Setting up calendar alerts in OmniFocus for iPhone [Retired: use local notifications]
 

OmniFocus 1.5.2 for iPhone introduces a new feature that we think a lot of folks are going to like. We've found a way for OmniFocus to notify you about events that are coming due, without the dependency on an active network connection that Push notifications have.

Apple recently mentioned that 40% of the iPhone OS devices out there are iPod Touches; that means almost half our potential customers don't have the always-on network connection that Push notifications depend on. With the new feature, a notification appears on your iPhone/iPod at the appointed time, even if you have no cellphone or WiFi reception. OmniFocus does not need to be running for this to happen; customers using MobileMe or another WebDAV server to sync their data can add OmniFocus-generated reminder events to Calendar application on their iPhone or iPod.

(We have to use an external server to get the information to the calendar app because Apple hasn't added a way for us to do this without talking to an external server. It has to be a WebDAV server due to a limitation in the iPhone Calendar application; it doesn't know how to fetch a calendar from a Bonjour server. Folks who wonder about why we did this instead of Push notifications may want to take a look at [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=12654"]this thread[/URL] for more information.)

If you're not currently syncing via MobileMe or WebDAV, you can either sign up for a [URL="http://www.me.com"]MobileMe account[/URL] (trial accounts are available), or set up an account with one of the free WebDAV providers listed in [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=11054"]this thread[/URL].

Once you have your MobileMe or WebDAV account information, you can use the steps below to enable calendar notifications.

First, make sure that you have OmniFocus for iPhone 1.5.2 or later installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch. If you're not sure what version you have, scroll down to the very bottom of the Settings screen; we list the version information there. If you see that an earlier release is installed on your phone, use the App Store application to check for updates. (If you see "no updates available" when you check, wait an hour and try again - eventually, the current release will show up.)

Once you have the latest release installed, open Settings from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. (Tap the circular button that looks like the letter "i".)

Scroll down the Settings screen until you see the "Synchronization" section. You should see either "MobileMe" or "Advanced (WebDAV)" selected for your sync method; if you see "Nothing" or "Bonjour" and you're not sure what to do about this, please [EMAIL="omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]contact the support ninjas[/EMAIL] and we can help.

Just below your active sync method, you'll see a "Notifications" section which contains the new option. Tap "Sounds and Alerts". On the next screen, you'll see a "Calendar Alarms" setting. Tapping that will take you to a new screen. On the next screen, you can choose how far in advance of an action's due date you want to be notified. (Example: if an action is due at 5pm, you can be notified at 4pm, 4:30, 4:45, or at 4:55.)

Once you've chosen the setting that works best for you, return to the previous screen, and change "Due Soon Export" to "On". Tap the "Synchronize Now" button that appears.

At this point, you may be prompted to enter the user name and password for your sync server.
[INDENT][B]Important MobileMe note: if you're syncing with MobileMe, your username is the portion of your Me.com or Mac.com email address to the [B]left[/B] of the '@' symbol; don't enter the whole email address. If you're using a different WebDAV server and you're not sure what your user name is, check the email they sent when you signed up.[/B][/INDENT]
Once you've entered your user name and password, go ahead and tap the "Send" button. You'll return to the previous screen and see the sync button in the center of the toolbar is now a spinning progress indicator.

Once the progress indicator stops spinning, you'll see that the "Synchronize Now" button has been replaced with a "Subscribe in Calendar" button; go ahead and tap it to send the information to the calendar application.

The calendar app will also need the username and password for your sync server, so you'll see a slightly different dialog pop up where it asks for the info: go ahead and enter it again, then tap the "OK" button in the dialog.
[INDENT][B]Important MobileMe note: MobileMe user names (and possibly other WebDAV servers) appear to be case sensitive. This means that "username" and "Username" are actually two different accounts.

Unfortunately, the dialog panel that Calendar brings up at this point does something that we consider a bug. When you tap into the username field, the shift key on the keyboard defaults to "on" - unless you're careful and turn the shift key back off, you'll get stuck at this point. You'll fill the panel out, tap "OK", and the panel will come right back because of the capital letter in your username.[/B][/INDENT]
Once you send your login information to Calendar, you'll see a confirmation "Subscribe to the calendar" dialog appear; tap "Subscribe".

Finally, you'll see a "The Calendar "OmniFocus Reminders" has been added" dialog. You can tap "View Events" to switch to Calendar and see the events, or the "Done" button to stay in OmniFocus.

One final step - from the Home screen on your iPhone, tap Settings. In the next screen, tap "Mail, Contacts, Calendars". In the Accounts section of the next screen, you should see an "OmniFocus Reminders" entry - tap it.

