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How To (Really) Share A Simple Calendar?
Lucas asks: "I run a small business as one of the people who 'knows something about computers', which now means, like many of you, I find myself having to solve IT problems. We have been trying to share maybe three simple, stupid calendars. Here's the catch -- we need to able to edit each other's calendars! This is where the problem comes in. We tried Mozilla Calendar/Sunbird with a WebDAV server (even though it deleted two calendars upon upload and barfed on a third, my office loves Sunbird's interface), OfficeZilla (too complicated for just one calendar), Calendars.net (too slow), ACT! (bolted on and expensive), and Yahoo (not designed for corporate stuff). Even iCal won't let you edit someone else's calendar. Is there any way to do this -reliably- without using MS Exchange and without spending a ton of money?"
I use (and love)webcalendar.
- tom -
there are many ways of doing what you want
you can use webserver with a web calendar or various custom applications depending on how you work
Or
You could use Kerio Mail server this allows multiple people access to a calendar i.e. a shared calendar for the web and Microsoft Outlook
see Kerio MailServer
regards
John Jones
discalimer I work for Kerio
I expect it's hard even when you get to use human intelligence.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
Congratulations, you've found THE killer app for Outlook/Exchange. Seriously, it is probably the best out there right now. Also, unless your company is a startup with no venture capital, spend the money on a 2003 server and exchange. If your company won't spend money on it, I'd consider leaving/running away as soon as possible. As much as people on /. preach software religion, in the corporate environment, if you don't use the best tools you can get, you are a moron. I'll repeat that. IF YOU DON'T USE THE BEST TOOLS YOU CAN GET, YOU ARE A MORON! Outlook/Exchange happens to be the best tool right now. Software is not a religion, and Linux/OSS is not always the best solution (OMG!!) Just because you don't agree with MS's business practices doesn't mean everyone in your company (most importantly your boss) agrees with you.
Also, if you are even thinking about using something that's not from Red Hat or Novell, STOP. Don't trust anything that was just "written by some guy". No one else in the business world does, and neither should you.
In summary, just buy Exchange you cheap-ass!
If bad puns were like deli meat, this would be the wurst
blackboard, chalk, free paper calendar, clock, bell(optional)
The best simple solution is Horde and its Kronolith calendaring application. Lets you set up shared calendars and set editing permissions. Doesn't automatically figure out when meeting times will work for everyone, but it's easy and it will do your email, tasks, and time-tracking as well. If you need any help setting it up, check the mailing lists or just email me (I worked on Horde for my Summer of Code project).
U.S. War Crimes blog. Email for free Mandriva support.
Wikiwikiwiki!
:)
I'm not kidding, it would work well.
DYWYPI?
Well, it seems you have a windows environment, but don't want to purchase exchange. There is another tool, Windows SharePoint Services. It can be configure to have a calendar for each member. It is free, but it requires IIS 6, Win2k3, and SQL Server or the free data engine thingy.
There is a catch, you have to use the web interface to edit the calendars. You can always set that up to open in outlook.
We use it for an office calendar, useful!
My inner self is ineffable, so don't eff with me.
You can set up permissions so that you can create your own appointments, create others, or suggest others which are put into a "pending" approval queue. It's all web-based and sexy as hell.
I'm not sure how much it costs, but you can probably get just the features you want. I can vouch that pretty much every aspect of it is great.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
The requirements for one job I've done was that the calendar had to work with Outlook and had to basically look just like Exchange to the people in the office. I went with InsightServer running on a RedHat Linux server. it cost a lot less than Exchange and it works great. It's been running for about two years now without any problems. The only issue we've had so far is Blackberry support. Feel free to ask me any questions if you decide to go with it.
