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How to subscribe to WebDAV published calendars

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Mark Foley

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I want to subscribe to a WebDAV published calendar using Lightening (4.0.4.1). Not sure how to do that and haven't found much help searching. I have an invitation from the publishing party in the form of a URL: webcals://mydom.com/calendars/Office_Calendar_Calendar.ics. In Outlook, clicking that link subscribes me to the calendar and it appears in my list of Calendars. Clicking that link from Tbird basically does nothing.

So ...

1) Can I subscribe to a WebDAV calendar, or only CalDAV calendars (as I understand things, these are different)?

2) If so, how do I do it?

I am using Lightening 4.0.4.1 with Thunderbird 38.4.0 on Ubuntu 15.10. The WebDAV server is Linux Slackware 14.0 with Apache 2.4.16. Note that Outlook users can subscribe to these calendars w/o problem.

THX

I want to subscribe to a WebDAV published calendar using Lightening (4.0.4.1). Not sure how to do that and haven't found much help searching. I have an invitation from the publishing party in the form of a URL: webcals://mydom.com/calendars/Office_Calendar_Calendar.ics. In Outlook, clicking that link subscribes me to the calendar and it appears in my list of Calendars. Clicking that link from Tbird basically does nothing. So ... 1) Can I subscribe to a WebDAV calendar, or only CalDAV calendars (as I understand things, these are different)? 2) If so, how do I do it? I am using Lightening 4.0.4.1 with Thunderbird 38.4.0 on Ubuntu 15.10. The WebDAV server is Linux Slackware 14.0 with Apache 2.4.16. Note that Outlook users can subscribe to these calendars w/o problem. THX

Chosen solution

Since deep-sixing Exchange about a year ago our office has been living with WebDAV calendars which, yes, are read-only to the subscribers. The publisher, however, can update his/her own calendar and Outlook will update the server, and client-Outlooks will refresh the subscriber's copy. Not great, but without Exchange that's all Outlook has to offer.

I'm trying to move the office to Ubuntu and Thunderbird/Lightning but I have a problem. Even though Lightning let's me publish WebDAV calendars (as described above) it does not refresh future updates to the server, so no one sees anything other that what I initially published. Nevertheless, Lightning will update calendars published by others to which I've subscribed. Not being able to have *my* published calendars updated to the server when I make changes is a real problem. It means I cannot introduce Ubutnu/Thunderbird workstations gradually. I'd have to convert EVERYONE from WIN7/Outlook to Ubuntu so CalDAV could be used since a) Outlook does not support CalDAV and b) Lightning apparently only supports WebDAV as a subscriber. I've posted a message on this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1103384.

THIS, I think, *is* a bug. Getting subscribed updates to others' calendars is great, but what's up with not updating one's own published calendar on the server when one makes a change? If Lightning knows how to publish, it should know how to re-publish "on-change". Seems like a simple fix -- and an easy way to facility Outlook converts. I'll likely follow your advice and post a bugzilla!

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I have just spent far to much time trying to figure this out.. But I think the best approach may be to file a bug.

As I can reproduce this I have files bug 1237571

I encourage you to create a Bugzilla account if you do not already have one and add yourself to the cc list in the bug.

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Actually, I did figure it out. The calendar was already published from Outlook. The trick was to subscribe to it. The procedure is not intuitive, but here's what you do, in Thunderbird:

1. Calendar Tab 2. File > New > Calendar 3. Select 'On the network' 4. Select 'iCalendar (ICS)' (default), and enter location, e.g.: https://mydom.com/calendars/Office_Calendar.ics (this has to be the actual name of the calendar on the WebDAV server.

That worked. I had the calendar owner add an event and a hour or so later (Outlook's default refresh rate) it popped up on my Lightning!

To set up the whole thing from scratch (WebDAV server), here's a link: http://noodlecode.net/2010/02/thunderbird-calendar-webdav, but I didn't need to set the server up -- already had that.

Give that a shot!

Now the question is how to PUBLISH my calendar! I'll probably post a question on that soon if my experiments fail. (Note, I did publish, but it never updates on the server with new events)

Modified by Mark Foley

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Just changing the webdav:\\ to HTTP:\\ will always work, as the prior is just a method o allow automation of the linking to a calendar application. That is why I filed the bug, Thunderbird should do that, it used to.

Personally I dislike using ics as they are read only. caldav is read write.

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Chosen Solution

Since deep-sixing Exchange about a year ago our office has been living with WebDAV calendars which, yes, are read-only to the subscribers. The publisher, however, can update his/her own calendar and Outlook will update the server, and client-Outlooks will refresh the subscriber's copy. Not great, but without Exchange that's all Outlook has to offer.

I'm trying to move the office to Ubuntu and Thunderbird/Lightning but I have a problem. Even though Lightning let's me publish WebDAV calendars (as described above) it does not refresh future updates to the server, so no one sees anything other that what I initially published. Nevertheless, Lightning will update calendars published by others to which I've subscribed. Not being able to have *my* published calendars updated to the server when I make changes is a real problem. It means I cannot introduce Ubutnu/Thunderbird workstations gradually. I'd have to convert EVERYONE from WIN7/Outlook to Ubuntu so CalDAV could be used since a) Outlook does not support CalDAV and b) Lightning apparently only supports WebDAV as a subscriber. I've posted a message on this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1103384.

THIS, I think, *is* a bug. Getting subscribed updates to others' calendars is great, but what's up with not updating one's own published calendar on the server when one makes a change? If Lightning knows how to publish, it should know how to re-publish "on-change". Seems like a simple fix -- and an easy way to facility Outlook converts. I'll likely follow your advice and post a bugzilla!

Modified by Mark Foley