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Handhelds Syncing w/ Web-Based Calendars?
hacker asks: "I have been asked many times over the past few years to support "web-based calendaring" with pilot-link, so people can syncronize their PalmOS handheld devices directly with 'online' calendaring software. The problem is...what calendaring software? I've looked at the various alternatives (PHP iCalendar, WebCal, and about two-dozen others) free and commercial, and none of them really offer a good, powerful, flexible way to integrate the same kind of data that resides on a Palm handheld device. I would write the conduit between Palm and calendaring software. Has anyone actually used a web-based calendaring product they like, and if so, which one, and why? Would the ability to syncronize your Palm handheld with your web-based calendaring software be useful?"
I've been using Yahoo Calendars for a couple months now and it does everything I need, as well as syncing well with Outlook and Palm Desktop. In Windows it's convenient to make it your active desktop--you have your entire month laid out in front of you.
If you go to university you probably have dealt with the Blackboard web application and its various features.
ArcStream makes a conduit for Blackboard called Blackboard toGo! I have never used the software but it seems to be exactly what you are looking for.
Again...this all stems on you already using the Blackboard software...(from what I understand most Universities in the states already do)...and you getting your University to use the Arcstream software.
Note: I am not affiliated with ArcStream Solutions, Inc. or Blackboard Inc.
No, but I bet he meant free , which the .mac accounts are not.
I was actually asking myself a similar, but more genral question. How can you have ubiquitous, but comfortable access to *all* your data? Email, calendar, 2do, ...
One possibility would be to always use some sort of groupware suite (e.g. phpGroupWare), but:
- they are focused on groups, not individuals
- it's more comfortable to use a real mail/calendar/... client when you have it available than always using a webclient
So, I was wondering if there is some sort of 'personalware', as compared to 'groupware' that allows you to have access to your data on multiple platforms (incl. pda's) both through a full client as through a webclient?
Cheers,
Chris/
For SyncML-devices, Mobical.net offers a good service. They let you synchronize contacts and calendar for free.
I use it primarily as a backup of my contact info, in case I'd lose my cell phone. However the web interface is quite neat.
Go troll somewhere else.
Not to feed trolls but there is always phpiCalander which would take the place of a .mac account.
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which if i was more awke I would have noticed he tried and didn't like. Works well for me though and no $99 a year for .mac
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
Is that some kind of new technology?
/. editors.
Screw it, it's too early in the morning to make fun of
The latest Slashdot meme.
Based upon your mention of PHP-based calendars, you're obviously trying to have a fully home-grown solution. But just for fun, I thought I'd mention Yahoo's calendar. It uses Intellisync to sync up their Web calendar with Outlook, Outlook Express, Palm OS handhelds, Lotus Organizer, and ACT. You might look at what they're doing, if only to see a system that works relatively well.
(If you can't find the sync link, after you login to your calendar, look for "sync" on the upper right side.)
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Check out Steltor CorporateTime by Oracle. It has a web based Calendering Client, integrates in Outlook, and support Sync to Palms and other PDAs.
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I don't mean to bitch, but did the editor even look twice before posting this? Web Basec ...
Anyway I think the question has been answerred pretty much by current posts.
(sure it's redundant...)
The Awful Truth
you're either trolling or ignorant, or you can't read. He said "flexible and powerful". iCal does not fit that description. I love my Mac at work, but iCal & iSync just doesn't cut it for calendaring.
1. The palm conduit for iSync is slooooooooooooow. About 10 times as slow, by my estimation.
2. iCal does not support categories for tasks on your to do list. With Palm software you can sort your tasks by categories such as by customer or, separate your sysadmin tasks from other work.
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Communigate Pro works for me!
In addition, you can sync your Yahoo Calendar, Addressbook, Todo list, etc with Intellisync, which is a free (beer) program.
Installation is pretty straigtforward. It's Windows only.
For the first fews syncs, or if the data on either Yahoo or your Palm gets out of sync, you'll have to spend some time telling Intellisync which entry is the correct entry.
Now, if Yahoo would change their email GUI to display message threads, and let me have more then one level of subfolders, I'd be really happy.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
I publish some Apple iCal calendars on my webserver and they're great for anyone who uses OS-X and iCal, they can subscribe. But what about when people just have a web browser and want to take a look at my calendar? Any iCal->HTML (or Zope) translators out there?
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Doesn't OpenGroupware have pretty extensive Palm sync?
I use the Intellisync for MSN that comes with my MSN Subscription. It is capable of syncing the Address Book, Calendar, Memo Pad, and Task Lisk between my Palm and MSN Subscriptions. I have experienced a few problems, but there are bound to be problems with any syncronization software. My suggestion would be to not reinvent a wheel that someone else has already written.
Both of the options you suggest are compatible with iCal on the Mac. It's pretty straightforward using iSync with that data to synchronize with a Palm.
It's a bit magical: Here's my calendar on the Web, no -- here it is on my Desktop. Look, it's the same data on my Palm!
For what its worth, PHP iCalendar seemed the most reliable to me when I used it.
I currently use a little known product called InFone. You can access your address book and calendar on the web, and by phone. They'll even connect you out to any number you want. They have an advanced directory assistance system that will help you find the business you're looking for, even if you don't remember everything about it. The software conduit is a simple plugin that works with most of the popular PIMs (Outlook, Palm Desktop). The only drawback is for Blackberry users, as it seems to cause more than a few problems with the sync software for that device.
