This may be relevant to others if you have multiple Google accounts with calendars that you want to share/sync with iCal and a PDA. I have an iPod Touch (2nd gen, s/w v3.0), a MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro (both running OS X 10.5). I have 2 Google App accounts, one for personal calendars, and one for my professional calendars. No, I do not have the option of using a non-Google Apps account for either, so I needed a PDA sync method that would work. I have been a die hard Palm user for 8+ years, but there is too much pain involved in sync'ing Palm to iCal to Google, so iCal (incl. Cal.app on iPod Touch/iPhone) and Google are my way forward.
I have done a lot of complaining about Google's user model, Google Apps, and Google Calendar sharing. I have made on-and-off attempts to get this sorted out over the past 6 months. My nirvana would have been to have this working with Palm Desktop, but my new iPod Touch means I am content to move to a combination of:
iCal (mac book pro, mac pro)
Calendar App (iPod touch)
Google Calendar (2 Google App domains: hkl.hms.harvard.edu and alumni.uwaterloo.ca)
I am close to having all the pieces of the puzzle sorted out.
* The Google App domain administrator needs to take action as described in step 1 below.
* It is playing with fire (from my experience) if you try GoogleSync'ing multiple Google Calendar logins (either "personal" or from a "Google Apps" domain). This can be achieved, but only indirectly. If you want to be able to create events into a Google App's primary calendar (e.g. the calendar username@hkl.hms.harvard.edu, which is where email and web-based invites will go) from a "sync'ed" calendar (e.g. iCal, iPod, iPhone), then you must pick ONE Google App account as the "base" account, and use m.google.com->Login to Google Apps->Sync to sync this.
* From all your other Google Calendar accounts (personal and Google Apps), you share the calendar with your "base" account, giving it maximum privileges. These will now show up to be sync'ed from the m.google.com Sync page.
* If you want write access to other Google App domain calendars, then you need to create secondary calendars and use these instead of the "primary" calendar (associated with the email address) for that domain. Only secondary calendars can be shared with write-access outside of the domain (i.e. shared with write-access to your other "base" account in the other Google App domain).
Good luck. Let me know if it works or not, or if you have other suggestions/ideas around this.
Ian
Fowarded message:
Dear Domain Administrators:
Thank you for your help with getting Google Calendar and Google Apps configured in a way that is compatible with PDA sync'ing and calendar sharing. I now have what I believe to be the two key pieces of information regarding this:
*** This is the critical step for Google App Domain Admins to complete ***
1. Google App Domain Admins must make changes as described here:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60765
a) Outside this domain - set user ability:
CHECK - "Share all information, and outsiders can change calendars"
b) Within this domain - set default:
YOUR CHOICE
Comment: By setting "share all information" you are simply giving users the OPTION to share their information with external parties, not setting the default that they will be shared publicly with anyone. There is no way to say "anyone can see and change details"
2. Users then are constrained by the details described here:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=143754
Basically, "primary" calendars inside a Google Apps domain can only be shared "read-only" with anyone/anything outside the domain, regardless of domain or user settings. One approach would be to only use "secondary" calendars, however email- or web-based calendar events/invites are all associated with the primary calendar, and many sync programs only know how to talk to the primary calendar. I haven't worked out how to overcome this particular challenge yet.
Finally, to make sharing changes visible in calendars, I understand it is necessary to remove and then re-add (re-share) a calendar.
A few URLs that may be of use to your Google App domain users:
http://www.knowliz.com/2009/02/how-to-sync-multiple-calendars-with.html
http://www.atnan.com/2009/6/19/configuring-multiple-caldav-google-calendars-on-iphone-os-3-0
I have done a lot of complaining about Google's user model, Google Apps, and Google Calendar sharing. I have made on-and-off attempts to get this sorted out over the past 6 months. My nirvana would have been to have this working with Palm Desktop, but my new iPod Touch means I am content to move to a combination of:
iCal (mac book pro, mac pro)
Calendar App (iPod touch)
Google Calendar (2 Google App domains: hkl.hms.harvard.edu and alumni.uwaterloo.ca)
I am close to having all the pieces of the puzzle sorted out.
* The Google App domain administrator needs to take action as described in step 1 below.
* It is playing with fire (from my experience) if you try GoogleSync'ing multiple Google Calendar logins (either "personal" or from a "Google Apps" domain). This can be achieved, but only indirectly. If you want to be able to create events into a Google App's primary calendar (e.g. the calendar username@hkl.hms.harvard.edu, which is where email and web-based invites will go) from a "sync'ed" calendar (e.g. iCal, iPod, iPhone), then you must pick ONE Google App account as the "base" account, and use m.google.com->Login to Google Apps->Sync to sync this.
* From all your other Google Calendar accounts (personal and Google Apps), you share the calendar with your "base" account, giving it maximum privileges. These will now show up to be sync'ed from the m.google.com Sync page.
* If you want write access to other Google App domain calendars, then you need to create secondary calendars and use these instead of the "primary" calendar (associated with the email address) for that domain. Only secondary calendars can be shared with write-access outside of the domain (i.e. shared with write-access to your other "base" account in the other Google App domain).
Good luck. Let me know if it works or not, or if you have other suggestions/ideas around this.
Ian
Fowarded message:
Dear Domain Administrators:
Thank you for your help with getting Google Calendar and Google Apps configured in a way that is compatible with PDA sync'ing and calendar sharing. I now have what I believe to be the two key pieces of information regarding this:
*** This is the critical step for Google App Domain Admins to complete ***
1. Google App Domain Admins must make changes as described here:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60765
a) Outside this domain - set user ability:
CHECK - "Share all information, and outsiders can change calendars"
b) Within this domain - set default:
YOUR CHOICE
Comment: By setting "share all information" you are simply giving users the OPTION to share their information with external parties, not setting the default that they will be shared publicly with anyone. There is no way to say "anyone can see and change details"
2. Users then are constrained by the details described here:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=143754
Basically, "primary" calendars inside a Google Apps domain can only be shared "read-only" with anyone/anything outside the domain, regardless of domain or user settings. One approach would be to only use "secondary" calendars, however email- or web-based calendar events/invites are all associated with the primary calendar, and many sync programs only know how to talk to the primary calendar. I haven't worked out how to overcome this particular challenge yet.
Finally, to make sharing changes visible in calendars, I understand it is necessary to remove and then re-add (re-share) a calendar.
A few URLs that may be of use to your Google App domain users:
http://www.knowliz.com/2009/02/how-to-sync-multiple-calendars-with.html
http://www.atnan.com/2009/6/19/configuring-multiple-caldav-google-calendars-on-iphone-os-3-0