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Calendaring

I think I’ve got some pretty basic calendaring needs. I want to be able to access (view/add/edit) my calendar data from any computer including my handheld (using the native handheld app and sync, not a web interface - at least for now) and I want to publish a simple free/busy view of my workday schedule publicly.

I’ve looked at a number of options, but before tainting the discussion I thought I’d ask for suggestions.

Suggestions?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Posted August 9th, 2006 @ 11:36 PM

20 Replies

Mark adds this Comment:

We, this is a close one to my own heart. I have actually been holding out for such an application in the hope that you would build and host it and that I could just subscribe to it. For now though I’m using 30boxes (http://www.30boxes.com). It does what you need except its web based and not syncable other than through ical. When you do design the killer web 2.0 app which combines calendaring, tasks wordpress blog and maybe even email let me know and I’ll open my wallet.

August 10th, 2006 at 5:31 am
Weiran Zhang adds this Comment:

I use a Windows Mobile 5 PDA/phone (i-mate JAMin), which manages to sync with both Outlook at work, Outlook at home and iCal on my MacBook at home too (through iSync and some add-ons).

As for publishing your calender, you could publish your iCal calender to Google Calender, which I think can be made public?

See: http://highearthorbi[...]le-calendar/

August 10th, 2006 at 5:34 am
Justin Moore adds this Comment:

I can’t find a Windows or Linux calendaring app that does works how I would like it to, let alone with sync options. I second what Mark said! I have no doubt that anything to come out of the King Design stable would blow away any of the exisiting products on the market, and I’d be willing to put my money where my mouth is too.

August 10th, 2006 at 6:32 am
Chris G. adds this Comment:

What I do is setup a Google Calendar and then have iCal setup to sync with it every 15 minutes. I then have my iPod Mini setup to sync with iCal.

That way I can be on any computer, add something to Google Calendar, and then have it instantly appear on my iPod. I also have the option to share my calendar to anyone else if I want to.

Yes the iPod is a poor substitute for a handheld, but it is what I got and quite frankly, all I need. And it works perfectly.

August 10th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Joe adds this Comment:

When I used Yahoo! Calendar, they used intellisync software to sync with my PC and my handheld (which at the time was a Palm Tungsten E).

Currently, I have a Treo 650, and use their web interface to sync with my PC and Handheld. I wonder if the BlackBerry might have a similar service?

August 10th, 2006 at 7:19 am
Greg adds this Comment:

I’m waiting for the google calendar to sync with the palm desktop, then I’ll be set.

August 10th, 2006 at 8:47 am
PatrickQG adds this Comment:

iCal with .Mac does the whole sync between machines thing (though only between Macs, which might be a problem for some). You can publish calendars, but I’m not sure how much control over what detail it publishes.

I do it with iCal+.Mac, then that stuff synchronises using Entourage to Exchange, which then synchronises to my phone (over wifi). It’s a bit convoluted, but means I don’t need to be near my own computer to sync my phone.

August 10th, 2006 at 10:37 am
Chris P. adds this Comment:

My suggestion is to not use “to calendar” as a verb.

August 10th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Alex adds this Comment:

Schedule, scheduling - why not calendar and calendaring?

August 10th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Kerim Friedman adds this Comment:

I was just looking around for something a little simpler - I want to sync iCal between macs without signing up for .Mac - and I found this program which might help you. It is called iSyncCal and it can also sync with Mozilla Sunbird. That might solve your first issue. Using PHPiCalendar or publishing directly to your own webDav server you can then easily subscribe to your work calendar in Google Calendar which has some good functions for sharing and publishing your schedule.

Link to iSyncCal:

http://ww2.unime.it/[...]n/index.html

August 10th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Dan adds this Comment:

So I *think* I have the answer for you. Let me explain what I work with first. I have an iMac at home, a macbook pro for work and travel, and a blackberry.

The only solution I’ve found is Google Calendar, iCal and PocketMac but it might not do what you exactly want to do.

Google Calendar is great because I can share my cals with everyone and edit my wifes and vise versa easily. Anyways, I have iCal publish a calendar to icalx.com which offers free ical syncing (awesome if you didn’t know you didn’t have to pay for .mac in order to do that). I then subscribe to that calendar in Google. I still can’t edit that cal in Gcal but I’m sure they’re working on it and before they do I just publish my gcal and subscribe to it in ical.

Confusing yes, but I simply just have 2 cals for each system since they only go one way for now.

I then use pocket mac and it syncs both cals, pretty easy there. But I can edit on my bb because it syncs with the iCal master call that I publish that eventually goes to gcal.

Wow, maybe there’s a different way to explain it. And I know I’m missing something because I work with NUD and Basecamp too which is cumbersome in itself.

Oh, and don’t ask about tasks.

August 10th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
Calendaring at Dan Cameron 2.doh adds this Pingback:

[…] I just commented on how I calendar over at alexking.org: Blog > Calendaring. So I *think* I have the answer for you. Let me explain what I work with first. I have an iMac at home, a macbook pro for work and travel, and a blackberry. […]

August 10th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Kerim Friedman adds this Comment:

UPDATE: I wasn’t able to get iSynCal to work for me, but this hint on MacOSXhints.com says that Sunbird offers good two-way syncing:

http://www.macosxhin[...]125052944191

There are some scripts there that supposedly automate the process.

August 11th, 2006 at 1:05 am
Kerim Friedman adds this Comment:

I should have waited longer before posting the above comment - I just heard from the developer of iSynCal and was able to resolve the problems. It works great with WebDav drives - you just have to be sure to either name the folder with the ics files as “Calendar” (with a capital C) or to properly specify the folder name in the preferences. It is best to create such a folder and export the calendars you wish to sync before starting.

The Sunbird solution I mentioned above does not seem ideal - I’m not sure if it still works after Apple switched from using the .ics format internally.

August 11th, 2006 at 3:03 am
alexking.org: Blog > Free-Busy? adds this Pingback:

[…] There have been a number of interesting suggestions on my post yesterday that attempt to solve the handheld-desktop sync and provide a web view of my calendars. However, many of these do not include editing via the web interface and none of them include a public free-busy only view1 for my work week that combines all my calendars. […]

August 11th, 2006 at 3:55 am
Roy Schestowitz adds this Comment:

http://phpicalendar.net/

August 11th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Alex adds this Comment:

Roy - what about PHP iCalendar?

August 11th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
kasjopeja adds this Comment:

Try http://www.google.com/calendar/
Cheers:)

August 12th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Roy Schestowitz adds this Comment:

Alex, I can export my Palm data to ical and then toss the file on some Webspace. PHP iCalendar is a viewer, but not an editor. It might suit you.

August 19th, 2006 at 3:53 am
alexking.org: Blog > End-to-End Calendaring “Solution” adds this Pingback:

[…] My post asking for calendaring suggestions resulted in a lot of feedback, but no solutions that accomplished the goals I was looking for: […]

August 28th, 2006 at 9:20 am

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