Automatic Email Notification for Unconfirmed Appointments in Nextcloud Calendar

[dannym-arx]

I have encountered an issue in Nextcloud Calendar where a user receives an email notification indicating that their appointment has been accepted by another user, even though the appointment has not yet been officially accepted. This issue leads to confusion and miscommunication about the status of appointments.

Steps to reproduce

1. User A books an appointment on User B's calendar.
2. User A confirms the appointment from their end.
3. Without any action from User B (i.e., User B has not yet accepted the appointment), User A receives an email notification stating that User B has accepted the appointment.

Expected behavior

User A should only receive an email notification about the appointment being accepted after User B has actually confirmed or accepted the appointment on their end.

Actual behaviour

User A receives a premature email notification indicating that User B has accepted the appointment, despite no confirmation action taken by User B.

Impact

This issue can lead to misunderstandings and scheduling conflicts, as it falsely communicates the confirmation status of an appointment.

Calendar app version

4.2.0

CalDAV-clients used

None/Browser

Browser

irrelevant

Client operating system

irrelevant

Server operating system

docker container running nextcloud

Web server

Apache

Database engine version

MariaDB

PHP engine version

PHP 8.2

Nextcloud version

27.1.4

Updated from an older installed version or fresh install

None

List of activated apps

Enabled:
  - activity: 2.19.0
  - admin_audit: 1.17.0
  - assistant: 1.0.2
  - bruteforcesettings: 2.7.0
  - calendar: 4.6.0
  - circles: 27.0.1
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.10.0
  - comments: 1.17.0
  - contacts: 5.4.2
  - contactsinteraction: 1.8.0
  - dashboard: 7.7.0
  - dav: 1.27.0
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.17.0
  - federation: 1.17.0
  - files: 1.22.0
  - files_automatedtagging: 1.17.0
  - files_pdfviewer: 2.8.0
  - files_reminders: 1.0.0
  - files_rightclick: 1.6.0
  - files_sharing: 1.19.0
  - files_trashbin: 1.17.0
  - files_versions: 1.20.0
  - firstrunwizard: 2.16.0
  - forms: 3.4.2
  - groupfolders: 15.3.1
  - integration_openai: 1.1.2
  - integration_peertube: 1.0.2
  - logreader: 2.12.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.15.0
  - mail: 3.4.5
  - nextcloud_announcements: 1.16.0
  - notifications: 2.15.0
  - oauth2: 1.15.1
  - password_policy: 1.17.0
  - photos: 2.3.0
  - privacy: 1.11.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.17.0
  - recognize: 5.0.3
  - recommendations: 1.6.0
  - related_resources: 1.2.0
  - richdocuments: 8.2.3
  - serverinfo: 1.17.0
  - settings: 1.9.0
  - sharebymail: 1.17.0
  - socialsharing_email: 3.0.0
  - spreed: 17.1.3
  - support: 1.10.0
  - survey_client: 1.15.0
  - systemtags: 1.17.0
  - tasks: 0.15.0
  - text: 3.8.0
  - theming: 2.2.0
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.16.0
  - updatenotification: 1.17.0
  - user_ldap: 1.17.0
  - user_status: 1.7.0
  - viewer: 2.1.0
  - weather_status: 1.7.0
  - workflowengine: 2.9.0
Disabled:
  - encryption: 2.15.0
  - files_external: 1.19.0
  - suspicious_login: 5.0.0
  - twofactor_totp: 9.0.0

Nextcloud configuration

{
    "system": {
        "htaccess.RewriteBase": "\/",
        "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu",
        "apps_paths": [
            {
                "path": "\/var\/www\/html\/apps",
                "url": "\/apps",
                "writable": false
            },
            {
                "path": "\/var\/www\/html\/custom_apps",
                "url": "\/custom_apps",
                "writable": true
            }
        ],
        "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "docs.digiline.io",
        ],
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "27.1.4.1",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "https:\/\/docs.digiline.io",
        "overwriteprotocol": "https",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbport": "",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "installed": true,
        "ldapProviderFactory": "OCA\\User_LDAP\\LDAPProviderFactory",
        "app_install_overwrite": [
            "talked"
        ],
        "loglevel": 2,
        "maintenance": false,
        "mail_smtpmode": "smtp",
        "mail_sendmailmode": "smtp",
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpauth": 1,
        "mail_smtpport": "587",
        "mail_smtpname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtppassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
    }
}

Web server error log

not relevant

Log file

no relevant information in the logs

Browser log

no relevant information in the logs

Additional info

No response

[miaulalala]

User B has full control over their slots. So if they're presented in the appointments booking dialogue, the assumption is that the User B has time on those dates. We already take into account that your calendar might contain conflicting events and take those slots out.

[dannym-arx]

Thank you for your prompt response, however, I'd like to respectfully clarify the core issue.

For certain groups of people a manual confirmation step is extremely important and this is the number one issue that a coworker has with nextcloud calendar.

For him, and presumably many others, an available time slot does not necessarily equate with the automatic acceptance of an appointment, and I think this is where the confusion stems from.

I believe that it's common for many to require a manual confirmation or acceptance step, ensuring that both parties are fully aware and in agreement with the scheduled appointment.

Therefore, I propose the addition of a feature where the user can choose whether events are confirmed automatically or not. Many platforms that allow for booking appointments, such as cal.com, already have a feature (Opt-in Bookings) for manual confirmation that can be turned on or off.

Appreciate all the hard work you guys do, and looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!

[miaulalala]

Makes sense. @jancborchardt what do you think?

[jancborchardt]

Yup, an explicit confirmation step for the one offering the appointments does indeed make sense. :)

Oh and I would say it shouldn't be an option but always needs to be confirmed, otherwise it will be unclear and inconsistent.