04.12
@Update: 2nd November, 2007: Updated guide for Lightning v0.7 and Provider 0.3.1 releases — Jonny
For a long time I have been looking for a rock solid calendaring system. I’ve gotten too used to working for companies who have Microsoft Exchange (or, God forbid, Scalix) installed which allow me to edit and update a calendar from multiple locations and even sync it with my Mobile Phone. When I first heard of Google Calendar I hoped that I would be able to enjoy such benefits again, but I am not a great fan of web-apps, and prefer a nice, solid desktop client to do my email / organisation from.
Queue Lightning, the calendaring extension for Thunderbird which brings the desktop email app one step closer to becoming a viable alternative to Microsoft Outlook. Installation can be a little bit confusing and you must remember that this add-on is still in the 0.x stages, so may be a tad unstable at times (but that’s ok, we love this kind of thing!)
Open up Thunderbird (I am using the 2.0.0.6 release) and on the Top Menu, go to:
Tools -> Add-ons
When the Add-ons window opens, click on the Install button on the bottom left and paste in the following URL to install the latest release of Lightning (Windows Only, Linux / Mac users will need to get this link by copying the XPI download path from the Mozilla Add-on repository, located here.
Win32 Lightning Add-On XPI Download Link:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/downloads/file/20424/lightning-0.7-tb-win.xpi
If you get a warning similar to “Lightning could not be installed because it is not compatible with Firefox” then you are trying to install the XPI directly into Firefox. Instead, you need to either “open” the link from inside the Thunderbird Add-Ons Install Window, or save the XPI to your desktop and then drag it into the Thunderbird Add-Ons Window.
Once you have installed the Lightning Extension, Thunderbird will ask you to restart. Upon restarting you will be greeted with a new Sidebar on the right displaying tasks and events and a tool bar underneath your folder list.
This is all well and good and provides us with an easy to use local calendar, but that’s not much use if you wanted to update it at work, or on the road / mobile device. This is where the Provider Add-on comes in to play.
Provider allows bidirectional syncing between the Lightning Calendaring Extension in Thunderbird and Google’s GCal Service. This is possible because Google, being the lovely chaps that they are, decided to opt for the iCalendar standard in GCal, well done chaps :)
Installation of Provider is pretty similar to that of Lightning. Again, go to the Add-ons Window (Tools -> Add-Ons) and Install the XPI available for download from Provider’s Page in the Mozilla Add-on repository.
Win32 Provider Add-On XPI Download Link:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/downloads/file/20552/provider_for_google_calendar-0.3.1-tb+sb.xpi
Again, once installed, Thunderbird will have to be restarted.
Now, the last piece of the Pie is to tie our Google Calendar into our Lightning Calendar. First of all, you will need to log into your Google Calendar account. Once you are at the main page, click on “Settings” from the Top Right Menu:
Once on the settings page, you need to drill down into the “Calendars Settings” screen and then click on your Calendar from the list (I only had a single calendar.)
Now, finally, you need to copy the URL of your Private Address XML Feed into the clipboard.
You’re done in Google Calendar for now and we can head back to Thunderbird to finally wrap this tutorial up ;). Once you are back in Thunderbird, you need to create a new calendar in Lightning. You can do this by clicking on the following Menu item:
File -> New -> Calendar…
Upon clicking the New Calendar menu item, another window will appear. The first option is the location of your Calendar – select “On the Network” and click Next.
The next option allows you to specify the Format of the Calendar, slect the “Google Calendar” radio button (if you don’t have a Google Calendar radio button, make sure your Provider Extension is installed correctly). In the location input box, paste in your Google Calendar Private Address XML Feed that we extracted above, and click Next.
The next window asks you to give your new Calendar a Name and a Colour, I will leave these entirely up to you ;)
Finally (yes, at last) you will have a “Google Calendar Login” window which will ask for your Google Account login. If you only have a single Google Calendar, Provider will have automagically extracted your username from the XML feed you just specified; however, just double check that it reads @GMAIL.COM. Then enter your usual GMail password.
Well done, you can now enjoy the many benefits of being able to view and update your Google Calendar directly from Thunderbird – nice work ;)
Hi, thanks a lot for this, it’s great, i spent like four hours trying to link sunbird and google calendar, to no success and then used this and it worked really easily and fast, thanks.