If the "Use SSL" slider is set to off, slide it to "ON". (If you receive an error message at this point, note the exact text and contact the [EMAIL="omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]support ninjas[/EMAIL].)

You're all ready to go! From now on, OmniFocus will update your notification calendar each time you sync, adding reminders for any actions which are coming due within the next few weeks. The iPhone's calendar will present alerts as they come due, and the alerts include a link back to the action back in OmniFocus so you can just follow the link to see the details for the reminder. Enjoy your notifications!

I had problems entering the address of the calendar into the iPhone's calendar. Turns out /DueSoon.ics is case sensitive for the webdav servers I was trying. So if you're using mydisk.se or swissdisk.com and it isn't working, make sure you have the case of DueSoon.ics correct

Hi! I had the problem with WEBdav on my domain (holme.se) - It syncs normally, and I get a DueSoon.ics file on the webdisk, but the problem seems to be that the webdisk is on a different port (:2078) - so I tried setting up sync with mydisk.se instead, and it seems to work perfectly... So I'm not complaining - it would just be cool if it worked on my private domain as well.. =) (my private domain is hosted at a free norwegian hosting service which features webdisk, as well as mysql/php support, so I use it for both my private blog and for syncing). All the best, and thanks for a great app!

If I add a new task on the Desktop version of Omnifocus, will I be notified on the iPhone ?

In other words, is there any plan of adding this calendar thing to the desktop version, or is it already working ?

Thanks

[QUOTE=HyperBallad;63305]If I add a new task on the Desktop version of Omnifocus, will I be notified on the iPhone ?
[/quote]
If you sync desktop and iPhone before the notification time, yes, you'll get the notification.
[quote]
In other words, is there any plan of adding this calendar thing to the desktop version, or is it already working ?
[/QUOTE]
Apparently this is on the list for 1.7, with sneaky peeks due out Real Soon Now.

Omnifocus and iCal are syncing vid iDisk (after manually setting up) and I can see a due item in iCal but am not getting any alerts. I have set reminders for 5min before events but getting nothing.

Also I only seem to see one or the other of the two events for today.

Also in iCal on the mac
 

In case anyone is interested this also works on iCal on the mac if you subscriber to the calendar. Only catch is the older style Due Soon alerts set to 12.00 am are off the screen on my mac. I guess that is why it has changed to 5pm.

This is very neat. I'm suprised the companies trying to get the iPhone calendar to talk to syncML servers (like Oracle) haven't tried this trick.

Michael

Everything worked perfectly for me. I really like the calendar reminders. I did not want a push notification reminder because it requires a server. But i have one important question....

[B]Do we have to continue having the Mobile me account to use the calender reminders? [/B]

Thanks

will the events in The Calendar "OmniFocus Reminders be pushed to iPhone?

Dominoes, we don't use the push system, but yes, changes to the calendar on the server will make it to the phone.

Basically the calendar app on the phone "pulls" the changes itself, instead of having an external server that "pushes" them to your phone, if that makes any sense.

[QUOTE=ajay556;63346]Do we have to continue having the Mobile me account to use the calender reminders?[/QUOTE]

Ajay556, access to an external location for OmniFocus and the Calendar application on your phone to store files and exchange data is required, but it doesn't have to be your iDisk.

If you'd rather not pay for MobileMe, you can use one of the no-cost/low-cost providers in [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=11054"]this thread[/URL] instead.

Heads up - this method might be sending your .mac/.me password in the clear!

After setting it up, go to Settings, Mail/Contacts/Calendars, OmniFocus Reminders... the use SSL slider was set to Off on mine. YMMV

Bart

Good catch, barrrt - I'll add that to the instructions. Thanks!

[QUOTE=barrrt;63464]Heads up - this method might be sending your .mac/.me password in the clear!

After setting it up, go to Settings, Mail/Contacts/Calendars, OmniFocus Reminders... the use SSL slider was set to Off on mine. YMMV

Bart[/QUOTE]

Well spotted. Thanks. With MobileMe being able to track and remote
wipe my iPhone I'd like to keep that password secret!

Michael

Multiple events
 

I am getting 3 of the same events in iCal on the iPhone.

Also after syncing I do not see the events in iCal on my mac or on Mobile Me.
Should I see the events in iCal on my mac and Mobile Me?

[QUOTE=Brian;63465]Good catch, barrrt - I'll add that to the instructions. Thanks![/QUOTE]

Maybe it could be added to the code, too? :) Seems like a better choice of default!

This is awesome in the iPhone iCal.. is there also a way to also subscribe via iCal on the Mac desktop iCal? I tried to see if I could and it didn't work for me.

This is great, but...
 

...could you create an option so that the Project Name shows with the action in the calendar entry and notification pop-up.

It seems like every feature you add falls back to this same thing where the action gets divorced from the project in summary reports, etc.

