solutions wanted HELP!! how to link FM and iCal

[franklebel]

hi,

i work for a small digital printing company and we are looking for a way to incoroporate the use of a schedule like app that would let us manipulate job tickets in a calendar app like ical with filemaker pro 10.

thought explained:

1. within filemaker pro 10 we would create a job ticket with all the needed information (name of print file, quantity, size, due date etc.)

2. within this job ticket we would estimate how much time it would take to complete the project (ex. 1 hour.)

3. then automatigically a 1hour reserved time slot would be taken in ical on the desired day.

4. our production manager would then move around the reserved time slots at will to complete the jobs for the due dates.

IS THIS POSSIBLE TO ACCOMPLISH?

if so, does anyone know of a file maker plugin or any other app that can do this?

thanks a lot to whoever will find a solution.

[LaurenKuhlman]

The tried-and-true industry standard is the calendar template from John Sindelar's Seedcode:

http://seedcode.com/cp-app/ste_cat/filemakercalendar

The kiwi up-and-comer is the reactor plugin from Fusion Plugins, a division of Digital Fusion.

http://fusionplugins.com/products/reactor/

John's has been used over and over again and is FileMaker native. Digital Fusion's is inside a web viewer and enables drag and drop functionality very much like iCal.

FMers,

Anyone want to debate the pros and cons of each option? I am just dying to hear from the community on this one.

[NovaChan]

I definitely second Lauren's recommendation to look at SeedCode. Their files are worth the investment even if you only use a fraction of the code.

Let's clarify what exactly it does though. From what I understand, it provides two ways to view your data in iCal:

1. Export an .ics file that can then be imported into iCal

2. Publish an iCalendar feed that can be subscribed to from within iCal or a widget, etc.

Note that subscribe feeds (option 2) cannot be edited in iCal - just viewed.

I'm curious to hear if I'm missing anything or if anyone has automated the import into iCal.

The Reactor plugin looks slick, but I haven't used it before. Can anyone speak to how much effort it might take to implement basic calendar functionality in Reactor?

I'm also interested in hearing comments about two other options:

First, old-fashioned AppleScript. I noticed an old article outlining how to export from .fp5 files to iCal.

The other option is a plugin called FM-iCal-Connector by qutic development. I can't vouch for the reliability of the company or product, but their demo might be worth a look. Has anybody used it before?

[dfcraig]

Hi Frank,

I think you'd find that the Reactor calendar would work pretty well. To implement it all you do is create your table of records with the fields you need then draw a web viewer with the Reactor Calendar function in it, specifying your fields as the parameters.

For Reactor to display a Calendar it needs to know:

- Date

- Time

- Duration

- Description

In many applications the Description might be a concatenation of specific pieces of data you need, i.e. the fields that constitute your job ticket.

You can also color code the appointments and have an appointment title (not in Lite version).

It takes < 5 minutes to create a Calendar like that starting from zero - it really is pretty simple.

The end result is really nice because the user can then create and move appointments around naturally using drag and drop just like iCal etc.

Hope that helps,

Cheers

Craig

[John Sindelar]

Thanks for the cool comments. And check this out for a sneak peak of where our next calendar is heading:

http://www.seedcode.com/next

[LaurenKuhlman]

franklebel,

What solution did you end up using?

[franklebel]

i submitted reactor to our filemaker developper and am waiting to see how things work out. reactor calendar is exactly what i was looking for.

i hope reactor works out! otherwise i found nothing else that fits what i am looking for.

[alwynus de winslow]

I'm currently working on a similar problem, without the need to do drag-and-drop. I'm starting from a calendar built off a paper written by John Mark Osborne several years ago; I've modified his approach to support scheduling for multiple rooms and multiple employees.

My grids show rooms; the goal is to publish multiple iCal feeds, one for each staffer, as NovaChan mentioned. Have previously attempted this using instructions from SeedCode and myFMbutler. Since neither of these work am thinking the problem might be the way that CWP is set up on my server.

Would like to know how your experience with Reactor is proceeding. Would also like to know whether anyone sees a problem in publishing multiple feeds.