Changes to WebMeeting have broken invites

[BSH]

The most recent update has fundamentally broken meeting invites for our users.

The e-mail system we are using is Exchange with some users using Outlook but also with native e-mail clients on mobile phones and Outlook Web Access.

With the latest changes invites are simply not showing in the mobile app. In OWA the meeting thinks it's in the wrong place and tells users that "This item must be returned to its original location before it can be viewed" and is showing as coming from the user themselves rather than the originating user. In Outlook it shows up as if the user was trying to create a meeting but hadn't sent it. The meeting originator does not seem to be getting anything to show they have created a meeting.

I also note, from another thread, that this change seems to have broken functionality for Zimbra users.

I appreciate that there was a thread which was blaming changes in Outlook since the 2007 version with a registry based workaround. This workaround does not work for us and, even if it did, would only have fixed the issue for some of the clients.

The fact that things were working for people and now they're not, due to a change that 3CX have made, regardless of whether 3CX think that something in Outlook has been broken for 13 years, is a big problem.

Please can you stop blaming changes in software from 13 years ago, which I think we can safely assume are never going to be addressed, for an issue which has been caused by 3CX changing the functionality of their system and do something to address this or roll back those changes?

This issue is large enough for our user base that if it's not addressed we will have to find another platform to use and will be seeking reimbursement for the costs we have paid as the product is no longer fit for purpose and doesn't work as it did when we were evaluating and initially using it.

 

[sst_ekell]

This ^

There are now 6 open forum posts about this issue. The forum posts accurately reflect what we are seeing in the wild, this change has caused major problems.

You have introduced a change that BREAKS functionality that was working previously.

This must be rolled back.

Please provide some communication that demonstrates you all understand the issue and have plans to roll back to the working version.

In the future can you please pull in some sys admins who actually support end users to validate your thinking on new "feature" releases.

These changes have been completely irrational from an end-user support perspective.

 

[TeKNacion]

From what I understand from this Post, 3CX is trying to reduce the load on their servers by avoiding to process RSVPs. This seems to be change that broke the invites.

In the process they have also broken the invites to 3CX events:

 

[N_G]

@TeKNacion No this is has absolutely nothing to do with it at all. RSVP can not be sent reliably from unrelated senders (i.e. our smtp service) It has to come from the meeting organizer.

 

[TeKNacion]

Hello guys,

@Nick Galea thank you for your presence in these forums.

I do not know how format .ics files but a bit of reading up on the .ics standard I was able to learn a few things.

The .ics file that 3CX is sending out from their servers is using the METHOD: PUBLISH. If you guys use the METHOD: REQUEST the Outlook client is able process the .ics file correctly.

There is also an RSVP component that if present will process RSVPs.

May I suggest that when creating the .ics file 3CX change the organizer to the name and email address of the person creating the meeting. As opposed to a "noreply" 3CX address. The reason for suggesting this is that 3CX could include the RSVP component so that the organizer of the meeting can keep track of who Accepted and who Declined.

This information is solely based on the small amount of information I was able gather about the .ics standard.

 

[TeKNacion]

Hello,

I've been playing around with the .ics file a bit more. Keep in mind that I do not consider myself an expert in the iCalendar standard. As a matter of fact, today is the first day I've looked at this. In the process I've discovered a few curious facts:

• When using the RSVP parameter in the .ics file the RSVP is sent from the Attendee's email server. Not from the server for the Organizer nor from 3CX servers.
• When using the RSVP parameter the RSVP email address must be different from that of the Organizer's email. Otherwise Outlook will state that the Organizer did not request a response.
• When using METHOD:REQUEST the text in the DESCRIPTION: parameter is not present in the invite.

I may be experiencing these effects because I may be applying the iCalendar standard incorrectly. I'm sure 3CX dev team is more experience with this and will know how to correctly implement the iCalendar standard.

My conclusion is that the root cause of the problem everyone is experiencing in these threads is due to a misconfigured .ics file as opposed to an Outlook issue from 13 years ago.

I'm very curious to see Posts from others who know more about the iCalendar standard.

 

[N_G]

@TeKNacion Do you have office 365? If yes please select this option.

The problem is that users are refusing to select the google, office 365 or outlook mail options even when they are using these email clients or services. These users must select this option going forward and not the option to send the email via our or their mail servers because this will be frought with problems now and in the future.RSVP can not be sent by other mail servers reliably.

That said we are looking for a way to make it easier for full fat Outlook users that do not have office 365 and are using for example an onsite exchange server. Right now they have to select iCal/ics and then download the invite and launch it. This is a bit awkard (although Zoom works exact same way)

For those users we might reintroduce the RSVP invites. However at some point users will have to launch their email clients to send the invites so its not a long term solution. We will start a new thread about this soon.

 

[N_G]

Please see our reply here: https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/about-those-meeting-invites.78549/