Anyway, you were on track with the WebDAV server. I use Apache 2's built-in mod_dav to host several calendars, and view/edit them with Sunbird (Windows) and Korganizer (Unix). I think your time would be better served debugging your first attempt than starting over from scratch.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I was looking for a similar solution a few years ago and 4Team seemed to work well enough.
http://outlook.4team.biz/
dotProject is pretty good. Allows you to filter the display of entries, and if you'd combine that with a few user accounts that have access to each other's stuff it'd probably do the trick.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
My college used a web-based calendar program by Brown Bear Software. It was pretty bare-bones as far as aesthetics, but wasn't lacking in features, and played fairly well with stuff like Outlook in that it supporeted import and export - no automatic synchronization, of course.
It has a pretty good system for modifying others' calendars, setting up meetings, stuff like that.
Calcium
Which runs on Windows and Linux.
Dude, keep it simple! Use
Notep
ad.
(PS: _sometimes_ the paste function doesn't work right)
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
Also look into the fledgling CalDAV implementations & projects like Hula (server) and Chandler (client). Very recent binaries of Sunbird also sport CalDAV support.
open-xchange is ok. It isn't Exchange but then again what is? I would really, really like to find a replacement for it.
There is a free version and a pay version.
Does anything like this (calendar stuff in general) make use of LDAP backends? I imagine the authentication and ACL-like permissions would come in handy in a situation like this...
It's been a while, but for shared calendaring we used to use Meeting Maker. It is licensed per-user, allows shared calendars, and also allows each person to assign editing privileges to their person calendar so one person can have either a single person or the entire user base in their list of allowable contributors.
I remember it being pretty nice for cross-platform use and had a built-in web interface as well.
When you have a WebDAV server setup and have Sunbird/Mozilla Calander setup - it will delete calendars that have zero items. Delete the last item in your calendar, and POOF, you have a zero byte
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
we made a custom solution, when you a enter an appointment it will flow into outlook. we did have from outlook to the custom solution however it was too buggy so was pulled. If your interested contact me
why not just use exchange?
what you're describing isn't exactly that simple, and calendaring is perhaps exchange's most touted feature among those who use it.
and it's popular enough that it's available in some form on every platform (Evolution for *nix, Outlook for Win32, Entourage for OSX)
I'm not a very big microsoft advocate, but it seems like you're passing up a perfectly good product based upon your bias against microsoft.
If Sunbird was stable, or came close to matching the ease-of-use or maturity of outlook, I'd reccommend it even if outlook had the edge because of price and the fact that it's not microsoft. But the fact is that nothing comes close.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Either Lotus Notes or Lotus Workplace will do that for you.
:)
If you only use the Lotus Notes client (ie. no domino server), and have a shared fileserver, you could make the data directories (where the notes client saves it's data) available on the fileserver. It's simple but has the problem you will not be able to use it off location. If you get domino or workplace this wont be a problem.
With workplace the client is also available for linux btw. With notes only win32 and Mac clients are avail. though the win32 client will somewhat work in wine. Also OO.o functionality is built into workplace so you wont need to use a seperate office suite, and you'll be able to use your workplace server for filesharing too.
For both workplace and domino the server is available for win32, solaris, linux (certified for sles and rhel) and aix.
Of course it's not super cheap, their express offerings are supposed to help though, and if you say you are migrating from something else you'll probably even be able to get upgrade prices.
The only downside I can remember from the trimmed express offerings was no more then 1k users, but if you need 3 calendars I'm guessing that will be a while
Otherwise there would be the option of using a web based calender - this would be very simple in useability terms.
I see a lot of people saying go exchange. There is no need, both the Novell and IBM offerings can do more and neither will lock you in.
On win32 you might get some annoyances though - for example in MS Office 2k3 MS removed the ability to use the file -> send -> email option unless you use outlook. Atleast untill Office 2K it worked fine with everything else too.
Anyway, having both run an exchange server and domino server, and evaluated functionality etc. on both I can't see any reason to go with exchange unless you are merging and more then 50% of the users in the merged company use exchange already.
If you go domino be aware that some add-ons are not available on certain platforms. It seems win32 is the primary server platform for domino. AFAIK this is not the case with workplace (which is basically a special websphere appliance btw.).
