July 06, 2005
Curious George: Remote Calendar App?
I'm looking for some kind of easily updatable, customizable, internet-based calendar to help with daily operations of a family-run resort.
Here's the scenario. I work for a little tiny dive shop on a little tiny island in North America. Reservations are made in an office in the states and then faxed over to us here and we hand-write everything into a paper calendar. It works most of the time but when it doesn't work, fans and shit collide in multiple countries. It's not pretty. Now, once upon a time, I came from a place (*cough*bigbostonlawfirm*cough*) where we had much more efficient ways of handling things (*cough*MSExchange*cough*) so this is starting to drive me a little nuts. So I need y'all to help me retain my sanity if you can. Here's what I'm looking for:
- Easy to setup and maintain: I am by no means a stand-alone network admin but do have background in IT.
Easy to operate: think very, very simple. The folks I work with use hotmail for their business email account and were amazed when I showed them what google could do. Don't get me started.
Fairly flexible and customizable: our work week starts on a Saturday, so customizable views and categories for guest info.
Accessible from multiple locations: internet-based or something I can easily throw on the server that hosts my own personal site.
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Google-Fu: Calendars Net is a free interactive web calendar hosting service, where you and anyone you choose can post events visible and printable by whomever you choose, or everyone. You can post events that span more than one day (with text flowing across days or even weeks) or that recur every 1st or 4th Tuesday of each month, etc. You can copy the calendar data to your own computer and edit your calendar offline. or WebCalendar is a PHP-based calendar application that can be configured as a single-user calendar, a multi-user calendar for groups of users, or as an event calendar viewable by visitors. MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, DB2, Interbase, MS SQL Server, or ODBC is required.
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Yes, Calendars.net kicks ass. Their website is completely cheesy and disconerting, but your calendar is completely customizable and you can make it look any way you want. The only downside is that it is completely hosted-- you can't have it on your URL.
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Thanks a bunch! I'll check it out.
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Great timing asking this question! I am in the process of setting up a calendar for a site I am creating for someone and had been searching around. Calendars.net looked ok except for the fact that I couldn't connect to any of their calendars or even sign up for one (although maybe it's just my connection). It does raise the same point, however, that juggernautco brought up which is that you are relying on someone elses servers to host and display information that you and many others will need on a 24/7 basis. What do you do if the site is down? Now WebCalendar gets my vote of confidence. Quite a learning curve (for me anyways, never installed anything on a server myself, always used the "One-Click Install feature of my webhosting provider) but it is absolutely awesome and seems to be exactly what you need. Multi-user editing with all kinds of customizable looks, colors, priveledges, etc.
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It isn't a calendar, but I know some folks who use a fairly low-cost program called Auberge. It's no longer being developed, but was originally set up for Hostels. I don't know what's involved in setting it up, but the folks I know have set up the different rooms, cabins, etc. in it, and they aren't techies by any means.