How To Share Calendars with Thunderbird, Lightning and PHP iCalendar

Installation

1. Download phpicalendar from http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpicalendar/
2. PHP iCalendar require a webserver running PHP 4.1.2 or later, so install Apache2 with PHP module

   $ sudo apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-php5

3. Enable WebDAV module in Apache

   $ sudo a2enmod
   Module name? dav

4. Last command should enable dav_fs module as well, check it out with:

   $ ls -la /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dav*

PHP iCalendar Configuration

1. Untar phpicalendar tarball under /var/www directory
2. Copy and edit the included configuration sample file

   $ sudo cp config.inc-dist.php config.inc.php
   $ sudo chown www-data: config.inc.php
   $ sudo vi config.inc.php
   

3. Test application with browser at http://localhost/phpicalendar/index.php

WebDAV Configuration

1. Create a user and password that will access to the calendars

   $ sudo htpasswd -c /var/www/phpicalendar/.webdav_login username
   $ sudo chmod 640 .webdav_login
   $ sudo chown www-data .webdav_login
   

2. Setup the calendars directory as a WebDAV folder edit /etc/apache2/mods-available/dav_fs.conf

DAVLockDB /var/lock/apache2/DAVLock
#DAVMinTimeout 600

<Location /phpicalendar/calendars/>
        Dav On
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName username
        AuthUserFile /var/www/phpicalendar/.webdav_login
        <LimitExcept OPTIONS>
                Require user username
        </LimitExcept>
</Location>

Thunderbird and Lightning

Install the following packages using Synaptic from menu System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager

• thunderbird
• lightning-extension

Create and Publish a Calendar

1. Open Thunderbird and click on Calendar
2. Right click in the calendars list and create a New Calendar
3. Choose On the Network
4. Click on Next
5. Select format: iCalencard (ICS)
6. Insert location: http://localhost/phpicalendar/calendars/TestCalendar.ics
7. Click on Next
8. Provide a Calendar name: TestCalendar
9. Click on Next and Finish
10. Right click on the calendar that we have just created and click on Publish Calendar...
11. Insert URL: http://localhost/phpicalendar/calendars/TestCalendar.ics then Close

Thunderbird doesn't provide any feedback, so check on the server that the calendar has been created properly

$ ls -l /var/www/phpicalendar/calendars/

You should see a `TestCalendar.ics` file.

Using Calendars from others PCs

To connect others client PCs to the same calendar, create a new calendar in Thunderbird in the same way as before, but there is no need to publish the calendar this time.

Danilo