[sam_mcelhinney]

Hey there

We're a small architecture firm checking out OmniPlan for its project running possibilities.
I'm playing with how it syncs to iCal (using your trial download) but having a bit of an issue - whilst it is definitely syncing events and changes from Omni-Plan to iCal, it does not seem to import events *created* in iCal to Omniplan.

Is this a bug or (more likely) am I doing something wrong?

Best
Sam

[psidnell]

I'm running a trial and made the same observation, so it's not just you.

I initially assumed OP could slurp in a bunch of events from iCal, let me wire them up and then keep the two in sync (easy to say!). But that assumption was based on having not read any of the documentation :-) Also, in hindsight it doesn't make as much sense as it seems. In my case my "plan" would be full of birthdays, kids homework schedules, car servicing appointments and reminders to put out the recycling on the right day.

In practice I have got it to "export" a plan to iCal without too much trouble. I put export in quotes because it can't be a dumb export, it does have to sync in the sense that it must keep track of changes in the exported plan and move/update iCal entries as appropriate.

Perhaps the word sync - though technically accurate does give unreasonable expectations.

I did come across mention of a feature (which I haven't tried) where OP can sync with a calendar and use any events as your availability.

No doubt someone who knows what they're doing can enlighten us :-)

[tbo]

As a mere mortal: syncing only works against some sort of sync server - be it MobileMe, OmniSyncServer, or any other server that is supported by OP and supports the iCal-format. So syncing works by copying your data to the server and then copying down to all machines connected. Doing so, the app checks for the freshest data and loads them (or sends them to the server). This is basically what all syncing processes do.
For OP, you may want to create a special calender on your server (e.g. "job") to prevent syncing all your private stuff as well (important when you use Google calendar or MobileMe, but irrelevant when you use the OmniSyncServer).

[skwirl]

Originally Posted by sam_mcelhinney

Hey there

We're a small architecture firm checking out OmniPlan for its project running possibilities.
I'm playing with how it syncs to iCal (using your trial download) but having a bit of an issue - whilst it is definitely syncing events and changes from Omni-Plan to iCal, it does not seem to import events *created* in iCal to Omniplan.

Is this a bug or (more likely) am I doing something wrong?

Best
Sam

With the iCal Sync action, OmniPlan doesn't import newly created tasks from an iCal calendar. If you have 3 tasks in OmniPlan and set it up to publish to iCal, you'll see the 3 tasks in iCal. If you change the start dates of those 3 tasks in OmniPlan and publish again, it will be reflected in iCal. The syncing part comes into play if you move one of those task's start date to another date from within iCal. That change will be reflected in OmniPlan the next time you update.