Some calendaring reports defined in this document allow partial retrieval of calendar object resources. A CalDAV client can specify what information to return in the body of a calendaring REPORT request.
A CalDAV client can request particular WebDAV property values, all WebDAV property values, or a list of the names of the resource's WebDAV properties. A CalDAV client can also request calendar data to be returned and specify whether all calendar components and properties should be returned, or only particular ones. See CALDAV: calendar-data in Section 9.6.
By default, the returned calendar data will include the component that defines the recurrence set, referred to as the "master component", as well as the components that define exceptions to the recurrence set, referred to as the "overridden components".
A CalDAV client that is only interested in the recurrence instances that overlap a specified time range can request to receive only the "master component", along with the "overridden components" that impact the specified time range, and thus, limit the data returned by the server (see CALDAV:limit-recurrence-set in Section 9.6.6). An overridden component impacts a time range if its current start and end times overlap the time range, or if the original start and end times -- the ones that would have been used if the instance were not overridden -- overlap the time range, or if it affects other instances that overlap the time range.
A CalDAV client with no support for recurrence properties (i.e., EXDATE, EXRULE, RDATE, and RRULE) and possibly VTIMEZONE components, or a client unwilling to perform recurrence expansion because of limited processing capability, can request to receive only the recurrence instances that overlap a specified time range as separate calendar components that each define exactly one recurrence instance (see CALDAV:expand in Section 9.6.5.)
Finally, in the case of VFREEBUSY components, a CalDAV client can request to receive only the FREEBUSY property values that overlap a specified time range (see CALDAV:limit-freebusy-set in Section 9.6.7.)