J2ME Google Calendar client!
NEW: check out the new Gcal 0.3 version!
Christmas is rapidly approaching, and it’s time for presents! 
For those who have always wanted a Google Calendar client for their Java ME enabled cellphones, it is finally here!
J2ME Google Calendar
It’s still an early alpha, but everyone is welcome to try it and give feedbacks.
Features of this first release include:
- calendar filtering
- events creation
- event searching
- events location map viewing
And here are some screenshots:
Daily events
Calendars filter
Event creation
Event location map
Date selection
Event search
Settings screen
For all requests, feedbacks and bugs please leave a comment to this post
Release notes
Compatibility issues:
- Some Nokia Series60 1st and 2nd edition devices have problems in handling HTTP redirects: I’m working on a fix, that will be available in a future GCal release
- You must specify your account name without the ‘@gmail.com’ part, otherwise authentication will fail (an automatic check will be added in the next release): you can now specify ‘@gmail.com’ part in your account name, and authentication will fail no more. Also, if you’re using a mapped domain with Google, you can now use your hosted account data as well.
richa lau, 
Jan, 
Jesuli, and 34 others are discussing.
Salim Hbeiliny 11:02 am on December 24, 2008 Permalink
Not working with me, I tried a gmail account and a google apps account, both gave an username/password error.
I’m using N95 over WIFI
Wael Nabil 11:42 am on December 24, 2008 Permalink
Dear pit,
great work you do..i have problem trying it on my E71 as it always give me wrong username/password
and i am sure they are right..
notice: i login with same information of my gmail account.
thanks
Wael Nabil 11:52 am on December 24, 2008 Permalink
Thanks its work pit….nice work..
usability is excellent.
pit 4:03 pm on December 24, 2008 Permalink
Hi all,
thanks for your precious feedback!
@Salim: you should specify the account name without the ‘@gmail.com’ part (I know it’s not clear right now :)). Have you tried this way? If problem persists, please let me know.
@Wael: was the problem related to the ‘@gmail.com’ part in the account name? Anyway, glad to know it works now
Let me know if you have some other problems!
Pit
Salim Hbeiliny 10:55 am on December 25, 2008 Permalink
Yes, without the @gmail.com it works. As a web developer, I have previously worked with google’s authentication API, it’s very easy to implement both google and google apps accounts authentication, hope you will support this in future version.
Anyway, very useful app, keep up the good work
GCal: il client di Google Calendar : Spaziocellulare News Magazine 3:28 am on December 26, 2008 Permalink
[...] release ci potrebbero essere problemi. In tal caso li potete segnalare inserendo un commento nel post del sito dello sviluppatore. Una nota per l’installazione: quando inserite il nome dell’account, togliete [...]
carlo 12:11 pm on December 26, 2008 Permalink
the program did not start on N79. it stop at the first screen (http://www.jappit.com/images/blog/uploads/GCal_splash2.gif), hope this can help development
ernesto61 3:48 pm on December 26, 2008 Permalink
It does’nt work on my n96.
pit 10:45 am on December 27, 2008 Permalink
Hi all!
@carlo: does it stop since first execution, or after some usages? Also: does the loading bar block after a while, or does it continue to run indefinitely?
@ernesto61: can you please provide more details about the problems you have on your N96?
Thanks again for all your precious feedbacks!
Pit
J2ME, Flash Lite, Symbian, Iphone, Android and Ajax news, tutorials, source code » Blog Archive » Hosted accounts support added to GCal J2ME client 11:55 am on December 27, 2008 Permalink
[...] Mobile games development English site Italian site « J2ME Google Calendar client! [...]
pit 4:14 pm on December 27, 2008 Permalink
About the bug with devices stuck at splash screen: version 0.1.1 should have solved it
Please let me know if the problem persists on some devices!
Thomas Gehring 11:01 am on December 28, 2008 Permalink
Hello,
just installed it on a N 82 and it works great.
Are you planning to implement a month and week view?
Greetings from Germany
Tom
GCal arrives, still early days though | All about symbian android iphone mobiles 11:27 am on December 28, 2008 Permalink
[...] way as most GMail users also run the Java-based GMail client on their phones, there’s now GCal, a Java-based Google Calendar client – except that this one’s not an official Google product. It’s also still early alpha [...]
ernesto61 9:25 pm on December 28, 2008 Permalink
niente si impalla fin dalla prima esecuzione nel senso che la barra non va avanti, non si carica, l’installazione è perfetta ma il programma non si esegue.
it does not work since the first execution; the bar does not go forwar.
