Filed under: Productivity, Tips and tricks, Mac 101
Mac 101: iCal calendar subscriptions
iCal has always been an elegant program. Though it has a "subscribe" function for public calendars, it hasn't always played nicely with other devices and other calendars. This limitation forced many a user to seek greener pastures elsewhere, like Google Calendar. Calendars created in Google's web app permitted a better cross-platform solution for home and mobile use, but made iCal clunky and hard to use, even when you only subscribed to your own Google calendars. Recently, Apple enabled CalDAV subscriptions on the iPhone (which also play well with Google Calendar); that made me dust off my copy of iCal and take a second look. If you're not using iCal at all, you may want to take a moment to learn about what you can do with it.
The idea of calendar subscriptions is simple: store a calendar event database somewhere online, and then provide a link in a common format for calendar programs such as iCal to access. The calendar program then imports the calendar data and puts it in your calendar, updating itself at a frequency of your choosing.
Online databases of public calendar links abound, and you can add calendars from your local little league schedule to stargazing guides to the galaxy in your area. The format that Apple uses is the "ics" format, and you'll see calendars with that extension all over the web.
Apple itself provides a place to browse calendars, which you can also access by pulling down the "Calendar" menu within iCal and choosing "Find Shared Calendars...." You'll find greater content depth at places like iCalShare and iCalWorld. (NB: Unfortunately, both of these sites seems to have trailed off with database updates, but the calendars within them can still be current and they still provide a wealth of calendars to browse.)
If you click on "subscribe," you'll automatically enter iCal and it'll open the subscription dialog box. Click "OK" and then choose how often you want the calendar to update (iCal's default is not to update at all, so be sure to change that if your calendar is a rolling one.) If you come across an .ics link online, you can enter that calendar address directly in iCal by choosing "Subscribe..." from the "Calendar" pull-down menu.
Now that you know how to subscribe to calendars, the fun begins. Did you know, for example, that you can "subscribe" to your local weather through a calendar? Go to the Weather Underground. Enter your zip code. Look in the upper right-hand corner for the "iCal" button. That takes wunderground's data feed and automatically translates it into a format iCal can understand. If you merely click on it, you'll download the data file in ics format which you can import into iCal, but that's only this week's information. Here's the magic: if you "subscribe" to the .ics feed, you'll get automatically updating weather forecasts, right in iCal! So right-click or control-click on the iCal link, and choose "copy link location." Then go to iCal and choose "Subscribe..." Put your link there. Bingo.
Once you've got the hang of subscriptions, it's a hop step and a jump to the power of CalDAV, which gives you even greater flexibility and true, two-way event management from all your devices.
If you click on "subscribe," you'll automatically enter iCal and it'll open the subscription dialog box. Click "OK" and then choose how often you want the calendar to update (iCal's default is not to update at all, so be sure to change that if your calendar is a rolling one.) If you come across an .ics link online, you can enter that calendar address directly in iCal by choosing "Subscribe..." from the "Calendar" pull-down menu.
Now that you know how to subscribe to calendars, the fun begins. Did you know, for example, that you can "subscribe" to your local weather through a calendar? Go to the Weather Underground. Enter your zip code. Look in the upper right-hand corner for the "iCal" button. That takes wunderground's data feed and automatically translates it into a format iCal can understand. If you merely click on it, you'll download the data file in ics format which you can import into iCal, but that's only this week's information. Here's the magic: if you "subscribe" to the .ics feed, you'll get automatically updating weather forecasts, right in iCal! So right-click or control-click on the iCal link, and choose "copy link location." Then go to iCal and choose "Subscribe..." Put your link there. Bingo.
Once you've got the hang of subscriptions, it's a hop step and a jump to the power of CalDAV, which gives you even greater flexibility and true, two-way event management from all your devices.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
John said 3:14PM on 7-14-2009
iCal is elegant? I think not.
While CalDav support in iCal is nice, iCal still has a long way to go before it can be called "elegant." When it comes to basic calendaring, iCal is a toy.
In order for my wife and I to share our calendars with each other and have access to those calendars on our Macs and iPhones iCal requires that we publish our calendars, unsecurely, to the web; that is unacceptable. If we want to share our calendars and keep them secure, we have to purchase additional software (i.e. BusySync) to work around iCal's limitations.
iCal's lack of control with regard to sharing pales in comparison to Google Calendar (which is secure).
Getting the birthday calendar on the iPhone poses similar difficulties. Yes I could publish it but I feel uncomfortable publishing my contacts' birthdays on the internet without their permission.
Additionally, there is no way for two users to have read/write access to the same calendar using iCal; even with a $150/year MobileMe subscription.
Good article on how to use CalDav in iCal, but iCal is not elegant. It's lack of basic functionality renders it useless for anything other than saving dates in a grid.
Reply
Rafe H. said 3:52PM on 7-14-2009
MobileMe enables me and my wife to share our calendars.
Rafe H. said 3:55PM on 7-14-2009
Hey TUAW, your comment system does not work when using Mail through MobileMe to confirm comments. The link that appears in the email is not correct. Try it.
Le Big Mac said 4:26PM on 7-14-2009
google calendar allows you to create a calendar with two authors (you, wife), or to share with each other.
But, yeah, I'd like to be able to do this without Google's involvement and without paying Apple $100 (or $150) or BusySync $25/seat to do that.
Chris said 6:48PM on 7-14-2009
If you like Google's secure calendars then use iCal via CalDav to access them. Same on your iPhone. MobileMe users don't have to publish them
publicly to get them to sync so I don't know where you are getting that it is unsecure.
If you say iCal isn't elegant. Then what calendar software would you say is elegant?
