Migrating wife to an online "Family Calendar"

[DavidL]

"is scheduling the same as syncing remotely? if i schedule it, how does it sync if my phone & i aren't home? if i'm sitting at a baseball game, i can send a "special" email to ML from my cellphone and have it sync right then with the changes my wife just made to the family calendar @ home?"

The Sync is between MainLobby server and Outlook. To invoke that, you could send an email with the command to Sync. That email could be from your cellphone.

Sync between Outlook and your phone doesn't occur with MainLobby software, but either Microsoft / Apple / 3rd party integration software.

so, Wife goes to the touchpanel and adds a new event of "Pick up the kids". This gets sent immediately to Outlook. Getting from Outlook to your phone is via your phone's integration to Outlook (by whatever means you want to use).


"when you say "You can't do that with Google calendar today", do you mean ML users? (because i've been do that stuff for years w/ gcal). "

What have you been using software wise to integrate google gcal to a home automation PC application? What flavor HA software? Is this commercial app or your own home brew? or shareware?

 

[Steve]

Sorry, OT - but DavidL, could you please use the quote function instead of " ", would make it alot easier to read, thanks!

 

[DavidL]

Sorry, OT - but DavidL, could you please use the quote function instead of " ", would make it alot easier to read, thanks!

I thought there was a thread discouraging using that too much

 

[IVB]

so, Wife goes to the touchpanel and adds a new event of "Pick up the kids". This gets sent immediately to Outlook. Getting from Outlook to your phone is via your phone's integration to Outlook (by whatever means you want to use).

Irritation there is the primary reason i left outlook; it needs to be "always on" in order for any of the synch'ing apps i've found to work (ie, that AT&T/cingular thingey). I don't have outlook (or exchange) on my server, so whatever I do needs to leverage an online method (MSN, google, other). I wouldn't even have an issue paying a small amount (ie, $30/year for an online subscription) in order to get this to work, I just need something simple.

Of course, my current weak link is that god damn Blackjack, jesus that thing is hard to setup (& use). No wonder my wife was scared of this. Fortunately our 10 year anniversary is within days, perfect excuse for me to upgrade her to something better.

 

[damage]

The Sync is between MainLobby server and Outlook. To invoke that, you could send an email with the command to Sync. That email could be from your cellphone.

gotcha. your interpretation of remote sync is between ml & a calendar (in this case outlook) not between a cellphone & a calendar.

Sync between Outlook and your phone doesn't occur with MainLobby software, but either Microsoft / Apple / 3rd party integration software.

so, Wife goes to the touchpanel and adds a new event of "Pick up the kids". This gets sent immediately to Outlook. Getting from Outlook to your phone is via your phone's integration to Outlook (by whatever means you want to use).

i'm not aware of (and i guess you aren't either) any way to remotely sync plain old outlook to a phone (well i guess one could set up a vpn from the phone to the house and tunnel activesync through it but that'd be a pain in the ass and non-existent WAF).

What have you been using software wise to integrate google gcal to a home automation PC application? What flavor HA software? Is this commercial app or your own home brew? or shareware?

i wrote a python script at first & later wrote a vb.net app. they interface to starcomultra via dcom or xPL.

 

[eufreka]

so I just checked out Google Calendar Sync as a possible replacement for MobileMe. I've already installed it on my wife's blackberry so I can see her events in my google calendar, but in order for it to work for me, I would want to be able to sync 3-way between iPhone and Outlook (which MobileMe does now, including my work appts) and GCal, except I don't want my work appts showing up on GCal for my wife to see (why does she need to know I'm in a product development meeting from 3 to 5?). But Google Calendar Sync for Outlook right now only syncs the default Outlook calendar with the primary Google calendar, and that means my wife's GCal won't get to my iPhone and my work appts would show up on my GCal... so, for now, a no-go for me.

You can do it with google calendar and a tool called gSyncIt.

gSyncIt is a plugin in Outlook that manages the 2-way multi-google calendar syncing with my Exchange Server based calendar. Google's own sync product is actually a licensed exchange activesync process, and therefore you cannot also use exchange activesync at work. Since I use it at work, I had to find an alternative product.

Now we have three google calendars, mine, my wife's, and our child's. They all 2-way sync independently to my work Outlook and my phone (att Tilt). I can add appts to their calendars and they to mine from anywhere and it all syncs back and forth.

It has been a lifesaver!