Multi-calendar Feature on Smartphones

Introduction

The EAS protocol has not been designed for collaborative use: the diary or diaries accessed by the user are supposed to belong to him/her. This leads to inconvenience when you want to consult other users' agendas on a mobile device.

As an optional feature, BlueMind lets you consult shared agendas on smartphones and tablets. However, this feature has two notable consequences:

• Agendas are seen as editable. So if you delete or modify an event, the device will perform the operation, but the server will refuse it if the user doesn't have write access to the calendar.
• Some devices don't handle this feature very well, especially when it comes to the colors associated with each calendar: all calendars are presented in the same color, making reading confusing and potentially creating misunderstandings.

Compatibility

Mobile devices

The multi-calendar functionality is available on iPhones and iPads as well as on Samsung devices through the native calendar application Samsung Calendar (only available on the brand's phones and tablets).

This feature has limitations on Android devices with native Google calendar: some known malfunctions have not yet been resolved. See the chapter Known Limitations below.

Calendars concerned

This concerns the user's own calendars (default calendar and secondary calendars) as well as calendars of users or resources shared with them, domain calendars will not be visible.

Server-side implementation

This feature is activated simply by creating a system file, without content :

# touch /root/eas.multical

Then restart the EAS service:

# service bm-eas restart

Calendar display

For shared calendars to appear, you must first subscribe in BlueMind via the account preferences management: Preferences > Calendar > Other Calendars.

See also Synchronizing Calendars.

Known Limitations

Android: Google Calendar

In the default Android device application, all shared calendars appear in the same color, making it impossible to visually differentiate events by calendar.

Solution: currently there is no solution to display different colors for calendars pulled onto the phone in the native Google application.

Workaround: use a third-party application. Samsung's smartphones, in particular, can identify calendars with different colors in the application Samsung Calendar.