GcalDaemon and Leopard

[jankees]

Dear MacRumors Forum users,

I was wondering has anyone successfully setup GcalDaemon on Leopard?

Leopard saves the ical files in a new way. (Different from Tiger)

I hope to hear from someone!

Kind regards,
Jankees

[jankees]

Or does someone know a (free/opensource) alternative?

[NoSenseWorrying]

Not that this will be much help to you... but I've tried and failed as well. So at least you know you're not alone. I'll be sure to post again if I find an alternative.

[Sceneshifter]

Having the same problem! In the mean time I just subscribed with iCal to my calendar, that way you can at least have an offline version of your calendar, but you can't edit in iCal...
Solutions more then welcome here also (only free, not spanning sync)

[mortenbek]

Hello there,
I just downloaded GCALDaemon and it works like a charm on leopard.

iCal in leopard stores each event in its own .ics file - and in a new location - but apparently GCALDaemon has no problems with wildcards!

This is what I entered in gcal-daemon.cfg:
file.ical.path=/Users/bek/Library/Calendars/5A55BA6F-651C-42CB-8176-757CBBF72211.calendar/Events/*.ics

Try this (replacing username and calendar directory) and you're all set!

Sincerely,
/morten

[nonexpert]

Hello,

It seems that my OS 10.5 1 does not include these directories/file path:

~/Library/Application Support/iCal/Sources

If it does not exist, I cannot "Put a colored label on all folders [located in Sources]" as directed by instructions on:

http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/usage13.html

I created the mentioned directories/file path, but found no resolve

1. Is it possible to work around this flagging procedure?
2. Does the iCal "Sources" directory exist elsewhere in 10.5 1?

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Can somebody provide a solution?

Thank You,

Drew

[ajarufe]

Hello there,
I just downloaded GCALDaemon and it works like a charm on leopard.

iCal in leopard stores each event in its own .ics file - and in a new location - but apparently GCALDaemon has no problems with wildcards!

This is what I entered in gcal-daemon.cfg:
file.ical.path=/Users/bek/Library/Calendars/5A55BA6F-651C-42CB-8176-757CBBF72211.calendar/Events/*.ics

Try this (replacing username and calendar directory) and you're all set!

Sincerely,
/morten

Did you have to change anything else? I see the google .ics files coming into the /Events/ directory, but nothing is showing up in iCal.

[Coriolanus]

Did you have to change anything else? I see the google .ics files coming into the /Events/ directory, but nothing is showing up in iCal.

This is the same thing I am seeing. It also appears that new events in iCal are not being sent to Google.

[mishamazor]

This is what I entered in gcal-daemon.cfg:
file.ical.path=/Users/bek/Library/Calendars/5A55BA6F-651C-42CB-8176-757CBBF72211.calendar/Events/*.ics



This works for iCal to Google, thanks! But not the other way around. Any ideas as to how to get Google entries into iCal? What is the new Leopard entry for file.private.ical.url=

Thanks,
Misha

[Ephialtes]

In regards to this I found a rather novel way around it. Using two rather simple Perl scripts I just pull each calender's events individually and reconstruct a corestorage.ics file, and then throw them back out again after gmail's done with the files.

Downsides: You have to run them every sync (but they're fast).
It deletes the Calendar Cache file to force iCal to notice the changes, so it spends a few moments updating it each time you start up
You have to restart iCal to see the differences.

Upsides: It works
It's free

If anyone's interested, drop me a line.

[Ephialtes]

Because I'm sure people'll want this:

Instructions for those that know what they're doing:

Save the perl files.
Edit the $home variable in both scripts to point to your home dir (without trailing '/')
Run coreimport.pl from wherever you saved it.
Set up the GCALDaemon config file, linking to the corestorage.ics files that are found in ~/Library/Calendars/<blah>.calendar/
Run sync-now.sh (the GCAL one)
Run coreexport.pl
Set up a shell script that runs coreimport.pl sync-now.sh coreexport.pl in that order, run it whenever you want to sync. Or some other clever thing, it's up to you.

I haven't tested running this at the same time as having iCal open, but I don't think I'd like the results. Advised not to do it, which makes automating difficult.
Okay, I've tested it and it's suprisingly resiliant. Nothing broke. However. If you run the scripts while iCal is open, and then change something, the change isn't saved when you restart.


