Long, long ago, when Leopard Server was just vapourware, my heart beat faster at the thought of having built-by-Apple collaboration server software at my disposal. Many of my clients could benefit from calendar and contact sharing that integrated with their existing apps (i.e. iCal and Address Book). Sure, there's full-blown software out there that provides calendar, contact sharing and way more (think Zimbra or Exchange), but what about affordable, simple Mac-centric solutions? Well, the promise of Leopard Server seemed an answer to my dreams, but in reality, it falls short of the mark:

• It can't render a personal calendar to the web (yet can a group calendar)
• Without a hack, you can't view group calendars in iCal. (They're web-only.)
• Delegation is all or nothing: if you grant another user access to one of your calendars, they have access to all your calendars
• Events can't be easily moved from a server based calendar to a local one
• You can't take it with you. Events synced to the iPhone are read-only and can't be edited on the road

So I set off on a search for another solution for contact and calendar sharing. In my travels, I came across the promising Zimbra, which is Mac friendly, but still has enough rough edges that I decided it wasn't ready. (Main shortcomings: incomplete address book syncing and inability to sync alarms or to-dos in iCal.)

SpanningSync shows promise as an iCal sharing solution, as it provides bi-directional iCal syncing with Google calendar. For anyone who wants to have access to their calendars wherever they may be, have a good look at SpanningSync. The main shortcoming I found with SpanningSync is that can't sync alarms between Google and iCal, so if you were to use it as a conduit between two Macs, the receiving Mac wouldn't have any alarms (other than the default alarm specified in Leopard's iCal).

The clear winner in the iCal sharing competition, however, is BusySync. Truthfully, I'm always a bit skeptical about anything that relies on Sync Services because my experience with Sync Services has shown it to be rather fragile, especially in the hands of third party developers. Even .Mac seems to confuse itself on a regular basis, requiring the reset of the sync services database. Thankfully, BusySync has restored my faith in both Sync Services and developers who use it. The good folks at BusyMac hit the nail on the head with BusySync. It takes the ease of .Mac, extends its functionality and melds it with the promise of iCal Server.

In a line, BusySync is iCal sharing done properly and without the compromises of other solutions. It allows you to share your iCal calendars with other Mac users (locally or over the internet), but with a degree of granularity not available with .Mac or iCal Server (and at a much lower price point). You can specify individual calendars to share and asign each read or read/write access. (By contrast, .Mac shares all calendars or none at all.) Moreover, additions/changes made on one computer show up within seconds on the client computers. Compare that to .Mac, which requires you to sync up and then sync down for changes to show up on client machines--a several minute process under the best circumstances, but typically more like an hour wait.

Other things I love about BusySync:

• Calendars shared via BusySync can be synced to the iPhone or other mobile devices and are read/write.
• Leopard and Tiger clients can share calendars.
• SSL support is as simple as ticking a box (10.5 only), and without any annoying security warnings.
• No server software or dedicate machine is required.
• Users of a single Mac (with multiple accounts) can share calendars.
• Setup is a snap.
• Very affordable price point.
• Responsive, involved developers.
• It reliably works.

A comment on that last one: I'm so used to battling syncing issues that BusySync was a bit anticlimactic in the sense that, once it was setup, I basically forgot about it. I make changes on one machine and it shows up on the other within moments--just the way one would expect it to work! No fuss, gnashing of teeth or resets of the Sync Services database. It just works!

I'm still in search of a way to share the Address Book in a similar fashion. John at BusyMac tells me such a product in on their radar, so it's hopefully just a matter of me being patient. If BusySync is an indication, it'll be worth the wait!

Tags:tech