Federated Calendars in Lotus Notes 8.5 and beyond are a very popular feature, allowing users to more easily view calendars from other users, external sources, resource databases and even custom applications. For details on how to set up calendar federation, look here. Federation requires that the calendar or template for users be upgraded to version 8.5 for mail and resource databases must be version 8.5.2. If users try to federate calendars based on earlier templates, the data doesn't appear properly.



This user has three calendars federated, but only one of them shows the entries properly. The user Kathy's own entries show, and Atom's calendar, in orange displays properly. A quick investigation shows that Atom is also using an 8.5 template, but the others are using 8.0.2-based mail templates.

Since it may not be possible to upgrade these users quickly, you can make a few simple changes to the older calendar views to make them display properly in a federated calendar. These changes will have no effect on the user using an older client, but will show the entries properly when federated.

The changes needed are simply column attributes. We'll assume some knowledge of Domino Designer and design principles here, but the changes are very simple. To set the properties, use Domino Designer to open your user's calendar to the ($Calendar) view and highlight the first hidden column. Open the Infobox by pressing AltL+Enter, then select the Advanced tab (the far right one with the propeller hat) as shown below and set the Attrs: field to the values shown in the table below. Some of the fields will have a value already, so simply add a comma and append the new entry. Each column requires updating, and its easier to go from right to left.



Table of settings for View Columns

Column Name or Number	Required or Additional Setting
$134	$STARTDATE$=true
$135	$DURATION$=true
$126	$EVENTTYPE$=true
$155	$HEXSTRINGCOLOR$=true
$Cal	$RGBCOLOR$=true
$149	$ICON$=true
$157	$STARTTIMEZONE$=true
$158	$ENDTIMEZONE$=true
$144 *	$STARTTIME$=true
$145 *	$DASH$=true
$146 *	$ENDTIME$=true
SametimeInfo	$SAMETIMEINFO$=true
$161	$ICON2$=true
$147 *	$AGGREGATEDSUBJECT$=true
$151 *	$AGGREGATEDSUBJECT2$=true
$152	$APPOINTMENTTYPE$=true
$153	$CHAIR$=true
$154	$CONFIDENTIAL$=true
$160	$STATUS$=true

* NOTE: These columns will have some attributes already set. Be sure to ADD these new values after adding a comma to the existing information.


After you save your settings, the calendar that has been updated (showing in pink) displays properly when federated. Note that the one showing in dark blue has not yet been updated.



That's all it takes. When you create your own applications that contain Calendar views, you can apply these changes to make them compatible with federation. The changes can be applied to older resource reservation databases also. You can also apply the changes to a template and refresh the design.

Caution: As with any design changes, you should test this in your environment and with your templates before deploying.