I tried this and the lists are public but Google cannot add this calender.

Error: Could not fetch the url.

Google Calendar can't handle the 'all tasks' iCalendar feed yet, as it doesn't support authentication.

You would need to add each published list separately with the list-specific iCalendar feeds that look like:

webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/yourusername/123456/events/

Hope this helps!

Is it sufficient to publish by sharing with one RTM contact, or do I need to publish it fully for public viewing for this to work?

I am trying the former method, with no success, and am leery of the latter.

In Google Calendar I am getting "Error: Could not fetch the url" too. My lists are public.

I receive the same error as adame...

ditto here, i get the message "could not fetch the url", and my list is public.

Unfortunately you'll need to publish the list for public viewing (until Google decides to support authentication anyway :)

For anyone who's done this and is still receiving an error, please email us at [old address removed] with the address you're trying to subscribe to and the error you're receiving in Google Calendar. We can take a look into this on our end.

Thanks!

Also just wanted to mention that we've had some reports of Google sometimes taking a little while to add the iCalendar feed -- so it might also be worth trying to logout and then log back into Google Calendar and see if it updates.

How often does a list republish itself for ical? I've added tasks and waited and waited but they didn't show up on my gCalendar until I removed the subscription to my list then re-added it. I tried logging out and back into gCalendar but that didn't work. Thanks!

aflato, the feed is always up-to-date on the Remember The Milk side -- but Google Calendar only fetches it periodically. You might have to wait until Google Calendar updates your iCalendar subscriptions again.

I'm trying to add following link to Gcalendar
webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/brocha/361882/
but I receive only this information:
"No calendars found matching webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/brocha/361882/events/."

my list is public.
brocha

brocha, everything looks okay with the iCalendar feed for your list on our end. When you tried to add it, was the feed listed under 'Other Calendars' in Google Calendar anyway? Sometimes it seems to give that error, then the tasks show up on the calendar a little while later.

If it's still not working, maybe you could let Google know that you're experiencing this problem -- unfortunately there isn't anything else that we can do on our end.

I've posted some of the information from this thread, plus some instructions on how to check that Google Calendar will be able to access your iCalendar feed, over on the help forum -- see Subscribing with Google Calendar (and common problems).

Hope this helps!

brocha, you need to change the webcal:// to http://

I go this to work, thanks so much for the info emily! My only complaint is that completed tasks show up on my calendar. Is there any easy way to show only uncompleted tasks?

daveknight12, completed tasks shouldn't show up on Google Calendar -- it might take a little while for them to disappear once you complete them in Remember The Milk though, as Google only fetches the feed periodically.

If they're still showing up, please email us at [old address removed] with your iCalendar feed URL, and we can check this out.

Thanks!

Thanks Emily and Dave now it works!
The only problem that I still have is that the tasks, that I've added yesterday still do not appear in Gcalendar, the only tasks are shown are the tasks that I've added to RTM before feteching url to Google. But I think this is Google bug.

brocha, looks like Google is working to fix this -- see this thread on their Google Group.

Thanks Emily

This is a great new feature! But as with all new features...

My only additional request would be to have the estimated time affect the end time. When I subscribe to my list in iCal, the "events" are created at the correct start times but always default to one hour instead of what I've put into the "Time estimate" field. Is it a feature or a bug? :-)

It's a feature :) Not all calendars can handle events with zero duration, so we had to make the events last for an hour so that they'd show up (and not be too tiny).

The time estimate isn't quite the same as duration -- the best example would probably be something like:

'Homework due at 9am, time estimate of 3hrs'

In this case, it doesn't make sense to show the event as 9am to 12pm, or even 6am to 9am -- we only know when the homework is due and how long it should take, not when the user actually wants to do it :)

However, this does raise a good point -- we'll be looking at how we can better integrate with calendars, and may provide the ability to have end dates and duration in the future. Thanks for your feedback!

@emily,

Two and a half years later, I'd like to second the motion for this feature. =)

+1

iCalendar sync with all tasks duration of 1 hour makes this feature unusable for me... (and probably for many other users)

I agree with that. It would be useful to have separate feeds for task without exact time and duration set and tasks with specific duration and due date/time. I actually do set the due date and time when I intend to perform the task, otherwise I just set the due date.

