How do I create a group calendar in iCal Server 3?

Question

How do I create a group calendar in iCal Server 3?

Hello everyone,

I have set up a Mac Mini server to address the calendaring needs of my company. I have also turned on the iCal service using the Server app in the Lion OS. While the shared calendaring functions for individual users of iCal are great, my company is in need of general office calendar for postings of things like vacation times, company holidays, special conferences, etc. Is there a way to configure the Mac Mini server to allow the setup of such a calendar?

Maximus. Prime

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.4), This is a Mac Mini server

Posted on Jun 22, 2012 7:28 AM

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Answer 1

marksv

Level 1

105 points

Jun 23, 2012 7:33 PM in response to maximus.prime

Simple. Create a seperate account to represent the group. Provide the credentials to everyone and have them add that calendar account also.

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Answer 2

Jun 25, 2012 7:34 AM in response to marksv

Thank you for your response, marksv.

I considered your solution before posting. Although it is a simple solution, it poses the question of, "Who hosts this calendar on his or her computer, and what happens when that person leaves the company?" I'm looking to create groups that have calendars associated with them. Collaboration should be done through iCal on the users' desktops. Some people should have the right to modify the calendar. Others should have the ability to read from it only. The wiki solutions that I've seen posted in various places online are not appropriate for our situation.

Prime

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Answer 3

marksv

Level 1

105 points

Jun 25, 2012 8:20 AM in response to maximus.prime

Well separating trusted from untrusted so to speak is easy. You can have one or two users with the full credentials to add the calendar. Then other trusted users can be delegates with read/write priv's. The untrusted ones become calendar read only delegates. This makes it easy to revoke even trusted users if they leave the company on short notice. The only downside to delegates is that they do not show up on iOS devices.

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Answer 4

Jun 25, 2012 11:40 AM in response to marksv

What you are suggesting is certainly a way to handle this issue, but it isn't the most effective.

I decided to perform the "Wiki" method of setting up group calendars, but this too has not worked as expected. The documentation on this process is lacking. I've checked the server administration guides for 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7. So far I have found nothing on the setup of Group Calendars in iCal.

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Answer 5

marksv

Level 1

105 points

Jun 25, 2012 2:37 PM in response to maximus.prime

I'd be interested in hearing how your efforts turn out. In the past I've turned on wiki as well as web mail for customers to use at any computer. I have a customer I'm finishing setting Lion server and one thing they are interested in is Wiki. Personally I've never done much with it other than turn it on. I'm also in the process of trying to understand what Apple has done. In theory if a user logs in they should see both their own wiki as well as the group one. But wiki is seperate from calendar, contacts and email. So I'm also in the process of trying to figure it out.

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Answer 6

willhaus

Level 1

114 points

Jul 1, 2012 11:02 AM in response to maximus.prime

I believe for what you've described, group wiki calendars in definitely the way to go. And you're right, it's not particularly well documented. You'll probably find what you need if you search these discussions for "group caldav path".

I can't remember everything involved in setting up the wiki calendar itself, but it seems like I remember turning on calendaring from the groups panel in Server.app. Lemme know if you're having trouble with that part and I'll try to help when I get back to a place with access to my server

Once you do have it set up though, this is how you set up iCal clients to connect to the iCal Server:

1. iCal -> Preferences -> Accounts

2. Make a new account with CalDAV as the type

3. Enter username/password of a user who is a member of the group that has the wiki.

4. This is key: as the server path enter servername.com/principals/__uids__/wiki-wikiname/

5. This should create a calendar group in the left pane of iCal with a single calendar called "calendar". You can make as many more calendars is that group as you want.

6. If you do the same procedure on a different client with a different username, you should see the same set of calendars

At my studio each employee adds their own calendars and 2 group calendars and it works great.

Lemme know if you need any more help.

W-

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Answer 7

Meleschi

Level 1

10 points

Jul 2, 2012 1:59 PM in response to maximus.prime

You can setup a seaprate Group user, and under iCal deligate access to this user's calendars to other users on your iCal system. I do this exact thing for my department.

