For the past while, I've been scratching my head trying to find a way to sync my web-based scheduling application with my Palm. I knew that the answer probably lay in iCal/vCal, but couldn't find a syncing application for the Palm to import the ics file automatically.

I also didn't want to have my web-based schedule infect my Outlook calendar here at work, since I generally separate out work appointments and deadlines from those of my side projects.

Recently, I came across GooSync, which allows you to synchronize your Google Calendar to your Palm through an installed Palm application (you also have to install something like Softick PPP on your machine to allow your Palm to access the Internet if you don't have wireless Internet access) or through a supported phone via SyncML. So now the problem shifted from syncing with an iCal file to syncing my web-based scheduler with Google calendars.

Enter the Zend Framework. The Zend Framework offers an API to connect to Google's services, including Calendar, which means I can now update my Google Calendar from the web-based scheduler. When I add a new task to my web-based schedule, it automatically adds the same task to my Google calendar. It takes a few seconds for the calendar to update, but it's pretty much completely seamless for the end user.

At the moment, it doesn't do anything more than that. In other words, you cannot delete items from your Google calendar from the web-based schedule, nor can you add something to the Google calendar and expect it to show up in the web-based scheduler. But these things will come in time. The biggest hurdle was just getting to two to talk to one another. Now that I have crossed that, extending functionality is just a matter of putting in the time.