FileMaker into iCal (without plugins)

by Chad Novotny on May 12, 2010, filed under: Get ( Answers )

Al asks:

Any hints on how to get appointments into iCal or Google calendars easily - without plug-ins? Mac would be fine, as I want this available on iPhone in the end.

Easy? Maybe… it depends on what you want to be able to do with it once it’s in iCal.

Getting FileMaker data into iCal, without a plugin, is possible using XML and XSLT publishing. myFMButler has a free FileMaker to vCal stylesheet. Yes, free. Using FileMaker Server and custom web publishing, use this tool to create a calendar to which you can subscribe from iCal. This is great if you just need to look up events, but if you also need to be able to create and edit appointments from iCal or your phone, you’re going to need something more.

Currently, I don’t know of any solution that doesn’t use plugins. But FileMaker-calendar-wizard John Sindelar, of SeedCode, has something in the works: Zulu iCal Server. I don’t know if you’d classify this as a plugin, but it looks pretty awesome, and doesn’t require a plugin in the FileMaker client.

And I’ll take this opportunity to mention DevCon 2010 in San Diego. I’ll be presenting a session on integrating FileMaker with Google Apps, and getting FileMaker data into Google calendars (and back to FileMaker) is one of the big goals, of course. I’ll admit I’m going to be using a plugin, but it’s free... does that count?

Al Spiegleman
05/12/2010

Can’t get to DevCon, but a plugin would work if it was free and cross platform (my partner insists on using windows machines - I am all Mac). We are a small company (DSL provider in CO) with a very complex home-grown database that does almost everything that we need to do except get our schedule out to our iphones. We are using filemaker (no server) for day-to-day operations, and I have a scheduling module built in, but still haven’t found a way to get it out to the “net” so that it can be seen while in the field on the phones.

Have investigated almost all solutions out there, but all seem either too expensive or too hard to deal with. Looking forward to something that can do this easily.

Tim Cimbura
06/04/2010

I regularly push events from FileMaker into iCal using some AppleScripts I wrote. They do not require a plug-in. It’s a one-way thing going from FileMaker to iCal.

The scripts are included as part of fmIgnite. http://www.fmignite.com

You can use Spanning Sync or Google sync to then synchronize with iCal and you’ve got calendar entries in both places. They’ll automatically appear on the iPhone with MobileMe or when synced to the Mac with iCal.

Log in as a member to comment...

FileMaker into iCal (without plugins)

Got Questions?

Log In

Categories

Most Recent Entries

Locations