I can't imagine I'm the only person who has very similar action names in different projects. Without the ability to see quickly which project the action relates to in the pop-up notification, it's not very useful to me.

The "Draft engagement agreement" action relates to just about every project I have. But the due date varies from project to project.

When all I see is "Draft engagement agreement" in the pop-up, it's pretty much useless unless I know what project it relates to.

The fact that a link exists to the action itself in OF is nice. But often I don't want to have to open up OF just to get that info (I have a lot of stuff in OF on the phone and it takes a pretty long time to open it up. I'm not inclined
to delete this stuff, because it's useful to me to have it. And I don't mind the start time generally. But it means that I don't just open up OF any old time. I do it at times when I have the time to wait for it to open).

Anyway, that would be a great improvement. So would having more control over alerts and being able to send more than one alert on an action (like 2 days in advance and one hour in advance for example).

Best,

KS

From iCal on the Mac, try subscribing to this URL format. it worked for me.

[url]http://username@idisk.mac.com/username/Documents/DueSoon.ics[/url]

The bolded instructions fixed it for me, thanks!

[QUOTE=richlin71;63493]From iCal on the Mac, try subscribing to this URL format. it worked for me.

[url]http://username@idisk.mac.com/username/Documents/DueSoon.ics[/url][/QUOTE]

I use Swiss Disk and it says "Connection to swiss disk server refused."

[QUOTE=prominence;63496]I use Swiss Disk and it says "Connection to swiss disk server refused."[/QUOTE]

I figured it out; had to subscribe to it, not set it up through CalDAV - my bad.

I had the same issue using swissdisk, easy to fix... It should work for MobileMe also...

Just email yourself the link to the ics file. Iphone OS3 will sort the rest out once you click on the link in the iphone email. I used the following...


[url]https://disk.swissdisk.com/YOURUSERNAME/DueSoon.ics[/url]

It doesn't work with gmx.net, the normal webdav sync does though.
I'm not able to send my login information to the Calendar when I tap the Subscribe in Calendar button. I fill in my login information but the panel comes right back and asks again. Tried it several times and made no mistake.
Gmx.net doesn't support https so I'm using [url]http://mediacenter.gmx.net/[/url] as the webdav link in omnifocus, perhaps this is causing the problem?

more info in calendar notes?
 

when actions are added to the calendar, it would be useful if notes were added to the calendar in addition to links to the action in omnifocus. for example, if i'm scheduled to call someone, i should be able to click on the phone number in the note without having to switch to omnifocus.

bbebop, we're using the calendar events strictly as a way to get notifications; we don't intend to rely on this as a long-term solution. When/if Apple adds on-phone notification options, we're likely to replace this feature with them.

Basically, the intended workflow is to jump back to OmniFocus and initiate the call from there. If you add the phone number to the note field of the action, you'll be able to do this.

How to unsubscribe from the calendar? I wrongly subscribed twice and now I have two calendars and two notifications.
Thanks

How to unsubscribe from a calendar? I wrngly subscribed twice so now I have two calendars and two notifcations.
Thanks

Heh, that's a funny question to get a duplicate post on.

You should be able to remove the extra calendar by going to the iPhone home screen, then [I]Settings[/I], then [I]Mail, Contacts, Calendars[/I]. From there you can select the extra subscription and delete it.

Hi Brain,
I am have one issue with syncing reminders. Seems like the calender does not update the reminders until i go to the calender app and view the reminders. Then suddenly the reminders popup. And then only i get the reminders.

Ajay556, I'm unsure if the Calendar application is one of the apps that Apple allows to run in the background, so launching it from time to time to make sure it updates your calendar from the server is probably a good idea.

[QUOTE=ajay556;63733]Then suddenly the reminders popup. And then only i get the reminders.[/QUOTE]

Can you explain in a bit more detail what you're seeing? I'm not really sure what you're describing. Sorry.

ajay556,

If you go to Home screen → Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendar → Fetch New Data, what is your setting for the fetch schedule? Because OF is just creating a calendar file on your iDisk or other WebDAV server, I don't think the push setting applies. I think you have to set up a Fetch frequency other than "Manually" for the alerts to update.

That worked
 

Thanks curt. Brian the issue is that under mail, contacts, calender settings my "Fetch New Data" was set to manual. So calender reminders are not updated, untill i open the calender app. But it works if i set the "Fetch New Data" to a specific update cycle.

Is it possible to have the alert time be `All Day' on iCal?

Michael

[QUOTE=mmurray;63956]Is it possible to have the alert time be `All Day' on iCal?

Michael[/QUOTE]

How would you see this working? Isn't the idea of having 'All Day' events because they only appear on a specific day, rather than a specific day and a specific time?

