What it is
With this connection you see what you have in the ōrbita calendar (Spanish) inside the calendar you already use. ōrbita creates in your Google account a calendar called “ōrbita · {company name}” and keeps it up to date.
It is output only. Google Calendar just shows what ōrbita sends it:
- Everything is changed in ōrbita. If you move or delete an event in Google Calendar, nothing changes in ōrbita.
- What you delete in Google stays deleted: the event only comes back if you change its date in ōrbita.
- There is no input from Google: ōrbita does not read your appointments or create posts or tasks from them.
Connect your account
- In Connections, on the Google Calendar row, press Connect.
- ōrbita explains what it asks for: to create the calendar “ōrbita · {company}” and keep your posts, tasks and key dates in it, and to see the account’s email so it can show you which one it is in. Press Continue.
- Press Go to Google. Google opens in a new window: choose the account where you want to see the calendar (it can be a different one from the one you use to log in to ōrbita) and give permission. Your password never goes through ōrbita.
- Google shows you one box per permission: leave the calendar one ticked. Without it ōrbita cannot create the calendar, and the row tells you so with the PERMISSION MISSING label.
ōrbita only touches the calendar it creates. It does not see the rest of your diary: neither your other calendars nor their events.
The connection is personal: each team member connects their own Google account and has their own calendar. Anyone with access to the company can do it.
When you connect, ōrbita sends the last 90 days and everything with a date ahead. While it does so, the row says SYNCING; afterwards, Connected, with the time of the last sync. Later changes arrive immediately: the sync runs every minute when something is pending.
What is sent
In Settings you choose what goes to the calendar. They also apply to the iCal link below.
| What | Default | How it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled posts | Yes | With their publishing date and time |
| Drafts with a date | Yes | Posts not yet scheduled that already have a day |
| Tasks with a due date | Yes | On the day and time they are due |
| Published posts | No | They stay as a record of what went out |
| Key dates | No | Your company’s, as all-day events |
Those values are those of whoever connects first; each person can change them. Each event carries:
- The post’s title followed by its networks. Completed tasks have a ✓ in front.
- A duration of 60 minutes for posts and 30 for tasks.
- A colour: posts’ follows their status; tasks and key dates have their own. Settings include a preview and the colour legend.
- In the description, the status, who created it (a person, your agent or ōrbita), who a task is assigned to and an Open in ōrbita link.
In the ōrbita calendar, what is already in your Google Calendar carries the In Google Calendar mark, and you can filter by it.
If something changes
- EXPIRED: Google closed the session and since then changes do not arrive. Press Reconnect.
- CALENDAR DELETED: you deleted the calendar “ōrbita · {company}” on Google and ōrbita stopped sending it changes. If you want it again, connect again and another one is created.
- Disconnect: the events already created stay in your Google Calendar, in the calendar “ōrbita · {company}”, but ōrbita stops updating them. If you do not want them, delete that calendar from Google Calendar. The iCal link keeps working.
You can also withdraw access from your Google account’s security settings.
The iCal link, for any calendar
If you do not want to connect your account, or you use another calendar, there is a secret iCal link: it works for Apple Calendar, Outlook or any calendar that accepts iCal, and also for Google Calendar without connecting your account. Paste it where the calendar asks you to subscribe by URL. You see it in the settings, with the Use iCal link button on the row. With it you see the same as what is sent to Google Calendar.
- It is secret: whoever has it sees, without logging in to ōrbita, what you turned on in “What is sent” (for example scheduled posts, drafts with their text, tasks with their assignee). Do not share it with anyone who should not see it.
- Regenerate creates a new link; the previous one stops working immediately and the calendars subscribed with it stop updating. Do it if the link has been passed around.
- Delay: Google Calendar refreshes subscriptions by link with hours of delay. To see changes immediately, connect your account.
- Only tasks that have a date are included.
Who it is for
Google Calendar and the iCal link are included in the Satellite, Star and Galaxy plans. If a company is left without a plan, they stop being available for it.