Google now features access via CalDAV -- please test!

[Philipp Kewisch]

Hello Fans!

This may not be new to some of you, but Google now provides access to
their Calendars via CalDAV, see [1]. CalDAV is an open source
Calendaring Protocol that is based on the more generic web storage
protocol WebDAV. It has many calendar specific options that allow
getting events in a certain range and many more features.

Google has implemented this protocol now for Google Calendars. While
not every aspect of CalDAV is implemented yet, they are doing their
best to make support more complete.

My ultimate Goal is to focus more on fixing the CalDAV Provider of
Mozilla Sunbird/Lightning but this requires that everything that can
currently be done with the Provider for Google Calendar can also be
done when accessing your calendar via CalDAV. To achieve this goal, I
would appreciate if you could test all calendar features using the
CalDAV protocol. A guide how to set up your application to use this
protocol can be found at [2].

Please use this thread only to report problems that work with the
Provider but don't work with CalDAV, if you have problems accessing
your calendar as a whole, please open a different thread.



[1] http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/07/google-calendar-now-caldav-enabled.html
[2] http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#sunbird

[Michael Dunlap]

My brief shakedown of CalDAV from this morning turns up the following:

Alarms don't work, but that's a known issue.

Also, I had problems moving events from one calendar to another - the
error was generic, no text. This worked fine with Provider.

The Category setting seems to be settable, but not to "None."

Otherwise, it seems to work very nicely.

Michael

[Philipp Kewisch]

> Alarms don't work, but that's a known issue.

Since Google CalDAV issue 25 is fixed, this should not be a problem.
What is not working for you?

> Also, I had problems moving events from one calendar to another - the
> error was generic, no text.  This worked fine with Provider.

I could not reproduce this reliably. I had this once that the caldav
event remained in the view but was deleted on the server, and the new
event on the target calendar was created, but I had no error at all
there until I tried to delete the non-existing event on the caldav
server. Do you have specific steps to reproduce here?

> The Category setting seems to be settable, but not to "None."

I've reproduced this and reported Google CalDAV issue 33.

> Otherwise, it seems to work very nicely.

Thanks for testing!

http://code.google.com/p/google-caldav-issues/issues/detail?id=25
http://code.google.com/p/google-caldav-issues/issues/detail?id=33

[Peter Lairo]

I've just figured this out and am posting here in hope it's useful.
Unfortunately, Google doesn't provide these instructions in ONE
convenient location (hint hint).

To set up your Google calendars in Lightning using CalDAV:

1. Go to your online Google Calendar, select "Settings / Calendars /
Share This Calendar", then enter the Google Mail e-mail address of the
person you want to share your calendar with (I think they must also
have a Google Calendar account).

2. Create a new "network" calendar in Mozilla Calendar, select
"CalDAV", Location = https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/CALENDAR-ID/events
(the ID includes the @gmail.com). Google's Calendar ID is shown here:
http://www.google.com/calendar/render then: Settings / Calendars /
click on the calendar's name / scroll down to "Calendar Address". (NB:
When a user has multiple shared Google calendars, Google will assign
each calendar a new "Calendar ID". The calendar ID of the *first*
calendar you create is always YourGM...@gmail.com).

3. When signing-in to any shared calendar from Mozilla calendar, use
YOUR Google username. In the dialog, use your FULL Google e-mail
address (incl. @...).

4. If you don't have write access to the shared calendar (from step
1), go to the "Properties" of the Mozilla Calendar (by double-clicking
on the calendar) and select "Read Only".

Full instructions here: http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#sunbird

NOTE: If you are referring to an account created in Germany, you must
use @GoogleMail.com and not @GMail.com.

[Peter Lairo]

BUG: It seems when I snooze or dismiss an alarm in Mozilla Lightning,
the alarm is not snoozed/canceled on the Google calendar server!? When
I log into my calendars using Lightning on another PC, the alarms
appear again.

I'm not entirely sure this is the case. It's one of those "IIRC"s.

> [1]http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/07/google-calendar-now-c...
> [2]http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#sun...

[mark.t.kennedy]

do you know the magic formula for a group calendar? i successfully
added my personal calendar to a sunbird v0.9 instance using CalDAV.
but i could not find how to specify the Calendar ID of a "group" or
shared calendar that i had created. thoughts?

/mark

[Michael Dunlap]

Under the Calendar Address section on google calendar, you see something
like:

Calendar ID: m07s83od3sr...@group.calendar.google.com

That's what you use in the location field for the new calendar....so the
location looks something like this:

https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/m07s83od3sr...@group.calendar.google.com/events

Hope that helps,
Michael

[mark.t.kennedy]

i'm blind. thanks. it worked perfectly (and was simple to
boot :-). /mark

On Jan 2, 1:57 pm, Michael Dunlap <lanfae...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Under the Calendar Address section on google calendar, you see something
> like:
>

> Calendar ID: m07s83od3srefp7hthiq...@group.calendar.google.com

>
> That's what you use in the location field for the new calendar....so the
> location looks something like this:
>

> https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/m07s83od3srefp7hthiq...@group.calendar.google.com/events

[lime...@verizon.net]

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Dunlap <lanf...@gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:57:29
To: <provider-for-g...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: How to set-up a CalDAV Google Calendar in Mozilla Calendar /
Lightning

[kism...@googlemail.com]

I’ve been using lightning and thunderbird for a long time to sync my
google calendar. Just recently I moved over to a “google apps” email
and calendar and I can no longer get the provider to work with my
calendar.

I’ve been using the CalDav method and I’ve been entering my domain
email address and password into the string but it won’t connect. It
specifically mentions using a google apps account with caldav so is
this a problem with the provider?

[niels...@googlemail.com]

I seem to get the yellow "warning sign" when I connect to the caldav
system (The calendar xxx is momentarily not available). It took me a
while to get it to sync, but now I can make changes that display on
the google calendar; which are not reflected on the local calendar.
Haven't a clue what is going on!
Niels

[Peter Lairo]

I think the the Google "Contacts' birthdays and events" calendar doesn't work with Lightning via CalDAV in Thunderbird 3.1.8. It does seem to work in Thunderbird/Lightning trunk builds.

Instructions: http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99358#sunbird

[David Flory]

Has the CalDAV interface replaced Provider for Google Calendar? Which
is under active development?

[Pitchiah Natarajan]

Hi 

Is it possible to integrate my plugin inside Google Calendar usin CalDAV?

Thanks