Hi everyone

I posted before here. I’ll try once more but don’t want to get over bearing.

I’m trying to self host all my contacts and my calendar.

I’ve managed to install radicale but there very little ui and I’m not actually sure how to import my contacts and calendar, or how to start using it with a client.

This is all I see

I’ve set up the calendar and contacts server but I can’t find any security settings to password protect it

Any guidance would be awesome, thank you

    • philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.clubOPEnglish
      1·
      9 hours ago

      Thank you

      I’ve downloaded dav5x. How can I make sure om using the server contacts and not still on Google contacts?

      I’ll read that, thank you for sharing

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
        1·
        9 hours ago

        Start by using a 3rd party contacts app (or dialer+contacts as they usually come, at least on Android). Google’s Contacts app only works with Google.

        The 3rd party app should let you explicitly select which sources of contacts you want to use. After you set up DAVx5 you should see it available as a source.

        The app I use (True Phone, com.hb.dialer.free) shows a list of all sources under “Settings > Contacts > Contacts to show” and you can check/uncheck the ones you want.

    • Alavi@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      11 hours ago

      Infcloud is the only presentble web ui for webdav/cldav/carddav, but as far as I remember its unmaintained

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
        2·
        8 hours ago

        InfCloud is the last and only functional, standalone, web-based CalDAV frontend currently in existence. It doesn’t really matter how crap it is because there’s no alternative. And besides CalDAV/CardDAV are not exactly rapidly-evolving anymore.

        There are a handful of alternative frontends bundled with other webapps, for example Nextcloud includes one, but if you don’t want to install Nextcloud just for that you’re stuck with InfCloud.

        I really wish someone would make a modern standalone webapp for this but no luck so far.

        Having worked at some point on some calendar interfaces I can appreciate why, because they’re super intricate and difficult.

        • Alavi@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          5 hours ago

          I’ve been thinking of creating one for a long time but it’s sitting in my pile of project ideas.

          Honestly, if some other experience software engineer is up for it, we’ll do it together.

  • riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    20·
    22 hours ago

    Hi! I use radicale!

    I use it on android. For me, I have to use an app called “DAVx5.” That app adds the calendar/contacts from my caldav server (radicale) to my phone. Then in my calendar/contacts apps I checkbox the appropriate calendar/contact list. It looks like you’re on android… does this info help?

    Radicale doesn’t really have a GUI, all it has is a webpage that you can log in to. On that page you can download or upload your calendar/contacts in one file, but that’s about it. The handling of everything is done by external apps.

      • sbeak@sopuli.xyz
        English
        1·
        6 hours ago

        Nice, good to hear! Radicale is really nice and simple to setup too. If you want a good desktop calendar app, I know that both GNOME Calendar and Thunderbird work well with Radicale (I currently use the latter).

      • riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        7 hours ago

        I use fossify calendar and fossify contacts. They both have options to use the contacts/calendar through davx5.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    19 hours ago

    Yes, radicale works great, but the UI is pretty spartan. It will manage the data, but requires a client to make edits or view the content.

    First, you will have to export any existing calendar and contacts as files. It depends on what you’re currently using. Contacts should probably be a vcf file, and a calendar should probably be an ics.

    Next, use the ↑ button in radicale, select the exported files, and it will create a new “collection” as shown in your post. You can also create a new empty collection to use as you wish. Radicale will not merge files, but you can use a client to do that once you have created the collection in radicale.

    You will have to find a client that will sync. On Android, DAVx5 will integrate it into the system so basically any client can access it. Certain Android apps may connect directly, but it’s pretty hit or miss. On desktop, I use Thunderbird which works very well, but there are other options. You will use the blacked-out URL in your post to add the contacts and calendar. Check the individual app documentation or make another post if you want help.

    Oh, and the last thing… Of course the client will have to be on the same network. If you want to access it remotely, you will want to set up something like wireguard (I use Tailscale, which is dead simple).

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
        2·
        8 hours ago

        DAVx5 also includes good security, like the ability to use mTLS to secure your access to Radicale adequately even if you expose it over the open Internet. It’s also being actively developed, with updates coming out every few weeks.

    • nomad@infosec.pubEnglish
      5·
      20 hours ago

      Good answer. i would add, since most people already have their contacts set up in their phone, that after setting up davx5, they have a new empty phone book. Most phones already have s mechanism to move your contacts to a new phone book. Just move them over and delete or disable the phone book you currently use like google etc.

  • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusMEnglish
    3·
    20 hours ago

    FYI, you can just edit your post, you don’t need to delete and post again

    Unfortunately I don’t use radicale so I can’t help much on that front

  • Ooops@feddit.orgEnglish
    31·
    20 hours ago

    The options to password protect it are in the (usually /etc/radicale/)config file und [auth].

    For proper security you could use

    type = htpasswd

    htpasswd_filename = /etc/radicale/users

    htpasswd_encryption = bcrypt

    then create a users file with apache tools (htpasswd -c -B users User1) or one of the million online htpasswd file creators.

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
      1·
      4 hours ago

      Please note that to use “bcrypt” for htpasswd_encryption you need the bcrypt python module installed. Some distributions of radicale (eg. some docker images) don’t have it.

      It’s fairly safe to set it to “md5” instead. It does not mean plain MD5 (one iteration), it does several hundred rounds of MD5 plus a salt.

      For the curious, the advantage of bcrypt over a single-iteration, fast hash like MD5 is that bcrypt lets you set the hashing effort, while MD5’s goal is to do it as fast as possible.

      This becomes relevant when someone steals your password file and tries to brute force it by hashing a bunch of dictionary words and random strings (plus a bunch of salts) until something matches. A fast single-iteration hash like MD5 will let them do that much faster than a bcrypt hash set to a higher effort; it can mean the difference between finding a password in one week vs finding one in 100 years. That’s what the hundreds-of-iterations MD5 is trying to achieve, it’s a “poor man’s bcrypt”.

        • nomad@infosec.pubEnglish
          2·
          11 hours ago

          Because if I wanted to harvest a bunch of passwords I would offer a online password generator.

          Do use apache utils locally.

          • Ooops@feddit.orgEnglish
            31·
            10 hours ago

            While you are right in general, you are just creating a file with a <user>:<hashed password> line without any identifying context. So have fun searching the world for where I might have actually used it. Sounds like a really bad use of ressources to create list of passwords.

            PS: Yes, as an Arch user I am still pissed that this tool is not available in the repos beside installing the complete Apache server…

  • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
    2·
    21 hours ago

    Radicals is an amazing software but I also struggled to understand the concept at first, the documentation assumes you know so much already, which you normally don’t. But once you get through the initial hurdle it’s really reliable and uses minimal resources.