When people have used nothing before, training is easy, they'll screw it all up, I know since I had to train when I did IT... I hated it... and loved it. I could get MORE billable hours out of training people than out of "fixing" things... they always got upset when I did the spyware thing every time. (And always found stuff, despite holding sessions with the client's staff.) But yeah... training WAS more expensive than an exchange license, you forget the big iron to run that piece of shit 2003, AND 2003 (probably SBServer so you get the whole enchillada).
... and I don't mean porn either.
I've seen those servers hacked, cracked and fucked by just viewing sites
There are reasons why hackers and geeks hate M$, and just because they are a big "easy" in the corporate climbing agenda, doesn't mean that small businesses or people who've not been stuck on exchange before can't use other things.
I learned a lot of things on OSS and its helped me enjoy leaving IT all the more. IT is probably the least enjoyable job OUT there... you work your ass off and get fucked over, all to make M$ more money... no thanks.
~D
PS - try PHPGroupware... its been awhile since I've needed to share a calendar though....
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
It can access vcal calendars via ssh or ftp.
In order of preference:
1. horde-kronolith http://www.horde.org/kronolith/ (horde suite is quite comprehensive and easy to set up)
2. webcalendar http://www.k5n.us/webcalendar.php
3. MediaWiki with calendar plugin (a little bit tricky to set up, and not as great to use as previous two)
Basically the shared feature of horde is pretty powerfull with a good rights-system. They also alow calendars to be exported etc.
Check them out.
Citadel + WebCit, Aethera or some other clients.
You can create a Calendar room accessible by everyone (or acl'ed as you wish) and people can edit as they wish, as a plus it can handle your mail, among other things. If you want to have a play with WebCit, log onto Uncensored BBS or one of the others.
Disclaimer: I'm to blame for the upcoming NNTP implementation in Citadel, along with a patch to use Bogofilter, and the token Australian node on the "IGnet".
It really sounds like you're trying to use publishing where it isn't appropriate. If anyone can edit a particular calendar, it isn't really "someone else's". The only type of server I see a need to involve is a file server, and you'd simply use whatever calendaring application you prefer to edit the files directly. As a bonus, standard file-based permission can be used to restrict access to the group of people who can edit them. Everything else you're talking about seems to be overkill for a small business.
Check out Novell's Hula Project
Really edit, or do you wish to be able to invite people?
My first response to that actual ability for you to edit someone else's calendar is acceptance and actually being able to make it.
If someone edits your schedule without you knowing, you may not kow the scheduled item is in place. Likewise, if someone decides you need to be at their power-point meeting instead of picking up someone at the airport, that's bad.
I'm of the firm opinion that people need to be able to accept invitations instead of simply being informed they'll be showing up at a certain time. It's my time to manage, not yours.
Then again, I'm not a fan of having schedules imposed on me by other people. So the idea of somsone else editing the final version of my schedule would make me rather irate.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I've been using this for years. The calendar itself is Perl and the data is stored in plain text files. Very flexible, very simple. With no customization it's great, and if you're not scared of editing things in Perl (you don't have to KNOW Perl, just know enough about code to recognize what lines to copy-n-paste, how to set variables, etc.--if you got WebDAV working, you can probably handle this.) it's pretty much unlimited. It's $25 shareware though since it's Perl it obviously doesn't expire or anything. Just download it, use it, and pay if you want.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I feel happy about the origional question, because I have the same question. And if it keeps getting asked, the answer will keep changing.
iPlanet Calendar Server, formerly Netscape Calendar Server, and SunOne Calendar Server before being renamed Sun Java System Calendar Server, uses LDAP for its authentication. (to be specific, the Netscape/iPlanet/SunOne/SunJava System Directory Server, or whatever they're calling it this week)
The calendar server uses LDAP not just for authentication, but also to store user's preferences. (as do sun's mail server and other products)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
It's stupid simple. It has the ability to share an address book as well as maintain individual calenders, and to do lists, that other users can modify or simply have a shared calender. It doesn't need a dedicated server or server packaged to run. You can set-up mail merge documents that automatically populate with information from your address book. It can integrate into your established e-mail client and even a fax server if you have one. It's not free but it is pretty cheap. Unfortunately it is windows only.
http://www.chaossoftware.com/
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
shameless plug, and probably more simple than you're looking for, but who knows...
