Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

[woodsmoke]

Hi
this is an observation and a question.

i had not actually "gone" to the Google Calendar site for a month or so because I was doing everything on Kontact and or the Android phone.

I went there today, while fiddling with Akonadi and Imap calendar in Akonadi on Precise and found that I could not "view" the calendar in a "calendar" format.

It is, instead, a vertical listing of things I have entered in the calendar.

And, curiously, I can enter "school starts tomorrow 8am" and promptly, the item appears in the list as: "school starts 8am". And it is on the correct day in the list.

a) has anyone else seen this?
b) it may, or may not, affect how the devs for Kontact have to interact with Gcalendar for Kontact calendar, I cannot seem to get it set up on Precise(which I think probably has nothing to do with it, I just haven't tried the calendar function on Oneric lately).

So..comments?

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

Imap calendar

Minor correction, if I may... IMAP is a mail user agent protocol only. Calendars don't use IMAP.

I could not "view" the calendar in a "calendar" format. It is, instead, a vertical listing of things I have entered in the calendar.

You don't see this in your web browser while on the calendar page?



Month view and agenda view work for me as expected. "Agenda" view appears much like what you're describing.

I can enter "school starts tomorrow 8am" and promptly, the item appears in the list as: "school starts 8am". And it is on the correct day in the list.

Neat function; Google converts human-style entries into normal calendar data so I wouldn't expect any interoperability problems with this.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

I'll check it, I was getting stoopid fiddling with this stuff.

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

Ok this is just plain weird.

When i "just click" the calendar box when I am in google mail I get the "list"

When I go to the gear at top right and settings and then to calendar I get settings in calendar, I click "month" and "go back to calendar" and I see the normal calendar.

however, if I go BACK to mail and then click the "calendar" button at top...I see the list....

hmmmm

woodsmoke

[kubicle]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

Imap calendar

Minor correction, if I may... IMAP is a mail user agent protocol only. Calendars don't use IMAP.

That's not 100% true, as imap can be used for calendar data (I store my contacts, tasks and calendar on a normal imap server...using the kolab agent in akonadi to access the data...the data is stored in subfolders on the imap server).

You're probably right that Google Calendar cannot be accessed through imap, though (I don't know for sure since I don't use it...one could use a google imap account to set up an "imap calendar", but it wouldn't be accessible with the web interface).

[SteveRiley]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

That's not 100% true, as imap can be used for calendar data (I store my contacts, tasks and calendar on a normal imap server...using the kolab agent in akonadi to access the data...the data is stored in subfolders on the imap server).

Well well... that's a very interesting idea, using IMAP as a general-purpose information store. It's certainly non-standard, but given the horrendous mess that is CalDAV and its semi-compatible derivatives, I can see merit in Kolab's approach.

You're probably right that Google Calendar cannot be accessed through imap, though (I don't know for sure since I don't use it...one could use a google imap account to set up an "imap calendar", but it wouldn't be accessible with the web interface).

Google exposes a mostly-complete CalDAV interface.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

interesting comments both of you.

I tried to use the Kolab thing but couldn't get it either set up correctly or something.

Would you care to give a general rundown of whether I, or someone else, could set it up on say our own system and use it there?

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

woodsmoke, you'll have to return to the old CalDAV method, it seems.

kubicle, are you using Kolab for calendaring on Gmail's IMAP, or on some other IMAP server? I'd be really surprised if Kolab works on Gmail, since even their IMAP is incomplete.

[kubicle]

Re: Google calendar new format. Akonadi?

kubicle, are you using Kolab for calendaring on Gmail's IMAP, or on some other IMAP server?

I'm not using Google's imap (the primary reason I'm using kolab/imap is that I'm rather cautious of what information I give Google to chew on). If I'd use google calendar, then I'd probably go with their dav interface for simplicity (having the web interface available for the calendar is a plus).

I'd be really surprised if Kolab works on Gmail, since even their IMAP is incomplete.

Kolab doesn't require anything special on the server side, but as you said google seems to do some things differently, so I don't really know.

I can see merit in Kolab's approach.

It's not perfect by any means, but I do like the idea of single storage and the ability to handle contacts,tasks and calendar with the same solution (most online calendar services have trouble with at least one of those).