Client/Server Calendar Program?

Dethnyte asks: "At my office, we currently use Calendar Creator Pro, it's just not a very good or user-friendly program for multiple people entering data into a calendar. We don't want to use Outlook or anything that requires a server, or at least a server program we have to pay for. Is there anything Open Source that can help us out? We'd use Sunbird, but it still has too many bugs. We need something simple that can keep dates, multiple schedules, and still be readable when printed out."

Comments

web based

[martin]

lots of web based ones - egroupware, opengroupware, gnu/hurd have one.....

Re:web based

[lphuberdeau]

I would go with OpenGroupware.org since it's actually compatible with multiple clients. It can be used with Evlution, Moz Calendar, Outlook and probably more. It also has a web interface.

Having Freedom to choose is always nice ;)

Re:web based

[Fizzl]

gnu/hurd?

What is a kernel doing in that list?

phpgroupware

[_aa_]

phpgroupware uses all free and open software. Printer friendly output.

Re:phpgroupware

[fuzzybunny]

PHPGroupware is nice, but I found PHProjekt to be a bit more stable and simpler, as well as further down the development path (I don't remember why, but I got the impression that the PHPGroupware guys couldn't figure out exactly what they were trying to accomplish.)

PHProjekt is nice, including multiple profiles, email support, Palm sync, objects, chat, bulletin board, helpdesk, file storage, and a host of other useful stuff. I have set it up for my own company as well as for a number of clients and it works a charm.

Re:phpgroupware

[fuzzybunny]

Oh yeah, I should probably mention, in all fairness, that PHPGroupware supports at least most of these as well, and is really pretty :-)

Re:phpgroupware

[Anonymous Coward]

That URL should be http://www.phprojekt.com/

Another project in the same vein is eGroupware (which is a fork of phpGroupWare).

Re:phpgroupware

[mosabua]

I couldn't agree more. I introduced PHProjekt at a past and my current employer. We use it for project management and time sheet tracking. It was easy to setup and works just fine.

If you dont like the default look (yeah.. its a bit plain) you can always install one of the available skins or make your own.

In terms of the calendaring I have to mention that you can flag events as public. I actually wrote an extension that allows you to display those public events on a separate calendar on a website (plain vanilla html or postnuke integration). This way you can publish your public events and function straight from the groupware. Check it out on my site.

korganizer

[e-Trolley]

Try korganizer together with kitchensync/multisync.

Mozilla Calendar

[Bios_Hakr]

Is there any reason Mozilla Calendar will not work? The calendar files can be located pretty much anywhere. I have one on a small fileserver in my home that my wife and I share.

Although, in an enterprise, concurency issues might crop up.

Still, it's worth a shot.

Re:Mozilla Calendar

[warpSpeed]

Mozilla Calendar has a lot of promise (I currently use it in a client server format) but it is no where near ready for wide spread deployment. There are way too many peices that are unfinished and unpolished.

I hate to detract from it because it will be a great product when finished. For being a 0.2 release it is quite usable, but I would not inflict it on the unwahsed masses yet.

Re:Mozilla Calendar

[Moderator]

Maybe you should try the real calendar and not the stand alone?

Re:Mozilla Calendar

[sameyeam]

I volunteer some time at a local charity helping out with IT stuff among other things. We've been looking for something that can do simple calender sharing, effectively, easily and cheaply...it simply doesn't exist. Mozilla's efforts so far are so full of bugs as to be completely unusable. It's such a simple app with a huge potential market. It's crying out to be exploited by someone with a little talent...but so far, everything I've found has been seriously lacking.

Just get a database solution

[digitalchinky]

There's not really any excuse for 'not' running a small database app to do this stuff.

mysql / postgresql are both free. It's the application to sit on top of the database that could be more difficult.

I'm sure there's a solution for that on sourceforge.net

Re:Just get a database solution

[samael]

Writing your own app really isn't a solution for most people, they have 5000 other things they should be doing with their time.

Obviously, whatever they use should use a database, but it's the interface and application that actually matter.

Do you have to host it in-house?

[gristlebud]

Lessee-

Don't want a server, don't want to pay for it, do want to track dates and multiple schedules.

Keeping multiple calendars that can be seen by others and can show busy/free times on a per-user/resource basis is inherintly a client/server relationship. If you don't want to use Exchange or one of the other closed-source solutions, why not have someone else maintain the server for you. Here's what I use:

http://calendar.yahoo.com/

Re:Do you have to host it in-house?

[tlianza]

Keeping multiple calendars that can be seen by others and can show busy/free times on a per-user/resource basis is inherintly a client/server relationship.

I'd agree that this is *typically* done via the client-server architecture, but there's nothing inherent about that unless you've got that architecture in your head beforehand. I can imagine this sort of thing behing handled via a P2P architecture if one wanted.

For most enterprise calendaring apps (like Exchange, even MeetingMaker) there is a requirement that you be able to look at at least *your* calendar offline. For that reason I know in my organization a web-based calendar would likely be insufficient unless it had a thick-client portion with cached data (either via a standalone app or e-mail client integration).

Evolution Calendaring

[displague]

Evolution calendaring works well, and I believe the print options are acceptable too. I haven't had the best of luck with the DAV interface to an ics calendar file, but the support is present.

Re:Evolution Calendaring

[alatesystems]

Perhaps the tutorial I wrote on Setup for WebDAV with Mozilla Calendar will help with the DAV part. It also covers extensively how to setup mozcal/sunbird for the DAV, and those fundamentals should be applicable to Evolution as well.

Seconded

[samael]

I use this for my personal calendar and it works very well. It's not as good for group projects, but it's not bad for free.

