Calendar
Show as Status
A calendar appointment has a show-as property, which tells how the meeting occupies the calendar owner. I call this the "Show as" property, after the label given by Outlook and BusyCal.
The properties are:
- Free – no appointment, available for booking
- Working Elsewhere – not appointment, noting that you are present at a specific location
- Tentative – optional meeting
- Busy – busy with a meeting or other appointment
- Away / Out of Office – unavailable, not working at that time
This is how show-as properties are shown in various programs:
| Show-as status | Outlook | BusyCal |
|---|---|---|
| Free | solid (unavailable for other meetings) | white (available for other meetings) |
| Working Elsewhere | solid (unavailable for other meetings) | dotted (available for other meetings) |
| Tentative | dashed (unavailable for other meetings) | dashed (available for other meetings) |
| Busy | solid (unavailable for other meetings) | solid (unavailable for other meetings) |
| Out of Office / Away | solid (unavailable for other meetings) | purple (unavailable for other meetings) |
CalDAV busy properties
As far as I can see, the show-as status is distinct from the "TRANSP" or "STATUS" property as defined by the CalDAV standard (and it seems that the show-as property is not defined in CalDAV).
For completeness, CalDAV defines these properties:
TRANSP:
- opaque (default) – the meeting blocks the time in the calendar
- transparent – it is transparent in the calendar, meaning that the time-slot is stil available for other appointments
STATUS:
- confirmed (default)
- tentative – the appointment is not yet accepted.
- cancelled – the appointment is cancelled.
According to the standard, only OPAQUE appointments with confirmed status are "busy", and OPAQUE appointments with tentative status are "busy-tentative". All other appointments are "free" (thus the time-slot available for other appointments).
