(snooze for) reminders not working (correctly)

[santo]

I noticed that the reminders in SWA are not working correctly:

Here is a concrete example:

Create an appointment from 16:00 till 17:00 and set the reminder to be displayed 30 minutes before
At 15:34 (!) the reminder is shown for the first time (that is 4 minutes too late)
The reminder shows: Due in: 26 minutes (which is correct, given the reminder is shown 4 minutes too late)
-> Snooze for 5 minutes

At 15:44, the reminder pops up again (that is after 10 minutes instead of 5 !)
It (correctly) shows: Due in: 16 minutes
-> Snooze 5 minutes

At 15:54, the reminder pops up again (that is after 10 minutes instead of 5 !)
It (correctly) shows: Due in: 6 minutes
-> Snooze 5 minutes

At 16:04, the reminder pops up again (that is after 10 minutes instead of 5 !)
It (correctly) shows: Due in: 4 minute(s) overdue

Conclusion:
the reminder is shown 4 minutes too late initially.
Snoozing the reminder takes double the time of what was set in the dialog

Note: I haven't tested yet with other values than 5 for the snooze.

[santo]

ok, I just did the test with a new appointment:

created a new appointment: 21:00 - 23:00, with reminder set to 1h before.
At 20:04, the reminder pops up for the first time (again 4 minutes too late !)
and correctly states: Due in 56 minutes
-> Snooze for 10 minutes

At 20:19, the reminder pops up again (after 15 minutes instead of 10 !),
correctly stating: Due in 41 minutes

So it seems that there are two problems (probably related to each other):
- reminder starts 4 minutes too late.
- snooze adds an extra 5 minutes (whether you choose 5 min, 10 min, or whatever)

Oh, and yes, the clock on the server is in sync ;-)

[jlecomte]

Santo,

In the current shipping version of Scalix, Scalix Web Access checks every 5 minutes for reminders (after the initial check, which occurs about 30 seconds after login) so it is expected to see the reminder dialog showing a bit late in some cases (4 minutes is the maximum latency). In future versions of Scalix Web Access, we may implement something a bit smarter, so that your reminders will pop up in a more timely fashion.

Outlook also shows reminders a bit late in some cases (not always)

Also, we are aware of some issues with dismissing or snoozing reminders in the current shipping version of Scalix Web Access. All the known issues have been fixed in the comming release, which should ship early next year (Q1 2006)

Thank you for your valuable feedback, it helps us improve the product (your product!) every day.

- Julien -

[santo]

Thanks for the explanation, which clarifies the behavior of the reminders.
Is there some webpage, document, ... listing all known issues (and maybe the release in which it will be fixed (if it will be fixed at all)) ?

In the meantime I noticed another, more annoying issue with the reminders.
Maybe this is also a known issue that will be fixed in the next release ?
-> Reminders do not show up at all for recurring (all day) events.
Not sure of the "all day" part, but that's what I'm experiencing.

So, if I create an all day appointment without recurrence, the reminder works, but if I create the same all-day appointment with recurrence (every 2 weeks), the reminder doesn't show up.

As I said it's possible this is also a known issue, but as I can't find any list of known issues, I don't know ;-)

BTW, I'm really glad to help making the product even better by posting my findings, issues, questions, ...

Scalix is in my opinion the best application of its kind, compared to all the others I tried (and believe me, there aren't many I haven't tested ;-))

[jlecomte]

Santo,

Thank you for your kind words.

We are indeed aware of a few issues with reminders and recurring appointments. They have been fixed in the upcoming release of Scalix Web Access. But most of them are edge cases. Reminders on simple recurring appointments, such as a bi-weekly all day appointment, should work using Scalix 9.4. If you create such an appointment you need to wait until the next occurrence occurs to see the reminder.

Let's illustrate this with an example.

Today is Wed, 12/7/2005. I create a weekly recurring appointment, from 12pm to 1pm, every wednesday, with an interval of 2 weeks. I set the reminder to 15 minutes (default)

Case a) Let's say the time of creation is 8am. The reminder will show up at 11:45am on the same day (Wed, 12/7/2005)

Case b) Let's say the time of creation is 3pm. The reminder will show up at 11:45am on Wed, 12/21/2005, which is 2 weeks from now. Indeed, you do not want to be reminded about past occurrences, and today's occurrence (the first in the series) is already in the past...

Hope this helps.

[santo]

Well, I did a new test and now it seems to be working as expected.
I took a larger gap between the time of creating the entry and the time the reminder should go off for the first time.

Maybe my first attempt wasn't successfull because of the delay (appr 5 minutes) between checks for events on the scalix server ?
I can't imagine it was so close between creation time and time to remind me, but apparently something went wrong due to which the reminder failed to show up.

I'll keep an eye on it when creating more appointments in the future and report back in case of additional failures.

thanks again for the great product.

[santo]

oops, I was too optimistic :-(

Just noticed I forgot to enable the recurrency for the appointment.
Did a new test in the meantime, but still no reminder.

Details of the new test:

Today is Thu, 12/8/2005 and I create a bi-weekly recurring all-day appointment, every friday and set the reminder to 11 hours before.

the time of creation was 12:15pm. The reminder should show up at 13pm on Thu 12/08/2005, but it isn't.

If I should set the reminder to 0,5 days before (or higher), the reminder should show up at 6am on Thu 12/22/2005 (not sure if that's the case, as I have to wait 2 weeks to see what happens ;-))

So there does seem to be a problem with the reminders of recurring all-day events.

Note: I'm using Scalix server v9.4.2.4 (with SWA v9.4.0.52)