Unfortunately, you HAVE to use iCal to setup the delegation. But once the delegation is setup, you can then use the web calendar or other calendaring applications to see the data.

Create your Group user.

Login to your group user with iCal

Go into your system preferences for iCal. Click on Accounts, then click on the Group Account, then click on the Delegation Tab.

Click on Edit and select all the users who should be able to Read or read/write to the group calendar. Once this is done, the group user will show up in the "Accounts I can access:" section of their own iCal configurations.

Hope this helps,

Ricardo

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Answer 8

Jul 3, 2012 11:46 AM in response to maximus.prime

Okay, with everyone's help, I believe I have found a resolution to this issue. I am very grateful to everyone who has contributed this discussion. Your help has been invaluable.

1. The first thing I did was to ensure that the iCal and Wiki servers were both running.

2. Next, I created a user whose sole purpose was to create wikis on the server. (In retrospect, I probably didn't have to do this, as any administrative account, which is what I have, can also make wikis).

3. I then created a wiki. To do this open up your Web browser and enter in the name of your server followed by "/wiki" (no quotes). An example of this is servername.local/wiki. (If you are unsure as to whether or not DNS on your local network is working, you can enter the IP address of the server followed by /wiki).

4. Next login into the wiki by clicking on the lock icon in the toolbar. (You can use the account you created earlier or any admin account on the iCal server for login).

5. Click the Wikis button.

6. Click the plus sign in the toolbar, then click New Wiki.

7. Enter a name and optional description. It is much better to enter a short name with no spaces. This will matter in a later step.

8. Next you will see the Set Wiki Access dialog box. Here is where you can enter users of the wiki (calendar), and their permissions (i.e. Owner, Read-Write, etc.).

9. When done with the previous step, click create, and you should be taken to the "welcome" page of your wiki.

10. Click the gear icon in the toolbar then select settings.

11. Select Services in the sidebar, put a check into the Calendar box, and select Save.

12. You should now see a link for Calendar underneath your toolbar. Select it, then select Settings to adjust your timezone settings, etc.

13. You can log out of the wiki at this point.

14. Go to one of the users who was given access to the wiki in step 8.

15. Open iCal -- Preferences then select the Accounts tab.

**Now here is where things get "tricky."**

16. It is likely that this user has a functioning account on your iCal server. If you go to the Server Settings tab of the account and check the Server Path, you will see an entry similar to /principals/__uids__/longstringofalphanumericcaharacters/.

17. Replace the long string of alphanumeric characters with "wiki-wikiname" (no quotes). The wikiname is the name you entered in step 7.

18. Close the iCal preferences box, and close iCal.

19. The user may be prompted to re-enter his/her password. Do so, and afterward you should be have access to the wiki-based group calendar.

UH OH...what about the user's normal account?!?!?!

20. Go back into the account preferences tab of iCal and re-add the user's normal iCal account with his/her normal credentials. All of the user's calendar information should return because it is on the server and backed up regularly...right?

This solution appears to be working for me so far. I have verified that users who can only read from the wiki calendar do not have the ability to edit the calendar. Of course, those who can edit the calendar are able to do. These test users are also able to use their normal iCal accounts without any issues.

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Answer 9

willhaus

Level 1

114 points

Jul 3, 2012 8:57 PM in response to maximus.prime

I might add only one thing to this:

I believe that rather than "transitioning" an existing user's account to a group account, you can create the group account directly:

Click the plus sign in Preferences -> Accounts
Select CalDAV in the "Account Type" pulldown
Enter the user's normal username/password
In "Server Address" enter servername.local/principals/__uids__/wiki-wikiname

Very glad to hear you've got it working.

W

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Answer 10

Jan 16, 2013 11:46 PM in response to maximus.prime

Thanks for this tutorial. It helped me a lot to set up a several group calendars. By the way, upgrading to OS X 10.8 and also Server App 10.8 has solved many of my problems I had encountered before.

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