RemoteCalendars Help & FAQ

What are the System Requirements?
Some tutorials
I've installed the new version, but it doesn't load anything. Why?
How do I subscribe an iCalendar? It doesn't happen anything when I click on the link!!
What is RemoteCalendars *.*-.NET-1.1?
Which servers/services work with RC?
How do I set an Apache server to serve iCalendar files?
Will you do the publishing?
What kind of iCalendars is possible to subscribe?

What are the System Requirements?

The System Requirements are:

The .NET Framework version 2.0 from RC 4.2
(I'm using the version 1.1)
. However, I'm keeping updated the installer for the users who cannot change their framework (it doesn't seem to work on every Windows, and some people have got RC for .NET 1.1 working, and RC for .NET 2 not...)
The Visual Studio Tools for Office Redistributable: you can download it here
Windows XP (Today, 23/01/2006, I received an email from Shawn K. Hall: he told me that RC works fine also under Windows 2000 Pro and Server :)) Another user in the forum wrote me that RC works under Windows Server 2003, and I've received another email which told me about a successfully working RC under Windows 2000 ;)
Microsoft Outlook 2003 (Never tried it on Outlook 2002, but I don't think it will work)

Some Tutorials

I've installed the new version, but it doesn't load anything. Why?

Probably, you haven't the PIA (Primary Interoperability Assembly) of Outlook installed in your .NET framework (maybe you installed it after Office, or it wasn't well registered). You should download the last version of the PIA and install it (double click to extract the executable file and then run it).

Another possible problem: you may have install it for "Every person who logs on your computer". RemoteCalendars has been developed with the "Just me" option as default, and it didn't work with the admin one...but:

Admin install is now possible from the version 2.6
If it doesn't work yet, could you post a message into the Project forum? I read the forum every day (almost) and I'll try to solve every problem :) ^

How do I subscribe an iCalendar? It doesn't happen anything when I click on the link!!

Unfortunately, RemoteCalendars doesn't work like iCal for Macintosh: in order to subscribe an iCalendar, you have to insert the link into the form that will be prompted when you click the button in the toolbar.
However, I've developed a new plugin, this time for Internet Explorer! This plugin will let you subscribe an iCalendar by right-clicking on the link in your Internet Explorer page! Try it now, here's the homepage for the Internet Explorer Extension for RemoteCalendars!^

What is RemoteCalendars .-.NET-1.1?

Unfortunately (don't ask me why, it's still a mistery...) a lot of people have problems with RC compiled against .NET framework 2 (the toolbar doesn't show up)...so I decided to keep updated the project builded with .NET framework 1.1...unfortunately, you cannot find all the same services.
The last version hasn't got:

publish via ftp
a smart unistaller
L&F like Outlook 2003/Windows XP

However, I would strongly suggest to pass to the VSTO version, which is more stable. ^

Which servers/services work with RC?

From the feedbacks I received from the forum:

Google Calendar. I STRONGLY suggest to follow the Grinn Productions Guide, which is really beautiful :). Instead, for publishing from Outlook to Google Calendar, you just need to check "It's a Google Calendar Url" when publishing, and you're (almost) done (just waiting for better Google API). Remember to read the README.txt in the .zip file! If you:
1. Subscribe you Google iCalendar in a folder, by checking "It's my Google Calendar and I want to sync both ways"
2. Choose to publish to the Google Calendar (a correct url for publishing is http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/<your gmail account>/private/full ) both the folder you subscribed your iCalendar and the Google Calendar you subscribed
And you' ll have a 2-way sync between Outlook and Google Calendar!!
iCalx
1. Example of a subscribing link: "webcal://icalx.com/public/YOURNAME/public.ics"
2. Example of a publishing url: "http://icalx.com/public/YOURNAME/public.ics". You can change the word "public" with "private", and then your iCalendar will be published in a private folder
Remember the Milk (You cannot publish in this site)
1. Example of a subscribing link:
  "webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/YOURNAME/NUMBEROFYOURICALENDAR/"
2. Example of a publishing url: Not Available at the moment
30Boxes (It doesn't seem possible to publish at the moment)
1. To retrieve the subscribing url: Go to "Your Settings" (where Your is Yoir log-name) and then "Syndacation": you'll find the iCal feedyou need to use with RC
2. Example of a publishing url: Not Available at the moment
iFreeBusy.com. In this site you can publish/subscribe your iCalendars using as interface phpiCalendar, the same one used by iCalx. You can also publish free/busy information (I didn't know this was possible into Outlook! :))
1. Example of a subscribing link: "http://www.ifreebusy.com/<username>/<filename>"
2. Example of a publishing url: "http://www.ifreebusy.com/<username>/<filename>"
Achievo. I don't know much about this program, but their report confirms the support for/with RC
Some WebDAV servers, but I don't which servers...and RC still needs a more stable support for the WebDAV standard
Every server which return a file with mime type "text/calendar" should work with RC

