[Evolution] Remote calendars

[David Wright <ichbin shadlen org>]

I run the computer system for a small organization and would like to use
Evolution 2 to provide users with a way to schedule appointments and
keep track of their own and other's schedules. So far, I have been
frustratingly unable to get Evolution working with calendars the way I
want. I hope someone here can give me suggestions on how to achieve our
requirements, or when I can expect Evolution's functionality to catch up
with our needs.

1. Remote personal calendars. My users want to be able to access their
personal calendars from different machines, both within our organization
and from their homes. That means being able to use and modify a calendar
at a remote URL that is password-protected over a secure line. I can set
up an WebDAV directory, but when I try to add a new web calendar,
Evolution won't accept a https URL. It will accept a http URL, but http
isn't an acceptable transmission mechanism for our passwords. Can anyone
suggest a workaround?

2. Remote free/busy data. I can get Evolution to publish free/busy
information to our WebDAV site, but I can't get it to use that
information when scheduling. If I enter a free/busy URL for a contact in
the  Personal Information tab, I can view the corresponding .ics file by
clicking on the little "connect" icon. But when I try to set up a
meeting with that person, the Scheduling tab shows "No Information" for
that attendee no matter what I do. (Yes, I did try using the "Update
free/busy" button.) What do I have to do to get Evolution to use the
published free/busy information?