I'll write up instructions for those that don't know what they're doing later.


If things break, don't blame me. This is provided 'as-is' as a work around.

Oops, just caught a small code bug in coreexport.pl which meant iCal wasn't deleting items that had been added by google. Fixed now.

coreimport.pl:


#!/usr/bin/perl
# Sean Sabbage 2008
# This script takes the individual events in iCal for Leopard and puts them
# in to a single corestorage.ics file in ~/Library/Calendars/*.calendar/
# for each individual calendar.
# RUN BEFORE coreimport.pl
# Don't run when iCal is running. I haven't tested this, but it's likely to break something.
# Won't work on anything before Leopard (10.5)
# It only copies across VTODOs and VEVENTS. I haven't come across anything else, yet.
# Free to use and work with as you will

use strict;
use warnings;

my $home = ""; # Put the link to your home directory here. Likely to be /Users/<username>
my @paths = <$home/Library/Calendars/*.calendar>;
foreach(@paths){

open (CORE, ">$_/corestorage.ics");

print CORE "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\nVERSION:2.0\nPRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iCal 3.0//EN\nCALSCALE:GREGORIAN\n";

my @files = <$_/Events/*.ics>;
foreach(@files){
open (ICS, "<$_");
my $bEvent = 0;
while(<ICS>){
$_ =~ s/\r//;
if ($_ =~ m/(BEGIN:VEVENT|BEGIN:VTODO)/){
$bEvent=1;
print CORE $_;
} elsif ($_ =~ m/(END:VEVENT|END:VTODO)/){
$bEvent=0;
print CORE $_;
} elsif ($bEvent==1){
print CORE $_;
}
}
close(ICS);
}

print CORE "END:VCALENDAR";
close (CORE);
}




coreexport.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl
# Sean Sabbage 2008
# This script breaks the home made corestorage.ics up into individual
# events and puts them in the necessary folders so iCal can read them. It
# deletes all events before it does that, and the Calendar Cache, to make
# sure that iCal updates.
# Back up iCal BEFORE use, I am not responsible if you lose all your calendars.
# RUN AFTER coreimport.pl
# Don't run when iCal is running. I haven't tested this, but it's likely to break something.
# Won't work on anything before Leopard (10.5)
# It only copies across VTODOs and VEVENTS. I haven't come across anything else, yet.
# Free to use and work with as you will

use strict;
use warnings;

my $home = ""; # Put the link to your home directory here. Likely to be /Users/<username>
my @paths = <$home/Library/Calendars/*.calendar>;
unlink("$home/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache");
foreach (@paths){
my $path = $_;
open (CORE, "<$_/corestorage.ics");

my $header = "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\nVERSION:2.0\nPRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iCal 3.0//EN\nCALSCALE:GREGORIAN\n";

my $footer = "END:VCALENDAR";

my @events = <$path/Events/*.ics>;
foreach(@events){
unlink($_);
}


my $lines;
my $uid;
while(<CORE>){

$lines = $lines . $_;

if($_ =~ m/(BEGIN:VEVENT|BEGIN:VTODO)/){
$lines = $_;
} elsif($_ =~ m/UID:(.+)/){
$uid = "$1";
$uid =~ s/\r//g;
} elsif($_ =~ m/(END:VEVENT|END:VTODO)/){
open (CAL, ">$path/Events/$uid.ics");
print CAL $header;
$lines =~ s/\r//g;
print CAL $lines;
print CAL $footer;
close(CAL);
}
}
close (CORE);
}


Another bug picked up and destroyed!

[Morraldor]

Great Thing! You made it work!

For all out there, who want to have this stuff automated, can do as follows:

1.) Create a new textfile called sync-now-workaround.sh in GCALDaemon/bin and enter the correct path to your GCALDaemon-Installation
2.) Contents as below (assuming, that coreimport and coreexport are in the same directory, otherwise just change them)
3.) Install Lingon (http://mac.delta-c.de/node/729). This Tool allows you to manage your launch-daemon within a smart GUI
4.) Start Lingon
5.) Click "New" on the upper left
6.) Enter an apporpriate name (e.g. "GCALDaemon")
7.) Choose the Path to the script below $yourdir/GCALDaemon/bin/sync-now-workaround.sh
8.) Disable the Checkboxes as you belove to
9.) Enter a time period at "Run it every ..." (e.g. 15 minutes)
10.) Check the "Enabled"-Box on the upper right and save it by clicking the "Save"-Button on the upper left
11.) You're done


#!/bin/sh
#
# Run coreimport.pl
# Run GCALDaemon once
# Run coreexport.pl

path="/Users/***/GCALDaemon/bin"
$path/coreimport.pl
sh $path/sync-now.sh
$path/coreexport.pl

[Morraldor]

Oops, just caught a small code bug in coreexport.pl which meant iCal wasn't deleting items that had been added by google. Fixed now.