CGI Calendar
(hosted at Sourceforge, licensed under GPL)
After poking around the net for a while, I found these guys http://www.xcnetwork.com/index.jsp. Ok, so its costs money but it solves all the issues, and best of all it is cross-platform.
Their various plug-ins run on the Mac, Windows and Unix platforms as do the server back end. Basically the local plug-in allows them to put the respective data onto the local software, while still letting your system think that you are the only user of it.
Even though we finally did not use them (the owner purchased a comprehensive office product that among other functions has both a calendaring and a contact management system in it), the demo that I setup was functional. Peter
You should take a look at OpenGroupware.org. It's quite mature, and in addition to providing facilities for calendaring/mail/rudimentary document, project and contact management, it supports your beloved thunderbird.
Yes, people need the ability to edit other's calendars. As a dev, you managed your own time. As a CEO, others manage your time. Its one of the big things secretaries do.
Mod point free since 2001
mod_authz_ldap I think, and perhaps a couple of others... we use LDAP authentication in Samba, Win2003, linux, solaris, HPUX, Apache, and sendmail (we do LDAP mail routing in sendmail too) with a single database backend running OpenLDAP. OK, it's not really a single database, it's a single master with a couple dozen slave instances and automatic referrals and updating, but it's a single data image.
It was hard to set up, but totally worth it. Runs like a dream.
Yes, it's Microsoft. I don't really understand why people responding to me think that I like the product. I simply hate the alternatives even more.
No, you can't. You must provide notification on new e-mail and for scheduled tasks/events. A modal alert dialog box does not cut it. In addition, how do you keep it straight easily? Oh look! The taskbar has eight browser windows open. Tabs help somewhat, but if you have another tab active, the taskbar shows the title of the alternate page, not your e-mail app.
Could you handle it? Yes. Can I handle it? Yes. Would it frustrate Frank in marketing? You're damn right it will!
The e-mail/calendering app needs to be integrated, it needs to be a separate program from the others, and it needs to be integrated with the platform you are running. This doesn't mean the app can't be cross-platform like Thunderbird or Eudora. In fact, that's preferred.
I am actively learning how to code XUL apps. I am no great fan of IE. Okay, I admit it, I hate IE with a passion as it has made my life far more difficult than it needed to be on many web development occasions. I am also no great fan of Outlook. It is the single greatest propagator of viruses and worms in computing history.
But Windows/Mac makes up 95% of all office workstations. IE makes up 85% of all browsers in use. Be idealistic in your goals but pragmatic in your methods. Work for bringing alternatives forward, but be aware of the world as it exists today. (Note: I didn't say "accept." I said "be aware of.")
Broken record: When the Thunderbird/Sunfire integration is deliverable (or some other contender emerges from the aether), I'll be actively pushing for a wholesale dumping of Outlook. Until that moment, sadly, it's Outlook.
Good for you. Can you grow your own food? Do you know how to farm? It isn't easy, but many people find it rewarding. It also helps to make you more self-sufficient.
The lesson here is that not everyone needs to take in interest in the same things that you do.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
I really can't believe I'm apparently the first one to mention Workgroupshare. /view your calendar, etc..)
(at workgroupshare.com).
It's relatively cheap ($150 for 5 users) - allows people to share calendars, emails, contacts, etc.
I've used it for a while and can't really complain.
It allows advanced permissions (so only certain users can see your emails, or only certain users can modify
and is overall, a pretty mature product, IMHO.
I have more than a couple of clients that use it without problem.
Check out the new group calendaring screen shots that went on our blog yesterday:
d ar_candy.html
http://www.zimbra.com/blog/archives/2005/10/calen