View Your Google Calendar Events In The Ubuntu Unity Panel

As the computing experience becomes more and more focused on the Web, it's nice to be able to access the information while still on the Desktop. For instance, having weather information shown on your taskbar or panel, email reminders with pop-up notifications when new messages arrive, and instant access to Twitter feeds and Facebook posts.

In Ubuntu, you can access Google Calendar appointments, but only if you have the Evolution email client (which is not the default mail client in Ubuntu), as well as the DateTime Indicator. In other words, if you access your email through your web browser, you can't get your calendar appointments without installing a program you'll never need, except to configure. Well, that was the case until lately. Now, thanks to Calendar Indicator, you can view your events directly from the Unity Panel.

Here's how it works.

First, open up your Terminal.

We'll now be adding Lorenzo's personal package archive, where you can also find other indicators, such as a weather indicator, Google Reader indicator, Touchpad indicator, and more. To add the PPA, type sudo apt-add-repository ppa:atareao/atareao into your Terminal.

Now update your software lists, so the software in the PPA is available for your package manager to download and install. Typing sudo apt-get update will do this.

Finally, type sudo apt-get install calendar-indicator to install the Calendar Indicator.

Once installed, you can launch Calendar Indicator from the Unity Dash. Hit the Windows key, then start typing Calendar until you see it, then hit the Enter key.

The first time it launches, you'll see an error window, informing you that your username and password are not configured correctly. You can safely ignore this, and enter in your correct info.

While in this window, you can hit the Options menu to configure a few other settings, such as whether or not Calendar Indicator starts automatically, how often it checks for new appointments, and whether the light theme is turned on.

Once this is done, you'll see the calendar icon appear in your panel. Clicking this reveals the menu where your events.

To view a small calendar window, click the Show Calendar option from the menu above. A small window will appear with this month displayed; for each day with an appointment, that date will be shown in bold.

Now simply click on any date with an appointment, and a small bubble will appear with the name of the task. This is handy in that you don't need to go to the Google Calendar website to view your upcoming events.

While Calendar Indicator is handy, it's not a perfect replacement by any means. For instance, you can't create new events, nor view any information other than the name of the event, using the indicator. You can't change an event's time or delete an event, and while each event will highlight in the menu when you move over it with your mouse, clicking doesn't bring up the website, nor any other detailed information.

In other words, for a quick overview of your monthly appointments, it's nice, but it will certainly not replace the full Google Calendar experience. It's something to keep in mind when considering installing it; it will be great for some people with light usage, while for others it will be too limiting. Still, the implementation is nicely done, even if the full feature set isn't currently present.