I have installed Provider for google calander and restarted but I get the message “Requires additional items” and a “red !”
What additional items do I need?
Thanks
Thx a lot .. had some problems with the synchronization where there were missing events but looks like its solved now .. Will have to see how long it stays trouble free
[...] I hooked into my google calendar so I could view my personal appointments (go to DMV, pay bill, etc) as well as my work appointments. Instructions for hooking into Google calendar are here. [...]
Very nice tutorial! GCal and ThunderBird Lightning working perfectly. Thanks!
thank you for the excellent instructions. you must be a teacher!! I love the google calendar, I have my kids put their activities there, and we can pick and choose what we want of each other’s info. However, is there a way that the calendar items will appear when offline?? Actually, I can’t even open Thunderbird (which makes sense, I guess) if not online. But anyway to view the calendar and open it independently? I would love to use it on my laptop when traveling so that I can look at my calendar. I am new (today) to tbird, so sorry for my lack of knowledge. Thank you
Great tutorial, thank you. I have sync two calendar and it is working ok. The only drawback is the the secondary calendar have a lag, one to two second, compared to the primary calendar who is updating very fast. I think it is related to the Calendar Address/Calendar ID. My primary calendar use my e-mail adress as ID and my secondary use a code followed by @goup.calendar.google.com. Ex: sfrrah40r01887wjenb700ddt0@group.calendar.google.com.
Is there any workaroung to make the secondary as fast as the primary calendar sync? Thank you
Finally both are pretty fast. Secondary just a little slower. Nothing to care about. If there is a workaroung it would be nice anyway.
Hi everyone.
This is a great tutorial and I thought I had finally found a solution to my gcal problem but when I reached the step where it said to add a new calendar, I couldn’t select that option in Thunderbird. The option is there but only light gray and can’t be selected. Can anyone help? BTW: I’m using Thunderbird version 2.0.0.16
Thanks so much!
Hi everyone,
I also would like to use my Google calendar in Lightning while I’m offline. Or, at least see my entries there and have my alarms reminding me of my appointments.
My current solution is this one:
I use the ‘Automatic Export’ (http://www.sunbird-kalender.de/extension/autoexport/en/download.html) plugin, that allows me to export my network calendars to .ics files on my hard drive (every couple of minutes and when I close TB). Do File->Open->Calendar File in TB. Browse to the place where your exported file is located and open it. It will add a new calendar (that’s the not so optimal thing about this procedure) to Lightning with exactly the same name as the exported calendar one. Don’t change this name, it would change the file name on the hard drive and you wouldn’t point to the original file any more! But you can change the color of this new calendar to mark it as the offline version. (I had the idea browsing through the Lightning faqs http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/faq.html#local_calendar ). This offline version will update with every export of your Google calendar (once the offline calendar is refreshed).
Of course, now you have twice the number of calendars, but at least you have an offline version with all your alarms. Since you only export your google calendar, you cannot add a new entry to you offline calendar. Your network calendar wouldn’t pick it up.
Maybe this is of any help for others.
Cheers, Matthias
I have set Provider up and Gmail items are shown in Lightening (latest version.16) but Lightening items do not show up in the Gmail calender. I thought it was supposed to be bidirectional between the two. Any help?
Thanks.
Matthias, I had that problem also. In Thunderbird, go down to the bottom left and click on Calendar. You were most likely in the email tab.
This is so cool. Your instructions were excellent and even after all this time still work. Thank you.
[...] can have the interface I love on my computer, but also have it available world-wide! Here’s a HOWTO in order to get your [...]
[...] A instalação é muito simples, podendo ser consultada aqui e aqui. [...]
Thanks for the walk-through. This article and it’s commentary have ended my long and arduous journey in maintaining a single calendar.
-t
[...] Well, I thought of doing a step by step guide too, but I found this great in depth tutorial here. I couldn’t have done it any better, so check it out to complete the first 2 [...]
saw on different side ubuntu has compiled against libstdc++5 so need to install that to get the calendar to be usable o will haveunhighlighted – worked for me like a charm after lots of hair pulling before I found this post
sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
[...] bfish.xaedalus.net » Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird. [...]
[...] to do calendars – requires Lightning and Provider extensionsGreat Thunderbird extensionsOpen source calendaring – [...]
[...] How to setup the integration with google calendar https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/sunbird/addon/4631 http://bfish.xaedalus.net/?p=239 [...]