Typo in Link

[brianmf]

Should be: http://www.phprojekt.com/

Schoolbell

[tomboy17]

Schoolbell has a calendar component (schoolbell is a subset of the code for Schooltool, a school administration server being developed with $$ from Mark Shuttleworth). It could be the free-server end of what you want (you said you didn't want a server that cost anything; I assume a free one is okay).

From the webpage:

SchoolBell allows users to manage their personal calendars, group calendars and calendars for resources, e.g., rooms, projectors, etc, via a web interface, or using an iCalendar compliant client such as Mozilla calendar or iCal.

You can:

1. create users, groups and resources through web forms or bulk import (in CSV format);
2. view and edit calendars for each user, group or resource using an ICal client;
3. use the web interface to manage user and group calendars;

Once you've got your calendars in ICal format, there are a number of other tools that can help you manage them, such as evolution for users, or pcal to output calendars as postscript.

stuff

[XO]

Citadel/UX probably has all of this stuff now, though I haven't looked at it for anything but BBS usage.. and PHPGroupWare.

iCal

[cliffyqs]

We use iCal from brown bear software. Cheap, works well, can handle multiple calendars, each with multiple people, accessible by web browser. they are here http://www.brownbearsw.com/

OX

[Mariani]

Open Xchange, (find it here) works marvelous, they have a live demo on their site if you'd like to check it out. It may be a little over-kill though for what you want to do with it (setting up the server is not exactly a walk in the park if you're not a systems guy). But it is free (GPL)

Rephrase the question

[duffbeer703]

We want everything, and want it for free. We could use the free tools available, but they aren't stable enough and we're too lazy to help develop the free product.

I need a free solution that does everything! Someone write one for me!

we use Very Simple Calendar

[toiletmonster]

we use http://www.verysimple.com/

its a pretty simple calendar. i like it. might be too simple for many people though.

Reprhase the parent post

[Anonymous Cowtard]

All my friends know how to code, so you obviously must be lazy if you can code it yourself. How dare you even ask if there's anything else available outside your personal knowledge. Just use one of the existing, though inadequate, products if you're too lazy to code yourself (and you obviously know how to code since I do).

Re:Reprhase the parent post

[duffbeer703]

"Just use one of the existing, though inadequate, products if you're too lazy to code yourself (and you obviously know how to code since I do)." ...Or pay someone who can code to do so. Hence, Microsoft Outlook is on 99% of business desktops.

Roaring Penguin's REMIND

[Dark$ide]

Remind is a flexible open source program
http://www.roaringpenguin.com/penguin/open_source_ remind.php

Wiki

[Goo.cc]

Why not use a Wiki? I know that it is not intended for calendaring but I think that I could be useful as one.

ExtCalendar 2

[schmaltz]

Check it out -

http://extcal.sourceforge.net/

Easy to set up, offers user accounts with varying levels of permissions, multiple views, moderation, etc.

Works well, looks blah?

[phorm]

I'm just playing with the demo now, (this is the URL btw). It suffers from the same ol' syndrome of "very functional," looks like ass.

Now, my own design skills are somewhat limited. I can't make a snappy graphic-filled website without a lot of work (as my own demonstrates, my graphics are blah at the moment) - but even I can see that this needs a remodelling job. Default colour scheme is blahhh.

Look at slashdot... yes some of the schemes are hard on the eyes but overall it's not too bad.

Look at some other sites for an example of basic but friendly colours, Less cluttered interface, and layouts with many options but good organization

Re:Works well, looks blah?

[aoteoroa]

Now, my own design skills are somewhat limited. I can't make a snappy graphic-filled website without a lot of work

Snappy designs ARE a lot of work. My partner has an ability for creating great looking designs for browser based applications but I find as the design complexity increases the programming required to pull it off grows exponentially.

Re:Works well, looks blah?

[mosabua]

HAve a look at the different skins for PHProjekt. They are much nice than the default... and making a custom skin is not that hard either. If it is so simple to make a nice UI... manfred

outlook, reconsideration

[way2trivial]

outlook does not require an exchange server to share dates & appointment data, I've used it to share without exchange..

Re:outlook, reconsideration

[sumdumass]

i do belive you will need an imap access for outlook to do that though. I think about any calendar program can also do the same with imap accees, i'm not sure

Meeting Maker

[nbvb]

Sorry that you have to pay for it, but MM is a great program for what you want.

http://www.meetingmaker.com/home.cfm

Kolab

[WindBourne]

kontact was mentioned, but it is a client, not the server. The server is kolab (citidal is compatiable with kolab 1.0). It works with kontact and a web interface. In addition, there is a plugin for Outlook (cheap; less than USD$ 15/seat). I think that I saw some folks were creating an evolution plugin, but no idea how far along.

Check out Group-Office

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.group-office.com

Excellent web-based (php, mysql) groupware suite.

I wrote my own

[cecil36]

I wrote a simple calendar program for a non-profit that I maintain a website for. My boss came to me one day and said that he wanted something for the employees to keep up with the event schedule and for management to add and amend events added to it along with sending notifications via e-mail to employees affected by changes. Additional features still in the works include time sheets which calculate hours worked in a week and for a calendar month (they pay monthly). I have a version in production and stuff is added to it whenever requested or whenever I have time available outside my full-time work to do work for this non-profit. If anyone knows of any free hosting services that support PHP and MySQL, I can put a demo online for all to access.

WebCalendar

[el_nino-2000]

I have been using WebCalendar for 2 years now without any major problems. It's a PHP based calendar that can be used on a MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, ODBC or Interbase type database. It's pretty easy to setup and maintain