[pjb]

There is nothing in this thread about the developers intentions except a desire to understand how you use OF "So that huge benefit to calendar syncing is gone, but I know a number of you are still using calendar syncing, so... What else are you using it for? Syncing with mobile devices which can't run OmniFocus? Sharing tasks with other people? Is there something we can add to OmniFocus which would solve your needs more directly, rather than trying to shore up this sinking stepping stone?"-KC

Couple that with the concept that OF and calendars serve distinct purposes and putting time/date sensitive tasks in OF directly is not considered among best practices for GTD it is not surprising that just CalDav syncing would be all that helpful.

Perhaps it would be helpful to post your workflow where and invite others to discuss ways to improve it and spark the imagining of new tools.

[FatalError]

Sry to not read 8 pages of this thread.

I don't really understand what's happening here. I had iCal Sync through a WebDAV (which also is used for syncing OF for Mac + iPhone. From that WebDAV I also used the due dates in a subscribed calendar so they show up in iCal, making it possible for me to plan around due dates. Imo, very essential process for an App trying to organize tasks + timing.

This still works on the mac, but on the iPhone I can't find the "Add subscribed calendar" option anymore. Am I blind? How am I supposed to get this working again on the iPhone. Currently all due dates are not up-to-date due to calendar on the iphone not having the subscribed calendar. Where can I add that?!?


UPDATE: Solution found: Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Add Account > Other > Subscribed Calendar

when using MyDrive enter
https://webdav.mydrive.ch/OmniFocus-Reminders.ics
then add your username + pw

This is the identical setup I have used in iCal to add that subscribed calendar.


Works great and is just what I need.

[mickglossop]

I, like many others contributing to this thread, like to see upcoming todo's and actions in a calendar view, either by day, week or month. This is what we get in iCal (and BusyCal, which is much better).

This is the reason we want good sync with OF. If OF had a calendar view, we wouldn't need iCal or BusyCal.

[Mr.Ric]

I really like OmniFocus, however I need to access this data from non Apple devices. I have been a Palm Pilot, since that was a device and long before GTD was a buzzword. Since OmniFocus synced with iCal it was an excellent source database for my project planning. This allowed me to update my projects from my Palm Devices and web browser via MobileMe. But this latest move has completely alienated my other PDA's, smartphone and Windows laptop. I am now becoming reliant on Evernote, which is everywhere I am and on every device I have 100% synced. Since OmniFocus has limited itself as an Apple proprietary app- well not even that now since it does not play with MobileMe anymore, I guess it has become a relic of the past. I don't use an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, but I do work in a Palm and PC world. OmniFocus was my core task collection, planning, tracking, and execution platform. The iCal sync was a hub for this critical plan to be disseminated to everywhere I went. When I got back to my Mac, it collected all of the resulting status of my events and collected new ones from my email. It was a bit extended, but the automation was real time saver and very efficient. But I guess that is what happens when I use to many cogs to reach me. Evernote seems to have overcome this OS platform and device limitation, but I am having to recreate what I already have in OmniFocus and was already tracked in MobileMe. I have been a long time user of BusyCAL and really like it for calendars. It was great to update my tasks from within the program while I used it knowing full well that my master database would be accurately updated. From what I can see the tasks since the upgrade are still on MobileMe and they reference a URL that has OmniFocus in it. If OmniFocus will not work in a way where it can be accessed on the Web (OS and device independent), then it is dead to me. :(

[kbaughman]

Ok so I got bumped from the other thread. I read all 8 pages and I have no clue why no pointed out that a calendar view is simply a better way to organize time, especially if others are involved. Like QWERTY, calendars may not be the best solution, but it's what everyone uses.

Ok so I want:

OF and Omniplan integration. I want to pick an OF project and then have the option to have that whole list of tasks show up in OP, complete with dependancies, gantt chart, etc. And I want to go backwards... if make a change in OP, for example finish a task, reassign a context, add subtasks, etc. I want that to show up in OF.

I want to publish some tasks or some contexts to my ical I want to be able to take a list of dated but untimed tasks and have them show up in iCal as allday events... but after I take the time to move those events to my schedule, I want those new data to show up in omnifocus.

For me, the context view is pretty useful, but the ultimate "context" view that runs my life is my calendar. Please don't make me enter data twice (I already have a weekly block dedicated to updating OP, OF, etc... not to remind myself but rather so others know that I am busy for that 2 hours.)