The software does not charge itself;
the installation is perfect but the program does not run.
» Gcal. Un client per Google Calendar tutto italiano! 8:43 am on December 29, 2008 Permalink
[...] oggi la volta di Gcal, realizzata dal coder italiano Alessandro La Rosa, e sviluppata, come probabilmente alcuni di voi [...]
Dan Din 8:50 am on December 29, 2008 Permalink
Works perfectly on the Nokia E90 Communicator’s inner screen and outer screen. Brilliant in every way. Shows me my calendar and others’ calendars. i really like the month view calendar when you hit the “go to” menu – any chance of a shortcut to the “go to” function?
Regardless – this is great software.
Google Calendar Java application: GCal | biskero 4:42 pm on December 29, 2008 Permalink
[...] Alessandro developed a great application to manage your Google Calendar: GCal [...]
pit 4:45 pm on December 29, 2008 Permalink
Hi all!
@Thomas: monthly and weekly views are on the wish list, I’ll keep you informed about them!
@ernesto: have you tried latest v0.1.1 version? It should solve the problem with splash-screen. You can download it here:
http://www.jappit.com/blog/2008/12/27/hosted-accounts-support-added-to-gcal-j2me-client/
@Dan Din: thanks for your appreciation! Key shortcuts are on the todo list, they’ll be surely included in one of next releases
Pit
J2ME-based GCal brings Google Calendar to feature phones 6:45 pm on December 30, 2008 Permalink
[...] is available from here, and you can read the “official blog post” from here. While there, feel free to drop your two cents about the features you want to see in the future [...]
Phil 10:40 am on December 31, 2008 Permalink
Works great on the Sony Ericsson W880i. I agree, weekly and monthly views would be most welcome. Keep up the good work.
Ethan 4:10 pm on December 31, 2008 Permalink
Now if this had vibration or audible alerts for upcoming events… that would make it very worthwhile for me
Great and useful app tho
Michael Vezie 6:12 pm on January 4, 2009 Permalink
With a Nokia 6555 it loads and lets me log in. Then, when it is loading my calendars, it shows each one saying it can’t access them. Finally after all show that, it gets a NullPointer java/lang/NullPointer Exception and dies. I’m really looking forward to this!!!
pit 5:10 pm on January 5, 2009 Permalink
Hi all!
@Phil: both the views are definitely on the todo list. Probably not in the next release, but soon..
@Ethan: good idea, they’ll be surely useful! I’ll get on this asap.
@Michael: thanks for the feedback! I’m on this right now
Happy New Year to everyone!
Pit
Peter 8:49 pm on January 7, 2009 Permalink
Hi,
First, thanks for a great free app (works perfectly on a European edition Nokia E71, loading 5 calendars in a heartbeat over wifi at home).
What I’m still looking for, and can’t find anywhere on the internet, is an app that syncs with gcal but also works offline, that is, it saves the downloaded info somewhere on the phone. Not sure if it’s possible or not for this app, but it would be a great next step. Two way sync (i.e., edit / create entries on the phone and upload to gcal) would also be nice.
I still haven’t made up my mind how best to sync a work calendar and several google calendars between my work PC, home laptop and E71.
Jack 3:35 pm on January 8, 2009 Permalink
Trying it on the Inq1. Consistently getting the error ‘There was an error while loading calendars data’ after entering username and password and trying to log in. Hitting retry yields the same error. Any ideas?
This app looks awesome, it’d be great to have it, especially as the Inq1 built in calendar is awful.
pit 3:46 pm on January 8, 2009 Permalink
Hi all!
@Peter: yes, event synchronization would be a great feature. I’m not working on it right now, but will surely do when the current release is a bit more stable.
@Jack: a new version with a lot of bug-fixes (and new cool features :)) will be released in the next few days, you can give it a try to check if your issue is properly fixed.
Pit
Totumweb.com » Blog Archive » Google Calendar sul proprio cellulare! 9:43 pm on January 8, 2009 Permalink
[...] Ormai è possibile utilizzare Google Calendar! Gcal il nome dell’applicazione, realizzata dal coder italiano Alessandro La Rosa, e sviluppata per [...]
