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Useful iCal Tips
Authored by: davidkarp on Sep 11, '02 02:31:44AM
Here are some tips I've come up with after playing around with iCal all day.


Sharing Calendars between computers without .mac
[ only for computers on local network or on internet with static IP ]
also keep in mind this opens up your calendars for viewing by
anyone that can access your computer via the web

1) Enable 'Personal Web Sharing' [ System Prefs -> Sharing -> Personal Web Sharing ]
Make sure the checkbox next to 'Personal Web Sharing' is checked.
2) In Terminal type:
cd ~/Library/
mv Calendars/ ~/Sites/
ln -s ~/Sites/Calendars/ Calendars
3) Now you just need to find your IP address. This can be found in:
System Prefs -> Network -> 'IP Address:'
4) Finally, on the computers that you wish to subscribe to your calendars:
In iCal select Subscribe from the Calendar menu and in 'Calendar URL:' enter
http://IP-FROM-BEFORE/Calendars/CALENDAR-NAME.ics
example: http://192.168.1.50/Calendars/Work.ics
Then just hit subscribe.
You'll need to do this step for each calendar you wish to subscribe to.

If your not sure what to replace CALENDAR-NAME with, you can visit the URL:
http://IP-FROM-BEFORE/Calendars/ for the file names of the calendars


MS Exchange like functionality

For calendar syncronicity (as in more than one person able to view and edit the same calendar) you need to choose one machine to act as a dedicated Calendar "server". ( no extra software has to be running ).
Multi-user calendars basically entails enabling applesharing on this machine so that people sharing the calendar will be able to mount it.
On this machine you just need to create a folder that will contain all of the iCal files. This folder must be accesable by everyone that will be sharing the calendars. In other words, change the permissions so that it can be edited by everyone.
Then, on all the macs you want to share calendars, mount this iCal "server" (can be done in Finder -> Go menu -> Connect to Server ), then make a sym-link to the calendars folder created on the iCal server in place of ~/Library/Calendars/ . This is done in Terminal and will look something like this:
ln -s /Volumes/MountedMacHD/sharedcalendars/ ~/Library/Calendars

!! Before the above step you must first remove the ~/Library/Calendars/ directory. This can be accomplished with the following command but FIRST BACK-UP ANY LOCAL CALENDARS as they will all be deleted
rm -rf ~/Library/Calendars

It seems complex but all it really is is redirecting iCal on your computer to look for calendars on another computer. Very similar to the functionality of Microsoft Exchange.
A few notes:
-This method is for the most part very secure, as it requires a login and password to mount the iCal server's drive.
-It is entirely possible for the iCal server to run iCal and access the same shared calendars.
-Though iCal will still function the same, the calendars will not be stored locally, making iCal useless on a laptop that leaves the network. An idea though: this method will work over almost any of the protocols os x supports such as ftp. Making it possible to access your calendars over the internet by utilizing jaguars ability to mount ftp drives.



iCal to iPod

Simply export the desired calendar and change the extension to .vcal
The file name will not change properly unless done from the Get Info window.


iCal is definitely lacking some serious functionality, not to mention performance, but I'm sure later releases will evolve this application into a fantastic addition to the iApp family.

Sorry if any of this is unclear, I'm writing this at 2 in the morning.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Renaming not necessary
Authored by: sapporo on Sep 11, '02 05:29:55AM

I just exported a calendar from iCal straight to my iPod's calendars directory and it showed up. It Just Works.



[ Reply to This | # ]