Monday, September 5, 2011

Clouding gets better: Access shared TAPA calendars off your iPad

***UPDATE*** So, apparently, this doesn't work all the time. If you're finding that the following process doesn't work for you, there is one more thing you can do. On your iPad's Settings app, go under Mail, Contacts, Calendar. Click Add Account... and, instead of hitting Gmail, hit Other. Then, under Calendars, click Add CalDav Account. Then, type in the following settings:


If something pops up for allowing SSL, click Continue to accept. Now you can go ahead and skip to Step 2 below.



About 75% of the reason I fell in love with my first iPod touch was because it was more than simply a music player; it was because the iPad was the kind of device that you could utilize to enhance your life. Mail? Awesome. Contacts? Great. Notes? Not the best by Apple, but excellent alternatives like Evernote (writeup on that one to come soon) make it great. But greatest of these: Apple's almighty Calendar app.

If you know the greatness of Calendar, good for you, but you're likely not using it to its fullest if you're not incorporating TAPA's Google-Apps-enhanced Cloud into it. For example, let's say something happens and instead of being a B-Day, tomorrow is an A-Day. An administrator can change what type of day it is on their iPads, and it will update onto yours as soon as you connect to the internet. Want to know if SA Day is being moved, and to when? As the SA sponsor, I can change the date on Google Calendar and you'll see the changes immediately. Want the entire school year's schedule on your iPad without having to put in anything? Do the following steps, and ever TAPA event, deadline, and vacation will appear on your device in seconds:
  1. Add your TAPA Google Apps account to your iPad. (You might have already done part of this, but make sure you have everything set to make sure the entire process works.) Under your iPad's Settings app, go under Mail, Contacts, Calendar.


    • If you already receiving your TAPA mail on your iPad, you can just click on whatever your TAPA email account is (usually labeled yourname@tapa.tp.edu.tw) and make sure that Calendars is turned  ON .
    • If you do not already receive your TAPA mail on your iPad, click Add Account..., and enter in your TAPA email information (i.e. your Name, TAPA email Address, and TAPA email Password). Once it successfully loads, you can turn  ON  your Calendars and, optionally, your Mail.
  2. Turn on your shared calendars. There are a series of shared calendars that, as someone else updates them on their iPad, will reflect changes instantly onto your iPad.* To gain access to those, on your iPad, make sure you are signed into your TAPA email account and go to the following link:
    https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/tapa.tp.edu.tw/iphoneselect
    There will be a series of calendars with checkmarks you can select.


    Click any and all you would like to be a part of (all are suggested!) and hit save.
  3. Verify that your calendars have shown up on your Calendar app. Click on the Calendar app and actually hit the  button (in the top left). There will be a list of calendars that show up. Underneath your TAPA email address, you should see a few school calendars. Make sure that they are all checked On, as such:


    If you close the program down and re-open, your new calendar events should load.
And there it is! Let me know if you have any problems with this process!

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