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Google Calendar and Evolution Coolness

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:37:53 GMT

One of my favorite things about Linux and/or Ubuntu is that I get to use the email client Evolution . I'm not a fan of Microsoft Outlook at all, and Evolution is a perfect replacement for it. All the features but none of the Microsoft bull.

I've also found myself using Google's Calendar lately. My wife and I use it to keep track of when bills are due, when the kids' baseball or what ever sport practices are and to keep track of all the family and friends birthdays and such. My wife and I each have our own calendar, and share it with each other to keep up to date. Pretty neat how it works.

Now that I'm using Ubuntu at home almost exclusively I found myself not wanting to import or retype all those dates from Google Calendar. So, I got to looking around and found that you can publish your calendar in 3 formats. iCal, XML, and HTTP. I then started looking around in Evolution and found that you can add web calendars to the calendar views. So, here's what I did.

In Google Calendar, I went to "Manage Calendars", then clicked on my calendar and at the bottom of that page there are a couple sections. Calendar Address and Private Address.

The Calendar Address Section is only for appointments that are made public, but the Private Address is for everything on your calendar.

So, I clicked on the iCal button and it pops up a window with a URL in it. I copied that URL.

Then, in Evolution, I went to my Calendar, and in the upper lefthand pane of the window I right clicked and choose New Calendar.

That popped up a New Calendar window. For Type: I choose "On the Web", For name, just put something in there to distinguish which calendar it is, then under URL I pasted the URL that Google gave me. When I pasted it in the New Calendar window, I had to take the http:// section of the URL and make it webcal://, It should look something like this webcal//www.google.com/calendar../basic.ics.

Clicked Ok on that New Calendar Window, Restarted Evolution and there it was, my entire Google Calendar displayed in the Calendar in Evolution.

Pretty neat stuff.

Of course I couldn't leave well enough along, so I decided to try the same thing with Microsoft Outlook. I only worked on it for about 10 minutes, which is about how long it took me to set it up with Evolution, but I couldn't find a way to add web calendars to Outlook 2003. I'm not surprised...nor did I expect to be able to. It the abilitiy is there, it's not nearly as intuitive to setup as Evolution was, and I didn't really want to spend the time digging thru help files and forums to figure it out.

Anyway, they may be old news to some of you, but hopefully it'll help someone else get just a bit more organized

BTW, I read an article that a Windows version of Evolution has been released. I haven't tried it yet, but hopefully it works as well as the Linux version.

Later,

Mark

A few more tries with Ubuntu and BlueDragon

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:33:47 GMT

After taking a few days off from working on getting a server running Ubunutu and New Atlanta's BlueDragon Free Server up and going, I decided to take a fresh look at it.

My frustration level is way down after the time off, I'm thinking more clearly now, so
I decided to try some different versions to see if I could get it to work, and so far I'm glad I did. I installed Ubuntu 6.06 Server, installed Apache 2.0.55 and BlueDragon 6.21. I now almost have the process committed to memory, but also followed the blogs referenced in this post to make sure I was right.

Much to my surprise, it works. Processes the CFML like it should and like is good.

So, my next step is going to be to try to install BlueDragon 7 on Ubuntu 6.06 Desktop. My Develepment machine is running 6.10 of Ubuntu, so I bought and extra drive to replace the 6.10 drive. If it works, I'll stay on those versions and I'll be good to go.

I'll keep you all posted.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:11:51 GMT

Well, after 2 weeks and one day of working diligently, well, about 3 hours a night give or take, I'm throwing in the towel on the Ununtu/BD and/or Ubuntu/Coldfusion thing. I can not get either to work.

I've followed 4 diffent how to's, reinstalled Ubuntu Desktop 6 time and server 3 times on 3 different computers. 1 mine and 2 I borrowed from work. I've made sure to follow the tutorials verbatim. Even to the point of making sure my directory structure matched the tutorials and I started cutting and pasting the commands in. I've even had the writer of one tutorials ssh into my machine to help me figure it out. Still have not successfully served up one single coldfusion page from any of my computers.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is trying to install it on something other than a Dell computer. I can't imagine why that would make any difference, but I've tried it on a Optiplex GX 620, 260 and 280. I'm not having any problems at all with any drivers in Ubuntu. Problem there is I don't have access to anything other than Dell's, and don't want to buy a new pc just for this.

They've all had wireless cards in them as my computer room doesn't have any cat5 anywhere close. Does that matter? I have no idea.

What I do know is I haven't actually written any ColdFusion for 2 weeks. Now that's sad!

I'm thinking what I may do at this point is get vmware installed and running, install windows on a virtual machine and host it all from there.

Why am I telling you all this? I don't know, I guess I'm just venting. Maybe after I actually get some code written I'll quit feeling so defeated! LOL

I'm going to decompress over an IPA from a brewery in Oregon now...

BlueDragon update

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:07:33 GMT

So, I'm into night 3 of trying to get BlueDragon working with Apache on Ubuntu 6.10. Tonights task was trying to get the web server adapter on BlueDragon Server 7.0 to work with Apache 2.055. The built in web server works fine, but I can't figure out how to get apache to work. I've got a simple index.cfm document that will not display at all. Actually no coldfusion pages will display. All I get in my browser is a blank screen.