Kieron said 3:20PM on 7-14-2009
Since subscribing to three calendars via icalx my iPhone 3G (3.0 s/w) has slowed to a crawl and I've seen springboard reboot several times. I've had to reduce the number of subscriptions to one ~ and even now it sometimes causes the phone to lock up.
I get the impression that every time I launch Calendar on the iPhone it attempts to re-download the entire file.
Reply
bryan.otis said 3:36PM on 7-14-2009
Lauren -
Nice article on ical subscriptions! We are BIG fans if ical subscriptions at Intand.
Imagine subscribing to your school's Drama Club ical feed, or the JV Basketball ical feed in your digital calendar. Anytime that the events are updated by the school, your digital calendar is automatically updated.
This is what Tandem for Schools does... and its running at school districts in over 41 states!
Further, if you are a parent of multiple students, subscribing to the ical feeds of the events they are involved in make it really easy to see when you can have family dinner together! Tandem can do this too!
Check it out at www.intand.com
Love the TUAW blog... we check it everyday!
Bryan Otis
President / Co-Founder
Intand.com
bryan.otis@intand.com
Reply
YodaMac said 3:55PM on 7-14-2009
Thanks for the links. I only knew of Apple's page for subscriptions and it seems to be fairly "dated" (he he) as well.
But it's nice to know I might be able to find other sources out there... if I can find em.
:)
Reply
grantcrockford said 4:06PM on 7-14-2009
One of the best calendars i've found is
webcal://www.tv-kalendern.se/calendar.ics
US TV shows! a handy & searchable reminder to 'tune in' (via .torrent if you know what i mean...)
also
webcal://icalx.com/public/actiontill/Till's%20F1%202008%20Calendar.ics
for Formula 1 info
anyone got any more suggestions?
Reply
marc cardwell said 5:00PM on 7-14-2009
i've been publishing my cals at icalx.com for years. i subscribe to my home mac's cals on my work mac, and sub to my work cals on my home mac. this works for me and i don't care about the lack of security.
AFAIK, the only way to get cal updates on my touch (os 3.0) is synch via the usb cable, is that correct? or is there a wireless way?
Reply
Grant said 11:18AM on 7-15-2009
I have an iPod Touch with 3.0 and as far as I can tell, the Calendar application works exactly like the iPhone's Calendar application, when you're connected to wi-fi. I use CalDAV to subscribe to my Google Calendars on my iPod Touch and in iCal on my Mac, so my calendars are always in sync without having to use the USB cable - but of course, my iPod Touch calendars only update themselves when I'm on a wifi network (so anytime I'm home.)
Tripp said 5:23PM on 7-14-2009
I found out last week that you can subscribe to iCal's directly from the iPhone. Just navigate to apples ical's on the iPhone and hit the subscribe button.
Reply
justbn said 5:46PM on 7-14-2009
Until iCal can support some reasonable reminder snooze options, it will continue to be anything but "elegant".
What is going to happen when Snow Leopard arrives with Exchange capability and there are just these few ludicrous snooze options? Guess what, Apple's foray into Exchange compatibility will be laughed out the door.
Reply
Darren said 8:01PM on 7-14-2009
My favorite use of ical subscriptions is with tripit - my calendar always has all of my flight, rental car, and hotel info right on the appropriate day and time. Best part is my wife can subscribe to the same feed and get it on her calendar as well.
Best thing that ever happened for my business travel...
Reply
John said 9:06PM on 7-14-2009
Chris,
Perhaps you could point me to a set of instructions that will enable my wife and I to share/subscribe to each other's calendar without publishing. How have you accomplished this? I have heard of no one else who has been able to do this without using a third party app or other work around.
In everything I have read, in order to share my calendar with my wife, I must first publish my calendar and then send her the link. The reason this is unsecure is that anyone who gets this link can also subscribe to my calendar. iCal has no way for me to control who can subscribe nor inform me who is subscribing to my calendar. That is what is unsecure about sharing calendars in iCal.
As far as an example of elegant calendar software, I think the Google Calendar is the closest thing out there that would fit that description.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Reply
marc said 9:47PM on 7-14-2009
john, unless you're doing top-secret work, like spying or what not, don't worry. are you _that_ concerned some one _might_ know about a lunch date or a doc appt?
if you ARE a spy or something, you don't have to "send her the link," you could TELL her the link at breakfast or on the phone while you guys are at work. even the public cals i have on icalx have a password.
for back and forth editing, you could publish a cal she subs to and she could you could sub to her cal.
Le Big Mac said 10:35PM on 7-14-2009
Yes -- in google, using one account create a calendar. Then share it with wife and give full privileges. Then each subscribe to that calendar in iCal using the google instructions. You can both read/write. It's secure on google.
If all you want to do is share info then google offers a secure link.
jennyp said 10:53AM on 7-15-2009
I have a MobileMe (single user) subscription and I like the way my iPhone Calendar syncs with my laptop's desktop iCal.
But I'd also like to have one calendar (ie, in iCal) that I can share with my friend, so that both of us can read it and edit it, on our laptops and our iPhones.
I realize that if I publish a calendar to MobileMe in iCal, she can view it on her desktop and her iPhone, but she can't edit it.
How is it done?
Reply
Grant said 11:22AM on 7-15-2009
Create a calendar on Google Calendar and you and your friend can both subscribe to it using CalDAV (on your iPhones and your computers). CalDAV will allow two-way reading and writing of calendars for both of you. I think that would do the trick.
jennyp said 11:35AM on 7-15-2009
I have a MobileMe (single user) subscription and I like the way my iPhone Calendar syncs with my laptop's desktop iCal.
But I'd also like to have one calendar (ie, in iCal) that I can share with my friend, so that both of us can read it and edit it, on our laptops and our iPhones.
I realize that if I publish a calendar to MobileMe in iCal, she can view it on her desktop and her iPhone, but she can't edit it.
How is it done?
Reply