[QUOTE=Greg Jones;63957]How would you see this working? Isn't the idea of having 'All Day' events because they only appear on a specific day, rather than a specific day and a specific time?[/QUOTE]

I'm thinking about things like `Pay Mastercard 2/11/2009' I don't need to pay it at a certain time -- just on that day. In iCal the All-Day events appear at the top of the window so I use them as `Any Time Today' event's.

So I guess ideally there would be an option in OF for not selecting a due time but just selecting All Day. Not quite sure what that would do in OF.

Michael

Without trying to sound flippant-I'm seriously curious-isn't managing tasks such as this exactly why one would want to use OmniFocus in the first place?

[QUOTE=Greg Jones;63962]Without trying to sound flippant-I'm seriously curious-isn't managing tasks such as this exactly why one would want to use OmniFocus in the first place?[/QUOTE]

Sure but the idea of the calendar alerts is, I guess, so you can see the OF alerts in iCal. For some of these mapping to a specific time doesn't make a lot of sense for me.

Michael

solved for me
 

I've solved my problem, now I'm able to see my omnifocus calendar

I've switched off the exchange sync, now I'm syncing to my google calendar via caldav.
and now I've also been able to subscribe to the omnifocus calendar on my swiss account. it seems that with exchange sync on, you cannot subscribes to other kind of calendar

hope this helps

davide

Exchange causes problems with DueSoon.ics
 

Hi there - I've posted in another thread that Exchange seems to break the DueSoon.ics sync. Details in my other post here...

--UPDATE--
I've updated that post - seems to be working, even with Exchange back on...

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=63999&postcount=23[/url]

Cheers

totally lost
 

:(

Okay, I have tried to wade through this. Been avoiding doing it, but then saw a post on tuaw that was critical of it and decided to bite the bullet.

I have been using Swissdisk for a while to sync. I followed the instructions and it all seemed so simple until I got to the point of "Subscribe to Calendar"
and when I tapped that I got,

---
Cannot Subscribe
Could not subscribe to the calendar
"DueSoon.ics" from
"disk.swissdisk.com".
----

I have tried to wade through the comments but not sure if any of it is relevant. I logged in to my swissdisk account and see that there is a new file created there called "DueSoon.ics" that appear fine.

I am at a loss what to do.

update: I tried what Marcopolo suggested
mail
[url]https://disk.swissdisk.com/YOURUSERNAME/DueSoon.ics[/url]
and it did successfully subscribe my iPhone iCal to Reminders calendar on swissdisk but it did NOT change what happens above when I go into Omnifocus. It does NOT solve the problem I have described. Still get the same message above when trying to subscribe in Omnifocus settings.

[QUOTE=kbs1138;64240]:(

Okay, I have tried to wade through this. Been avoiding doing it, but then saw a post on tuaw that was critical of it and decided to bite the bullet.

I have been using Swissdisk for a while to sync. I followed the instructions and it all seemed so simple until I got to the point of "Subscribe to Calendar"
and when I tapped that I got,

---
Cannot Subscribe
Could not subscribe to the calendar
"DueSoon.ics" from
"disk.swissdisk.com".
----

I have tried to wade through the comments but not sure if any of it is relevant. I logged in to my swissdisk account and see that there is a new file created there called "DueSoon.ics" that appear fine.

I am at a loss what to do.

update: I tried what Marcopolo suggested
mail
[url]https://disk.swissdisk.com/YOURUSERNAME/DueSoon.ics[/url]
and it did successfully subscribe my iPhone iCal to Reminders calendar on swissdisk but it did NOT change what happens above when I go into Omnifocus. It does NOT solve the problem I have described. Still get the same message above when trying to subscribe in Omnifocus settings.[/QUOTE]

The following worked for me:

Press 'Settings' then 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars.'
Select 'Add Account' then 'Other'
Select 'Add Subscribed Calendar'
Type [url]https://disk.swissdisk.com/YOURUSERNAME/DueSoon.ics[/url]
Then enter Username and Password
DONE!

[QUOTE=kbs1138;64240]
update: I tried what Marcopolo suggested
[url]https://disk.swissdisk.com/YOURUSERNAME/DueSoon.ics[/url]
and it did successfully subscribe my iPhone iCal to Reminders calendar on swissdisk but it did NOT change what happens above when I go into Omnifocus. It does NOT solve the problem I have described. Still get the same message above when trying to subscribe in Omnifocus settings.[/QUOTE]

Sorry for the confusion, KBS1138 - once you subscribe to the calendar via the separate process that Marcopolo suggested, the step you're having a problem with is no longer required.

Basically, that method is works around the problem by subscribing you in a different way. It doesn't fix the problem that's preventing OmniFocus from doing so, but the end results should be the same. OmniFocus creates calendar events when it syncs, and the calendar app grabs them.

