeBusy(request, myCalendar.getComponents());
    See Also:
    Serialized Form