Listen to iCal event changes from server

Question

I am building the server side for a calendar application. The client side is iOS only. The original plan was the app will know of iCal event changes then tell the server. But that might be a problem with reminders (via Parse Push). For example, if the event pushed forward the reminder should come earlier.

Is it possible from the server side to be notified on iCal events? For example, when users create/update/delete an iCal event I want to know from a server to grab this information. Is this possible? Or does everything need to be done via a native app thats running?

My server is currently on parse.com. But I could use a separate server say NodeJS if needed.

Answer 1

As iCal is user/device dependent, unless user has synced his calendar events with iCloud. And in second case where user has activated syncing of calendar events, it is completly insecure for end-user to share his icloud details to other server.

How about creating 1 API at backend, which will update/delete requests from Apps for the calendar events, and that will update Parse notification events in background process. For this you can also write customized Parse apis either in NodeJS or any other technology stack.

And in the apps, you can sync the events with iCal using Event Kit:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/DataManagement/Conceptual/EventKitProgGuide/ReadingAndWritingEvents.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40004775-SW1