CalendarResearch

Page for discussing different calendaring solutions and verifying which ones that are best suited for bitweaver

Created by: Helge Karl, Last modification: 14 Aug 2006 (04:56 UTC) by Edwin

The calendar approach

Even though many of us are able to work without a strict predefined plan on what is going to happen when, it usually becomes necessary to agree about time and place for happenings that include more than one person. It is set up a time and place and in many cases also when it is supposed to end or how long it will last. Sometimes it is defined for who the happening is made for or not and invitations are to be sent to the correct group of persons. Ideally a calendaring system keeps track of a calendar, the start, end and recurrences of events and participating persons. Usually you would categorize calendar content so that you can create custom calendars to specific needs in a similar fashion like wikibooks.

The optimal solution would be to store the information in the database. From there information can be presented on the web pages, but also iCal files should be possible to get in the same way as the pdf plugin works. The most difficult might be to import iCal files since different applications may format the calendar files differently. Furthermore users and/or groups could be assigned to events or calendars so that they can be mailed the iCal files or subscribe to them. Publish and subscription service will require webdav I'm afraid.

What is possible/reasonable to reach of all this may be discussed further helge_karl


Calendar packages


PHPiCalendar

PHP iCalendar is a PHP-based iCal file viewer/parser to display iCals in a Web browser. Its based on v2.0 of the IETF spec. It displays iCal files in a nice logical, clean manner with day, week, month, and year navigation. It is available in 13 languages and includes support for printing, searching and RSS news feeds.

Requirements:

Webserver running PHP 4.1.2 or later.
Application for creating calendars.

Home page:

PHPiCalendar site
Add some text about more features

phpMyCal

phpMyCal is an interface for a schedule database using MySQL. The core set of functionality provides a php class for creating, editing, and deleting calendars and events, and generating iCalendar data. An add on bridge allows direct interaction with PHP iCalendar. This project is pretty new, so expect some rough edges.

Be sure to check out PHP iCalendar at sourceforge.net. That project is the reason for this one, as well as a super clean nice great interface and parser for vCalendar (.ics) files.

Homepage

phpMyCal home page

Extcal

ExtCalendar is a powerful multi-user web-based calendar application. Features include Multi-Languages, Themes, Recurrent Events, Categories, Users and Groups management, Environment and General Settings, Template Configuration, Product Updates.

System Requirements:

Apache or IIS web server (download Apache now, note that any web server that supports PHP will work)
MySQL 4.0. (download MySQL now) Other DB systems will be supported soon.
PHP 4.2.x or 4.3.x. - (download the PHP 4.3.x zip package now, note that PHP 5.0 is not tested yet)

Examples:

demo of the calendarminicalendar views

Homepage

extcal

WebCalendar

WebCalendar is a PHP-based calendar application that can be configured as a single-user calendar, a multi-user calendar for groups of users, or as an event calendar viewable by visitors. MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, DB2, Interbase, MS SQL Server, or ODBC is required.

Webcalendar home page

PhpScheduleit

Includes plenty of new features such as multiple-day reservations, LDAP support, reservation invites, calendar views and more.

Here is the full list of new features for version 1.1.0:

- Login name support
- LDAP support
- Web-configurable announcements
- Reservation approval support
- Multiple day reservation support
- Reservation invitations
- Day/week/month calendar view for personal reservations, schedule reservations, resource reservations
- Signup sheet view for resources
- Administrator can place reservations for users, change reservation owner
- Clickable time slots for creating new reservations
- Multiple administrator support
- Update to PEAR version 1.82.2.6
- New languages Greek, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish

Homepage

PhpSceduleit

Plans Calendar


Browser Based Management
Plans' interface is intuitive and easy to use.

Online help is built into Plans.

Multiple Calendars
One installation of plans can support many calendars.

Calendars can share information with each other.

Each calendar is managed independently (unique password, custom options, custom look & feel).

Multiple calendars running on the same installation of plans can be "embedded" in completely different websites.

Recurring Events
Plans uses a powerful and flexible recurring event model.

International Support
Plans supports multiple languages.

Weeks can start on days other than Sunday.

Plans supports arbitrary date formats (mm/dd/yy, dd/mm/yy, etc.)

Database Support
Plans can store data in flat files or an SQL database.

Sharp-looking
Plans is the nicest-looking web calendar.

Plans has several downloadable themes available.

CSS-based layout makes it easy to match the colors & fonts with your website.

Open Source
Plans is licensed under the GPL. You can freely modify the code for your needs. Many organizations have done so.

Extendable
Plans' architecture allows add-ons and standalone programs to re-use its framework.

Plans can export events to other platforms, including MS Outlook and Palm.

Template-based design
Plans uses HTML templates to allow easy customization of the look & feel.

Each calendar can have its own custom template, even located on a different server.

Homepage

planscalendar

VTCalendar

... is a web-based event calendar that allows for decentralized data input and includes an approval mechanism. It supports calendar hosting for individual organizations and the forwarding of events from these calendars to the main event calendar. It was initially developed in an effort to reduce the number of event calendars at Virginia Tech.

Features

Day/week/month view
Search for events
Show events filtered by category
Miniature calendar for navigation
Event submission/approval mechanism
Handling of recurring events
User authentication via internal database and/or external via LDAP
Customizable layout (header, footer, colors)
Customizable event categories
Customizable event templates
Customizable search engine (featured keywords, synonyms)
Import/Export events in several formats (RSS, custom XML)
vCalendar support (for exporting to other calendars like MS Outlook or iCal)
Support for multiple calendars (e.g. separate departmental calendars)
Calendars can be public or private (restricted to certain users)

System Requirements

PHP 4.2 or higher
MySQL 3.23 or higher or PostgreSQL
runs on any OS that supports PHP (Linux, Windows, Mac OS...)
Note: Since calendar uses PHP's PEAR database abstraction layer you should also be able to use any other database like Oracle, SQL Server etc. However we haven't tried that.

Homepage

VTCalendar



I found this nice page with a updated list of calendar and scheduling resources
Linuxmafia - Sceduling



Add comments under or more information above about good packages. There is also a discussion tread about this topic where you can exchange ideas.