Filed under: Software, How-tos, Internet Tools
HOWTO: Subscribe to a Google Calendar using iCal
So Google
has released a web calendar that supports the iCal format.
Big deal, right? I use iCal, so what do I care? Well, you can use iCal to subscribe to any shared Google Calendar, and
it works like a charm, though keep in mind that Google Calendar doesn't support Safari (I used Camino to make this how
to).In order to subscribe to your own Google Calendar, first log into gCalendar (as I like to call it). You'll notice the Manage calendars link on the left hand side of your calendar (highlighted in the picture to the right).
Go ahead and click on that, and continue reading this tutorial, after the jump.
After you click on 'Manage calendar' you should be in the Calendars tab of the Calendar Settings screen. Click on
the 'Sharing' setting as highlighted below:
This whisks you to 'Share this calendar' where you can pick to publicly share a calendar (as we have done below) or share it with only certain people. I have decided to share all my information with the world because everyone is always hounding me for appointments (Steve, I'll pencil in lunch with you next time I am in Cupertino, I promise!).
Now just click on the Calendar Details tab, and you'll see a whole bunch of info about the calendar you are currently in. The part we care about is the 'Calendar Address,' which is the web address that iCal needs to subscribe to your calendar. Simply click on the green 'ICAL' button shown below.
Clicking on the ICAL button will result in this pop up (remember this doesn't work yet in Safari);
That's the address we need for our iCal calendar. Copy it, and create a new calendar in iCal. Command click on the newly created calendar and pick 'Subscribe' like so:
Paste the web address you got from clicking on the green ICAL button into the 'Subscribe to' field:
Give it a name (I'm so clever with my names):
Click 'OK', and there you have it! Events you add to your Google Calendar will now show up on this iCal calendar (though you can't actually add events using iCal, which is kind of a bummer).
This whisks you to 'Share this calendar' where you can pick to publicly share a calendar (as we have done below) or share it with only certain people. I have decided to share all my information with the world because everyone is always hounding me for appointments (Steve, I'll pencil in lunch with you next time I am in Cupertino, I promise!).
Now just click on the Calendar Details tab, and you'll see a whole bunch of info about the calendar you are currently in. The part we care about is the 'Calendar Address,' which is the web address that iCal needs to subscribe to your calendar. Simply click on the green 'ICAL' button shown below.
Clicking on the ICAL button will result in this pop up (remember this doesn't work yet in Safari);
That's the address we need for our iCal calendar. Copy it, and create a new calendar in iCal. Command click on the newly created calendar and pick 'Subscribe' like so:
Paste the web address you got from clicking on the green ICAL button into the 'Subscribe to' field:
Give it a name (I'm so clever with my names):
Click 'OK', and there you have it! Events you add to your Google Calendar will now show up on this iCal calendar (though you can't actually add events using iCal, which is kind of a bummer).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mitch Greenfield said 3:17PM on 4-13-2006
Has anyone come up with a way to figure out how to add events fomr the desktop yet?
Reply
Marshall Kirkpatrick said 3:20PM on 4-13-2006
That would be nice if it was a two way thing. But I suppose I'd prefer the default to be just gcal to ical and not the other way around.
Reply
Peter Cook said 3:28PM on 4-13-2006
To add a calendar go to "Manage Calendars" -> "Add Calendar" -> "Public Calendar Address"
I had some problems getting it to work earlier today, but it seems to be working much better now!
Reply
Dot Flowers said 3:50PM on 4-13-2006
We have been trying to figure out a shared calendar feature for PC and Mac users. This might fit the bill.
Reply
Mitch Greenfield said 4:00PM on 4-13-2006
Another nice thing is that you can add any of hte sports/music/etc cals on ical.apple.com to gCal
Reply
Freelance Web Design said 4:03PM on 4-13-2006
Yeah, does anyone know if it can be a two way thing? Can a gCal user subscribe to an iCal? That would be sweet nectar.
Reply
mediaphile said 4:36PM on 4-13-2006
or you could just click the arrow next to the calender you want to share and select "calender settings" to go directly to the page that has the xml/ical feeds.
Reply
Andrew Turner said 4:48PM on 4-13-2006
You can have iCal -> gCal:
Publish your iCal calendar to a WebDav location (like .Mac, or your own WebDav server - or even your own Mac if it is public facing). Then subscribe to that URL in gCal.
This doesn't handle Sync'ing to iCal. This is shortcoming of iCal where you can't both Publish & Subscribe to a calendar. However, Mozilla Sunbird handles Publish/Subscribe to a single ical calendar.
Reply
nicholas said 4:52PM on 4-13-2006
you can also change the http:// to webcal:// and your browser will open ical directly (no copy and paste required), at least on a mac.
Reply
esqyre said 4:58PM on 4-13-2006
It may be an ugly yawner but at least it is accessible. iCal, on the other hand, (at least as far as I can tell) cannot be modified online through a browser. What is stopping Apple from offering this functionality when Google, Yahoo, MSN and others do? What gives?
Reply
Andrew Turner said 5:29PM on 4-13-2006
I put up a HowTo for publishing your iCal calendars to Google:
Publish you iCal to Google
Reply
iMatt said 5:57PM on 4-13-2006
For a long time, I've wanted a way to access and modify my iCal calendar from the web. Oddly, .mac doesn't allow this.
I thought Google's new calendar would serve as a work-around, but it appears that it is not.
Any ideas? I love iCal, but I need a calendar that can be updated on the web from the office, etc.
Reply
iMatt said 6:15PM on 4-13-2006
Is Sunbird stable and available for Mac?
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Tony said 6:38PM on 4-13-2006
This can serve as an inbetween for ical and gCal
http://www.extrosoft.com/
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Lauren said 7:24PM on 4-13-2006
One possible way around the Gcal iCal thing is to do this:
1. Create a calendar in Google. Subscribe to it in iCal as instructed in this tutorial.
2. Create a NEW calendar in iCal. Publish it, and import it into Gcalendar. (settings --> add calendar --> public calendar address)
3. Now when you're looking at either Gcalendar or iCal, you can see all of your events at once. You can't EDIT in both places, but at least you can add events either in iCal or online.
Not ideal, but workable.
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h0zae said 9:25PM on 4-13-2006
seems like "publicly" is required.
iCal will not let you subscribe to a non-public calendar -- unless you are using the "super secret" private calendar link when subscribing.
more info - regarding the "Private" Calendar ICAL/XML http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=34576
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Andre said 11:46PM on 4-13-2006
I'd say if you want privacy, you should probably disable calendar sharing and use the Private Calendar address to subscribe to your gCalendars from iCal. The procedure is the same. Just skip the "make calendar public" step, and then click on the second green iCal icon, under the Private Calendar section. This will protect your privacy a little more, and not share your calendar with the whole google calendar crowd.
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Andre said 11:48PM on 4-13-2006
Oh, well, that should read Private Address and not Private Calendar.
Reply
Farry Aprianto said 12:40AM on 4-14-2006
You might as well call it gCal as complement to iCal...
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Oliver said 2:39AM on 4-14-2006
So you can subscribe to a google calendar in iCal, and vice versa.. but until you can actually sync between the two (or at least between google calendar and my mobile phone) then I'm afraid this is pretty useless for me. And judging by the comments on /. I'm not alone in this.
Reply