Internet based shared calendar, ideally on Google, like a public folder.

AbRASiON

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
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Anyone know how I can recreate something like this but on an internet calendar service (google is highly preferable)
http://i.imgur.com/AV8Xy.jpg

Likely to be switching to Google Apps (free, not paid) soon as IMAP appears to be sufficient for this small business needs.
However users would lose access to the Exchange based Calendar which is shared for multiple users.

I see that within the Google / Gmail calendar interface http://calendar.google.com/ it allows you to access other users calendars on the same domain, however this is google / web based and not inside their Outlook client. I could make a generic mailbox called "Public Calendar" (public.calendar@domain.com) I'm fine with that but I do not know how to manually open that from within Outlook 2010.


Has anyone dealt with something similar to this before? It seems to me that Outlook 2010 appears to only support ICAL based public calendars, is this the only / best solutions?

Thoughts from the experts would be appreciated. Want this for about 35 users world wide in the long run.


Thank you.
 

AFurryReptile

Golden Member
Nov 5, 2006
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If you want to use Outlook, you have to use Exchange for that functionality. Google's Apps are good, but they don't hold a candle to Exchange for business. And from what I can tell, IMAP will never come as far Exchange, simply because the IMAP protocol isn't robust enough to support that.

Have you thought about a hosted Exchange solution? For like $25 bucks/month/mailbox, you can get it through GoDaddy. Probably cheaper elsewhere.
 

AbRASiON

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
861
4
81
If you want to use Outlook, you have to use Exchange for that functionality. Google's Apps are good, but they don't hold a candle to Exchange for business. And from what I can tell, IMAP will never come as far Exchange, simply because the IMAP protocol isn't robust enough to support that.

Have you thought about a hosted Exchange solution? For like $25 bucks/month/mailbox, you can get it through GoDaddy. Probably cheaper elsewhere.



It's a small business with a very tight budget, also I don't want to deal with exchange anymore.

I realise IMAP is definitely limited but Google themselves support an exchange emulation with Google Apps premium (to my knowledge) that's still more than I'm willing to spend at this point in time.

I was hoping some of this ICAL stuff might do the trick but it all appears to be read only based.

I also logged in to gmail calendar on the web and setup the sharing, it's also not ideal to be honest. Each user really needs to all login as the actual 'person' to put entries in easily. I don't know how google would deal with up to 34 people using the same account.
 
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AFurryReptile

Golden Member
Nov 5, 2006
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It's a small business with a very tight budget, also I don't want to deal with exchange anymore.

I realise IMAP is definitely limited but Google themselves support an exchange emulation with Google Apps premium (to my knowledge) that's still more than I'm willing to spend at this point in time.

I was hoping some of this ICAL stuff might do the trick but it all appears to be read only based.

I also logged in to gmail calendar on the web and setup the sharing, it's also not ideal to be honest. Each user really needs to all login as the actual 'person' to put entries in easily. I don't know how google would deal with up to 34 people using the same account.

Google's Outlook integrations sucks, frankly. I've worked with several clients and all of them have had issues with the syncing. Their webmail and Outlook get out of sync, and email ends up getting deleted, folders go missing, etc. I wouldn't recommend Google Apps unless you're going to use it exclusively out of webmail.
 

AbRASiON

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
861
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I've been doing extensive testing and from what I've seen, definitely nothing goes missing. You just need to know the limitations of the system and how to wrk around them (example, the same email coming up as 'flagged todo' in multiple folders) because of the way google handles this stuff.

However for the most part, email only is definitely reliable enough for these end users.

If I REALLY have to, I can look at a non google or non gmail / non outlook solution. I just need some kind of easily shared calendar for 30 people across the world.
 

AFurryReptile

Golden Member
Nov 5, 2006
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If you really want to keep on a budget, have your users learn to use the Google Apps web gui. It can do the scheduling like you are looking for.

However I still think a hosted Exchange is what you need. For $4/user/month you can get it directly through Microsoft. I just set this up for my boss' personal email, and to the end user, it is exactly like regular Exchange.
 

AbRASiON

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
861
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I really, really don't want to go near exchange ever again.
I'm almost positive Google has the functionality I want, it's just getting it to work seamlessly for 'dummy users'

If they all have the user/password of "public.calendar@domain.com" (hosted at google) it's surprisingly usable - but it's not going to appear in Outlook :/ The whole ical / remote cal thing in Outlook appears to be read only! :/
 

AbRASiON

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
861
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I have PARTIALLY replicated the functionality I want (see here) http://i.imgur.com/VSYgH.jpg by creating a user on the Google Apps domain called "Public Calendar" my issue is the terrible user interface on the Google Calendar for editing OTHER peoples calendars!

I can easily view, add the public calendar as any user, the problem is when I go to create a calendar entry, despite unticking my own, personal calendar at the top and ONLY ticking the public one, it still adds entries to mine. I really need this seamless for users.
What I haven't made clear is the functionality I'm after isn't just a shared calendar - or rather, the terminology should be same as a shared calendar on a Public Folder (same as how Exchange does it)

That screenshot I've posted really should nail home what I'm after here (I just want multiple users to have access ot this thing) - I really would prefer Outlook to do it but if they HAVE to log in to a web page so be it. That being said I'd also rather they could log in as themselves and edit it and not have to all have the password for the 'special Public.Calendar@domain" account - it just seeems a bit backwards. I'm sure there's a solution to this prolbem and I simply don't know how to find it.


Thanks for your time by the way, appreciated.
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
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Do you have to use outlook? I've found that Thunderbird works much better with google apps if you can't or aren't willing pony up for google's exchange connector.
 

AbRASiON

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
861
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Outlook is an exceptional mail client and these users are,... not fully tech savvy. They have 10 years of Outlook experience.
They also have thousands of emails and hundreds of folders, so Outlook seems the best option for them (I've donesome testing and got it working quite well, except for the internet calendar aspect)
 

jhansman

Platinum Member
Feb 5, 2004
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Outlook is an exceptional mail client and these users are,... not fully tech savvy.

Amen. I work with (and train) people who "hate Outlook" and not a one of them really knows how to use it. Seems like a built-in anti MS thing. Google Calendar is OK, but I too am waiting for someone to build a better online, shared calendar. One day...
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
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So what's your solution/work around so far?

IME, Outlook 2010 can subscribe to internet calendars just fine, but can't modify them. Google's Calendar Sync App didn't allow for multiple accounts/calendars last I knew...and I always thought it was a buggy POS anyway.

IIRC, there are (probably paid) outlook add-ins that should do it.
 

AbRASiON

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
861
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Sounds like you know your stuff.
I'm thinking the final solution is going to be users editing via web and subscribing to a read only view of the database in Outlook.
Kind of sad that in 2012 Outlook can't edit an internet calendar remotely. Then again this could be just as much Googles fault, I don't know - seems backwards