How is the iCal sync supposed to work?
 

Just some basic questions.

Should my contexts be separate calendars in iCal.

Or, should I create a new calendar in iCal (e.g. Omnifocus) and have all tasks feed/sync into it. If this is the case you can't change the colors of the contexts while in iCal and only placing the context in the title to separate.

Any insight?

The contexts become the calendars in iCal. You shouldn't have to do anything in iCal - just create your work in OF and sync. However, there seem to be a number of folks having problems with syncing to iCal with some recent versions of OF. Also, I'm not sure if these problems are due to Leopard iCal or Tiger iCal.

[QUOTE=pvonk;24125]The contexts become the calendars in iCal. You shouldn't have to do anything in iCal - just create your work in OF and sync.[/QUOTE]

This is no longer the case with recent builds (since Oct. 28 according to the MOTD). You now create calendars in iCal and use the Sync preference pane in OmniFocus to determine which contexts sync to which calendars. There's a new option to prefix your tasks with @[context], allowing you to use one, or a few, iCal calendars to sync several contexts.

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;24162]You now create calendars in iCal and use the Sync preference pane in OmniFocus to determine which contexts sync to which calendars. There's a new option to prefix your tasks with @[context], allowing you to use one, or a few, iCal calendars to sync several contexts.[/QUOTE]

what's your experience with this? any issues?

[QUOTE=c.nick;24377]what's your experience with this? any issues?[/QUOTE]

Though I haven't tested things extensively, I think there is an issue with actions that have a colon in them. The material in front of the colon was deleted during a sync in at least one of my tasks.

Otherwise, it works well, and plays nicely with my Palm (which I sync using Missing Sync) and DateBk6, so I can carry my on-the-go task list with me.

I just did a more thorough test and I reported the following to Omni:

Dear OmniFocus team,

I've just started to use iCal synchronizing, and I've noticed a bug.

If there is a colon in a task, and the task is altered in iCal (or on my Palm), the material before the colon is deleted.

Example: I create a new task with the name "New task: what happens to text before the colon?" in my Library context, in my default task bucket (called "Miscellany").

I then sync with iCal. In iCal the task shows up as follows: "@Library: New task: what happens to text before the colon? [Miscellany]"

Scenario A: I now check off that task. When I sync, the task is deleted from iCal as it should be, but it appears in OmniFocus, completed, as simply "what happens to text before the colon?"

Scenario B: I edit the text, e.g. by adding "fnord" before the question mark. When I sync, the task appears in OmniFocus as "what happens to text before the colon fnord?" In iCal it now appears as "@Library: what happens to text before the colon fnord?"

In either scenario, data are lost--everything before the colon. I discovered this when I had a task to pick up a book at the library. The author and title were before the colon, and the call number after it. I knew what had been there, but I could imagine a scenario in which the data that are lost might be irretrievable (other than by restoring from a backup, which I know all alpha testers keep religiously...).

Best,
Brian

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;24451]Though I haven't tested things extensively, I think there is an issue with actions that have a colon in them. The material in front of the colon was deleted during a sync in at least one of my tasks.
[/QUOTE]

I've been avoiding syncing OF since I saw this bug report. I use colons in all my @Agenda tasks to identify the person I need to speak with.

Since I haven't seen any further feedback or response on this, I guess I'll bite the bullet and try syncing. Oh, well, that's the price of having access to this alpha, which I am loving.

(I just posted this over in the [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=5512"]Lost titles...[/URL] thread, but I thought it was also relevant here.)

The 94428 build (which will be posted in about 20 minutes) fixes some problems with synchronization an action's name with iCal, particularly for actions which have no project specified or which include a colon or brackets as part of the name.

If you're still seeing issues in 94428 or later, please let us know!