Lack of 2-way sync makes this useless for me.

I think RTM would achieve a major new following if it would take one eye off shiny new mobile gadgets (Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile) and simply provide either:

a) A Calendar view of RTM

b) The ability to sync (2-way) with a useful service/app that provides a calendar view (e.g. actually integrate with Google Calendar properly :=))

While I appreciate that RTM+mobile is a killer app, I will be forced to return to Outlook soon, since I am tired of trying to guess what I have coming up by using the clunky Weekly Planner...

For those whose search lands them here, please see http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/ideas/6445/ for a way to view your tasks in Gcal in line, without the everyday checkmarks.

I still do wish for iCal task syncing, which would be so terrific on the Mac.

agreeing completely with eenymeeny here.
RTM is great, the main thing it misses now is a fully integrated calendar (in my opinion, over nested lists AND parsing in the web interface, though both would be great additions)

Planing is easier with a calendar, and when you are planning, youd rather add tasks right there. Anyone agrees?

Victor

NB: ranbarton's tip above (URL) is great for single lists, but does not work if you want to do this with ALL your lists - which I imagine most people do want to do.

This is because there is no public URL (even with private addresses turned on) for all your tasks.

Comparison:

Here is a public URL for one of my lists (with a few letters deleted, of course):

webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/eenymeeny/1605581/events/?tok=eJwVyLENAzEIAMCJLAE2YMYBDFKk-DdJk*2jQhIBzbGMQSOJ53zrGSLbp8nERVU6Gx2Kg9yIKI9qu7f9TDer893oADzxrGABNU6fUKQVJYmOi6amwRKzWAiu4S0uu3lMiuIV8XpDJY-g7UqJA

And here is the URL for ALL my lists (from the Settings | Info tab).

webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/eenymeeny/events/

I think it's easy to see the problem here: we need "private addresses" for the main "all lists" URLS under Settings | Info as well.

I think I'll post this as a separate "Idea" if anyone can confirm that what I have said here is in fact 100% correct.

Cheers,


Ed

Ed - The standard workaround for this is to create a smart list that you use to feed Gcal. This is a useful intermediate step, because you can fine tune what you send over there - for instance I stifle my someday/maybe stuff so it doesn't clutter up Gcal. Then you can use the smartlist's URL and you're all set.

Hi ranbarton,

Thanks for your patience ;-)

While it IS a bit of a roundabout way of doing things ... it does work.

And yes, I just threw everything into the first smart list :=)

Many many thanks!


Ed

I am happy to help. RTM is an amazingly valuable service, but it grows slowly. There are a lot of great tips and ideas in the forums that explore how to use what RTM offers in alternative ways to accomplish what we want to. I wish you luck finding a system that works for you.

This worked me as well, and this is about what I expected. I was going to write a sync app some day, so it's awesome to see that I can pretty much achieve what I want this way. I can even add reminders to the RTM tasks! Perfect. Hopefully my days of entering anything into GCal are numbered.

A hearty thanks to ranbarton and all :)

Kevin

Worth adding that I already used a smart list, so this fit right in. And if you don't use smart lists, use them! I have one for "weekly tasks" (do these this week or asap) and "other tasks" (do these some other time) and my smart list criteria is pretty sick and even involves other smart lists, haha. But it's an awesome tool for keeping the tasks you see relevant and not running into task overload. I haven't read GTD yet, but I've read some articles about it so it's probably what I'm implementing...whether I like it or not :P

Hmm - actually, I have one question...and this might be a request.

I wish that when I used this, it would calculate the appointment end time as:

(Due Date) + (Estimated Duration)

OR it could calculate the start time as (Due Date) - (Estimated Duration). I would be fine with either.

But right now it just arbitrarily assumes 1 hour. It's sorta OK cuz I have to copy some tasks anyway to my calendar so my friends can see my free/busy info, but it would be nice.

Thanks,
Kevin

And we still have to make public, or does Google support authentication now?

Sorry for the cross-post here: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/gmail/6750/

I agree that RTM should use "estimed duration" for Gcalendar. Otherwise, just use start and end date like everyone else, so we have the busy-free status working!