GCal - J2ME-based Google Calendar client at MultiCellPhone.com 5:01 pm on January 10, 2009 Permalink
[...] GCal – J2ME-based Google Calendar client. GCal is a new Java ME application that allows you to manage your Google Calendar appointments from your Java ME enabled cellphones. It’s still in an alpha stage. Features of this first release include: calendar filtering, events creation, event searching, and events location map viewing. In case you’re interested in this application, it’s available for free. You can download it from the official website here. [...]
J2ME, Flash Lite, Symbian, Iphone, Android and Ajax news, tutorials, source code » Blog Archive » Gcal update: version 0.2 released! 10:53 am on January 11, 2009 Permalink
[...] have been quite cold and productive holidays, and so here’s a big update to Gcal, the J2ME Google Calendar client: version 0.2 is available for [...]
KH 8:37 am on January 13, 2009 Permalink
I noticed GCal has static GMaps support. I’m pretty amazed by this … because I’m working on a project and would like to add GMap access to my J2ME midlet, but have not been able to find sufficient resources online to do so.
Is there somewhere I should be looking to learn the official API for Google Maps Mobile? Any help here would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Chris 10:37 pm on January 14, 2009 Permalink
haven’t been able to get GCal to work properly on my Helio Ocean (Pantech PN-810). The v0.2 version shows “Error while connecting to Google” instead of the previous invalid Username / Password message. Looks like a great application, hope to get it working soon, thanks:)
pit 11:02 pm on January 14, 2009 Permalink
Hi all!
@KH: you could try taking a look at Google Static Maps API. Feel free to ask if you have any doubts
@Chris: login error messages have been fixed in version 0.2, so yours is most probably a connection/network issue. Unfortunately I have not a Helio Ocean device to perform some tests, but I’m planning to release a debug Gcal version to help to fix this kind of issues.
Pit
Magnus Dunker 12:05 am on January 16, 2009 Permalink
Hi,
Been waiting for this for a long time
I have a samsung L700 and can login but i allways recieve a ‘There was an error while loading Calender data’
Hope this will be fixed.
Chris 3:06 am on January 16, 2009 Permalink
Thanks Pit, sounds great, I would be glad to do some tests with a debug version when you have one, looks like a great app:)
Julie 3:45 pm on January 16, 2009 Permalink
Keep up the good work! I hope this is the right place for feedback (if not, please let me know what is).
I’ve been waiting for a decent gCal application for my Nokia E90 (S60 3rd edition), and this looks like it’s it. I love the fact that you automatically pick up my colour choices for each of my calendars, so they have the same colours as on my PC.
I have a lot of separate Calendars in gCal (between 20 and 30). Some are created by me and shared with others; Some are created by others and shared with me; Still others are subscriptions to (e.g.) iCal calendars with Sports fixtures (e.g. Formula 1 race info).
First a bug: In Filter Calendars, I can select the first 19 to include or exclude, but after that moving theD-pad down simple scrolls the list without selecting a tick box. (This means that gCal is spending a LOT of time trying to receive info from calendars, e.g. the 2006, 2007 and 2008 F1 seasons) Where I KNOW it’s not going to find any current data, but I can’t exclude them. So far, it hasn’t actually retrieved any data for today, and it’s been trying for several minutes.)
Second, a feature request: Please could gCal only display a Calendar name/heading *IF* it finds entries for that day. Most of my calendars are quite sparse, so my screen gets filled up with headers with no data, making it difficult to see entries that do exist. Sometimes I have to scroll down to page 2 of my list to see the only entry for today.
A second bug: With this version, I always get asked twice for my Access Point when connecting. I don’t THINK that was the case with 01.1
Thanks
Julie
pit 10:44 am on January 20, 2009 Permalink
Hi all!
@Magnus Dunker: unfortunately I have not a Samsung L700 to reproduce your issue. Anyway, I’m planning a debug version that will help to solve all these issues. So, stay tuned!
@Chris: I’m just working on it
@Julie: yes, this is the right place for feedbacks. First, thanks for your appreciation!
About the checkbox issue: I have to do some more tests to reproduce it, but It should be most likely fixed in very next Gcal release.
About the hidden empty calendars: yes, this can be surely useful for users with many calendars, so expect this also to be done really soon
About the Access Point popup: previous versions should have the same behavior, and this is due to the different protocols used by the app itself (http/https), so it seems it cannot be avoided
Thanks again for all your great feedbacks!
