How can I share my calendars without .Mac?

tetzel1517tetzel1517
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I am in the process of migrating away from my .Mac account, which I am not renewing when it expires in October. So far I have found a free or very cheap replacement for everything I use . Mac for (that being online storage, address book syncing, e-mail, and photo sharing) except for one thing: calendar sharing.



I have four calendars in iCal which are synced to Entourage which, in turn, are then synced to my company's Exchange server (the syncing works both ways). So I'm covered at home and at work, even without .Mac. But I also like having my calendars available online if I need to look up something quick and I'm not at home or at work, but do have internet access. Right now I'm using Google calendar for this purpose. It syncs flawlessly with my calendars, which all reside on .Mac. The address it uses for this follows this format:



http://ical.mac.com/dotmacusername/Calendarname.ics



Does that mean I could have my calendar files uploaded to any old place online and Google could read them? Or do they have to be on some special calendar server for that to work? If it's the latter, what are some alternatives to this besides .Mac? I'm not above setting this up myself, but I'm a novice when it comes to such things, so I'd need a detailed set of instructions.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    benzenebenzene Posts: 338member
    Yep, you can set up Apache to act as a WebDAV server, and then sync to that with iCal.



    http://shawnwall.com/teach/webdav-ical.php

    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...20912065811863
  • Reply 2 of 8
    tetzel1517tetzel1517 Posts: 204member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by benzene


    Yep, you can set up Apache to act as a WebDAV server, and then sync to that with iCal.



    http://shawnwall.com/teach/webdav-ical.php

    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...20912065811863



    You'd think by now someone would have written an app or a script that does all that stuff, because my head is spinning after reading it. (For example, I have no clue what "vi" or "emacs" are, I don't know how to "su to root", I can't tell if "C-x C-s C-x C-c" is a bunch of separate commands or I type it all at once -- or if I even type it at all -- , I don't know how to create the ".htaccess" file the first link alludes to, and "be sure to also chown www:www .htaccess also" sounds vaguely pornographic to me.)



    Yeah, I'm a n00b. Couldn't you tell?



    That said, it's not total gibberish to me, but it'd require some study. And a full backup before I do any mucking around in the terminal.



    Also, I assume my computer could not be in sleep mode for this server to be active, correct? Not a big deal, since I only put it to sleep when *I* go to sleep, but just checking.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    benzenebenzene Posts: 338member
    Oh, sorry about that. I sometimes forget that other people have perfectly valid interests besides just staring at phosphors all day. I used to remember what the outdoors were like...



    That said, you're probably better off then paying for a real WebDAV hosting service. Just type in "iCal webDav hosting" into google, and you'll get a couple. This one, for example, has a full year for $25, which is a lot less than the $100 for .Mac. There's probably even cheaper (or free?) alternatives out there.



    Let us know what you find!
  • Reply 4 of 8
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tetzel1517


    I am in the process of migrating away from my .Mac account, which I am not renewing when it expires in October. So far I have found a free or very cheap replacement for everything I use . Mac for (that being online storage, address book syncing, e-mail, and photo sharing) except for one thing: calendar sharing.



    I have four calendars in iCal which are synced to Entourage which, in turn, are then synced to my company's Exchange server (the syncing works both ways). So I'm covered at home and at work, even without .Mac. But I also like having my calendars available online if I need to look up something quick and I'm not at home or at work, but do have internet access. Right now I'm using Google calendar for this purpose. It syncs flawlessly with my calendars, which all reside on .Mac. The address it uses for this follows this format:



    http://ical.mac.com/dotmacusername/Calendarname.ics



    Does that mean I could have my calendar files uploaded to any old place online and Google could read them? Or do they have to be on some special calendar server for that to work? If it's the latter, what are some alternatives to this besides .Mac? I'm not above setting this up myself, but I'm a novice when it comes to such things, so I'd need a detailed set of instructions.



    What are you using for online storage and address book synching?
  • Reply 5 of 8
    tetzel1517tetzel1517 Posts: 204member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K.


    What are you using for online storage and address book synching?



    I'm planning on using Box.com for online storage (the way my budget works, shelling out $5 a month is a lot easier than the one-time $99 .Mac payment) and I use Plaxo for address book syncing... it's cross-platform (I use a PC at work) and has been virtually flawless. Highly recommended.



    Thanks for the pointers, benzene. The nerd in me (which is, well, almost all of me) is intrigued by doing it myself. I might still give that a shot.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    tetzel1517tetzel1517 Posts: 204member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by benzene


    Oh, sorry about that. I sometimes forget that other people have perfectly valid interests besides just staring at phosphors all day. I used to remember what the outdoors were like...



    That said, you're probably better off then paying for a real WebDAV hosting service. Just type in "iCal webDav hosting" into google, and you'll get a couple. This one, for example, has a full year for $25, which is a lot less than the $100 for .Mac. There's probably even cheaper (or free?) alternatives out there.



    Let us know what you find!



    Well I'll be... I was just checking out Box.net and it turns out it uses WebDAV! Info here:



    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...60614115754569



    I'll post more once I try it out...
  • Reply 7 of 8
    tetzel1517tetzel1517 Posts: 204member
    OK, so, yes, you can fairly easily publish calendars to Box.net. The problem? You need a login and password to subscribe to them, which Google Calendar does not support.



    However, I found another free option called iCal Exchange. Publishing was a breeze, but the calendars don't seem to be showing in up Google Calendar after I add them (though I can add them without a problem). The fact that an update hasn't been posted on their front page since 2003 has me suspicious to say the least...
  • Reply 8 of 8
    tetzel1517tetzel1517 Posts: 204member
    OK, not sure if anyone is still following my endeavour here, but as a last ditch effort I tried uploading calendars to my Box.net public folder. They published without incident in iCal, but once again, nothing displayed when I loaded it in Google Calendar, even though it did display the "Loading..." box in the corner for a few seconds. No error message, just... nothing.



    I think I'm going to try setting up my own WebDAV server next week, but I have a question before I do: Will the calendars on it require a password for access? If so, that defeats the whole purpose of this exercise, since Google Calendar doesn't support password-protected calendars.
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