I'm afraid it is not!

Only changes in iCal are stored. Even if I change an Event within Google it is RESET to the original date/time, as soon as I sync!

Do you have a bugfix for that?

[Ephialtes]

I'm afraid it is not!

Only changes in iCal are stored. Even if I change an Event within Google it is RESET to the original date/time, as soon as I sync!

Do you have a bugfix for that?

That's strange. Let me do a little poking....

[Ephialtes]

I'm afraid it is not!

Only changes in iCal are stored. Even if I change an Event within Google it is RESET to the original date/time, as soon as I sync!

Do you have a bugfix for that?

Fixed now, one that slipped through my unextensive testing. Use the updated coreexport.pl above.

[rideallday]

I just messed with the conf file and it syncs both ways for me on Lepoard!

I do need to restart iCal after syncing, though, and I have not tried the daemon.

Just comment out ('#') the the blank config line in conf/gcal-daemon.cfg that the sync is barfing on- your other calendars have a number at the end of them- something like this (I left the context in there so you can find it in the conf file :

################################################
# CONFIGURATION OF THE FILE-BASED SYNCHRONIZER #
################################################

# Enable built-in HTTP server/synchronizer
file.enabled=true

# Full path of the local iCalendar file (don't include backslash characters!)
#file.ical.path=/google1.ics

# URL (without hostname) of the Google Calendar's private ical file
#file.private.ical.url=

# Full path of the local iCalendar file (don't include backslash characters!)
file.ical.path2=/Users/me/Library/Calendars/4F6110FF-11C1-40C6-9610-C3F2A1E45E1C.calendar/Events/*.ics

# URL (without hostname) of the Google Calendar's private ical file
file.private.ical.url2=/calendar/ical/dfg8l45eec77bif0oatl9f3g88%40group.calendar.google.com/private/basic.ics

# Gmail user (your full email address)
file.google.username2=me@gmail.com


Hope that works for you too!

[Morraldor]

Fixed now, one that slipped through my unextensive testing. Use the updated coreexport.pl above.

After a first test it seems to work!

[Morraldor]

Hi,

I have a bad news. I don't know if this problem is caused by GCALDaemon itself or your Script.

The Sync goes well - firstly.

At the time I sync, iCal is closed! I open it, and all Events are synced well. Events, that were deleted in Google Calendar have gone, the others are updated. Both Calendars seem to be up to date.

I close iCal and open it again after 1 or 2 seconds. And - the deleted Events are again there. After the next sync, they also appear in Google Calendar again!

The Calendar Cache ist definitley flushed when syncing AND the .ics-Files in the Events-Dir are also unlinked. Nevertheless after the restart of iCal they appear again - there must exist another calendar-Cache, but where? Any idea?

[Ephialtes]

Hi,

I have a bad news. I don't know if this problem is caused by GCALDaemon itself or your Script.

The Sync goes well - firstly.

At the time I sync, iCal is closed! I open it, and all Events are synced well. Events, that were deleted in Google Calendar have gone, the others are updated. Both Calendars seem to be up to date.

I close iCal and open it again after 1 or 2 seconds. And - the deleted Events are again there. After the next sync, they also appear in Google Calendar again!

The Calendar Cache ist definitley flushed when syncing AND the .ics-Files in the Events-Dir are also unlinked. Nevertheless after the restart of iCal they appear again - there must exist another calendar-Cache, but where? Any idea?

This is.. very strange. I can't work out what's going on. From what I've seen it's recreating it from 'somewhere'. And I don't know where that somewhere is. The file isn't there on the first launch of iCal. And then when I quit it's still not there. The second launch it's suddenly back, even if I wipe the cache again between launches. That makes no sense at all.

Further investigation is required, methinks.

