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WebCalendar v1.9.16 Administration Guide

Table of Contents

Admin Interface

The administration interface is located at admin.php and is accessible only to users with admin privileges. From this interface, administrators can manage system-wide settings, users, groups, and access controls.

User Management

Administrators create and manage user accounts through the admin interface. Users can be assigned to one or more groups for shared calendar access and permission management.

User accounts are stored in the webcal_user table when using database (native) authentication.

Groups

Groups allow administrators to organize users for shared calendar access. Groups are managed through two database tables:

  • webcal_group -- defines each group
  • webcal_group_user -- maps users to groups

Administrators can create groups, add or remove members, and assign group-level permissions through the admin interface.

Access Control

WebCalendar provides two levels of access control:

Function-level access (webcal_access_function table): Controls access to 28 individual application functions (UAC). Administrators can grant or restrict specific capabilities per user.

Calendar-level access (webcal_access_user table): Controls which users can view or manage other users' calendars.

Both levels are configured through the admin interface.

Authentication Systems

The authentication system is selected during installation (via the wizard) and stored in includes/settings.php as the $user_inc variable. The following authentication backends are available:

Setting Value Backend Description
user.php Database/Native Authenticates against the webcal_user table. Default.
user-ldap.php LDAP/Active Directory Authenticates against an LDAP or Active Directory server.
user-imap.php IMAP Authenticates against an IMAP mail server.
user-nis.php NIS/Yellow Pages Authenticates against a NIS directory.
user-app-joomla.php Joomla Integrates with Joomla user management.

To change the authentication backend after installation, update the $user_inc value in includes/settings.php or re-run the installation wizard.

LDAP Configuration

To use LDAP authentication:

  1. Verify PHP has the ldap extension: php -m | grep ldap
  2. Set $user_inc = 'user-ldap.php'; in includes/settings.php
  3. Configure LDAP variables in includes/auth-settings.php

Required Settings

Variable Description Example
$ldap_server LDAP server hostname or IP 'ldap.company.com'
$ldap_port LDAP port '389'
$ldap_base_dn Base DN for user searches 'ou=people,dc=company,dc=com'
$ldap_login_attr Attribute used for login 'uid' (or 'cn')

Optional Settings

Variable Description Default
$ldap_admin_dn Bind DN for searching (leave empty for anonymous bind) ''
$ldap_admin_pwd Bind password ''
$ldap_admin_group_name DN of group with WebCalendar admin rights ''
$ldap_admin_group_type Group type: posixgroup, groupofnames, or groupofuniquenames 'posixgroup'
$ldap_admin_group_attr Group membership attribute 'memberuid'
$ldap_user_filter LDAP filter to limit user search '(objectclass=person)'
$ldap_start_tls Use STARTTLS false
$set_ldap_version Set protocol version explicitly false
$ldap_version LDAP protocol version '3'

Attribute Mapping

The $ldap_user_attr array in auth-settings.php maps LDAP attributes to WebCalendar fields:

$ldap_user_attr = [
  'uid',        // login
  'sn',         // lastname
  'givenname',  // firstname
  'cn',         // fullname
  'mail'        // email
];

Adjust these to match your LDAP schema.

SSL / TLS

  • LDAPS: Set $ldap_server = 'ldaps://ldap.company.com';
  • STARTTLS: Set $ldap_start_tls = true; and $set_ldap_version = true; (requires LDAPv3)

Limitations

  • Group functionality in WebCalendar does not integrate with LDAP groups.
  • Users cannot change their password through WebCalendar when using LDAP.
  • Admin users cannot create new users through the WebCalendar interface.

System Settings

System-wide settings are stored in the webcal_config table and managed through the admin.php interface. Changes take effect immediately.

User Preferences

Individual user preferences are stored in the webcal_user_pref table. Users manage their own preferences through the preferences interface. Administrators can set default preference values that apply to new users.