Hi Brian,
I switched from mobileme to swissdisk. But i had to do a manual subscription from ipone settings as stated in this thread. I do get all the alerts. But with mobileme my alerts would be removed once the time/day passed. It seems like with swissdisk, it is not deleting old alerts. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ajay556, my understanding is that each sync of the phone should update the calendar for the any uncompleted events that have due dates attached. Once the action has been completed, deleted, or had the due date changed, OmniFocus will push the change to the calendar file with your next sync.

How quickly the calendar app picks up on the change depends on your settings in
Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Fetch New Data
of course.

I've got push notification on, and when I make a change in OmniFocus, sync it, and then switch to the Calendar app, I see the new due date in the Calendar pretty much straight away. I'm using MobileMe, though.

Question for Ajay556: what exactly are you seeing? Items that are rescheduled have notifications at both the old and new times? Items that are completed early still notify you, even after you sync OmniFocus? Something else?

Question for other folks on the forums: if you're also using SwissDisk, are you seeing this behavior as well?

Just a feature request relevant to this… Omni Focus will be my perfect app when I can set the reminders to any period I want (like 3 days before) and then reset them as they come up so that I have advance notification & still have reminders as the due date draws near… Until then I'm stuck with Now Up to Date for to do's that require this type of reminder & now iPhone part ;-( Love the product, would just like to see this added…

Fixed it! Never mind. Love this app

Fantastic. Just what I wanted. Merci a mille fois.

[QUOTE=TropicalFool;65214]Just a feature request relevant to this… Omni Focus will be my perfect app when I can set the reminders to any period I want (like 3 days before) and then reset them as they come up so that I have advance notification & still have reminders as the due date draws near… Until then I'm stuck with Now Up to Date for to do's that require this type of reminder & now iPhone part ;-( Love the product, would just like to see this added…[/QUOTE]

No problem there. Upon being notified open the task and just change the date and time to the new one. What's the difficulty in that?

On the iPhone, the Calendar app won't let you set an alarm that is more than 2 days before the event - does this count as a difficulty? ;)

I hate that app!

Can the alarm be individually selected?
 

Is there a way to only sync/alarm those few items I want on my calendar?

I want to keep some clutter off my calendar, save for those to-do's I find urgent enough to need an alarm or notification.

this was really nice for me. It actually worked very smooth and fast... Calendar reminders are most useful for me in this application.. thanks a lot...

changing the language...
 

hello,

I need at least to change the language in Omnifocus reminders;
I'll try to explain: the word chosen to say "duesoon" in Italian is toooo long, it really steals room estate on the iphone... there is a possibility to change the word itself or, at least, to change the chosen language?

thanks

Alessandro

Alessandro, if you have suggestions for a shorter word, that would be great. Email the [EMAIL="omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]support ninjas[/EMAIL] and they can add the suggestion to the development database. Thanks!

thanks, Brian... I will!
in the meantime there is a way to choose the OF language?

Alessandro-
I believe there was support built into the app for forcing it to use a different language at some point. I'm honestly not sure if that's still in there or how to trigger it. (It's after office hours at the moment, and the folks that would know aren't available.)

I'm really sorry, but if you email the [EMAIL="omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]support ninjas[/EMAIL], they'll be able to get you an answer ASAP.

[QUOTE=amelchi;68450]thanks, Brian... I will!
in the meantime there is a way to choose the OF language?[/QUOTE]

You can change the language used by OmniFocus for iPhone by following the special links on the [URL="http://people.omnigroup.com/kc/DebugOmniFocus/ChangeLanguage.html"]Change OmniFocus Language[/URL] page.

thanks!
is it possible to change language even on the mac app?

[QUOTE=amelchi;68687]thanks!
is it possible to change language even on the mac app?[/QUOTE]

Certainly! See [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=64977#post64977"]this thread[/URL] for details.

Please please please allow the "Due Soon: Export" feature allow longer alarm times (like 2 days before, or 1 day before, day of, etc.)

This will force my ToDo's in my face! (which is what I need)

I take omnifocus ONLY on the iphone and do not need to be synchronized via internet. How do I make a sound notifications for my task or project?

Short answer: you can't currently.

Synchronizing calendars via a WebDAV server is the only way to get alerts. See the multiple posts in this and other threads for a description of why this is the case.

Hello
I don't understand how do work the "remove warnings" in the OmniFocus Reminders settings...it is meant to remove warnings from the calendar or...?

thanks

Alessandro

Alessandro, if you let me know the specific text from OmniFocus' Italian localization you're having trouble with, I'll be happy to take a look and sort out what the control does.