Also available is a service called TeleConcierge. Most restaurants in their system allow for the operator to make reservations on your behalf. Hotel reservations are also available. Flight status, movie times, horoscopes, weather, driving directions, it's all there. Just $0.89 per call for up to 15 minutes, and just $0.05/min after that. Automatic debit from most major credit cards and there's no contract. You can access the service from any phone, home, cell, or pay. Just dial 888-411-1111.
Best of all, the operators that answer will be in the area you're calling from, no matter where you are in the country, including Hawaii, so you'll always have a local to give you advice when you're away from home.
Webcalendar's features include:
# Export events to iCal, vCal or Palm
# Import from vCal or Palm
# Optional general access (no login required) to allow calendar to be viewed by people without a login (useful for event calendars)
# Users can make their calendar available publicly to anyone with an iCal-compliant calendar program (such as Apple's iCal or Mozilla Calendar)
I don't have an answer to the question, but I'd like to suggest that people check out Mozilla Sunbird for their calendaring needs.
u nbird/nightly/
I just learned that it does not yet synch with Palm Pilots.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/
Sunbird nightly builds:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/calendar/s
Phillip
Hey,
You can sync from Windows with Palm Desktop and the help of the SUSE OpenExchange palm conduits to their OpenExchange server. Works great. There also is a Linux client available, haven't tried it yet.
OpenExchange is getting there, people!
-m
http://www.invisik.com
We wrote a php/oracle calendar for our university and migrated all users (30 thousand plus) to it (previously we were using netscape calendar).
.. we really should have used pear to not be oracle centric.
We also wrote a palm conduit for it for pc and mac..
It has been in production for over a year now with many thousands of users using it every day.
We were going to open source it but havent because of how oracle centric it is
There is a soap bar looking device made by danger.com, being widely sold through t-mobile cellular service. It does everything a PIM does, and it syncs automatically with a personal web interface that is included in the plan. AOL Instant messenging, and a full qwerty keyboard in a cellular phone is great. Check em out!
you're either trolling or ignorant, or you can't read. He said "flexible and powerful". iCal does not fit that description. I love my Mac at work, but iCal & iSync just doesn't cut it for calendaring.
1. The palm conduit for iSync is slooooooooooooow. About 10 times as slow, by my estimation.
2. iCal does not support categories for tasks on your to do list. With Palm software you can sort your tasks by categories such as by customer or, separate your sysadmin tasks from other work.
The fact that you personally had some issues with iSync/iCal/AddressBook does not imply that it's not flexible and powerful. It's arguably the best synchronization software available at the moment, although not in common use because it requires a certain not-so-very-widespread operating system.
Palm OS "categories" are replaced by "calendars" in iCal. Each todo in iCal is attached to a calendar and you can group the tasks exactly as you wish. Granted, it doesn't affect the Palm category (at least I've never noticed).
The iSync conduit itself is just as fast as the Palm Desktop conduit. It's not in itself ten times as slow as... some other unspecified synchronization thingy. However, the iSync application does a lot more things than the Palm Desktop application during a HotSync, e.g. shuffling data to additional devices like iPods and cellphones, and connecting over the network to .Mac. Yes, it's slow --- so what! Relative slowness is the price you pay for more functionality. And network transfer always introduces a certain latency.
These "problems" are not showstoppers in any way. They are mere inconveniences. The real showstopper (which you neglected to mention) is that calendars on .Mac are read-only, which makes them almost useless as personal on-line calendars.
--Bud
I wanted everything you guys have been talking about, but couldn't find anything, so I wrote my own. It is still beta, and is GPL. It is on SourceForge at http://ssis.sourceforge.net/. It uses coldsync to syncronise the contents of a MySQL database, and PHP to give a web interface. It also does a basic sync with an LDAP server as well.
I am about to do a major re-write and I could do with some help, guys !
My current PDA is a Pocket PC (Dell Axim for those interested). The only builtin way to manage calendar information with the Pocket PC seemed to be through syncing with Outlook (no big surprise...it is all MS after all). I wanted to have my calendar available on the web, and use something other than Outlook on my desktop to manage my calendar. Plus, I wanted this all available on my Axim. So I decided to use the iCal format. This lead me to Mozilla calendar, which could sync with ical files on a web site using WebDAV. I then found PHPiCalendar which does a decent job of using an ical file to generate a web-based calendar. Since there appears to be no mechanism with the calendaring software on Pocket PC for exporting to ical format, I wrote a little application to export the contents of my Axim's calendar and upload it to my website via WebDAV. Since I use WiFi at home on my PDA from time to time, I update my calendar on my PDA and upload the changes to my website. My web-based calendar is instantly updated, and Mozilla calendar can simply refresh and grab the latest copy of the ical file from the web site. So far I've been pleased with the results. The Pocket PC app is currently limited to exporting only. I plan on adding the ability to import and resolve any conflicts, but so far that has not been a priority. Don't know if that helps any of the Palm folks much, but maybe some of the Pocket PC users out there may be interested.
http://www.wesync.com
had a Web i/f prepared; but the droids 'in charge' of Palm, pre-split, buried it, just like they buried the PalmOS5 version of WeSync (which, BTW, WORKS GREAT!).
WeSync syncs up to fourteen calendars, and has a Windows desktop component so you can see what's going on without a Palm. Wireless syncs work just dandy, have ever since I got my first wireless Palm.
It also does address book syncs for shared contacts. It is the Killer App for married Palm users. Really. And, it's free.
Sure would be nice if WeSync got a breath of life from the New PalmSource folks.. hint-hint / wink-wink / say no more / aye
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