Email and Reminders

Email Configuration

Before reminders or notifications will work, configure email in Admin > System Settings > Email tab:

  1. Set Email enabled to Yes.
  2. Set Default sender address (e.g., calendar@yourcompany.com). Some mail servers reject messages where the From domain doesn't match the SMTP server.
  3. Set Email Mailer to one of: PHP mail, SMTP, or sendmail.
  4. If using SMTP, configure:
  5. SMTP Host name(s) — server hostname or IP
  6. SMTP Port Number — typically 25, 465 (SSL), or 587 (STARTTLS)
  7. SMTP Authentication — enable if your server requires it, then set SMTP Username and SMTP Password

Test your configuration:

php tools/send_test_email.php

Notification Types

WebCalendar sends two kinds of email:

  • Notifications — sent immediately when events are added, updated, or deleted on a user's calendar. Controlled per-user in Preferences.
  • Reminders — sent before an event at a time configured by the user. Requires a cron job (see below).

Setting Up Reminder Cron Job

The reminder script checks for pending reminders and sends emails. It requires the PHP CLI binary.

Linux / UNIX

# Run every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/webcalendar/tools/send_reminders.php

Adjust the PHP binary path and WebCalendar installation path for your environment. Run which php to find the correct path.

If you don't have PHP CLI available, you can use wget as an alternative:

*/15 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null https://yourserver/webcalendar/tools/send_reminders.php

Windows Task Scheduler

  1. Create a batch file named sendreminders.bat. Its contents should be: 
    C:\path\to\php.exe C:\path\to\webcalendar\tools\send_reminders.php
  2. Open Task Scheduler in Windows.
  3. Click Create Basic Task and name it "WebCalendar Reminders".
  4. Set the Trigger to "Daily".
  5. Set the Start Time (e.g., 12:00:00 AM).
  6. Under Action, select Start a program and browse to your sendreminders.bat.
  7. Click Finish.
  8. To make it run more frequently, right-click the task, choose Properties > Triggers > Edit > Advanced Settings > Repeat task every: and set it to 15 minutes (or your preference).

Remote Calendar Sync Cron Job

If you use remote iCalendar feeds via nonuser calendars (see Import & Export: Remote Calendars), set up a cron job to refresh them periodically:

# Reload all remote calendars every hour
0 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/webcalendar/tools/reload_remotes.php

This requires Allow remote calendars to be enabled in System Settings, and at least one nonuser calendar configured with a remote URL.

Key Admin Settings

The following categories of settings are available through the admin interface:

  • Single-user vs multi-user mode -- Run as a personal calendar or a shared multi-user system.
  • Public access calendar -- Allow anonymous (unauthenticated) users to view a public calendar.
  • Event approval workflow -- Require admin approval before events appear on shared calendars.
  • Categories -- Define event categories for organization and filtering.
  • Custom event fields (site extras) -- Add custom fields to the event entry form. See Custom Event Fields below.
  • Nonuser calendars -- Create calendars for rooms, resources, or other non-person entities.
  • MCP server -- Enable or disable the Model Context Protocol server for AI assistant integration. Controlled by the MCP_SERVER_ENABLED and MCP_RATE_LIMIT settings.

Configuring as an Event Calendar

WebCalendar can serve as a public-facing event calendar for an organization. To set this up:

  1. Log in as an admin user (default: username admin, password admin).
  2. Go to Admin > System Settings.
  3. Under the Public Access tab, set Allow public access to Yes.
  4. Optionally set Public access can add events to Yes if you want anonymous users to submit events.
  5. If anonymous submissions are enabled, set Public access new events require approval to Yes so an admin reviews them first.

To add events to the public calendar:

  1. Log in and create an event.
  2. Add Public User as a participant.
  3. If approvals are required, go to Unapproved Events and approve the event for Public User.

Anonymous visitors access the public calendar from the login page via the "Access public calendar" link, or directly at index.php.

Adding Holidays

Import a public iCalendar (.ics) holiday file via Import. To share holidays with all users without each importing separately:

  1. Enable Nonuser Calendars in System Settings.
  2. Create a nonuser calendar (e.g., "US Holidays") under Admin > Users > NonUser Calendars.
  3. Import the holiday file into that calendar.
  4. Users add the nonuser calendar as a layer to see holidays on their own calendar.

Multiple Public Calendars

You cannot have multiple public calendars directly, but you can emulate them:

  • Create global categories and link users to category-filtered views.
  • Create multiple nonuser calendars and enable public access viewing of other users' calendars. Link to specific nonuser calendars or create views combining them.