(For the record, Ical is a piece of crap. But at least I can have my ical calanders and gcal calenders. Plus they finally allowed others to update subscirbed calanders, or so apple claims. Saddest part of the iPhone/iPad success is how poorly the whole mobileme implementation sucks. Leave me be with my dot mac address. Thanks.)

Sure, I could hire an admin to do this for me, but I thought the whole point of technology was to reduce as much scutt work as possible.

Thank you I will take my answer off the air.

[profmadden]

I only check in on the forums occasionally, and it looks like the calendar discussion has been going on for a while. I just found the "publish due reminders as a calendar" option; good, but it only publishes a week in advance. I would like to be able to have due dates far into the future added too.

Some of my projects have deadlines that are months in advance. When planning travel, for example, it would be nice to see all of this in a calendar view (integrated with the other calendars that I subscribe to).

And a side note... On the Mac desktop calendar app, if I open the note section of a due item, I can highlight the URL, and get the related OmniFocus task to pop up. On the iPhone calendar application, the URL is already linked, and a simple click takes me there. On the iPad, it takes a copy, then into Safari, and a paste.

Much of the hassle would be eliminated if a calendar were added to OF. And if that happens, I'd love to see a continuous series of weeks, in addition to the standard day/week/month views. If I'm scheduling something towards the end of one month, it would be very useful to see the first couple of weeks of the next month. The "month" granularity is arbitrary, and not particularly useful.

(and thanks for everything you've already done. OF is a life saver!)

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by profmadden

I just found the "publish due reminders as a calendar" option; good, but it only publishes a week in advance. I would like to be able to have due dates far into the future added too.

That's there to give iPhone/iPad users reliable notifications in iOS 3.x without relying on network connectivity, before the advent of the local notifications in iOS 4. For the purpose, it doesn't make sense to be exporting dates very far into the future—it just needs to cover a reasonable amount of time that you might be without connectivity. Writing the dates much farther into the future would just slow down syncing, especially when you don't have a speedy upload. The entire reminder file has to be rewritten on each sync where anything with a due date changes. Also, it doesn't give an accurate picture where repeating actions are concerned, because only the next one is shown.

The due reminders calendar currently goes out 2 weeks, not 1.

[profmadden]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

That's there to give iPhone/iPad users reliable notifications in iOS 3.x without relying on network connectivity, before the advent of the local notifications in iOS 4. For the purpose, it doesn't make sense to be exporting dates very far into the future—it just needs to cover a reasonable amount of time that you might be without connectivity. Writing the dates much farther into the future would just slow down syncing, especially when you don't have a speedy upload. The entire reminder file has to be rewritten on each sync where anything with a due date changes. Also, it doesn't give an accurate picture where repeating actions are concerned, because only the next one is shown.

The due reminders calendar currently goes out 2 weeks, not 1.

That makes some sense; it there a better way to get long-range visibility of deadlines in a calendar view? For example, I've got research proposal deadlines that are close to a year out, and when planning travel and other things, I need to be aware of them. Many of the constraints that I have to work around come in through calendars that I subscribe to, so a "calendar view" seems the most reasonable solution.

I could presumably write a script that would periodically walk OF to get things with my "deadline" context, and then generate an iCal from that (any chance such a script already exists?), but it sort of feels cobbled together. I abandoned Linux years ago because I was tired of trying to stitch tools together with bailing wire, and I'd like to avoid going back to that life style.

[CatOne]

Originally Posted by profmadden

That makes some sense; it there a better way to get long-range visibility of deadlines in a calendar view? For example, I've got research proposal deadlines that are close to a year out, and when planning travel and other things, I need to be aware of them. Many of the constraints that I have to work around come in through calendars that I subscribe to, so a "calendar view" seems the most reasonable solution.

I could presumably write a script that would periodically walk OF to get things with my "deadline" context, and then generate an iCal from that (any chance such a script already exists?), but it sort of feels cobbled together. I abandoned Linux years ago because I was tired of trying to stitch tools together with bailing wire, and I'd like to avoid going back to that life style.

The forecast view on the iPad offers something similar Omni Group has stated they've heard this feedback and are thinking of ways the bring the functionality back into the desktop version of OmniFocus; this sounds like a good example of what that should cover.

What we don't have is a real timeframe for that yet. They said they wanted 2.0 in CY 2011, so I guess worst case 10 months ;-)

[robobo1]

I use cal syncing to access OmniFocus on non-supported platforms (Windows and Android).

We need a web app!