Free Address Book and Calendar Server

Jul 08, '11 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: LostInSpace2011

For several years before Apple included their own offering with OS X Server I have been working on a solution to sync contacts and calendar events between networked Mac. Up to now I have been selling the product via my website.

I previously tried to submit a hint about being able to share contacts and events without the need for OS X Server or MS Exchange. However at that time it was reject as it was more a advertisement for a commercial product then a hint. However since the 4th of July 2011 anyone can request a free key via the website.

I am also hoping to get other developers interested in participating on this project and wonder if you would be happy to add a brief note to this hint to that effect. Please note that this is not a time limited free offer but a sincere attempt to build a community around this project.

From the 4th of July you can get your own free Address Book Server running on your network. No need for OS X Server, you don't even need a Mac to host your server. Any old Linux or Windows computer will do as well as most (10.4 onwards) PPC and Intel Macs. With Address Book Server you can synchronise your contacts, events and tasks between networked Macs as well as access the records via the server's web interface.

Each client has a synch services enabled client component installed which synchronises the records with the central server. Access to the server can be made available via the Internet by opening a port on your firewall.

On the backend of the server is a relational database. The embedded database used by default can be replaced with MySQL or PostgreSQL if you want to access your data from different applications.

There is lots of potential for improving on the current offering. The project would like to invite any interested developers to join and contribute.

The project website is : www.addressbookserver.com. You can download the software from here. The Mac Disk Image includes installers for both the server and the client, as well as the documentation.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. I just followed the QuickStartGuide and got it setup in just a few minutes. The server uses port 8080 as a default, and advertises the service over Bonjour.

With the eventual demise of MobileMe it's possible that people will be looking for alternatives to iCloud, I suppose. This could be one. I suspect the project would welcome some iOS and Android developers to create a client for those platforms, and Mac developers to extend the feature set, and ensure Lion compatibility. I'm publishing this hint in that spirit.]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110704224756625