iCalendar Subscribe & TPcal Help

Since my release of the iCalendar Subscribe widget I have received many e-mails with questions as to its use and its ties to TPcal. Up to this point I've been responding to each e-mail individually, but hopefully this will help to explain everything. First and foremost, TPcal and iCalendar Subscribe are two separate programs. I will explain what they are individually and then explain how to use them together.

iCalendar

iCalendar is a standard (RFC 2445) for calendar data exchange. There is frequently confusion as Apple has a calendar program called "iCal". I know it is confusing, but the iCal program is a stand-alone calendar program on Macintosh computers. It can used to create and manage local calendars, or to subscribe to iCalendar files on the internet. iCalendar files frequently end in the extension ".ics". If you were to open an iCalendar file in a text editor you would see something to the effect of

...
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20070221T200000
DTEND:20070221T220000
SUMMARY:Title of Event
DESCRIPTION:Short description of event
END:VEVENT
...

TPcal

TPcal is an online calendar program I wrote as my senior year capstone project. Think of it as Outlook calendar, but on the internet, and completely free. You can learn a bit more about TPcal here. Now, one of the features of TPcal is that it will provide you with a link to use for iCalendar subscriptions. To find that link for your own calendars, go to the "home" page (top-left link when you are logged in). If your calendar is public there will be a "public" link next to it. Simply right click that link and copy the URL. If the calendar is not public, you can make it public by clicking on the "Settings" link. If you are viewing a public calendar of another user (not your own calendar), the iCalendar Subscription Link appears at the bottom of the page.

iCalendar Subscribe Widget

On Mac OS X, I wanted to be able to view iCalendar files from the Internet in the dashboard. Since there didn't seem to be any widget that already provided this functionality, I wrote it myself. Its not just for TPcal calendars, its for any iCalendar file on the internet.

I hope this page has helped to clarify some things. If you are still having trouble, or would like me to add some additional clarification to this page, please send me and e-mail, and I will respond as soon as possible