current iCal sync process?

[dgaland]

I tried going through past posts, but am not sure what's still valid with the current release...
Can anyone briefly explain what the Sync with iCal function will actually do and how to enter/update projects/tasks from within iCal?

[Lizard]

Sync with iCal will create a calendar in iCal corresponding to each context in OmniFocus. (named "OF: errands", "OF: phone", etc.) Then it will create "To Do" items in those calendars for each task in OmniFocus that has a context assigned. The project name will be added to the task name in brackets, in case you have the same task in several projects.
If you change a 'to do' in iCal (rename, check off, change priority, etc.), the next time you "Sync with iCal", those changes will be applied to the tasks in OmniFocus (and iCal will be updated with any changes you made in OF).
If you add a 'todo' to an OF: context calendar in iCal, that item will be brought into OmniFocus the next time you sync. It will show up in the Inbox with its context set, but no project.

[pvonk]

Is it an all or nothing? I would hope OF will give us the option to indicate which contexts to sync and which not to sync. Also, if a start date is in the future, will OF sync the task? Or only if the start date has already occurred?

[brab]

Does it rely at all on SyncServices? I'm asking because I use SyncTogether to synchronize my iCal calendars, and I also synchronize the OmniFocus files between two computers. Many applications I've played with really dislike this kind of setup (they get really confused about what has been synchronized if changes are propagated both through iCal and through the application files).

I guess my question is about using OmniFocus on several computers, but I should start a new thread about this.

[sdennett]

I'm just starting with the beta and want to copy my current tasks from Entourage into OF. To do this I've pulled them into iCal and then run iCal sync from within OF. But nothing gets transferred to OF.

I tried renaming my Entourage calendars in iCal with "OF: " in front of the calendar name. When I did this, then synced, they all disappeared from iCal but again OF came up empty.

Is this a bug? Am I misunderstanding the process? Thanks.

Steve D.

[Lizard]

sdennett: I've seen the same behavior myself. I am about to check with the engineers about whether this is expected, and whether we can change it. (It'd be bad if someone had a calendar starting with "OF: " that had nothing to do with Focus, and then Focus decided to delete it.)

[michelle]

We knew iCal synching would be a very important feature from the start, particularly since it would allow us access to the Palm and other devices. We didn't want to show OmniFocus to the public before this feature was implemented, but we knew people were anxious to see what we had done so far. The first alphas were released with an "export to iCal" feature which triggered an AppleScript. This was a temporary solution while one of our engineers finished "sync to iCal" in a separate build. Two weeks ago (5/23) he integrated his changes into the public build with lots of warning to back up your data and be careful with this new feature. It is still very "alpha" and there will be a lot more work done on it before we ship. We encourage you to send us your feedback and feature requests. We're also curious to hear your synching workflow and what other applications you are using.

[sdennett]

Right now my mail goal is to find a way to migrate all of my current tasks, projects and categories from Entourage into OF with as little re-typing as possible. :-)

Currently I use Missing Sync to keep Entourage synced with my Palm OS device. What I'd really like is to find a way to keep my calendar & task list in sync between several computers (or computer and external hard drive) and my Palm device (or whatever replaces it).

I'll keep trying OF builds and let you know if I see any odd behaviors.

[gotung]

Would be nice if the iCal sync would put all the calendars into an OmniFocus calendar group.

[Lizard]

gotung: good idea! (I didn't even know there was such a thing as a calendar group.) I will put this idea in the bug database immediately.

[Lizard]

if you put the OF calendars in a group manually, that'll work. Of course, new ones won't automatically go into the group.

[gotung]

if you put the OF calendars in a group manually, that'll work. Of course, new ones won't automatically go into the group.


Was afraid to try putting them in a group, what with the iCal sync being brand new and all. Good to know it won't kill all my data.

Would still be nice to have new ones automatically placed there :)


With a standard iCal group, you could do away with the OF: prefix on all of the calendar names as they become redundant. It would also give you a clean way to create new contexts in iCal, just add a calendar to the OmniFocus group. No special naming convention needed.

[Craig]

A problem with this is that iCal groups can only be one level deep (no groups-in-groups), so if you put OF calendars in an OF group, that precludes other grouping that might be useful, e.g. like I have set up:

- Computer
- - OF: emails
- - OF: web
- - OF: offline
- Desk
- - OF: calls
- - OF: reading

etc.

[gotung]

There is nothing stopping the nesting from being handled by naming conventions by using an OmniFocus group. You just wouldn't need the conventions on the top level contexts.

Plain Name = Top Level Context

[Ken Case]

Would be nice if the iCal sync would put all the calendars into an OmniFocus calendar group.

I looked into this a bit when we were implementing iCal synchronization. Unfortunately, the only reference in the iCal Calendars schema (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SyncServicesSchemaRef/Articles/Calendars.html) that seems relevant is the CalendarOrder (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SyncServicesSchemaRef/Articles/Calendars.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001540-172278) entity (which stores the order of the calendars) and it's intended to be read-only to anything other than iCal.

[pjb]

It seems to work fine if I rearrange/group the calendars in iCal; they still sync back to OF. I currently have, among others, a group:

Business
--Work
--OF:Work

The names are historical and a work-in-progress but the way they work is: I can show my shift schedule in the Work calendar and my work related ToDo's in the OF:Work calendar while I'm at work and turn both off together at other times (like when I switch to the "Home" calendar group). A ToDo to set up a meeting may become a meeting on the calendar and get marked as a completed Task in OF. Keeping the calendar and the ToDo list separate but having only the ToDo list integrate with my OF Tasks works for me.

Anyway, I'd rather not have OF manage my iCal organization.

[byped]

There is nothing stopping the nesting from being handled by naming conventions by using an OmniFocus group. You just wouldn't need the conventions on the top level contexts.

Plain Name = Top Level Context

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion, but this still doesn't solve the problem of iCal only allowing one level of nesting, ie, that you can't nest one calendar group in another. Once you make an OmniFocus group you're then committed to having a flat list of contexts in that group.

The other issue related to nesting that I'm having is that top level contexts won't display the contents of their children in iCal.

If I have the following context layout:

Errands
-Grocery Store
-Hardware Store

It will be put into iCal as OF: Errands, OF: Grocery Store, and OF: Hardware Store. If I then want to check what all my errands are from a palm I have to check both the Grocery Store and Hardware Store calendars, as well as any other Stores that I have under Errands.

This is a limitation in iCal, so I think the only way to get around it would be some way to customize the sync process. If there were a way to specify that all the tasks in child contexts of errands should get dumped into the Errands calendar during sync that would be a nice workaround.

[Wild Rye]

I'm finding that I get duplicate entries in OF when I synch to iCal, then synch to my Palm Treo with Agendus Pro as my list manager. I use MarkSpace to manage the synch.

Agendus inserts a line of code in the notes attribute, to manage icons. But it also seems to strip out the Project data from OF...in any case, that data is missing on the synch back to the Mac.

Not sure what the fix for this would be, but it makes me even more eager for the arrival of the iPhone. I will mourn the loss of my bucket...

[ryancyoder]

I've tried entering [ProjectName] in an ical task but the project didn't sync. Will this be possible in the future? If so people would be able to assign project and context straight from their PALM.