There are controls in that panel that would stop the app from syncing any more events to your server, but I don't think that actually removes anything from the server...

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;63308]If you sync desktop and iPhone before the notification time, yes, you'll get the notification.

Apparently this is on the list for 1.7, with sneaky peeks due out Real Soon Now.[/QUOTE]

....but in order to get notification on iPhone, you have to:

1. enter task in Omnifocus-Mac and sync with WebDav
2. open Omnifocus-iPhone and sync with WebDav

..Otherwise you won't receive calendar notification on iPhone. I tested that...although it should work without the described steps, as Omnifocus-Mac does update the WebDav server and iPhone calendar does sync with the same WebDav-server.

thanks Brian,

it is under "Usa SSL"
"Rimuovi avvisi" in italian...

Alessandro

[QUOTE=fire00;70901]....but in order to get notification on iPhone, you have to:

1. enter task in Omnifocus-Mac and sync with WebDav
2. open Omnifocus-iPhone and sync with WebDav
[/quote]
No, if you enter it on OmniFocus-Mac with current software (1.7.5) it will not get synced to the WebDAV calendar until it is first synced to the OmniFocus-iPhone because only the OmniFocus-iPhone client writes to that calendar at the moment.
[quote]
..Otherwise you won't receive calendar notification on iPhone. I tested that...although it should work without the described steps, as Omnifocus-Mac does update the WebDav server and iPhone calendar does sync with the same WebDav-server.[/QUOTE]

See above. Only the iPhone app currently updates the calendar, not the desktop version. It is not necessary to have the desktop application to get these notifications. I entered an action with a due date half an hour in the future on my iPod, synced it, and got the calendar warning 5 minutes before the due date, just as configured, even though I didn't have OmniFocus running on my Mac at the time. The thing to watch out for is that the calendar app on the iPhone has enough time to do one of its syncs and pull over the updated calendar before the notification time arrives, or you won't get your notification.

[QUOTE=amelchi;70907]thanks Brian,
it is under "Usa SSL"
"Rimuovi avvisi" in italian...
[/QUOTE]

Aha! You're talking about the panel in Settings.app, as opposed to one of the panels in OmniFocus. I understand now. :-)

If you enable that option, iCal on your phone will create events based on the calendar file we put on the server, but will ignore the alarms that the file says should go along with them.

Does that help?

thanks Brian...

but...
there is a way (an applescript) to transfer an OF task to an Ical event keeping the OF context (not creating events in a new, dedicated, calendar...)?
thanks
Alessandro

iCal requires that events or to-dos be assigned to one of the calendars that it knows about. Because of this limitation, the only way to do this would be to make calendars in iCal that match up with your OmniFocus contexts.

yes thanks... that I know!
what I meant is to keep the OF context (already linked to an Ical Calendar...!) and not to create events in a special calendar (OF-reminders for instance...)
eg.:
if I have an OF task in the @call context and I want to create an event from that can I keep the @call context/calendar in Ical instead of creating the event in Ical in a different calendar (OF-reminders was your name...)?

thx

Alessandro

Are you talking about the reminders that get put in to support notifications on the iPhone/iPod? It sounds like Brian is talking about the OmniFocus<->iCal sync on the desktop. The direction of this thread has wandered around quite a bit; it would be helpful to start new threads for new topics!

Amelchi - what's going on here is that the iPhone exports the Reminders calendar. It contains reminder events for any action that has a due date set, regardless of what context that action is tied to.

This lets you get reminders for all your due events on your iPhone or Blackberry, but in the same way that iCal won't accept events [I]without[/I] a calendar, they can't be tied to [I]multiple[/I] calendars.

If you do want to see what the context was for an action exported to that calendar, there's a URL embedded in the calendar entry which will take you to that action in OmniFocus if tapped...

dear whpalmer4,
dear Brian,

you both are right...
It is OmniFocus<->iCal sync on the desktop.
it needed a new thread...but...
I did started a new thread and nobody answer...!
[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=70908#post70908[/url]

keep waiting!

amelchi

Whoops! We try to browse the forums as much as we're able, but we can't promise that we'll be able to post a response in every thread. If you ever need a guaranteed response from one of our folks, send an email from the help menu and we'll be happy to assist.

That said, I added a response in the other thread - sorry I missed it before!

thanks,

you're always very kind!
happy new year!

How can I set this up on an iCal Server? I tried syncing but got an error.

Hmm. Do you think there might be any possible value in telling us what the error was? :)

error message
 

i guess that would helpful (sorry):

The mail.heyday.us server returned “method not allowed” (405) in response to a request to “PROPFIND /OmniFocus.ofocus”.

That sounds like an error from attempting to sync the OmniFocus database, not the file where the calendar alerts are stored (OmniFocus-Reminders.ics).

