iCal/.ics vs CalDav Server

[Kelly Thomason]

Hello,

Is SabreDAV/CalDAV faster at syncing to platforms (specifically iOS) than .ics files?  Does it sync to Google Calendar, quickly?

I only need to post a feed of calendar events - no need for sync/2-way read/write.  Just read-only by the client.  .ics seems most simple.  However, in my tests, Google Calendar rarely updates (tons of posts on this) and neither does my iPhone.  Very disappointing.  If I use a CalDAV server, such as SabreDAV, will it sync faster with iOS?  It appears G Calendar doesn't support CalDAV, but I see SabreDAV has a backup .ics option - I assume this will still be slow.

Before I take the leap, I appreciate any feedback.

[Evert Pot]

Hi Kelly,

The speed of syncing is not really dependent on the server, but the client. Many clients allow you to change the syncing frequency.
Not sure about iOS though.

SabreDAV may be a faster server that google's (cardav server certainly is, not sure about caldav). But it's unlikely that clients sync more often when *not* on google.

Give it a shot though.

Evert

[Kelly Thomason]

Thanks Evert.

The people I want to share with use Google Calendar, and iOS.  I don't think either have syncing frequency settings, like a real or stand-alone client might.  Do you know if these two update faster via caldav than they do .ics files?

[Evert Pot]

Hey Kelly,

I would suggest to just test and see for yourself. Go to
https://fruux.com/ and sign up for a free account.
That website is powered by sabredav and should behave the same way.

Evert

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[Ingo Ratsdorf]

Hi Kelly,

I tried the subscribe "feature" in Google Calendars some years ago and it clearly did not work for calendars that update "frequently", ie say every few days or so.
At the time it was not quite clear as how often Google did update the subscription, there was no user defined setting.
From reports I gathered that it was very unreliable and rather targeted toward things like holiday calendars etc...

However what you are looking for - when the user is really only supposed to be in a read-only position - the subscribe feature would be what you want.
Google did not have much desire in the past to link up with anything that was not theirs - they have a business model running.
They have slightly adjusted:
https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/caldav/v2/guide

Their subscribe feature is buggy:
https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100?hl=en
Quote: "Note: It may take up to 8 hours for changes in ICS feeds to reflect in your Google Calendar.". In my experience it has been buggy and MUCH longer.


So for you, you can:
1) either set up your own SabreDAV server, set up calendars and users and access rights and give the calDAV url to people to sync with. However this will then be a read-only SYNC, meaning that you need a fully complient CalDAV client. This is very different to subscriptions.

2) Set up a separate google calendar and give users either
a) the ical subscription URL to it (after making this calendar public - everyone knowing the address can access it)
b) add all required users with their google accounts to the sharing list - incredible time consuming when you have many users - all users will need a google account for oauth to work.

3) Publish your events at certain intervals to a server. Give your team the URL to this ics file to subscribe to. Some read-only place for them that you can access for read/write, SFTP/FTP etc and they download with HTTP GET in read-only. Depending on your server access level, you could also setup a login-protected directory.

Cheers,
Ingo

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