Embedding Events on External Sites

WebCalendar provides two embeddable pages for displaying calendar data on external websites via <iframe>.

Upcoming Events List

upcoming.php displays a list of upcoming events. Embed it with:

<iframe src="https://yourserver/webcalendar/upcoming.php"
  style="width: 400px; height: 400px;"></iframe>

URL parameters:

Parameter Description Default
days Number of days ahead to search 30
max Maximum events to display 10
user Calendar user login to display __public__
cat Filter by category ID (none)

Example: upcoming.php?days=60&max=20&user=joe

Configuration: Edit variables at the top of upcoming.php to set defaults for $numDays, $maxEvents, $username, $allow_user_override, $load_layers, and $display_link.

Requires Public Access to be enabled unless you set $public_must_be_enabled = false in the file.

Mini Calendar

minical.php displays a small monthly calendar. Embed it with:

<iframe src="https://yourserver/webcalendar/minical.php"
  style="width: 250px; height: 200px;"></iframe>

Configuration options are at the top of minical.php.

Custom Event Fields (Site Extras)

WebCalendar supports adding custom fields to the event entry form. These are configured by editing includes/site_extras.php and are stored in the webcal_site_extras database table.

Configuration

Edit includes/site_extras.php and define entries in the $site_extras array. Each entry is an array with these elements:

Index Purpose Example
0 Unique field name (used in DB) "RoomLocation"
1 Display label shown to users "Location"
2 Field type constant EXTRA_SELECTLIST
3 Arg 1 (type-dependent, see below) ["Room A", "Room B"]
4 Arg 2 (type-dependent, see below) 0
5 Display visibility flags EXTRA_DISPLAY_ALL

The special value 'FIELDSET' as the first array entry wraps all custom fields in an HTML fieldset on the edit form.

Field Types

Type Description Arg 1 Arg 2
EXTRA_TEXT Single line text input Input size (unused)
EXTRA_MULTILINETEXT Multi-line textarea Columns Rows
EXTRA_URL Text input displayed as a link Link target (_blank, etc.) (unused)
EXTRA_DATE Date picker (unused) (unused)
EXTRA_EMAIL Text input displayed as mailto link (unused) (unused)
EXTRA_USER Dropdown of calendar users (unused) (unused)
EXTRA_RADIO Radio button group Associative array of options Default key
EXTRA_SELECTLIST Selection dropdown Array of options 0=single, >0=multi+max size
EXTRA_CHECKBOX Checkbox Checked value Default state

Display Visibility

Control where each field appears using bitmask flags:

Flag Where it displays
EXTRA_DISPLAY_POPUP Mouse-over popups
EXTRA_DISPLAY_VIEW Event detail page
EXTRA_DISPLAY_EMAIL Email notifications
EXTRA_DISPLAY_REMINDER Reminders
EXTRA_DISPLAY_REPORT Reports
EXTRA_DISPLAY_WS Web services
EXTRA_DISPLAY_ALL All of the above

Combine flags with | (bitwise OR): 

EXTRA_DISPLAY_POPUP | EXTRA_DISPLAY_VIEW  // popups and detail page only

Example

$site_extras = [
  'FIELDSET',
  [
    "RoomLocation",
    "Location",
    EXTRA_SELECTLIST,
    ["None", "Room 101", "Room 102", "Conf Room 8"],
    0,
    EXTRA_DISPLAY_ALL
  ],
  [
    "NeedLunch",
    "Lunch",
    EXTRA_CHECKBOX,
    'Y',
    'Y',
    EXTRA_DISPLAY_POPUP | EXTRA_DISPLAY_VIEW
  ],
];

Translation

If your installation supports multiple languages, add the display labels to the appropriate translation files. Use tools/check_translation.pl to verify completeness.

Backup and Restore

Database

Back up the database using the appropriate tool for your database backend:

MySQL: 

mysqldump -u USERNAME -p DATABASE_NAME > webcalendar_backup.sql

PostgreSQL: 

pg_dump -U USERNAME DATABASE_NAME > webcalendar_backup.sql

To restore, import the SQL dump using your database client.

Files

Back up the following files and directories:

  • includes/settings.php -- Database connection and authentication configuration.
  • icons/ -- Any custom icons that have been uploaded.

These files are not regenerated by the application and must be preserved separately from the database.