Probably your best bet is to work on this with the support ninjas, who can talk to the developers to analyze what is happening. They'll probably walk you through getting the console log from the iPhone to get a more detailed picture of what is happening.

Sync with iCAL
 

Is there a reason that if I subscribe to the calendar in iCal that the reminders do not show up?

I noticed that there was mention of this being added to the desktop version as well, I *always* have omni-focus up on the desktop so syncing to the calendar from there would be more beneficial?

Hello

are the reminders that appear in Ical supposed to disappear after I mark a task as done in OF (iphone)?
thanks

Alessandro

Yes, but it can take a while depending on your settings. The iPhone needs to do another sync, at which time it will update the OmniFocus reminders calendar file. Then your calendar app needs to fetch the updated calendar file. How quickly that takes place depends on your settings for refreshing the calendar.

iCal reminders not updated when task is edited
 

Let's say I have a task with title "Tune the piano", due date 1/1/2010 and due time 10:00.

Upon syncing via MobileMe, an event titled "Due: Tune the piano" is created in the OmniFocus-Reminders.ics calendar , with the same due day and time. So far so good.

Unfortunately, if I later change the title of the task to "Tune the harp", or if I modify the due date or time, the changes are not reflected to iCal.

As you understand, this is a serious bug—bad things can happen when reminders do not work as expected!

(Unless I am doing something wrong?)

Thank you.

Can I ask for an official answer from the Omni guys:

If I add/modify tasks with reminders on the Mac, do I need to run OF on the iPhone for the reminders to be added/updated? Or is a regular iPhone calendar sync sufficient?

Thank you.

Happy to help! The calendar file is updated during OmniFocus' sync process, so launching the app isn't by itself sufficient. (Unless the launch triggers an auto-sync, I suppose.)

The MobileMe calendar sync process doesn't know anything about OmniFocus' database, so a MobileMe calendar sync can't change the actions inside the app. OmniFocus does the work of reading in the calendar file, making any necessary changes to the OF database, and then pushing a new calendar file up to the server.

Thank you, Brian.

Allow me also to ask for one more clarification: I presume that, if I create a task with a reminder on the iPhone version of OF, and my Mac is turned off, the reminder will still be created in the iPhone calendar?

I guess my problem is this: I subscribed to the OF .ics calendar on my iPhone (tapping on Mail, Contacts & Calendars>Add an account>Other>Subscribe) as instructed by Omni. However, since iPhone OS 3.1, MobileMe automatically does sync calendars one has subscribed to through the desktop version of iCal. As a result, I got two version of the "OmniFocus Reminders" calendar on my iPhone: One from the direct subscription on the iPhone, and one from the desktop subscription via MobileMe.

Worrying that having duplicate reminder calendars would result to, well, duplicate reminder alarms, I followed Apple's instructions at [URL="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3634"]http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3634[/URL]

Here is the most relevant excerpt: [QUOTE]"Note: If you manually added a subscribed calendar on your iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.0 or later, after updating to 3.1, your subscribed calendars may now appear twice if you have that subscribed calendar in iCal and are syncing with MobileMe. You can safely delete the calendar added directly on the iPhone or iPod touch by going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tapping on the name of the calendar, and then tapping Delete Account."[/QUOTE]

After following Apple's advice, however, and waiting for some time, I don't see my OF reminders getting synced to the iPhone.

So, all in all: How does reminder syncing work with iPhone 3.1? Do we get a duplicate OF reminder calendar (and hence duplicate reminders) or do we delete the old-fashioned subscription and receive the reminder calendar on the iPhone via MobileMe, as per Apple?

Thank you for clarifying. This is making me crazy. I wish Omni had come up with a healthier approach to reminders.

[QUOTE=macula;72162]Let's say I have a task with title "Tune the piano", due date 1/1/2010 and due time 10:00.

Upon syncing via MobileMe, an event titled "Due: Tune the piano" is created in the OmniFocus-Reminders.ics calendar , with the same due day and time. So far so good.

Unfortunately, if I later change the title of the task to "Tune the harp", or if I modify the due date or time, the changes are not reflected to iCal.

As you understand, this is a serious bug—bad things can happen when reminders do not work as expected![/QUOTE]

There's no bug. If you change that task's title, when OmniFocus does its next sync it will attempt to propagate the change to the reminders calendar. Whether the calendar app on the iPhone/iPod Touch or iCal gets that change in a timely fashion is dependent on factors outside of Omni's control, such as your settings for fetching data in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars settings. Also, if you've turned off auto-sync on the iPhone, you'll have to remember to do a sync if you want the calendar updated.