[Ephialtes]

A little poking around showed me that the event that reappeared comes up with this, in an ls -l

:
rw-r--r--@ 1 <USER> <USER> 354 24 Jan 08:48 q86k8l1f1jklgjgv960v4gtmjg@google.com.ics

Now, the @ signifies extended attribute.

So...

[<ME>@<COMP>:~/Library/Calendars/<CALENDAR>.calendar/Events] 9:01 > xattr -l q86k8l1f1jklgjgv960v4gtmjg@google.com.ics
com.apple.quarantine: 0000;479850c3;iCal;|com.apple.iCal

Still trying to ascertain where this is magically coming from.

[Morraldor]

Hi,

I'm really not sure if GCALDaemon or your script are to blame. This issue also happens if I delete an Event FROM WITHIN iCal and restart iCal afterwards - even if there was NO sync in the meanwhile!

Morraldor

[buldir]

I just messed with the conf file and it syncs both ways for me on Lepoard!

I do need to restart iCal after syncing, though, and I have not tried the daemon.

Just comment out ('#') the the blank config line in conf/gcal-daemon.cfg that the sync is barfing on- your other calendars have a number at the end of them- something like this (I left the context in there so you can find it in the conf file :

################################################
# CONFIGURATION OF THE FILE-BASED SYNCHRONIZER #
################################################

# Enable built-in HTTP server/synchronizer
file.enabled=true

# Full path of the local iCalendar file (don't include backslash characters!)
#file.ical.path=/google1.ics

# URL (without hostname) of the Google Calendar's private ical file
#file.private.ical.url=

# Full path of the local iCalendar file (don't include backslash characters!)
file.ical.path2=/Users/me/Library/Calendars/4F6110FF-11C1-40C6-9610-C3F2A1E45E1C.calendar/Events/*.ics

# URL (without hostname) of the Google Calendar's private ical file
file.private.ical.url2=/calendar/ical/dfg8l45eec77bif0oatl9f3g88%40group.calendar.google.com/private/basic.ics

# Gmail user (your full email address)
file.google.username2=me@gmail.com


Hope that works for you too!
This worked for me without the perl script, but I also had to make a few permissions changes. I noticed when I ran the sync-now.sh script in the terminal that there were several errors regarding permissions. What I had to do was assign recursive read/write permissions for my username to /Users/username/Library/Calendars. Before doing this, GCalDaemon was unable to read/write to the *.ics files in these directories.

I also had to give read/write permissions to /usr/local/sbin/GCALDaemon/work/event-registry.txt. I hope this helps!

[msim20]

Originally Posted by rideallday
I just messed with the conf file and it syncs both ways for me on Lepoard!

I do need to restart iCal after syncing, though, and I have not tried the daemon.

Just comment out ('#') the the blank config line in conf/gcal-daemon.cfg that the sync is barfing on- your other calendars have a number at the end of them- something like this (I left the context in there so you can find it in the conf file :

################################################
# CONFIGURATION OF THE FILE-BASED SYNCHRONIZER #
################################################

# Enable built-in HTTP server/synchronizer
file.enabled=true

# Full path of the local iCalendar file (don't include backslash characters!)
#file.ical.path=/google1.ics

# URL (without hostname) of the Google Calendar's private ical file
#file.private.ical.url=

# Full path of the local iCalendar file (don't include backslash characters!)
file.ical.path2=/Users/me/Library/Calendars/4F6110FF-11C1-40C6-9610-C3F2A1E45E1C.calendar/Events/*.ics

# URL (without hostname) of the Google Calendar's private ical file
file.private.ical.url2=/calendar/ical/dfg8l45eec77bif0oatl9f3g88%40group.calendar.google.com/private/basic.ics

# Gmail user (your full email address)
file.google.username2=me@gmail.com


Hope that works for you too!

I used the above solution. Also changed the permissions of ics files in the calendar using chmod 777 * as well as the event-registry.txt file referred to in the previous post.

However, I still get this message in the log.

WARN | Unable to update event (Updated: Lunch )!
User does not have permission to perform this modification. [note that participant overrides not available on recurring events]


Further, only a one way sync from ical to gcal has happened. if i make changes in gcal, they are not reflecting in ical. perhaps due to such warnings as above.

Neither are changes in ical subsequent to the first sync, are refreshing in gcal.

i am starting standalone-start.sh in a terminal window.

any ideas?

