Using OwnCloud Calendar

The OwnCloud Calendar is exported as a standard CalDav server. For operating systems/applications that “know” CalDav, configuration is built in. For other operating systems/applications, a separate, CalDav aware plugin in normally needed.

Following are instructions for various operating systems/applications.

Gather information from Owncloud

First, you need the “link” or URL to the CalDav server. Open your account and do the following:

  1. Open Owncloud web interface and log in (https://simon.dailydata.net/owncloud)
  2. Upper left, next to Cloud image, change click Files and change to Calendar on the drop down window.
  3. On lower left, click the gearbox
  4. Below IOS/OS X CalDAV address, copy the address (looks like https://simon.dailydata.net/…). This is the link you need for all Apple products.
  5. For each calendar, click the “links” next to the calendar and save the address. These links are used for non-Apple products.

IOS/OS X

IOS and OS X are CalDav aware, so all we need do is configure it.

  1. Tap “Settings”
  2. Choose Mail, Contacts and Calendars
  3. Add Account
  4. Select Other
  5. Under Calendars, tap Add CalDAV Account
  6. Enter the IOS Caldav address from step #4 above
  7. Enter your username and password for the account in question
  8. Enter “OwnCloud Server” under Description (or anything else you want to make it distinctive).
  9. Tap Next
  10. Your calendar should show up after synchronization is complete.
  11. Note: If you add a new appointment, you must make sure to add it to the “Owncloud” calendar for it to be correctly synchronized.

Mozilla Lightning

Mozilla Lightning is CalDav aware, so all we need do is configure it. If you are adding more than one calendar, you will need to repeat the following for each URL you found in the top section, “Gather information from Owncloud”

  1. Select Calendar if you are using Lightning as a Thunderbird plugin.
  2. On left, you will see at least one calendar. Right click in any blank area and select “New Calendar” to add a calendar.
  3. Select On the Network for Create New Calendar, then click Next
  4. Under Locate your Calendar, choose CalDAV and enter the URL you got for the calendar from Owncloud. You may also choose to enable “Offline Support” meaning a copy of the calendar is kept on your computer and synchronized with Owncloud whenever a network connection is available. Click Next
  5. On the next screen “Customize your Calendar”, enter your chosen name for the calendar, select the Color for this calendar’s entries and enter your E-mail address, etc…. Click Next
  6. Click Finish. You should see your calendar appear shortly after the information is read from the server.

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook does not “know” about CalDav. It is set up to work with Microsoft Exchange Servers for the most part. However, Outlook CalDav Synchronizer is an open source project specifically designed to allow CalDav (and CardDav) servers to synchronize to your installation of Microsoft Outlook.

Note: We have had problems with Outlook CalDav Synchronizer where version 2.6.1 works just fine on older versions of Outlook, but the newest version will not. And visa-versa. If you are using an older version of Outlook and have problems, get version 2.6.1 and install it (after removing the previous version).

The instructions here are for v2.6.1 and Microsoft Outlook 2007. This interface is slightly different than later versions.

  1. Download Outlook CalDav Synchronizerr from https://sourceforge.net/projects/outlookcaldavsynchronizer/ and install as per the instructions at https://sourceforge.net/p/outlookcaldavsynchronizer/wiki/Home/. Since their instructions are much better than ours, we’ll give instructions for the older v2.6.1
  2. Click on the Synchronization Options on the top of the Outlook screen (right under the File menu option).
  3. Click the Plus sign at the top to add a new profile, and select Generic CalDAV/CardDAV, then click Ok.
  4. Enter a name for the calendar,
  5. click the button to the right of Outlook Folder and select which calendar to sync. In most cases, it would be Calendar under Personal Folders. Click Ok
  6. Click the “Synchronize items immediately after change” if you want immediate synchronization after you’re done. Otherwise, you will either need to wait until the next sync is started (see below) or manually start the sync (with the Synchronize button)
  7. Enter the URL you got from the Owncloud server into DAV URL. Hint; it is not in the correct format, so wait before testing
  8. Enter your username, password and an e-mail address inthe appropriate area.
  9. Click “Test or discover settings”.  This may take a minute for a window to pop up.
  10. When the window pops up, it will show you the calendars associated with the accoutn. Chose one, then click Ok.
  11. Wait for another window to say “Connection Test Successful”, then click Ok on that.
  12. Choose Synchronization mode, Conflict Resolution and Synchronization interval. Important: Think about Conflict Resolution and Synchronization Mode before choosing. If you have existing data in either Outlook or Owncloud, you do not want it overwritten, but Merge runs the possibility.
  13. Click Ok. Your Outlook calendar will take a few minutes to sync, then you will see your new Outlook/Owncloud calendar. This may take a few minutes to complete.

Android

Android, like Outlook, does not inherently know about CalDav. Add to this the fact that some providers and some manufacturers (LG, Samsung) replace the standard Google calendar with their own application. So, things can get confusing.

This document describes the standard Google Calendar, using CalDAVSync.

  1. On your Android Phone, go to the store and install CalDAV-Sync from dmfs GmbH. Also install JB Workaround CalDAV-Sync from the same publisher.
  2. Open CalDAV-Sync and follow the instructions to set up a connection to Owncloud.