Pika iCal User Guide
From PikaDocs
By Matthew Friedlander & Kate Foster
Pika Software (http://www.pikasoftware.com/)
| Table of contents |
Introduction
Pika CMS allows users to sync their Pika calendar with any desktop calendar program that is compatible with the iCal standard calendar protocol. Both Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Apple's iCal are fully iCal compatible. With this functionality, any changes made in Pika's calendar will automatically appear in the user's iCal or Outlook 2007 calendar. The following is a guide to assist users in setting up their calendaring software to synchronize with the built-in calendars in Pika CMS.
Requirements
As iCal is a relatively new standard only the most recent generation of calendaring programs has begun to support its use. As such Pika only supports the following calendaring packages and versions:
- Pika CMS 3.07+
- Outlook 2007+
- Apple iCal 2.05+
- Mozilla Sunbird 0.7+
Other calendaring programs may work but are not supported by this feature.
Obtaining your iCal Subscription Link
In order to set up your calendaring software you will be required to provide the internet location at which your calendar resides. These links are provided by Pika on the Subscribe to Calendar(iCal) links provided.
Click on this link and follow the instructions in the sections below to set up your particular calendaring software to view your Pika Calendar.
Outlook 2007 Setup
For Outlook 2007 users there is a specific link provided on this page. This is due to the fact that Outlook doesn't allow direct authentication to authorize you on the Pika CMS system. Right click on the link labeled "Outlook Link" and select Copy Link Location (or "Copy Link" in Mac Safari) from the menu.
Afterwards open Outlook 2007 if you have not already done so. From the top menu bar select "Tools->Account Settings...". This will open the Outlook Account manager. From the tabbed list select "Internet Calendars" and select the "Add" button at the upper left.
This will bring up the new account properties page. Paste the link that you copied earlier into this dialogue box (Ctr-v on Windows, Command-v on Mac). It wil appear as though you have pasted gibberish, this is normal, click on the "Add" button to continue.
Outlook will then present you with the Account Options page for this calendar. This will give you the chance to name the calendar as it will appear in your calendars in Outlook. Change the name to "Pika Calendar" or something similar to help you distinguish it from other calendars you may have. When you are finished simply click "OK" at the bottom to complete this process.
Assuming you don't receive any error messages you have now set up your Pika Calendar to synchronize with your other Outlook calendars. The items displayed on that calendar will be updated each time you initiate a "Send/Receive" in Outlook. The Calendar will appear in the "Other Calendars" section of Outlook 2007
Imported items will appear titled by the Summary field in Pika.
In the detail view of a calendar pika populates some of the common fields associated with a calendar entry, these include:
- Summary
- Notes
- Category
- Problem
- Case
- Funding
- A direct link to the calendar item
iCal subscriptions are by their nature Read-Only so in order to update a case note you need to click on the link in the Calendar item and edit the original entry in Pika directly. To see your updates propagated to Outlook you must update via "Send/Receive" (F9 key) in Outlook and it will update its copy off of Pika.
Apple iCal 2.05 Setup
For OSX iCal users there is a link provided on the Subscribe to Calendar (iCal) page titled "iCal & Sunbird Link". Right click on this link and select "Copy Link" (in Safari - or "Copy Link Location" in Firefox).
Now open iCal and on the right calendar pane (displaying your calendars) right click and select "Subscribe..."
This will open the Location dialogue box. In here paste the link you copied from the Subscribe to Calendar page.
Click on Subscribe. You will then be prompted for your Pika username and password. Enter them
After providing a valid Pika username & password iCal will give you the options page for this calendar. You can change this calendar's name and some of its behaviors. Once finished click "OK".
Your calendar setup is complete. You should now be seeing your Pika entries in the iCal page.
Mozilla Sunbird 0.7 Setup
Sunbird's setup is almost identical to iCal's setup. Simply copy the "iCal & Sunbird Link" from the Subscribe to Calendars page. Open Sunbird and in the right side pane listing your calendars right click and select "New Calendar". This will open the Create New Calendar wizard. On the first page it will prompt you to tell it whether this is a local or network calendar. Select "On the Network" and click next. On the next page it will ask you what type of remote calendar, select "iCalendar (ICS)" and paste the link that you copied earlier into the location box provided. Click Next to continue. It will ask you what you would like to name this calendar, enter Pika Calendar and select a color that you like to display it. Click Next to continue. A login box will pop up asking you for your username/password. Enter your Pika CMS username and password and click OK. Sunbird will then bring up the alarms triggered by the calendar entries and a final page in the wizard listing whether the calendar was set up successfully. Click Finish to continue.
From there you now have a Pika iCal Calendar subscription set up in Mozilla Sunbird.
Viewing Other Users' Calendars
It's also possible to subscribe and sync to colleagues' calendars. Depending on each organization's policies, if a user would like to share his or her calendar, they only need to follow the above instructions using the colleague's Pika username and password.
