Taking a Look at Nextcloud Calendar
9 August, 2021
A calendar is more than just something that you use to mark off the days until the weekend. It’s also a powerful tool for keeping organized and keeping track of your appointments and more. One of the apps built into Nextcloud is a calendar.
Nextcloud Calendar is easy to set up and use. It packs just enough features for most people. And, if your needs are fairly simple, it’s a great alternative to the popular web-based calendar tools out there.
Let’s take a closer look at Nextcloud Calendar.
Using Nextcloud Calendar
Out of the box, Nextcloud Calendar looks like just about every other calendar tool you’ve probably used.
At the core of any calendar is an event. An event can be an appointment, a meeting, a party, or a deadline.
To create an event, click Calendar in the menu bar to the left. Then, either click on a date on which the event occurs or click + New event. In either case, a pop-out displays.
Enter a title for the event, its date, and its start and end times — the sort of thing you’d pencil into a dead-trees day planner. Or, if the event is just reminder to do something on that date, click the All day option.
Either click Save or click More to open the Details panel.
An event can contain a lot more information. You can enter that information about the event. At the very least, this includes:
- The event’s physical location.
- A description of the event — in the example above, that’s the URL of the Jitsi Meet room my friend and I use.
- When Nextcloud should send you a reminder
- Whether or not the event repeats and at what interval.
After you save an event, you can edit it or view its details by clicking on the event.
Multiple Calendars
You can also create multiple calendars, which let you focus on a specific portion of your life or work. To do that, the +New calendar link in the left pane of the calendar window and select New calendar.
Type a name for the calendar and press Enter. You can click the ellipsis (…) to the right of the calendar’s name to change the name or to change its color coding (to tell it apart from your other calendars).
Your calendars display in the left pane of the window.
Syncing Your Calendar
You’re not always, nor is it always convenient to be in, Nextcloud. So, how do you view your calendar? By syncing it with your desktop or your mobile device.
Syncing on Android
There’s no mobile client for the Nextcloud Calendar. However, you can use an app called DAVx5 to connect your Nextcloud Calendar with the calendar app on your device.
Follow these instructions to set the app up to work with Nextcloud Calendar.
Syncing on the Linux Desktop
I can only tell you how to do this with GNOME (and GNOME-like) desktops and with elementary OS.
With GNOME (and that include Ubuntu and its direct relatives), you can connect your instance of Nextcloud to your desktop using the Online Accounts feature. You can learn how to do that here.
On elementary OS, there’s a bit more work required. Synchronization is done using a protocol called CalDAV. First, grab the CalDAV address of Nextcloud Calendar by clicking Settings and import in the bottom-left corner of the calendar window. Then, scroll down click Copy primary CalDAV address.
Open the Calendar app on your desktop and click the Settings icon. Click Add New Calendar and then select CalDAV from the Type list.
Then, do this:
- Enter a name for the calendar (like Nextcloud).
- Paste the CalDAV URL that you copied.
- Select the Use a secure connection option.
- Enter your Nextcloud User name and Email address.
You’ll need to do this for each calendar that you want to synchronize with the elementary OS desktop. Here’s an example of the results:
Final Thoughts
If your needs are simple, then Nextcloud Calendar is an excellent open source alternative to tools like Google Calendar. When used in conjunction with Nextcloud’s other apps, Calendar becomes a solid part of a suite of productivity tools that’s under your control.