Check it out at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ideskcal/id404116603?mt=12

Don’t forget to leave a rating and a review.

Look for it when the Mac App Store is released on January 6th.

This unfortunately is not a problem that is limited to iDeskCal, and is instead is occurring at the Mac OS X level and is therefore effecting many calendaring applications.

I have been doing research on the issue and have been in discussions with other Mac developers as well as with Apple, and I thought I would give everyone some information on what is happening, as well as let you in on the current activities to try and remedy this problem.

The reason this is happening is that with CalDav calendars (such as Google calendars, and the new MobileMe calendars, as well as with Exchange calendars), changes made to these types of calendars are not accessed by Apple’s Calendar API’s (Application Programming Interface) until iCal is launched.

The fact that this is happening with BusyCal means that they have implemented their own library for accessing/updating CalDav calendars.
This also means that this will not only happen with iDeskCal, but with all other 3rd party applications that use Apple’s frameworks for accessing calendar information.

Apple’s API’s in question are the official way Apple has told developers to access the calendar data, and have even gone as far to say that applications that do not use this framework for accessing the calendar information can be rejected from the upcoming Mac App Store.

Section 2.29 of the Mac App Store Review Guidelines states:

All that said, this is a defiant flaw in Apple’s framework, for which I have filed a Bug Report, as well as having been talking to Apple’s Mac Application Frameworks Evangelist about.

I am hopeful that Apple will address this issue quickly, however due to a high likelihood that a fix probably won’t end up being released until at least the release of Mac OS X ‘Lion’ (if not later), Justin Williams of Second Gear Software (the developer of the calendaring application ‘Today‘) and myself have decided that we are going to start work on an Open Source CalDav Library for Apple’s Cocoa Framework, which will bypass this flaw in Apple’s framework.

Our hope is that by developing this Open Source Library we will be able to bypass the issue in both ‘iDeskCal‘ and ‘Today‘, as well as offer a simple and free Objective-C library that other Mac OS 3rd party calendar applications can adopt to address this issue in their applications as well, therefore giving you, the Mac user(s) a more streamlined and friendly experience when managing your calendars on the Mac.

I will continue to update you on this issue as more information becomes available.

I am hopeful that due to this issue being so rampant since the Mobile Me calendar update, that Apple will still allow applications implementing this library to be accepted into the Mac App Store. The applications can also still be available on the developers website if they choose, or if there is a problem.

So assuming no unforeseen complications iDeskCal will be available in the store on opening day!

Updates as they become available…

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