[rmh]

Ephialtes, just wondering if you've had time to look into the magically self-un-deleting events yet? Thank you for all your effort so far.

[Gentile]

Until you get this working you can try Plaxo Online. This allows syncing the Gmail calendar two way with iCal. It also allows syncing 1 way from Gmail contacts to your address book.

This is the best solution I have found so far.

[buldir]

I used the above solution. Also changed the permissions of ics files in the calendar using chmod 777 * as well as the event-registry.txt file referred to in the previous post.

However, I still get this message in the log.

WARN | Unable to update event (Updated: Lunch )!
User does not have permission to perform this modification. [note that participant overrides not available on recurring events]


Further, only a one way sync from ical to gcal has happened. if i make changes in gcal, they are not reflecting in ical. perhaps due to such warnings as above.

Neither are changes in ical subsequent to the first sync, are refreshing in gcal.

i am starting standalone-start.sh in a terminal window.

any ideas?

Make sure you change the permission of the directory containing the *.ics files and not just the *.ics files themselves. If you create a new event and recursive read/write permissions are not set on the parent directory, you will get an error.

[redeye be]

It did work for me, two way, as in sync.
(using the *.ics method)

I did change the permissions like buldir mentioned although they *seemed* to be OK. I didn't test it before so it might have not changed a thing.

The only thing not working is deleting an event in iCal.
The gCal keeps it in the calender and a sync just makes it reappear.
Anybody else noticing this behaviour?
Or do I need to dig in to this?

Cheers

EDIT: It looks like I can only delete an event from the app in which I created it...

[redeye be]

It looks like a great app.
Most of my problems could be related to an iCal issue. So I'll hold my judgement until Apple sorts iCal out.

This week Apple released Mac OS X Update 10.5.2, and while it fixes the notorious Leopard iCal bug present in 10.5 and 10.5.1, it introduces another bug with identical symptoms, plus others:

Synchronized events are not reflected in iCal
Endless sync conflicts when syncing with .Mac
Duplicate calendars
from http://blog.spanningsync.com/2008/02/mac-os-x-1052-f.html

Not a good time to start Calender Syncing...

[buldir]

It looks like a great app.
Most of my problems could be related to an iCal issue. So I'll hold my judgement until Apple sorts iCal out.


from http://blog.spanningsync.com/2008/02/mac-os-x-1052-f.html

Not a good time to start Calender Syncing...
Thanks for the information. I hacked away at the "deleting event" problem and couldn't get it to work. I can delete an event in iCal, but the .ics file for the event remains in /username/Library/Calendars/*.calendar/Events/. I pushed aside GCALDaemon for now and go right to the source. I installed a Google Calendar site-specific browser, using Fluid (http://fluidapp.com) and simply subscribe to my Google Calendar in iCal for offline viewing of my events.

[rmh]

The only thing not working is deleting an event in iCal.
The gCal keeps it in the calender and a sync just makes it reappear.
Anybody else noticing this behaviour?
Or do I need to dig in to this?

Same thing happens to me. Haven't quite figured it out yet.

[todivefor]

Any new good news on this with Leopard. I spent the past day trying to get this to work on Leopard 1.5.3. I got where most others got, I can sync, but if I delete an event, it comes back. In addition, I get duplicates on my all day events. It seems pretty close. Hope someone has gotten the last step.

[chrisg0619]

I find that, if I delete the event in Google Calendar, it disappears from iCal when the two sync.

But I've noticed another problem: I've been getting two of every event on iCal. Is anyone else experiencing this?

[buldir]

I took the latest version of Spanning Sync (http://spanningsync.com/) for a spin the other day and it's quite easy to use and seems to be working well on Leopard. I've given up on GCal Daemon. Spanning Sync also supports contacts in their 2.0 beta (http://betablog.spanningsync.com/2008/05/spanning-sync-v.html)!

[mwxiao]

I took the latest version of Spanning Sync (http://spanningsync.com/) for a spin the other day and it's quite easy to use and seems to be working well on Leopard. I've given up on GCal Daemon. Spanning Sync also supports contacts in their 2.0 beta (http://betablog.spanningsync.com/2008/05/spanning-sync-v.html)!

You can also check out BusySync. But it's not free either.

[soctechnologist]

I don't love it, but Plaxo (3.0 beta) is working for me to sync my iCal and Gcal. It's fairly easy to set up and so far it's been running. And it's free.

