Using Lightning with WebCalendar

WebCalendar 1.2.3 from http://k5n.us/webcalendar.php is a robust and feature-filled calendar application that is accessed via the web. Since it's on the web, it's easy for anybody to access the calendar from any web browser. But sometimes it is nice to have a calendar a little more tightly integrated with your other desktop programs (especially email).

Struck by Lightning

Thunderbird, the popular email program from the Mozilla project, supports plug-ins. "Lightning" is a calendar program which works as a Thunderbird plugin. And with a little tweaking you can get Lightning to interface with WebCalendar.

You can get the latest version of Thunderbird from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ In Thunderbird go to Tools -> Add-ons and search for Lightning. Install the Lightning plug-in (the current version at this writing is 1.0b7). Then restart Thunderbird before you use Lightning.

Server Prep

If you are using a WebCalendar which SWCP installed on your web site, then you don't need to worry about this part, we've already taken care of the server side details for you and you can skip down to "Hook Lightning to WebCalendar".

If you are setting this up on your own server, you need to change some Apache settings to allow Lightning to upload calendar changes to WebCalendar. In the VirtualHost section of your Apache config file add the following stanza:

<Directory "/home/username/mycompany.com/cal">
  <Limit PUT> 
    order allow,deny 
    allow from all 
  </Limit> 
  Script PUT /cal/icalclient.php
</Directory>

Set the Directory to match where your WebCalendar software is installed. Change "/cal/icalclient.php" to use the full URL (not filesystem path) to the icalclient.php file in your WebCalendar directory. For example, if your calendar was installed at http://mycompany.com/events then the Script line would reference "/events/icalclient.php".

Restart Apache to put these changes into effect.

Hook Lightning to WebCalendar

When you get back into Thunderbird, click the Calendar tab. You'll see your "Home" calendar displayed. This is a local calendar that is stored on your PC or Mac. Right-click under the Calendar heading on the left side of the screen and select New Calendar. Select "On the Network" on the first screen, then Continue. Next seelct "iCalendar" for the format, and enter the Location URL. If your WebCalendar is installed at http://www.mycompany.com/cal then the Location URL should be this:

http://www.mycompany.com/cal/icalclient.php

In other words, just add "/icalclient.php" to the end of your normal calendar URL.

On the next screen give the calendar a name. This is what Lightning will call this calendar, and can be any name that is meaningful to you regardless of what it is called on the web site. The color you select here will tell Lightning what color to make the entries that you place on this calendar. Each calendar you create uses a different color so that when you overlay several calendars you can tell which items came from which calendar.

Next you'll be asked for a username and password. Enter the same username and password you use to log in to the WebCalendar on the web.

Now the display on the left should show two calendars, "Home" plus the one you just connected to. Any entries on the remote calendar should be showing on your screen now. You can click the checkbox beside each calendar to turn them on/off at will.

Tips for using a shared calendar

When you add a new entry to a shared calendar, the change will show up on the web calendar immediately. Anyone accessing the calendar through the web will see the new entry right away.

When someone adds a new entry to a shared calendar through the web interface (or another using Lightning), you will not see the new entry until you refresh the calendar. If you right-click the calendar name on the left, you'll see a "Reload Remote Calendars" option which will refresh the calendar right away.

Also on that right-click menu is a Properties option. On this screen you can tell Lightning how often to refresh the calendar. It defaults to every 30 minutes, which is probably adequate for most uses. If you need it to update more quickly, you can select a shorter time frame. Every 5 minutes is probably the fastest one should use, although you can select 1 minute.

If you happen to use Lightning at a time when it can't reach the remote calendar, for example if you open it on an airplane with no wifi, Lightning may mark the calendar as "Read Only". Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any visual indication of this on the screen. One tip-off that this has happened is that if you try to add a new event, it will have selected a local calendar to add it to (usually "Home") instead of the shared calendar. To fix this problem, go to Properties for the calendar, and turn off the checkmark next to "Read Only".