Loading
BusyCal Help Icon

BusyCal User Guide

Table of Contents

Syncing calendars on a LAN

BusyCal allows you to sync calendars with other BusyCal users on your local area network using Bonjour zero-configuration networking. When syncing calendars on your LAN, any changes made by one user are automatically synchronized within seconds to all users on the network.

Lan2

BusyCal uses a publish and subscribe model, where users publish calendars on the LAN that others can subscribe to.

Publish

To publish a calendar on your LAN, control-click on the calendar and select Publish to LAN.

Publish To Lan

An icon will appear next to the calendar name indicating that it is being published.

Publish Icon

Publish Options

To set access privileges for the published calendar, double-click on the calendar to open the Calendar Info sheet. The Publish Options section allows you to specify the access privileges for a calendar by setting a combination of read-only and read-write passwords. When a user subscribes to a calendar they will be granted the appropriate privileges based on the password they enter.

Publish Info

There are four possible combinations of access privileges as follows:

Everyone can read and write — Leave both passwords blank to allow everyone full read-write access to your calendar without requiring a password.

Password A2

Everyone can read; Write protected — Leave the read-only password blank and enter a read-write password to allow everyone read access, while requiring a password for read-write access.

Password B2

Read and Write protected — Enter a password in both fields to require a password to read or edit your calendar. Use a different password for each so subscribers will be granted the appropriate privileges based on the password they enter (either a read-only password or read-write password).

Password C2

Read protected; No write access — Enter a read-only password and leave the read-write password blank to require a password for reading, while prohibiting write access.

Password D2

Once a calendar is being published on the LAN, other BusyCal users on the LAN can subscribe to it.

Subscribe

If a BusyCal user on your network is publishing calendars, the calendars will automatically appear in your source list in gray.

Subscribe Gray  Subscribed

You may subscribe to a calendar by clicking the checkbox next to its name and the events on that calendar will be synced to your computer. If the calendar is password protected, you’ll be prompted to enter a password for read-only or read-write access. If you have write privileges, you may edit events on that calendar and those changes will be synchronized with the host that is publishing the calendar.

Note: If calendars being published by others on your LAN do not appear in your source list, make sure that "Show Unsubscribed Calendars" is checked in the Calendar menu on your computer, and that the publisher has their system Firewall configured properly.

Subscribe Options

When subscribing to a calendar, all Events, To Dos, Alarms, and Attachments will be synced with your computer. If you wish, you can remove To Dos, Alarms and/or Attachments by double-clicking the calendar to open the Calendar Info sheet and selecting the appropriate Remove checkboxes.

Busycal Subscribe Options

Note: If you subscribe to a calendar with the same name as an existing calendar, a "(2)" will be appended to the subscribed calendar's name (e.g. "Home (2)"). You may rename a subscribed calendar by double-clicking the calendar and entering a new name in the Calendar Info sheet. The name change will only affect your computer and not the host that is publishing the calendar.

Unsubscribe

Once you've subscribed to a calendar, you can toggle the display of that calendar by checking its checkbox. Even when a subscribed calendar is not being displayed, it will remain in sync with the host. If you wish to unsubscribe, you may control-click the calendar and choose Unsubscribe.

Unsubscribe