[boblu]

Hi,

I have a bad news. I don't know if this problem is caused by GCALDaemon itself or your Script.

The Sync goes well - firstly.

At the time I sync, iCal is closed! I open it, and all Events are synced well. Events, that were deleted in Google Calendar have gone, the others are updated. Both Calendars seem to be up to date.

I close iCal and open it again after 1 or 2 seconds. And - the deleted Events are again there. After the next sync, they also appear in Google Calendar again!

The Calendar Cache ist definitley flushed when syncing AND the .ics-Files in the Events-Dir are also unlinked. Nevertheless after the restart of iCal they appear again - there must exist another calendar-Cache, but where? Any idea?
I have the exactly same problem that event re-appeared on the second time opening of ical in leopard.
And I am using the GcalDeamon only, not using the perl script.
String no one can solve this problem?

[jashmenn]

I am successfully getting 2 way syncing with GcalDaemon, iCal 3.0.3 (1244) and Mac OS X 10.5.3 + the perl scripts in the thread above. Everything seems to work pretty well except iCal delete going to gCal. I can live with this.

My only issue is that after the perl scripts run, when I open iCal I get a progress bar saying "updating calendars". Is anyone else getting this?

Does anyone know why this message is coming up? I'm a perl developer, so I'd be glad to mod the scripts if someone can give me a direction as to where we're using an old format in the scripts above.

Nate

[buldir]

I don't love it, but Plaxo (3.0 beta) is working for me to sync my iCal and Gcal. It's fairly easy to set up and so far it's been running. And it's free.
@soctechnologist: I tried the Plaxo option, but:

No support for multiple Google Calendars
Does not make changes/updates to existing Google addresses for a given contact
and, does not support 2-way sync between Google and Plaxo

Oh yeah, and Plaxo sends out SPAM to everyone in your imported Gmail address book telling them to join/become your "friend" if you forget to uncheck a little box during the import process. They were also recently acquired by the devil ISP, Comcast.

[Ephialtes]

I am successfully getting 2 way syncing with GcalDaemon, iCal 3.0.3 (1244) and Mac OS X 10.5.3 + the perl scripts in the thread above. Everything seems to work pretty well except iCal delete going to gCal. I can live with this.

My only issue is that after the perl scripts run, when I open iCal I get a progress bar saying "updating calendars". Is anyone else getting this?

Does anyone know why this message is coming up? I'm a perl developer, so I'd be glad to mod the scripts if someone can give me a direction as to where we're using an old format in the scripts above.

Nate

Yeah, the reason why this happens is because if you don't delete the calendar cache it doesn't see the syncs. I don't know how to trigger the auto-sync in iCal, and I suspect it can't be done through perl.

[soctechnologist]

@soctechnologist: I tried the Plaxo option, but:

No support for multiple Google Calendars
Does not make changes/updates to existing Google addresses for a given contact
and, does not support 2-way sync between Google and Plaxo

Oh yeah, and Plaxo sends out SPAM to everyone in your imported Gmail address book telling them to join/become your "friend" if you forget to uncheck a little box during the import process. They were also recently acquired by the devil ISP, Comcast.

Buldir: I agree, it's not a great solution and lots of limits (including Plaxo's history and some practices)... but for the moment and how I use iCal/gCal, it is actually working for me. My post wasn't meant to be a strong endorsement, but did want to let people know that it exists and might be an option for some.

I hadn't heard that Plaxo was acquired by Comcast, sigh...

[buldir]

Buldir: I agree, it's not a great solution and lots of limits (including Plaxo's history and some practices)... but for the moment and how I use iCal/gCal, it is actually working for me. My post wasn't meant to be a strong endorsement, but did want to let people know that it exists and might be an option for some.

I hadn't heard that Plaxo was acquired by Comcast, sigh...
@soctechnologist: It's all good...if it works for you, by all means. I was simply playing devil's advocate and thought others might benefit from my experience. ;) Check out the blog posts from Plaxo:

http://blog.plaxo.com/archives/2008/05/post.html
http://blog.plaxo.com/archives/2008/07/post_1.html

[jwhendy]

Hi,


I'm really sorry to bump this... (is just over a month a bump? Probably, I gues...).

Any updates on this? I'm wondering if it would just be possible to alter the source code slightly to make sure that the .ics files in .../Events/ are deleted if they are not in google any longer.

