Improving interoperability for users of calendars in email applications other than Notes®

Due to differences in repeating meeting architecture, several of the more complicated repeating meeting actions in Notes® cannot be interpreted by Outlook/Exchange and other non-Notes email applications. Using a combination of the settings previously described helps avoid such cases by handling the set of actions allowed on repeating meetings.

Interoperability with Microsoft Outlook

Starting with Notes/Domino 10.0.1, Microsoft Outlook users with internet addresses who receive repeating meeting invitations from Notes users are insured against data loss (are able to receive complex MIME) without your needing to configure any interoperability settings in a Mail Settings policy. In a mail policy, the compatibility mode setting will show as disabled (you don't need to change that), and "Send invitations as rich data" and "Preserve rich data as htm attachments" on the Client Detection > Client Settings tab are already on by default.

Only if you want to change these default settings to include any of the following ones do you need to configure the mail settings policy:

• Custom options for repeating meetings
• "All instances" option when acting on a repeating meeting
• "This and all future instances" option when acting on a repeating meeting
  Note: If you decide to change the default settings, all of the information in the following section applies for you - you will need to configure settings on the Basics, Domain Mapping, and Client Settings subtabs on the Client Detection tab.

How does compatibility mode work?

By default, the compatibility mode option Some invitees use other mail programs is off and does not appear in meetings. As the Domino® administrator, you can use settings on the Client Detection page of a mail policy to make the option available to the chairperson. When displayed by the mail policy setting Manually control compatibility mode with checkbox, the Some invitees use other mail programs option is available to users when they create meeting entries.

Repeating meeting actions that compatibility mode limits include:

• Rescheduling, updating, or canceling more than one instance of a meeting at a time -- Non-Notes applications do not support rescheduling multiple instances, which is how Notes® sends out a reschedule of all instances. Except in the case of Outlook, when in compatibility mode, Notes users must select the "Just this instance" option in the "Change repeating entry" dialog box, leaving the Some invitees use other mail programs enabled. With Outlook, when in compatibility mode with the "All instances" option configured, "Some invitees use other mail programs" does not display. Notes users can select "All instances," and their change is automatically sent to Outlook users as multiple invitations.
• Custom repeating meetings -- Custom repeating meetings are not allowed in compatibility mode. If custom repeat settings are specified before compatibility mode is enabled, and a user then selects the Some invitees use other mail programs option, the user sees the message You cannot use this option when a custom repeating meeting is specified. The user has the option of canceling the current repeating meeting settings in order to specify new non-custom repeat settings, or saving no changes. In either case, the custom settings are ignored.
• Weekend rules -- Only the default Don't Move weekend rule is allowed on repeating meetings. If weekend rules are specified before compatibility mode is enabled, and a user then selects the Some invitees use other mail programs option, the user sees the message You cannot use this option when weekend rules for a repeating meeting are specified. The user has the option of canceling the current repeating meeting settings in order to specify new repeat settings with no weekend rules, or saving no changes. In either case, the weekend rules settings are ignored.
  Tip for Outlook: For the cases of custom repeating meetings and weekend rules, when Notes users are sending invitations to Outlook users and get the "cannot use" messages above, another option is for them to remove the Outlook invitees from the initial invite and manually add them to each instance later. This approach preserves the additional capabilities for Notes users; for example, a Notes owner of a custom repeating meeting can reschedule all instances and the Outlook invitees will automatically get individual invitations for each instance.

By using compatibility mode in combination with client detection and domain mapping, you can fine-tune the experience of both Notes® and non-Notes email application users in your organization with repeating meetings. On the Client Detection page of the mail policy, the Compatibility mode setting Detect compatibility mode from attendee addresses works with settings on the Domain Mappings page to associate specific domains with non-Notes email applications.

For more information on using client detection settings, see Creating a mail policy settings document.