[quote]
Allow me also to ask for one more clarification: I presume that, if I create a task with a reminder on the iPhone version of OF, and my Mac is turned off, the reminder will still be created in the iPhone calendar?[/quote]
Yes, the Mac is not involved in the process with OF 1.7.5 or earlier. The iPhone app modifies the calendar on the MobileMe server directly. One of the features planned for 1.8 is similar code for the Mac application, to get the change out there more expeditiously (and help out those people using only the Mac application, of course). You'll still be dependent on the calendar application on the device you are using fetching the new calendar data in a timely fashion.

[quote]
I wish Omni had come up with a healthier approach to reminders.
[/quote]

Like what? Apple currently doesn't provide developers the means to put up notifications without relying on an internet connection to a server and/or the application running at the time of the notification. The Omni approach has predictable behavior, and works for both iPhone and iPod Touch users (and Mac users, too!) If Apple gives them the tools needed to implement a better solution, I'm sure the Omni developers will put them to good use.

Thanks whpalmer4!

Unfortunately, my reminder sync woes are not over. I think the problem originates in this:

[URL="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3634"]http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3634[/URL]

As explained in this document, calendars subscribed to on iCal are actually *pushed* to the cloud (and the iPhone) by MobileMe. So, as of iPhone OS 3.1, there is no need to manually and separately subscribe to the calendar on the iPhone. Actually, manually subscribing will result to duplicate OmniFocus calendars on the iPhone.

In practice, however, this works horribly: It takes hours, literally, for OmniFocus reminders to be pushed to the iPhone, and therefore I cannot trust that my system works.

The alternative is to use the "old" method (manual subscription), and tolerate the duplicate calendar. However, in that case, I risk receiving duplicate reminder alerts on the iPhone, which can be quite confusing.

Perhaps OmniGroup could jump in and update their sync instructions in light of the Apple Support Document above.

Any comments? Thank you very much.

Again, I think you need to check your settings. I use this system every day, and I get rapid updates. It's easy to test, too. Make a change to a due item, do the sync, look at the Documents folder on MobileMe. The last modification date on the OmniFocus-Reminders.ics file should be the same as that on the OmniFocus.ofocus file. At that point, OF's work is done. So, the questions are:

1) is the OmniFocus sync taking place, and the OmniFocus-Reminders.ics file being updated?
2) is everything configured appropriately so that MobileMe can propagate the changes to all the apps and devices as quickly as possible?

Thanks again.

Did you have the chance to take a look at the Apple document? I realized that the procedure outlined there does not work as expected, or at least it doesn't work with frequently changing calendars like that of OmniFocus reminders.

So, in the end I gave up on the idea of receiving reminders both on my iPhone and on the Mac (which I had somehow taken for granted would be the case), and subscribed the iPhone to the reminders calendar in the old fashioned way (i.e. MobileMe not pushing any updates to the device, but rather the device pulling any changes either manually or at preset intervals).

At least now I do not have a duplicate reminder calendar on the iPhone, as I did earlier. Changes are also synced from the iDisk to the iPhone calendar in a predictable and consistent manner.

If MobileMe treated calendar subscription as equal citizens to the regular calendars, I would have been perfectly happy. The current solution is not bad, but there is certainly room for improvement.

Worked like a dream!
 

Thank you for adding the iPhone alarm functionality. I followed your set up instructions and voila! Good to go.

Cheers!
ST

I realize this post may be dead, so I'm hoping I get a response. I set this up a few months ago and it seemed my calendar was literally FILLED with reminders, and got very cluttered. Does this bother anyone who is doing this?

Since my calendar was very cluttered, (espiecially since all tasks default to 8am if you don't change the time), I went the Prowl/Growl route: Use Growl on your Mac, and Prowl on your iPhone/iPad. Works like a charm (as long as your Mac is on).

Has this process improved so the calendar is not cluttered?

It only clutters your calendar if you put a due date on everything...

Which I definitely do.... Almost all of the hundreds of tasks I have in OF probably have due dates!

it would be nice if somehow the calendar reminders could be exported to iCal calendar for google calendar, now that would be bliss

Hi,

This is strange. The setting to turn this feature on certainly appeared once since I had turned it on in the past. Now i'm trying to turn it on again and there is no such setting in the settings page.

Any ideas what could cause this?

Regards,
Barry

Barry, the calendar notification feature was primarily used as a way to work around the lack of local notifications in iOS 3 and earlier. (Meaning alerts that don't require a server of any sort; everything happens "locally" on the device.)

If your device is running iOS 4, you're going to want to use them instead. You can enable them in the "Notifications" section of OmniFocus' settings screen.

OK thanks.

But will it allow me to have a full calendar view of my Due items if I use the other approach?

When I managed to turn on the calendar feature I was thrilled. I could go into iCal and get a visual sense of things.