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).
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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...
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GcalSync works for syncing events between my Java-enabled phone (Treo 650) and Google Calendar. So I now have long-way-around but over-the-air syncing between iCal and gCal -- GcalSync for gCalTreo, and the Missing Sync over IP for TreoiCal.
It's at:
http://www.gcalsync.com/
Integration works great between iCal and gcal, however there should be a way to "not share" to the public your calendar stuff when you want to ues gcal with iCal.
May 19 2006 at 12:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replythe ical subscription of my gcal calendar does not work on my mac??? "no calendar found" under the adress "....fdaslhiu4434/basic" strange adress, why no ".ical"? has anyone a clue?
May 15 2006 at 6:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI've been using phpiCalendar for viewing iCal calendars on the web. Works like a charm, and even produces RSS feeds that I subscribe to on the sidebar of the main site for a "happening this week" section.
But, if gCalendar continues getting polished up, and it ends up with at least the same functionality as phpiCalendar, then I'd switch...I love the SMS reminders in gCalendar!
And for the person wondering how to add events from your desktop, there's a Quicksilver plugin that does exactly that...presuming you're on a Mac. If you're on Windows, I don't know of anything (yet.)
Yes two way updating is not possible. And here are the main reasons why:
- If you'd have it two way you could quickly have a lot more than two persons being able to update the same calendar at the same time.. Think of group calendars
- Some users on iCal for instance could update their calendar whilst offline
- So the same part of information on such a calendar may been updated by several persons. How does the "two way system" then resolve those updates when they come back together.
I'm not saying it can not be done (it has been done in things like Lotus Notes, Groove, Exchange); but it is just way way more complex than allowing one way sharing. I'd be really exited if someone indeed resolved it for an end user.
Check out Yahoo's Calendar. It lets you import directly into the calendar for updating and does syncML over the internet. The SyncML is promoted as only for mobile phones with full internet access and a SyncML client but it should work with iCal.
April 30 2006 at 5:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyiMatt: 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.
Hi Matt,
I coded a solution for my own needs: http://frente.degraves.com
Donny
Subscribing to Google Calendars with ical works fine for me. Unfortunately all-day-events don't show up properly in ical. Anyone out there with the same problem... or maybe a solution?
what would happen if u publish an ical to your gcal web adress?
April 15 2006 at 12:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWebCalendar allows to enter events from any browser, to which your iCal then subscribes.
For those only interested in publishing their iCals to the web without a .mac account, PHPiCalendar does it for free too:
Both are free and can be password secured; in my opinion they are much better than google...
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