Calendar Sharing? Automate or Not?

iOS
1

hi Automators, I need help with this task if anyone can direct me

I have the same question posted in the MPU Forums but I am wondering if Automators is a better place for it technically.

I have several calendars for different accounts that I jump back and forth between with calendar sets on Fantastical which works great. I currently have a personal calendar and shared family calendar. On the family calendar, we just add stuff to that single calendar and color-code events (mine, my wife, whole family).

On my personal calendar, I add my parish appointments with some identifiable information or guidance notes. I have tried to share this calendar with my wife, so that she has the read ability and displays ‘busy’ without anything identifiable (which in theory I think works how it should).

  1. Is there a better way of doing this?
  2. Is there a way to customize ‘busy’ with say ‘At Church’ or something?

Initially, before using the personal calendar. I would just use the family calendar and write something like ‘Guidance Appointment with J.R.’ but that didn’t work so well.

For a while, I also tried not sharing my personal calendar. Keep all the information I need on my personal calendar, and then create new events in the family calendar that said I was unavailable, but that got repetitive.

Thoughts? How does everyone else manage their shared calendars?

2

It is not clear to me what you are asking for exactly. In automation terms are you asking for something about different platforms of calendar sharing, efficient ways to log calendar events, updating titles of existing events, or something else?

What is it that you are looking for a “better way of doing”?

What are the specifics of the issue(s) that you have and are lookin to resolve?

That would be something a calendar app would let you do, but it would only be for your own calendar, not anyone you share it with. See section 3.2.9 of the RFC for iCalendar.

It is possible to specify other types (x-name), but they will always be interpreted by ‘other’ applications as “BUSY”.

3

I guess my issue that I am trying to juggle…we use Google Calendar and we use Fantastical to access it.

Looking for best practices on keeping things clean and organized without being overwhelming for anyone.

  • easy way to share appointments with family while keeping things confidential
  • manage our homeschooling calendar to be seen but hopefully not overwhelm the calendar
4

You are already using shared calendars and calendar sets. The only thing I don’t see you mention is the privacy settings. Using private attributes on meetings in a calendar you share where you only wish to share availability would be worth consideration.

That is entirely dependent on the volume of content and if people elect to view it alongside other calendars.

5

I noticed an issue with privacy settings. I am going to unpack it more tomorrow.

  1. Created a new shared google calendar, shared it with my wife, with the option of see ‘free/busy’
  2. Opened Fantastical, trying to sync the calendar, clicked that hyperlink for sync select. It won’t let me sync the calendar for some reason. I found that odd.
  3. Changed the option for her to see all event details (as a test), that worked. Changed the settings again back to see ‘free/busy’
  4. On Google Calendar (web-based) we have no problem with the privacy settings, but there seems to be an issue (maybe something I missed) where Google won’t sync a private calendar to Fantastical that has the option of ‘see free or busy’
6

You might need to contact Fantastical/Flexibits support on that one.