Re: Status google calendar sync

[Mark Elston <m_elston@comcast.net>]

On 1/29/2011 12:44 PM, Greg Troxel wrote:
>
> Mark Elston<m_elston@comcast.net>  writes:
>
>    [google calendar]
>
>> I wasn't all that keen on it at first but I really got to like it when
>> I was able to update my calendar from my phone or my laptop or my
>> desktop at work and all three would see it.
>>
>> When I found I could create multiple calendars and share *some* of them
>> I really started to enjoy the idea of a central server for my calendar
>> data.
>
> You are blurring having a calendar server and being forced into sharing
> your data with google because of using non-free software that is
> crippled by not being able to set the server URL.

I pointed out in a different thread that the software I use doesn't
*require* syncing with google, but can work very nicely as an offline
calendar.  I use the google server for the reasons I gave.

>> ...
>
> org syncing with a calendar server makes a lot of sense to me, but again
> that's separate from a "the only usable calendar server is google".
>

That wasn't my intent.  I use google since it is convenient and
available everywhere I have a network connection (or 3G with my
phone).  If another service came along that fit my needs as well or
better I would certainly take a look at it.

>
> I think the only tricky part is somehow push UUIDs during scyning, and
> then you'll need an operation to merge an org event and an ical event
> with different UUIDs and remember the foreign UUID for the next sync.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I have never made use of any .ical/.ics files so this hasn't been an
issue for me.  The only UUIDs I am dealing with are google calendar's
own internal UUIDs.  I don't know how they compare with other UUIDs.
What I am working on now is a python script to initialize some of the
info I have in my org files with info from google (including the google
UUID).  Most of this will go into a property drawer.  This drawer can
certainly be expanded to contain additional data from other tools as
necessary.

What I would like is to be able to shuffle my schedule in org as it is
often a more convenient interface for this than *any* calendar I have
used for the kinds of things I have to do.  Once I get the dates/times
for individual events the way I want them I would then push them to
google (or wherever).  My notes and other useful data stay in org.

That is what I will be working on as I have the time.

Mark