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Connector has ICS support? What the heck is ICS?

By bryan 10 July 07

The Connector is a powerful collaboration environment that supports many technologies. This wealth of supported technologies makes for a flexible environment, but the density, and sometimes relative obscurity of some of the supported technologies makes it difficult to convey their purpose to new users. ICS is one of those technologies.

What is ICS, and why would I use it?

ICS, sometimes called iCalendar, is a standard for exchanging calendar information. You generally do this via email, but some programs, such as Apple iCal, can subscribe to a web accessible ICS file.

In one scenario, you might create a series of events for an upcoming conference using the Connector. You could manually group these events into a unique calendar created for this conference, or with the use of a “smart calendar,” you draw the events together by tag. Inside the info panel for that calendar or smart calendar you will find an orange ICS icon. Clicking it will download those events in ICS format. This is simply a text file that you can then email to the attendees of your conference. They can then import those events into the ICS-Compatible calendar application of their choice.

Another option is to send your attendees the URL to your conference’s ICS file. You do this by right-clicking on the calendar’s orange ICS icon to “Copy Link location.” Programs like Apple iCal can subscribe to that url. The advantage of this method is that people who subscribe to your calendar will automatically receive updates if you make changes to your lineup of events.

Where do I find this feature?

  1. Go to any calendar on your Connector. (found in the left sidebar of the Calendar application)
  2. Click the “View Group Info” icon. (the triangle next to the calendar’s name)
  3. Locate the ICS icons near the bottom on the info panel.
  4. Click to download, or copy the url by right clicking.

Can Connector Import ICS files?

Absolutely! This is a great way to get started using your new Connector. You can export events from your current calendaring application and then import all your events at once using the import tool found on the Calendar application’s toolbar.

How do we make this feature more understandable?

This feature, while powerful, is often overlooked. Mostly because it’s tucked away in the calendar info panel, but part of the reason is that it suffers along with RSS as a feature that is simply listed by its technical acronym. Would explanatory text help or make it worse, given the tight confines of the info panel? Should we place another ICS link inside the calendar view near the bottom, and label it “download/subscribe”? Does the Calendar Application deserve a “tools” drawer, like ‘Bookmarks’ or ‘Lists,’ that explains the obscure features of those applications? I would like to hear some suggestion from users. How do we make this clearer?


  1. I was a technical writer in a former life, so my answer’s going to be that one solution is to start by placing a (more info) link after the ics icon and linking to this blog post! =) I think it does a great job of explaining what the feature is, why it’s relevant/interesting to me, and how it works.

    The big question is who your audience is and how much they know about (or are interested in) the technology behind Connector. Those answers will inform the rest of your decisions.

    — Dave    408 days ago    #

  2. I was under the impression that I cannot send anyone the link to my ICS calendar, as the URL requires login informatio, thus making necessary a Connector account.

    Am I wrong in thinking this? It would indeed be great to share my Connector calendar with “Non-Connector-Team-People.”

    — Bijan Kafi    407 days ago    #

  3. Any technology used should be obfuscated from the user. Just have a link saying “Subscribe to a calendar”, or “Make this calendar public” or something, without mentioning any technology.

    The user doesn’t need to know what technology is being used, and it’s also easier to upgrade the technology at work without changing the interface.

    Stop using the ugly RSS icon. The browsers got this right when they put that RSS icon (the ‘transmitting’ one) in the regular interface areas.

    — Chris    407 days ago    #

  4. @Bijan Kafi

    You are completely correct about subscription calendars needing authentication. I should not have omitted that from my article.

    You are also completely correct in thinking that having the ability to share some calendars without authentication would be a killer feature. My dad, who recently got his own Connector and whose questions about features inspired this article, wanted to use his connector to manage a list of family events. He could try to get around the “authentication restriction” by adding a catch-all “public” user. Unfortunately, that would give the rest of the family too much access to his Connector. The only solution I could think of was to export his calendar periodically and then uploading it to a Bingo Disk. It should be simpler to do.

    — Bryan Bell    407 days ago    #

  5. Are you using one of the RubyForge libraries for ICS support; iCal Tool, iCalendar, vpim? If so which one?

    — Derek    403 days ago    #

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