WiscCal Knowledgebase

• DoIT
• UW
• MyUW
• PEOPLE

WiscCal - Viewing an Agenda in Apple's iCal or iPhone/iTouch iPod

One can access one's WiscCal agenda in multiple ways using an Apple iPhone or iTouch iPod.

Important: These instructions allow you to view your WiscCal calendar data on your iPhone/iPod Touch. You cannot make changes to the data and expect it to sync back to your WiscCal account. If you want the ability to sync in both directions, review the following document: WiscCal (iPhone/iPod Touch) - Configure Todo+Cal+Sync (SyncML Client).

In addition to using the Safari browser to directly login (https://wisccal.wisc.edu/) to and use one's WiscCal agenda, one can use WiscCal's ShareURL feature to subscribe to one's WiscCal agenda in Apple's iCal calendar application. Once done, one can then sync one's iPhone or iTouch iPod with iCal and view one's WiscCal agenda on them.

One method to do the latter requires that you use our WiscCal ShareURL/CalendarKey feature and Apple's iCal calendar application on a Macintosh computer. If you do have access to a Macintosh computer here's what you can do:

1. Go to http://tools.wisccal.wisc.edu and confirm that you have 'generated' a share for your WiscCal agenda (click on the Generate Share button). Note the ShareURL that is created for you and the sample URL that shows the '?ical' ending -- that's the one that you need to know. You can right-click on the URL and you should get an option to copy it.

2. Back on the opening page of the tools.wisccal.wisc.edu web site is a link for Apple iCal -- Help Desk setup instructions. You should refer to that document to create a calendar subscription in iCal on the Mac for your WiscCal agenda. Note especially the various options shown for modifying the ShareURL so that it will work with iCal (e.g., the /dr(-x,x) value for specifying a range of WiscCal information to sync, the ?ical option to tell the ShareURL to give information to Apple iCal in a format iCal understands, and the &compat=br option that modifies the information slightly to avoid issues with repeating meetings).

3. Once you've done 1. and 2. above, when you plug the iPhone into the Mac's USB port (you do this usually when you want to add music for playing on the iPhone/iTouch). iTunes should start up and you should see a screen in iTunes for the iPhone/iTouch, on which is a tab for Info. Clicking on this tab should show you options for syncing Contacts AND Calendars. The Calendars section should show the calendars you have in iCal on the Mac and you can put a check mark next to the ones you want synced to the iPhone/iTouch, including the subscription you did for WiscCal.

The WiscCal team has done this very process with an iTouch iPod (which is basically an iPhone without the phone part) and confirmed that it works. Note, however, that this is read only -- you cannot create new items on the iPhone/iTouch and have them synced back to iCal and thus back to WiscCal.

If you do not have an Apple computer then, unfortunately you cannot get your WiscCal agenda onto your iPhone/iTouch in their calendar application. But, you can still see your WiscCal agenda using Safari on your iPhone/iTouch. There are two ways to do that.

1. One way is to use the ShareURL I mention above. If you go back to http://tools.wisccal.wisc.edu in a web browser and look at the ShareURL examples for your WiscCal agenda (click on the Generate Share button to get there), you can click on the first one and see an 'at this time' view of your WiscCal agenda. It loads in the web browser and looks like the agenda view you see when you login to MyUW Madison (http://my.wisc.edu). You can use this same ShareURL in *any* web browser, including the Safari browser on your iPhone/iTouch. One cannot copy and paste text between iPhone/iTouch applications so you'll have to enter it into the Safari address field by hand, but once you've gone to it in the browser, you can create a bookmark for it and go back at any time.

2. A second way is to use Outlook XP / 2003. If you have Outlook configured within Outlook Connector for Oracle, you can use the following steps to sync your calendar data to your calendar on your device:

   Important: This only syncs calendar data from WiscCal to your iPhone / iPod Touch Calendar. This does NOT sync in both directions.

   1. Start Outlook
   2. Connect your device to your computer
   3. Start iTunes (if not already started)
   4. Click on your device within iTunes
   5. Click Info tab
   6. Under 'Calendars' section, place a check mark next to "Sync iCal calendars"
   7. Under 'Advanced' section:
      • Within "Replace information on this iPod" place a check mark next to "Calendars"
   8. Click on Sync button

   After the sync is completed, your WiscCal calendar data should now be viewable from within your iPhone / iPod Touch calendar.

3. A third way is to use Google Calendar. The iPhone/iTouch Safari browser understands the Google calendar application very well and it displays Google Calendar information in an easy to view format. If you have a Google GMail account, you also have a Google Calendar account. That same http://tools.wisccal.wisc.edu web site opening page has a link that explains how to setup a subscription in Google Calendar using the ShareURL. Once you do that, you can use Safari on your iPhone at any time to view your WiscCal agenda in Google Calendar. Note again, however, that this is a read-only view. You cannot create new items on your iPhone and get them to your WiscCal agenda using Google Calendar.