General: fbCal was created by Robert M. Baldwin for Facebook users to be able to create birthday calendars of all of their Facebook friends, as well as events calendars from Facebook events. The calendar that is generated is in iCalendar format, and they may be subscribed to in all programs that can use iCalendar files. This includes Apple iCal, Mozilla Sunbird, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook. fbCal now offers RSS feeds, as well!

Calendar and Feed Types: fbCal generates different types of calendars with two different types of content and two different types of delivery. The content can either be for birthdays or events. Subcription calendars get updated whenever you refresh your calendar after there was a change in your Facebook friends or events. Download calendars are only accurate to when you last downloaded the calendar. All calendars by fbCal are iCalendar (.ics) format. Many calendar programs (in addition to the ones listed here) use this format. Alternatively, you could subscribe to the birthdays and events in an RSS Feed format!

Missing friends: Some of your friends will not appear in fbCal: Birthdays. This is result of one of two possible causes. They may have changed their privacy settings to disable Facebook Developer Platform. Please encourage them to change this setting! Also, they may simply not have their birthday recorded in Facebook.

Instructions for Google Calendar – Web Browser (Any OS):

  1. Go to http://www.google.com/calendar and sign in. If you do not have a Google Account create one using the link provided at the bottom of the page.
  2. Click on "Manage Calendars" located at the bottom of the menu on the left.
  3. Under Calendar Settings > Calendar click on the "Add Calendar" in the Other Calendars section.
  4. Under "Add Other Calendars" click on the "Public Calendar Address" tab and enter the URL that was given to you during the create process.
  5. The new calendar will now appear and is accesible from the My Calendars menu located on the left hand side of the screen.

Instructions for Apple iCal - Mac:

  1. From within iCal, choose "Subscribe" from the "Calendar" menu at the top of your screen.
  2. Enter the full URL (listed above) to the desired iCalendar file in the "Subscribe to:" box and click "Subscribe".
  3. iCal will then download the calendar and bring you to a screen which allows you to give a title to that calendar. Check the "Refresh:" checkbox and select "every day" which will instruct iCal to check for updates to the calendar on a daily basis.

Instructions for Mozilla Sunbird - Windows/Mac/Linux:

  1. Download and install Mozilla Sunbird (if you do not already have it installed).
  2. From within Sunbird, choose "Subscribe to Remote Calendar" from the "File" menu at the top of your screen.
  3. Select the "Remote" radio button and click "Continue".
  4. Select the "WebDAV" option and enter the full URL to the desired iCalendar file in the "Location:" box and click "Continue".
  5. Name the calendar (ex. "fbCal Birthdays") and select the color you would like these events listed in, then click "Continue".
  6. Your calendar will be downloaded, and you can click "Done" to exit the wizard.
  7. Finally, right click on your newly created calendar in the "Calendars" tab on the left, and click "Edit Calendar". Select the "Read-only" option and then click "OK" to stop your calendar from trying to publish (and timeout) any modifications you attempt to make.

Instructions for Microsoft Outlook - Windows:

Note: These have not been verified for all versions of Outlook. If you have instructions for other versions of Outlook (or other programs), please email me at bob@veganbob.com.

  1. Click the link for the Internet Calendar Subscription.
  2. You might be prompted to acknowledge that you are opening a hyperlink. You should click Yes only if you know and trust the validity of the linked calendar.
  3. At the prompt, Add this Internet Calendar to Outlook and subscribe to updates, click Yes.

Privacy: fbCal uses the Facebook Developer Platform, and abides by all rules set forth by Facebook to protect your privacy. No personal information is stored by fbCal about you.

Developer: To find out more about the developer, visit his website at VeganBob.com. Also, try out his other Facebook utility website at fbLink.com.