I'm no Linux expert by any means so bear with me here. I followed the directions layed out by Adam Howitt his blog as well as the article on we3Geeks for setting up the symbolic links to Apache2. Basically it says to do this:

  sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/apache/bin
  sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/apache/conf
  sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/apache2.conf /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
  
  sudo ln -s /var/www /usr/local/apache/htdocs
  sudo ln -s /usr/lib/apache2/modules /usr/local/apache/modules
  sudo ln -s /usr/sbin/apache2 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd

So that's what I did. I'm guessing the location of apache2 is correct as I browsed to the locations and verified there were files and folders in them. I'm not sure which files should be there as the article doesn't say.

Adam howitt's blog lists the same commands and his versions are a bit closer to mine.

I've verified within BlueDragon Administror that the port 9999 is setup and in the servletexec.conf file the port is set to 9999 as well. So, I'm stuck at this point. So, any help you could lend would be greatly appreciated. I'm probably not giving you nearly enough information, so if you need more please ask.

Thanks and I'll talk to you later,

Mark

Ubuntu6.10 and BlueDragon 7 install and working, well, kinda.

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 02:41:38 GMT

Well, I've made some progress here. Beside my not reading the documentation good enough about the datasourses, it's gone pretty good.

I've got Apache 2 and Blue Dragon 7rc installed. The admin page and built in webserver are working, but the Apache connector isn't working, yet.

So, here's what I've done so far. I found Adam Howitt's Blog about installing BD 7 with Apache 2.l2 on Draper Drake Ubuntu and a post on we3geeks explaining how to do this. Neither article uses the exact version numbers I have, but they are close.

So, i installed Apache 2 from the Synatics Package manager in Ubuntu, If your so new to Ubuntu that you don't know how to do this, email me or check out the Ubuntu forums . I'd love to help you with what I can.

Once I installed Apache, i tested it, and it worked.

I then downloaded BlueDragon. While it was downloading I read the BlueDragon 7 Installation guide. Personally, and don't laugh, you need to know more than me to follow the Linux instructions in that manual. we3geeks for me was much more helpful. Don't get me wrong, it's a good manual as far as manuals go, but the we3geeks is a bit more helpful for the install part.

So, based on the the we3geeks article,I started to setting up the directory structure. Well, I'm still new enough on Linux that I've not created to many symbolic links. So, just to make sure I was right I verified that my apache was located where is was supposed to be. In my Ubuntu the 4 directories I was concerned with were located here:

"/etc/apache2

/var/www <--document root

/usr/lib/apache2/modules

/usr/sbin/apache2 "

Once I verified where those directories were located I followed the we3geeks leading and typed in a terminal the following.

  "sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/apache/bin
  sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/apache/conf
  sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/apache2.conf /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
  sudo ln -s /var/www /usr/local/apache/htdocs
  sudo ln -s /usr/lib/apache2/modules /usr/local/apache/modules
  sudo ln -s /usr/sbin/apache2 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd"

If for some reason your apache is located somewhere other than the from directories listed above, I think all you would need to do is put your paths as the first argument in the lines that start "sudo ln -s /" Your local paths would be the first path listed, as the second path listed on each line in the path is the symbolic link? Right? LOL I told you I'm no linux guy. now that is done, I moved to installing BlueDragon.

In a terminal window I typed "sudo sh BlueDragon_Server_70_337-Linux.sh"

One note on the install, the article on we3geeks doesn't talk about it, but the BlueDragon Install guide does. You can install blue dragon in either GUI or console mode. Since I'm a GUI kinda guy, I chose the GUI instal. If I would have done a console install I would have typed "sudo sh BlueDragon_Server_70_337-Linux.sh -i console"

The install was pretty uneventful. I took the defaults on everything. If you take the default on everything remember the number, 9999. That's the Apache port number that BlueDragon talks to Apache on via the Apache connector.

At this point I restarted apache, then BlueDragon.

" sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart" and then

" cd /usr/local/NewAtlanta/BlueDragon_Server_70/bin/" <--Default BlueDragon Location

then " sudo StopBlueDragon.sh"

then " sudo StartBlueDragon.sh"

At that point, I tested the admin console by going to http://localhost:8080/bluedragon/admin.cfm in my browser. it worked! Cool.

I then tried Apache by creating a very simple test.cfm page that set the time as a variable and outputs it. Not so cool it didn't work.

At this point it was 11:00 and I have to be up at 5am, so that where I stopped for now.

That at least got me started. BD is a least working. So on to my next project of figuring out what I did wrong to make Apache not work with it.

I'm leaving for Colorado for a few days tomorrow and won't be able to mess with it until next week, but I'll update the status when i figure something out.

Any help you guys could lend as a good place to start looking for the Apache problem I'd love to hear it!

