From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nick Dokos Subject: Re: ICS import? Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:50:48 -0500 Message-ID: <9802.1327513848@alphaville> References: <20120125173421.GQ3747@x201> Reply-To: nicholas.dokos@hp.com Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:41540) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Rq70r-000845-Dz for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:52:06 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Rq70l-00060E-Ar for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:52:01 -0500 Received: from g1t0028.austin.hp.com ([15.216.28.35]:22449) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Rq70l-0005tJ-4U for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:51:55 -0500 Received: from g1t0039.austin.hp.com (g1t0039.austin.hp.com [16.236.32.45]) by g1t0028.austin.hp.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 86AD41C509 for ; Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:50:50 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: Message from Russell Adams of "Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:34:21 CST." <20120125173421.GQ3747@x201> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Cc: nicholas.dokos@hp.com Russell Adams wrote: > I constantly get invitations from Exchange users in .ics files that I > would love to import into Org. Currently I manually input meetings > into my Agenda files. > I share your pain. > The format of ics files is hideous, so before I started to study the > format and write something new I thought I'd make sure I didn't > reinvent the wheel. > I've been threatening to do something like this for years, but my efforts have stalled repeatedly for lack of time. > Is there a way to import ics files into Org? Especially with proper > timezone conversions? > Not that I know of. In my last foray, I thought I would start with icalendar.el (afaik, part of the standard emacs distribution); the trouble was that icalendar.el was heavily biased towards, and intertwined with, the standard calendar/diary combo. So my approach was going to be to split it into a library part and a back end part: the library part would do the parsing, returning a standard representation of the ics file and the back ends (one for diary, one for org) would go from the standard rep to the backend specific one. Also, iirc, icalendar.el was an incomplete implementation of the format: in particular, I vaguely recall that it had TZ troubles with at least some of the Exchange-produces ics files (but that might have been a bug in Exchange as well - I don't remember). But after all these years, I'm still using the same manual method you are using :-( So if you decide to go ahead, I for one would be eternally grateful. Nick PS There have been occasional outbursts on the ML about ICS, so you probably should search the list for what others might have done.