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Using iCal 1.5 with WebDAV and PHPiCal 1.1

   

Version 10.3
3 August 2004
Brad Pemberton
Conventions used in this workbook
This symbol will be used to denote a warning or caution about a procedure

This symbol will be used to denote an informational point of interest

File names and file paths
Since file paths in Mac OS X are delimited by the / character references to directories (folders in the Finder) will use the directory names with the slash ( / ) character in between.

The beginning of the file system or the top level of the hard drive is noted as just the slash ( / ) character by itself.  Whenever a file path is cited that begins with a slash that indicates the beginning of the file system or root of the file system.

If I’m referring to the Applications folder of the main boot partition called Macintosh HD then I would indicate that path as: /Applications.

Literals
    The Courier font in bold will denote literal input

Bachus-Naur Form or BNF
    BNF is a standard syntax for logic especially when used in pseudocode for programming.  The only use of it here is where values in between the < > characters are meant to be substituted with other non-literal values.  In other words using what appears between the < > characters won’t work; you’ll have to substitute something.
 
  
  
  

Exercise 0.9.5

Setup your web site with WebDAV
Prerequisites – Domain Name, Mac OS X Server, iCal and about 40 mintues


Objective: You want to end up with a place to publish your iCal files so other people can subscribe to them over the Internet or local network.  You’ll need a web server that supports WebDAV

WebDAV means Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning.

WebDAV is an extension to the HTTP protocol that allows HTTP to act like a file system.
Digest Authentication allows for a hash + a salt to be sent for authentication instead of a plain text password.

Before you can start publishing your iCal files on the Internet you’ll need a domain name.  These insructions assume you already have a domain name and a Mac OS X Server running Mac OS X Server v10.3.x.   You will need at least one domain served by the web server process on your server.   If you haven’t already you should read the entire guide on web services for Mac OS X in the Mac OSX Server Web Technologies Administration manual.  It is a free PDF you can get here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107912
You’ll also need a client copy of Mac OS X  with a reasonably current copy of iCal.  All references here are from iCal v1.5.2

1
 Launch Server Admin and login to the machine that will be your web server

2
 Under the Computers & Services list select the server and click on the disclosure triangle. 

3
 Select Web

4
 Click on Settings

5
 Click on the Modules tab towards the top of the screen and make sure the dav_module (mod_dav.c) and the php4_module (mod_php4.c) are enabled.  If you haven't already enable the apple_digest_module. Click Save


6
 Click on the Sites tab near the top.  We’ll make a new site called ical.l3training.com.  You can use the default web site or  make a new one.


7
 Click on + button to add a site


8

Enter a valid domain name and choose the IP address you want this site to answer on.  We’ll choose any.   We’ll also leave the port at 80.

The big deal here is to make sure the Web folder: is pointing to the right place.  You may have to login to your server to create this folder.  This will be the folder we will copy the phpicalendar 1.1 files into.  Click Save when you’re done.


9
 Click on the Options tab and enable the WebDAV check box.


10
 Click on the Realms tab and click the + button near the bottom


11
 Make the realm name ical.  Set the authorization to digest.  Make sure the folder for the realm is the same folder and the Web folder chosen in step 10 above.


12
 Now we need to make sure somebody can publish files here.  Everyone is already entered.


13
 Click on the Users & Groups button and choose a user that will have access to publish iCal calendars.  Drag the users’s name entry from the Users & Groups drawer to the right side of the screen under Can Browse Can Author section


14
 Enable the Can Browse and Can Author checkboxes for your user.  If you want to allow anonymous access to your calendar you will need to enable the Can Browse check box for Everyone.


15
 Click Save








Exercise 1.1

Download and "install" phpiCalendar
1
 You will need to download the latest version of PHPiCalendar which is version 1.1 as of this writing.

You can find PHPiCalendar here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/phpicalendar/phpicalendar-1.1.zip?download

2
 The zip file should be expanded automatically by  Stuffit Expander.

3
 Locate the folder you created or referenced in step 10 of exercise 0.9.5.

4
 Copy the expanded files from inside the phpicalendar-1.1 folder on your Desktop to the newly created ical folder on your web server. 



5
 You’ll need to make sure that the phpicalendar folder defined as the realm is owned by the user and group called ‘www’ this is a pre-defined system level group and user. WebDAV won’t work if the permissions are wrong.  Use Workgroup Manager to fix the permissions.
Launch Workgroup Manager & authenticate to you server

6
 Click on Sharing

7
 Click on the All tab and navigate to your folder somewhere inside /Library/WebServer/Documents/

8
 Set the owner and group to www with Read & Write privileges

9


10
 Click the Copy button next to "Copy these privileges to enclosed items"






Exercise 2.1

Publishing Your Calendar
1
 Switch to your client machine.  Launch iCal

2
 Create a new calendar

3
 Select today’s date and double-click to make a new event or, if you’re in week view drag across a range of time to make an event.  Name the event something interesting

4
 Choose Publish… from the Calendar menu


5
 Change the Publish Calendar pop-up from ‘on .Mac’ to ‘on a WebDAV server’  Don’t put spaces in the publish name like I did.


6
 Enter the base URL and include the path to the calendars:
http://ical.L3Training.com/calendars


7
 Enter the user name and password for the user defined to have access to the WebDAV realm you defined in step 16 of Exercise 0.9.5


8
 If all goes well you'll see the success dialog box. Web servers don't like spaces in file names. Because of this the file has been renamed. Instead of a space there is a 32 - so I get the file named L332Training.ics. The value for my default calendar in my config.inc.php file is that name (L332Training.ics) minus the .ics suffix.









Exercise 3.1

Tweak the config.inc.php file & Test out the Calendar
1
 Open Safari and point your web browser at your calendar site – mine is http://ical.L3Training.com

2
 Make sure the web page loads.   If it doesn’t you should check the file permissions and check to make sure the PHP modules are loaded.

3
 Look on your site for today’s event – created in step 3 of Exercise 2.1

4
 Now it’s time to make your calendar the default calendar.


5
 Open the file config.inc.php in your favorite text editor.


6
 Find the entry for $default_path – change the value in quotes to the URL for your server – mine is “http://ical.L3Training.com”


7
 You may want to change the $default_cal variable to the exact name of your calendar and remove all the sample calendars from the /calendar directory inside your phpicalendar folder in your web site’s document root.
The exact name of your calendar can be seen in the screen shot from step 8 of Exercise 2.1 - just remove the .ics suffix.


8
 Save the file – you may have to fix the permissions here.


9
 Check your page again in your web browser.