Setting up Sunbird with icalx

As for 25th July 2005, we are not running a WebDAV service on DAMTP's web server.

Briefly: WebDAV stands for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning". It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers.

The reason we would want to use WebDAV is so that users can use the calendar program Sunbird with remotely stored calendar data files. You could store the data files on the local hard drive but as we know, pcs do go wrong and you could loose all you calendar entries if your pc suffered a failure. By using WebDAV, you can store your data files on a backed up server, it also allows you to view/edit any entries from other computers elsewhere in the world as long as they have the mechanism to read/write .ics files.

To work around the problem of DAMTP not running a WebDAV server, we need to use the services of a free remote server at http://icalx.com. You need to create an account yourself before carrying on any further, this is where your calendar file(s) will be stored. Once the account is setup, go to http://icalx.com and login. You will see that you have both a Private and a Public calendar. A public calendar is one that anyone can look at, a private calendar requires a username and password to read/edit it. If you only want to use Sunbird for your personal use, then I would always make your calendars in the Private calendar. If you want to share calendars with other people then you either make them in the Public calendar or you create them in the Private calendar and share the username and password.

How to create a calendar

Now that you've created an account on icalx.com, log into your icalx account and make a note of the http:// web address of your private or public calendar, e.g.

http://icalx.com/private/ce764/

You now need to go back to Sunbird and start your first account creation. Firstly you need to click on the 'Calendars' tab near the top left of the screen.

In Sunbird, right click in the calendar box and select 'New Calendar'.
Type in the name of your calendar, choose a colour and press ok.
Now create at least one calendar item in this new calendar.
Right click the new calendar name and choose 'Publish entire calendar'
Type in the http address of the icalx server plus the name of your calendar, e.g. http://icalx.com/private/ce764/chicken.ics, press publish.
Type in your username and password. Press close.
If you now go to www.icalx.com, log in and you'll see your new calendar listed under either public or private.
You now need to subscribe to the calendar in Sunbird. Do the first step again but this time give it a name and the icalx web address http://icalx.com/private/ce764/chicken.ics. Click the tick box to 'Automatically publish your changes to the remote calendar'. Press ok.
Now delete the original calendar (right click it, choose delete calendar and it's file).
Finished, you are now looking at an ics file held remotely

You don't need to have Sunbird installed to view the calendar file just created. If you use another calendar program that understands .ics files then point that to the http:// address used above. You can also view (not edit!) your calendar in a web browser. If you log into your icalx account and look at the list of public/private calendars, you'll see there's a View - html link

Clicking on the html link will open the calendar in a web browser, the web address can then be found in the browsers title bar.

You can create as many calendar files as you need to but bewarned, it does take a little while for each one to be read in when using icalx.com as each one needs to be read over the network. Also large calendar file take a number of seconds to update when editing an entry, don't expect things to happen instantly. This delay should go away once we run out own WebDAV server, we'll see.