Please email me or write in the forum for each service you find that work or don't :) ^

How do I set an Apache server to serve iCalendar files?

This answer is available in the forum at this link. It's quite simple...you just need to:

If your Apache configuration allows it (if AllowOverride is enabled in httpd.conf), create a .htaccess file in the same directory as your ics file with a single line in it:
AddType text/calendar .ics
Add the same AddType line above to the httpd.conf file for Apache

Will you do the publishing?

Actually, I'm pretty busy on getting my degree in Advanced Computer Engineering, but I hope to keep every day an eye over RemoteCalendars...about the publishing, a first version is already in my mind, and almost coded: I had already developed a library to build an iCalendar from an object model, I've to study only how to publish it...Fortunately, now I'm not alone anymore, we are three developers ;)

With RemoteCalendars version 4.0 a first version for publishing the Outlook Calendar and the Outlook TaskList as an iCalendar is available! :D ^

What kind of iCalendars is possible to subscribe

At the moment, with the last version (5.82), it's possible:

To subscribe an iCalendar over http://
To subscribe an iCalendar over webcal:// (just copy and paste the link)
To subscribe an iCalendar over file://
To subscribe an iCalendar over simple HTTP and HTTPS authorization. Your login is crypted and stored now
To subscribe a generic iCalendar which has VEVENT and VTODO components. The VEVENT components will be loaded as AppointmentItems into Outlook's Calendar, the VTODO components will be loaded as TaskItems into Outlook's Tasks.
To set a proxy if the connection through Internet is behind a proxy
To assign a color to the calendars! In order to do this, you have to use this guide:
1. Right click on any AppointmentItem or click the button "Calendars Color" into the Calendar toolbar
2. Add a rule, name it and select the label you would like to apply
3. Next, click on "Condition" button to set the condition you would like to have met (in this case, that th appointment be of a certain category
4. Click on "More choice" and then "Categories" to select the category that would trigger the formatting (you can create your own category!)
Then, when you subscribe or reload a calendar you have only to choose that category when subscribing or reloading by using the button in the form "Add/Change the category of this calendar" :)
If you find any problem because you had a previuos version of RC installed:
1. Reinstall that version
2. Remove all the calendars
3. Install the new version
To publish the Outlook Calendar and the Outlook TaskList as an iCalendar using http and ftp
To mark an iCalendar as private
To subscribe an iCalendar into a Outlook folder different from the default one
To subscribe an iCalendar with a connection behind a simple proxy/proxy with authentication
To publish & subscribe your same iCalendar! This is quite useful when you have to share your iCalendar and grant access to other person both for read/write functions! Here is described how to correctly do it:
1. First of all, if your iCalendar isn't online yet, make a new folder (or use the default one)
2. Add the appointments that you need and then publish
3. After that, you can subscribe your same iCalendar. Be careful to use the same exact url and the same exact folder you used...to see the difference, try to add a label
4. Then, you can add other appointments, but be careful to publish BOTH the calendar subscribed and the folder to the same url (this means: click on "Publish you iCalendar", and add as RemoteCalendars to publish the calendar you just subscribed)
That's all! Be careful to not publish to the same remote source two different remote iCalendars ;). You can publish through http://, https://, ftp:// and file://
To publish your iCalendar, and now your password is saved only for your Outlook work session!
To subscribe an iCalendar, even if your server doesn't serve it with the correct MIME type
To sync 2-way with Google Calendar (both primary and secondary calendars)
To subscribe iCalendars with different TimeZone (using Olson Database)

For every problem, please contact me throught the SourceForge WebSite Project Page :)