CardDAV/CalDAV server connecting with devices and appsĪs the protocol is based on (efficient) web technology, the requirements for the server are minimal. The central server allows devices and apps to independently connect and synchronise data. Unlike 'peer-to-peer' connections (where you would link your phone to your computer), the CardDAV/CalDAV protocol is designed to work using the internet. To work with CardDAV/CalDAV you need a server that acts as central repository of your addressbook/calendar data. CalDAV allows multiple devices and apps to access your calendar, allowing cooperative planning and information sharing. The 'Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification' is an open standard itself, RFC 5545, that is widely supported. It uses WebDAV to share appointment data in the iCalendar-format. Just like CardDAV it was originally proposed as standard by Apple, RFC 6638. The CalDAV protocol is a calendar sharing protocol. CardDAV allows you to share your collection of virtual business cards between your devices. You can best think of a vCard as a virtual business card. The protocol uses WebDAV to share contact data in the 'vCard' file format. It was originally proposed as standard by Apple in 2007, RFC 6352.

The CardDAV protocol is an addressbook sharing protocol. It's a protocol that allows multiple clients (devices/computers/apps) to share a resource (file/addressbook/calendar/etc). Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) itself is an extension of the standard HTTP protocol. Luckily such a solution exists in the CardDAV and CalDAV open standards.īoth CardDAV and CalDAV are extensions on the WebDAV standard. freedom: if you use open protocols to run your Addressbook/Calendar cloud, you can use it on all your devices.įor maximum freedom and flexibility in the choosing the devices you use, you need to select a common denominator when looking for solutions that allow the sharing of addressbooks and calendars.I like my addressbook (with appointments, project details, etc) and contacts (names, numbers, birthdays) to be private. privacy: although the big companies claim they 'value your privacy', they offer no garanties that nobody will look at your data.control: if you run the Addressbook/Calendar cloud, you control how it works, how much it costs, who has access to it, etc.Why do it yourself?Īlthough it is very convenient to use a big cloud service for addressbook and calendar syncing, there are good reasons why you might want to do it yourself: But, if you prefer not to share your addressbook and calendar with big American companies, you can do it yourself. You can use any of the 'big cloud' services for this, like Apple iCloud, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Gmail. If you use different devices and computers to get things done, you might want to synchronise contacts, agendas and tasks.

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