Subscribing to ICS file on my own (the same) Mac

Question

I have a task management program that outputs an updated ICS iCal file periodically. In iCal, I want to be able to "Subscribe" to that ICS file which, obviously, is located on the same Mac I'm using to subscribe. Is there a way to subscribe to that ICS on my Mac without going through the internet? (I don't want to use Importing since that will create duplicate entries of old events.)
Ideally, the ICS file (periodically outputed by my task manager app) would be read automatically (without importing duplicate entries) everytime I open iCal.

Answer 1

Found this on the FAQ for the program I was using, which by the way, seems to be a good, cross-platform java-based GTD app called Thinking Rock. (Don't let the java descriptor dissuade you. This is a fairly speedy program as java apps go.)
Don't know if WebDAV is the same as setting up Personal Web Sharing (also involves slightly modifying a hidden file using Terminal to limit public access). Here's the link to the Thinking Rock FAQ posting that, I hope, when followed (by me) will provide the needed solution. All credit for the described solution (below) goes to the author of the FAQ posting. Thank for it!
http://www.thinkingrock.com.au/faq.php
The text of the link is below...
PostPosted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:37 pm Post subject: How to Subscribe to your TR data in iCal and Sunbird/Moz Cal Reply with quote
If you're interested in seeing your scheduled items, Next Actions, etc. in iCal or Sunbird (Mozilla Calendar), but don't know how to subscribe to a calendar you publish yourself, here's a few notes:
* One easy way to do this is simply to create a calendar, and then Import into it... this works fine in both iCal and Sunbird.
The only caveat is that you have to delete this calendar and then re-import when you want to see the updated calendar.
Note that the file you are importaing is "thinking-rock.ics"... it's probably in the same folder as your "thinking-rock.xml" file unless you've set a different path in TR's preferences pane.
Why would you want to do this? If you're using Sunbird/Mozilla Calendar (which, btw, is a great program, is open-source and free, and is available for OSX, Windows, and Linux -- give it a whirl, you might like it) then there's no reason to (see notes below).
If you're using iCal, then you might want to do this if you don't want to go to the trouble of setting up or turning on your personal web server.
* To really subscribe the calendar, you need to put it into a webserver's root... unless you're using Sunbird.
For Sunbird:
Choose the Subscribe Calendar menu option (under Files), and then choose Remote calendar.
Name the calendar, give it a color, and then enter something like this for the URL:
File://users/myname/thinking-rock.ics
Note that you have to specify the full path to the file, from root... on OSX, if you store your calendar in your Home folder, and your name is "myname", the above path would work. Or if its in the Documents folder, it would be:
File://users/myname/documents/thinking-rock.ics
Note that this same approach will work under Korganizer in Linux.
Here's the key point with this method: you DO NOT have to enable Personal Web Sharing (i.e., Apache) on OSX or Windows or Linux... there is no web server involved, because Sunbird is just reading the file directly.
And this is true subscription calendar... it will update itself with any changes at the interval you specify, and it is not necessary to delete and re-import anything, as in the first example I gave above.
For iCal (OSX only):
Unfortunately, OSX is "too smart" (or too stupid... take your pick Smile ) to allow a File:// URL.... it requires an http:// url.....
So, you MUST enable your Personal Web Server to Subscribe to a calendar. You do this in your System Prefences panel, under Sharing.
Once you've done this, set TR to put your ICS file in your /users/myname/sites folder.... then give iCAL this as the url:
http://localhost/~myname/thinking-rock.ics
That will subscribe the calendar, as described above.
IMPORTANT SECURITY WARNING:
For iCal users, please note this very important point... if you do the above, you have posted your Scheduled Items, Next Actions, etc. to a PUBLICLY acessible location.
For most people, I would think this is an unacceptable situation, so there are some things you need to do to prevent others from accessing this information:
- Edit your httpd.conf file to DENY ALL and then setup a single ALLOW for just your internal machine name. (If you don't know what I mean, just google "Apache config httpd allow deny" for more info... or email me privately).
- Stop and the re-start Personal Web Sharing after you make this change to have this take effect.
- Double-check yourself.... if you can, use another computer on your network to go to http://your-ip-address/~username/thinking-rock.ics ... make sure you get an error that indicates you are denied access.
Once TR 1.2.2 is finalized, I'll write a more detailed FAQ and post it in the hopes that this will be useful for other users.
In closing, once again I have to really thank the developers for doing a great job with this one specific feature.... and also I hope my ramblings haven't dissuaded anyone from trying this.... especially under Mozilla Calendar, this is totally easy to do, and gives you an immensely powerful tool. And even under iCal, with some tweaking, you also get a powerful capability... definitely worth the small time and effort needed to set this up.