Later,

Mark

Duh, should have done a bit more research

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:58:33 GMT

Last night I started installing and configuring BlueDragon Server 7 RC on Ubuntu 6.10. It went pretty well, (notes to come later), but I did have a major Duh moment. Come to find out, the Linux version of BlueDragon doesn't look to support Access Databases as datasources. Some of you may be say, well Duh!, but remember I'm a newbie here. That's the excuse I'm trying to stick to thru this. I actually was assuming that it would be the same as windows. It's not.

BlueDragon FAQ on Datasources

Now that I think about it, I wonder, why would one use and MS Access database on Linux?

Well, for me, it's easy to learn writing ColdFusion code to write to an Access DB. Access is familar, and I'm not currently expecting my databases to grow beyond 2GB. It's simple and easy. But, is there a Linux app that will allows me to administer an Access DB? I don't know I haven't looked. Maybe one of you all can tell me. Even if there is, has anyone ever gotten Access to run on BlueDragon for Linux? I don't know that either, I'm sure somewhere someone has. I think the real question for my situation is, is it worth the effort to try any of this, or just abandon it, leave access to the Windows version and start learn MySql along with everything else I'm trying to learn.

For me, this is a good opportunity to learn something else new. Is that like saying, I think I'm going to learn Quantum Physics today. Maybe. I guess I'll play around with it to see.

So, assuming someone actually reads this blog, you got any advice? Any good Newbie MySql sites out there with tutorials and all that jazz you guys could recommend.

Thanks,

Mark

Hosting pains - Moving to Blue Dragon/Ubuntu- Maybe

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:54:40 GMT

Well, it's been a while. I've been busy with family, code and work, so it's been a long time since I've updated this. I'll post in my ColdFusion category later on what Code I've been working on, but right now I'm on a new quest of sorts.

I've alway's enjoyed tinkering around with different distro's of Linux. I'm by no means, in any way an expert. I know enough to surf, listen to some music, maybe even get Apache and Samba running.

I've found myself wanting to use Linux more but haven't found a good enough excuse, until now.

I'm tired of messing with my cf hosting company and I'm tired of looking for a good hosting company.

So, I figured, this is a great excuse to learn some more Linux, Ubuntu 6.10 to be more exact, learn BlueDragon, and have some fun setting it all up. The New Atlanta Rep will be at our DFWCFUG meeting tomorrow night, so this will give me an opportunity to have an Idea of what he's talking about too.

You may be asking why? Why Linux, why Ubuntu, why Bluedragon, why is he telling me this? Well, here's why.

Why Linux - Because I like it. I like the whole Open Source thing. I like the Linux community and the helpful people in it.

Why Ubuntu - Because I like it. IMO it's one of the more newbie friendly distro's, it's fast and the Ubuntu community is good.

Why BludDragon - Well, I don't really know. I've only used it a bit on window. I don't work writing code, yet, I'm just trying to learn it, call it a hobby. (See my ColdFusion Blog) I guess the only reason I'm using BlueDragon is because I'm going to be hosting my personal site and learning projects on it and don't want to be throttled by the licensing restrictions of the Developers version of ColdFusion.

Why am I telling you all this? - Well, a couple of reasons. 1. I hope that someone will find it helpful in setting up there own server. 2. I needed an excuse to update my Blog.

So, I'll update this blog with my progress through out the process. Please feel free to chime in, correct me, or help or whatever.

Thanks,

Mark

CF Newbieness and Hello

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:42:07 GMT

Well, Hello. My name is Mark Brown. This is my first blog, so bear with me.

I decided to start this thing because I'm learning some new skills. I'm a IT Manager, and am very familiar with pc's, servers, networks, blah, blah, blah. It dawned on me a few months ago that I needed to learn some new skills. On the advice from a friend, Mike, I decieded to learn Web Application Programming using ColdFusion. So, I figured, that sounds easy enough, and started. First problem I ran into was, I HAVE NO PROGAMMING EXPERIENCE. None. Ziltch. Nada. I've written a few batch scripts for login scripts on my Novell servers at work, but other than that I was clueless. Well, I'm still clueless, but an learning more by the day. You web programmers talk your own language. I'm Starting to understand some of it, but hey, life is just one big learning curve. Right?

Anyway, I'm about 6 months into it. I haven't been hitting it too hard, but have learned quite a bit. About a month ago I launched my family website, http://www.thebrownhomeonline.com. I did it with Coldfusion and it seemed fairly straight forward. It's got a private section that took me a while to figure out how to do the security, and the initial learning about frameworks to keep the maintenance of it easy were a bit difficult for me, but I eventually got it with some very generous help from Mike.

I've got a couple other projects I'm working on, which I'll talk about later.

Main reason for this blog entry is just to Introduce myself, and give you all a idea of what to expect from this blog.

What I'm hoping to accomplish here is to document my journey from total cluelessness in ColdFusion and web apps to my finished products. I hope to be able to help other newbies find good resources I've used, and/or document some of the hurdles I ran into throughout this process and how I overcame them. You'll probably also get to see some of my rants and raves on wide variety of subjects. Lucky YOU!!!

So, there you have it.

Later,

Mark