GCALDaemon and Enviromental Variables

GCALDaemon is an OS-independent Java program that offers two way synchronization between Google Calendar and various ICAL compatible calendar applications. It's primarily designed as a calendar synchronizer but it can also be used as a Gmail notifier, Address Book importer, Gmail terminal and RSS feed converter. To run GCALDaemon needs installed Java, a Gmail account and an iCAL compatible calendar: Sunbird, Rainledar, Thunderbird, Windows live mail. (GCAL Daemon is not required to sync Windows live mail with Google calendar.)

GCALDaemon is usually a seemless install, run and operate but there maybe issues where the Environmental Variable for Java is either not set or has multiple paths. Which isn't uncommon if the Java plugin for Firefox has been installed prior to the full version of Java. The following guide is a step by step summarized install that addresses this issues.

1. Install Java 1.5 or higher if needed. To see the version of Java installed open up the command prompt and type java -version.

2. Download the installer from http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/

3. Start the installer. It's very important to setup GCALDaemon's path to C:\GCALDaemon

4. On the Select Components page select only NTService abilities.

5. In the Config Editor go to the File synchronizer tab and ensure Enable file-based calendar synchronizer is checked.

6. Next you must encode your Gmail password. Navigate to C:\GCALDaemon\bin and run password-encoder.bat The command prompt should open and ask for the Gmail password.
6a. Upon receiving a Java error, the Java path, classpath and home must be set manually. It is possible to edit the system environmental variables but doing so has risks and may not completely solve the problem.
6b. Find the directory. that contains Java.exe. It may be installed in C:\Java\jre6\bin\ - C:\Program Files (86x)\Java\jre6\bin - ecetera. The file path will vary depending on your Java install and the jre6 directory may not be the one you are looking for, but it will be installed in a bin directory and the given examples should put you on the right track.
6c. Open password-encoder.bat in notepad.
6d. Underneath the "rem starting password encoder..." line insert the following:

SET PATH=the file path of the directory containing java.exe

SET CLASSPATH=the file path of the directory containing java.exe

SET JAVA_HOME=the file path of the directory containing java.exe

6e. Save your changes.
6f. Run the file you've just modified, enter your Gmail password, press enter and copy the encoded password.

7. Open C:\GCALDaemon\conf\gcal-daemon.cfg in notepad:
Set file.ical.path to C:/GCALDaemon/google.ics
Set file.enabled to true
Set file.google.username to your Gmail address
Set file.google.password to your encoded password you just created.
Set file.private.ical.url to your private iCal url without protocol and hostname. I.E. http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/dumgohda%40gmail.com/private-328r32j3fj293riu2j9i3jf293irj/basic.ics should be entered as /calendar/ical/dumgohda%40gmail.com/private-328r32j3fj293riu2j9i3jf293irj/basic.ics . (This url can be obtained at your Google Calendar, Click the arrow to the right of My Calendars, select calendar settings, at the bottom of the page under Private Address click the green iCal button.)
Save your changes.

8. In C:\GCALDaemon\bin run standalone-start.bat. Upon receiving a Java error enter the following after the "rem Starting GCALDaemon..." line:

SET PATH=the file path of the directory containing java.exe

SET CLASSPATH=the file path of the directory containing java.exe

SET JAVA_HOME=the file path of the directory containing java.exe

8a. Save your changes and run the modified file.

9. GCALDaemon will now download the .ics file to C:/GCALDaemon/ directory and name it google.ics.

10. You can now point your calendar application to the .ics file to permanently sync it to Google Calendar!

Oh jebus and it has an OS X version too? *mindgasms*

Thanks for this epy! I've been looking for a way to avoid moving mounds of import/export files around everytime I add a new RSS feed on google.