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selowitch · 10:26 AM

The Open Source Applications Foundation offers free Chandler Hub accounts intended primarily to service folks using Chandler Desktop. But since it uses the CalDAV standard, I wonder if it would work as an alternative to Dot-Mac, allowing multiple users to sync iCal 3.0 for free?

As an aside, I would consider using Chandler itself if it had a month view and if it had contacts and e-mail (those features are planned but not currently implemented). That and Apple's software seems much more polished at this point.

besson3c · Oct 26, 2007, 10:27 AM

I've looked at Chandler, but was not impressed with the Mac client...

Why not run Apple's Calendar Server on your machine along with iCal? You do know that Calendar Server is open source and freely available to install, right?

selowitch · 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Why not run Apple's Calendar Server on your machine along with iCal? You do know that Calendar Server is open source and freely available to install, right?

Actually, I either didn't know or had forgotten!

Do you mean Darwin Calendar Server? Isn't that for OS X Server only? I only have the client version.

Worth considering, certainly. I would have to weigh the benefit of seamless compatibility with the consumption of resources by ACS -- would it be better to let Chandler Hub handle the server load vs. my own machine.

Interesting....

I guess then ACS is a decent alternative to .Mac for those willing to set up ACS and who don't necessarily need .Mac's non-calendar features. Of course, it would be great to be able to sync my contacts, too --- can Leopard do that out-of-the-box?

I agree that Chandler sounds promising but its development has been awfully slow and it's not very polished/stable (esp. not the client) as of now. Too bad.

besson3c · Oct 26, 2007, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by selowitch

Actually, I either didn't know or had forgotten! Worth considering, certainly. I would have to weigh the benefit of seamless compatibility with the consumption of resources by ACS -- would it be better to let Chandler Hub handle the server load vs. my own machine.

Interesting....

I guess then ACS is a decent alternative to .Mac for those willing to set up ACS and who don't necessarily need .Mac's non-calendar features. Of course, it would be great to be able to sync my contacts, too --- can Leopard do that out-of-the-box?

I agree that Chandler sounds promising but its development has been awfully slow and it's not very polished/stable (esp. not the client) as of now. Too bad.

How many users would be accessing your calendar? Just about any Mac you have should handle a handful of users accessing the calendars randomly. AFAIK, connects to ACS are stateless (i.e. connections aren't held open), so it shouldn't be too bad in the resource consumption department. Where these Groupware products really become an issue in terms of resource allocation is scaling to a much larger group of users.

ACS should be quite easy to install on your Mac, but I also have it running on FreeBSD and I've had it running under Ubuntu too.

selowitch · Oct 26, 2007, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

How many users would be accessing your calendar?

Very few. Just myself and my wife (and maybe our son). Each of us has an account on each of two Macs in the house --- that's it. So the maximum load at any one time would be two users (sometimes it would be me in both places b/c I hop from machine to machine).

But will this work without the Server version of Mac OS X?

besson3c · Oct 26, 2007, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by selowitch

Very few. Just myself and my wife (and maybe our son). Each of us has an account on each of two Macs in the house --- that's it. So the maximum load at any one time would be two users (sometimes it would be me in both places b/c I hop from machine to machine).

But will this work without the Server version of Mac OS X?

Sure! Like I said, I've run it on both Ubuntu and FreeBSD. People on the mailing list have installed it on other OSes too - Gentoo, etc.

IIRC, the calendar server is written in Python, so it will run on any Unix system that supports Python (I'm not sure if Python is available for Windows). The hardest part under these different OSes was getting the prerequisites installed, but the run script tries to automatically download and install these for you as necessary, and for the prereqs it barfs on (if any), you can install these using the package manager provided by the OS you are on (Macports on the Mac is one). I've been running a much older developer build on FreeBSD, so I'm certain that the install process has been smoothed out a great deal since I was last playing with it. In a few days when I have time I will install the final and test it out with Leopard's iCal.

I seem to recall hearing on the list that OS X already has these prereqs anyway... Why not download and install it on your OS X Client machine to test it? The install attempt will literally as simple as invoking the "run" script included which will automatically install everything for you (or try to). If it works as advertised, you'll be up and running in no time!

The number of users accessing your calendars is obviously trivial here. You should be fine with probably any hardware you have.

besson3c · Oct 26, 2007, 03:44 PM

This message was just sent to the list regarding ACS and DCS:

I have just finished tagging CalendarServer-1.0:

http://svn.calendarserver.org/reposi...darServer-1.0/

…which is our first release for the project.

I also removed the 1.0 branch and started a 1.1 branch:

http://svn.calendarserver.org/reposi...erver-1.1-dev/

With the release of Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) today, there will finally be a widespread CalDAV client out in the wild that can talk to our CalDAV server. We hope everyone finds this to be a useful and productive combination.

Leopard Server will also ship today with roughly the same code as tagged 1.0 above. The differences are all related to the build tools, not code.

Work on version 2.0 will continue on trunk. 1.1 and other 1.x updates will contain conservative fixes, so that we can maintain compatibility with clients with work with version 1.0 and server users can rely on stability.

We invite feedback and participation through these mailing lists. I apologize for the lack of responsiveness over the past couple of months as we geared up for this release. We'll try to get better about that over time, ideally by building up enough community participation that when the Apple folks hunker down, there are other people able and willing to chime in, answer questions, and get things done.

besson3c · Oct 26, 2007, 03:47 PM

To check out the source code for 1.0, using your Subversion client:

Code:
svn co http://svn.calendarserver.org/repository/calendarserver/CalendarServer/tags/release/CalendarServer-1.0

kepardue · Oct 28, 2007, 10:55 PM

Was there a general consensus as to whether or not Chandler Hub would work as an iCal 3.0 CalDav server? I'd love to be able to have the ability to manage my task list/ calendars from both work and home, but I don't want to go through the hassle or expense of setting up my own CalDAV server. If there's a free/low cost hosted CalDAV solution out there that would enable me to seamlessly work with calendar and tasks on iCal/OS X and Lightning/Windows, I'd certainly love to see it.

besson3c · Oct 28, 2007, 10:57 PM

Would you guys be willing to pay me to host your calendars?