I guess I'd have to dig around a bit more to figure out how GCD works... if there is a discrepancy, for example, I'm not sure how GCD figures out which source of cal info should be updated - iCal or Google. Anyway, the iCal file names are all stored in the events-registry.txt file in .../GCALDaemon/work/, so GCALDaemon is 99% there it seems, but something just isn't quite happening with the final steps.

- Basically, something of a disconnect happens between typical iCal 'awareness' of the items in .../Events/ so that under normal conditions if I create an event, I see it appear in the Events folder, and if I delete it, it is removed. After syncing, the names have all been changed to lower case and something related to google.ics has been added. iCal doesn't seem to realize the link between an event and it's file anymore.

Manually deleting files and the calendar cache works, but one note of interest is that you can't empty the trash (with Calendar Cache inside) if Mail is open, due to iCal Helper using the file. That might be one reason for iCal still showing the old events even with an empty Events folder.

Not sure where to go from here... I don't see how the sync will work if iCal doesn't have a direct relationship with the files in Events anymore. Until I see GCD delete some files from Events, I'll not be convinced this is going to work so well...


Thanks for reading the ramblings,
John

[soctechnologist]

Hi all,
Thought I would add a note here about the CalDAV news I saw today at TUAW. It may help some people with their syncing efforts depending on what they're hoping to do.

The TUAW link is here:
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/28/caldav-support-comes-to-google-calendar/

and the link to google instructions is here (it's working for me so far):
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358

Hope it's helpful to some.

[ono2000]

I have been able to get GCALDaemon to sync the ical and gcal desktop events - but if I create an event in ical on the iPhone - it doesn't show up (even after a sync of course) on either program

Is there a setting that I am missing??

Thx:confused:

[Shinryuu]

I would like to wake up this thread a bit.

I'm trying to use Gcaldaemon, and it seems to work fine in leapord 10.5.5, when I sync manually that is. I can't get the auto sync to work. I don't know if I handle Lingon badly or what.

And by the way, there is now a gui for Gcaldaemon for those who didn't know.

[mishamazor]

There is no need for GcalDaemon anymore, for simple 2-way syncing, Leopard iCal now supports GMail CalDAV.

http://lifehacker.com/399407/how-to-sync-any-desktop-calendar-with-google-calendar

Best!

[jwhendy]

I think this is the same news posted above by soctechnologist. I was not satisfied with caldav and iCal in the least. I went through the setup process months ago when the added caldav support and added my google calendars to iCal. It's hard to word/explain exactly, but essentially you get 'isolated' calendars. They cannot interact with one another, when creating events you have to be 'in' the calendar for which you are creating events, etc. For example, if you are viewing your 'Home' Calendar, you can't Command+N and quick create that event for the 'Work' calendar. You have to click the work caldav calendar first. You also can't move an event to another calendar; when you edit event properties, the pull down list of calendars will show only the one for the event itself. This 'solution' is far from perfect in my mind.

I switched to Thunderbird/Lightning and was amazed at how simple and seamless the setup and syncing was. I loved iCal and Mail, but I just couldn't believe how difficult iCal has been (my experience + many posts in forums you can find) to get 'outside of itself'. It's about my only complaint against Apple - I don't think they made a huge effort to get this thing to play with GCal. That and they took away the tray in Leo :)

There's my thoughts - I just wanted to share a little of how the caldav functionality works. I was disappointed as I thought it would be exactly like my existing calendars.

-John

[buldir]

I hear you, jwhendy. The process of adding Google Calendars via CalDav got a lot easier though by using Google's new "set-up" tool (http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#ical).

The app allows you to log into your Google Account, choose which calendars you want to sync w/iCal, asks you to close iCal, and populates the calendars...pretty nice. You're correct in that every Google Calendar added via CalDav is interpreted by iCal as coming from separate servers, which sucks if you have many Google Calendars. CalDav calendars unfortunately do NOT sync with MobileMe (http://daringfireball.net/2008/08/iphone_ical_caldav), if that's your thing.

I'm leaning towards simplifying things by using Google Calendar exclusively via Google's new mobile interface (http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/11/google-mobile-app-for-iphone-now-with.html). Screw MobileMe, iCal's shortcomings, and all this syncing nonsense and just have SMS alerts sent to your phone. ;)