Pit
EraYIncE » J2ME Google Calendar 4:12 pm on January 21, 2009 Permalink
[...] For download and further details please visit JAPPIT [...]
GCal arrives, still early days though 5:06 pm on January 24, 2009 Permalink
[...] the same way as most GMail users also run the Java-based GMail client on their phones, there’s now GCal, a Java-based Google Calendar client – except that this one’s not an official Google product. It’s also still early alpha status, but [...]
Krishna 7:33 pm on February 1, 2009 Permalink
I get he following error on Sony Ericsson W910i when I try to login.
“There was an error while loading calendars data”. Any help to fix this?
Thanks.
pit 9:14 pm on February 1, 2009 Permalink
Hi Krishna,
thanks for your feedback. The calendar loading issue has been reported from other users too, and should be fixed from next Gcal version, that will be available in next days.
Pit
Krishna 3:31 am on February 3, 2009 Permalink
Thanks pit for your prompt reply. Will keep checking here for an updated version.
Jorge Ledesma 11:11 pm on February 8, 2009 Permalink
Hello and congratulations on a greatly needed application. I love having all my google calendars loaded on my mobile(nokia e71)but my only issue is that, the Gcal is constantly asking you for permsission to access the internet, it would be cool if it only asked you once. There is an app called twibble mobile(j2me)that handles the pop-ups really well it only asks you once and then it populates your twitter feeds. If Gcal had a similar setup it would be great.
Request:
1. Automatic updates ie. every 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour
It would be awesome
Thanks in advance,
pit 11:16 am on February 9, 2009 Permalink
Hi Jorge,
thanks for your appreciation!
To have the connection popup shown only once you have to manually modify permission settings of Gcal. You can do it this way:
1) go (from E71 main menu) into “Applications” -> “Application Manager” -> “Installed apps.”
2) select Gcal and, from the Options menu, select “Settings”
3) in “Network access” select “Ask first time”
Unfortunately, this process cannot be automatized, and users need to do it manually.
If you have any other doubts please tell me
Thanks,
Pit
Ardelsal 3:48 pm on February 22, 2009 Permalink
Ho provato a scaricare sul mio mtorola A1000 il programmma, ma una volta installato non si avvia, probabilmente il problema è sempre quello dell’HTTp redirect!!! Spero che il bug venga risolto al più presto.
pit 1:09 pm on February 24, 2009 Permalink
Ciao Ardelsal,
grazie per il feedback. Farò test approfonditi sull’A1000 al più presto, di modo da poterti dare info più dettagliate
Pit
AFGTO 10:10 am on March 12, 2009 Permalink
Hi there!
I’m having the wrong username issue since upgrading to 0.3.2 on a w880i (even without thé @gmai.coml part)
… ?
Thanx for helping !
Aaron F 8:57 pm on March 13, 2009 Permalink
I tried putting this on an Samsung M800 (instinct) but when I try to log on, there is an error and it exits the app. Looks like a great app though
Troy o 3:28 pm on March 24, 2009 Permalink
Hello, Downloaded v0.3.3 and worked fine on my Samsung Instinct…then upgraded to v0.3.4 and I receive an exception 400 error. Tried to reininstall v0.3.3 and now i get a wrong username/password error. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Irek 8:45 am on March 27, 2009 Permalink
Hi!
You have made a great job! This application is extremely handy! I especially like the possibility to save meetings locally on my phone.
I have discovered one small bug. I live in the Netherlands and my phone is set the timezone of Amsterdam (GMT+01). The same is set in the Google Calendar. When I create a new event using the GCal today (March 27th) everything goes OK. Unfortunatelly when I create an event next week (for example April 1st) then the created events are shifted one hour! Event at 8:00 becomes 9:00! This both in Google Calendar and the event saved locally on the phone. Must have something to do with daylight saving time which is starting this weekend?
Greerings, Irek.
Aus00 12:48 am on April 5, 2009 Permalink
Great job, guys! One problem I’ve got on my Nokia 6500 is that all events show as “All Day” events even when they’re not. Also, similar issue to Irek re timezone out of sync. I’m in Adelaide, AU (+9.30) and all my events appear on Google Calendar as set to GMT rather than local time.
Cheers aus00