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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 expect it's hard even when you get to use human intelligence.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
blackboard, chalk, free paper calendar, clock, bell(optional)
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 also use and love Webcalendar. It is quick to set up, and its only real needs are PHP and a MySQL backend. Viewing other people's calendars is easily set up via Layers, and any user with Admin rights can edit other people's calendars. I brought it in about a year and a half ago for the consulting business I work for. We've got 6 people regularly using it and it hasn't choked on us yet.
Same way you got yours. Mods with grudges or axes to grind and no compunction against gaming the system. Jerks.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
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.
I must be a MORON!!! I use OpenBSD and Linux exclusively and I can't use Outlook/Exchange. I'm not prepared to run my Internet-facing mail server on Exchange (you need mail abilities to use the calendar to its full potential). Putting a M$ product on the greater Internet says more about how moronic you are than not using the best tool for the job.
There are dozens of great tools for simple calendaring. Did you look at Hoarde (http://www.hoarde.org? I bet you didn't. Hoarde have a whole suite of PHP-based groupware applications from Webmail to calendaring to practically anything else you can think of.
Why would you want a bloated, arbitrarily limited, buggy Exchange program running on a fundamentally flawed OS when you can have a PHP-based application running in any webserver you can make PHP work in (usually Apache, but others exist) on any OS that can run the webserver (OpenBSD is my choice for server OS, Linux might float your boat). Sure, there's no client-side application and it's all web based, but the Outlook program leaves a lot to be desired anyway. If it wasn't mandated here by some manager to use Outlook I'd be using a real client without even thinking about it.
Think twice before you start calling people morons. OSS might not be the answer to everything, but if you're using other OSS tools the suggesting that a MS tool is the way to go is just being stupid. How do you propose that I get Outlook clients running in a Linux-only shop? The web client for Exchange hides most of the functions that make the groupware in Exchange so "great".
I drink to make other people interesting!
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
And for the coworkers that aren't well versed with the concept of revision control let alone actually using it?
A real life solution needs to be usable by anyone, not just those that recognize that M-x is an Emacs-ism.
Your solution has a horrible UI, but it *will* cost thousands of dollars more than Outlook/Exchange. Why? Because training people to use your system is more expensive than an Exchange license.
You want to fuck Microsoft? Write a real competitor to Outlook that regular folks can use (or help out with the Thunderbird/Sunfire integration). Anything else is a waste of breath.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
I'll have to second this one.
I set up WebCalendar for a financial services organization. They have 150+ users spread around the country and WebCalendar is accessed as a plug-in to Squirrelmail. We mandate SSL/TLS connections and it performs wonderfully.
When I left the new techies wanted to replace it with Exchange/Outlook/OWA and were flat out told "no way in Hell" by management. The killer sticking point was the ability to overlay calendars -- something Outlook just can't do. (Side-by-side just is not the same.)
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
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.