Thanks, for the great tutorial. I have TB 2.0.0.16 installed with both addons. But i find my File -> New -> Calendar menu is disabled. Has anyone experienced this before? Please help.
Works like a Charm! Why don’t you start your own blog for this!
[...] sowie ein Account bei Google-Calendar sind vonnöten. Die Einrichtung der Plugins wird hier erklärt (auf Englisch).[Show as [...]
Thunderbird Calendar sync with Google Calendar (synced with Outlook!)
TB 2.0.0.16 (20080724), Lightning 0.9, Provider for Google 0.5pre
After quite a few hours of frustration trying the above suggestions I finally managed to get calendar to work in TB Linux Mint Elyssa. I did the following:
After installing the Add-on Extensions listed above and restarting TB, right click on TB left side space under Calendar and choose New Calendar (there is no calendar option under File>New).
In Create New Calendar choose On the Network > Next, then Format iCalendar (ICS). In gCal copy ICAL Private Address link location and paste into TB Location: box.
Click Next and give your calendar a name and change the color if you like. Finally click Next and Finish. Done!
Just hover the cursor over an event to see its contents and double click it to edit.
I have no idea why the Google setting didn’t work for me, but the above is super quick.
Great it works! Who needs M$ …?
Vielen Dank!
Thank you, it really works. Now my husband and I can share the same calendar online and with Thunderbird!
[...] All good of course, and both of these have been around for a while now. Unfortunately, until recently, synchronising this calendar with on-line services was also a problem. But not any more! There’s now a plugin for Lightning that allows seamless integration with Google calendar, called the Provide for Google Calender plug-in. There’s also a good how to for setting this up here. [...]
[...] source: Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird from the nice people at [...]
[...] All good of course, and both of these have been around for a while now. Unfortunately, until recently, synchronizing this calendar with on-line services was also a problem. But not any more! There’s now a plugin for Lightning that allows seamless integration with Google calendar, called the Provider for Google Calender plug-in. There’s also a good how to for setting this up here [...]
[...] All good of course, and both of these have been around for a while now. Unfortunately, until recently, synchronizing this calendar with on-line services was also a problem. But not any more! There’s now a plugin for Lightning that allows seamless integration with Google calendar, called the Provider for Google Calender plug-in. There’s also a good how to for setting this up here [...]
[...] Once this is done, follow this fantastic visual guide to setting up GCal and Thunderbird. [...]
[...] A pictured howto can be found here: http://bfish.xaedalus.net/?p=239 [...]
Whoa! Thanks for the detailed instructions. Installed as advertised.
[...] More hints here [...]
Hi
I tried to access my google calendar, (the login does not have @gmail, as we used google apps to create mail ids with our domain name. Inspite of giving the user name and password in the login window and checking the “use password manager to remember password” option, it keeps asking for the password every few seconds. Is there a way around this ?
thanks
[...] I hooked into my google calendar so I could view my personal appointments (go to DMV, pay bill, etc) as well as my work appointments. Instructions for hooking into Google calendar are here. [...]
Thanks a lot!
the best tutorial that I used for a long time, better than USER MAGAZINE, and the best point that it is free. Thank’s
Great job! Works like a charm – thank you! :) :)
[...] Provider for Google Calendar (Optional Download for bidirectional access to Google Calendar. Directions.) [...]
Nice one. Thanks for taking the time to post this.
[...] attempted to sync Thunderbird and Google Calender by following the instructions found here. After installing Lightning and Provider, as instructed I attempted to go to [...]
Thank you worked well , great tips
Fantastic help page! Thanks man; couldn’t find the solution anywhere else. Great job!
awesome. installed it on two computers mine and my admins and it syncs with my blackberry. I use google sync for my bb and followed these instructions for my computers. this is much better and faster than google sync! no duplciates either!
I have been using gcal-daemon for over a year and it’s great, but I do not seem to be able to dismiss event notifications from Lightning. It is very annoing, it seems that despite dismissing the ven in lightning, it is still active in gcal and sends a notification again and again. What could be the problem?
Thanks
I am having a little problem… I have everything installed and when I go to File > New > Calendar, Calendar is grayed out and I can’t click it…
I followed the instructions from http://jasonmiazga.com/wordpress/?p=9 and it worked out.