Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

Hi,

When executing the awk script written by Eric S. Fraga at
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-google-sync.html I get
following error:

/usr/bin/awk: calling undefined function gensub
 source line number 82

This is on an iMac with 'awk version 20070501'.

Is this outdated or so?

Any help in running this script would be sincerely appreciated.


Guido

--
If mathematically you end up with the wrong
answer, try multiplying by the page number.

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Tassilo Horn]

Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:

Hu Giudo,

> When executing the awk script written by Eric S. Fraga at
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-google-sync.html I get
> following error:
>
> /usr/bin/awk: calling undefined function gensub
>  source line number 82
>
> This is on an iMac with 'awk version 20070501'.
>
> Is this outdated or so?

gensub is a GNU awk extension.  So either you are running a different
flavor of awk, or you are running it in compatibility mode (Option -c or
--traditional).  Given the version string, I guess it's another flavor.

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
% awk -V    
GNU Awk 4.0.2
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991-2012 Free Software Foundation.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Henning Weiss]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 981 bytes --]

Hi,

On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org> wrote:

> Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:
>
> Hu Giudo,
>
> > When executing the awk script written by Eric S. Fraga at
> > http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-google-sync.html I get
> > following error:
> >
> > /usr/bin/awk: calling undefined function gensub
> >  source line number 82
> >
> > This is on an iMac with 'awk version 20070501'.
> >
> > Is this outdated or so?
>
> gensub is a GNU awk extension.  So either you are running a different
> flavor of awk, or you are running it in compatibility mode (Option -c or
> --traditional).  Given the version string, I guess it's another flavor.
>

The easiest way to get GNU awk on mac is probably to install
homebrew<http://mxcl.github.io/homebrew/>(or
macports <http://www.macports.org/>) first. In case of homebrew you can run:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
brew update
brew install gawk

regards,
Henning

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1918 bytes --]

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

Hi,

Thank you guys for your help.

Got gawk from macports.

Hitting data error now:

gawk: ./importGoogleCalendar.awk:143: (FILENAME=- FNR=34026) fatal:
strftime: second argument less than 0 or too big for time_t

I am investigating this now and will report my findings


Guido.


On 7 May 2013 15:04, Henning Weiss <hdweiss@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org> wrote:
>>
>> Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> Hu Giudo,
>>
>> > When executing the awk script written by Eric S. Fraga at
>> > http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-google-sync.html I get
>> > following error:
>> >
>> > /usr/bin/awk: calling undefined function gensub
>> >  source line number 82
>> >
>> > This is on an iMac with 'awk version 20070501'.
>> >
>> > Is this outdated or so?
>>
>> gensub is a GNU awk extension.  So either you are running a different
>> flavor of awk, or you are running it in compatibility mode (Option -c or
>> --traditional).  Given the version string, I guess it's another flavor.
>
>
> The easiest way to get GNU awk on mac is probably to install homebrew (or
> macports) first. In case of homebrew you can run:
>
> ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
> brew update
> brew install gawk
>
> regards,
> Henning

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Eric S Fraga]

Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> Thank you guys for your help.
>
> Got gawk from macports.

Glad you got it.  I did make use of whatever GNU awk provided and did
not try to keep to vanilla awk.  Sorry about that!

> Hitting data error now:
>
> gawk: ./importGoogleCalendar.awk:143: (FILENAME=- FNR=34026) fatal:
> strftime: second argument less than 0 or too big for time_t
>
> I am investigating this now and will report my findings

Keep us posted.  I've not seen this error before but I am not confident
that the parsing of date and time stamps in the awk script is
comprehensive.  If you don't track it down, I would be happy to look at
your calendar file.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga, GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D
: in Emacs 24.3.50.1 and Org release_8.0.2-68-g40635b

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thank you guys for your help.
>>
>> Got gawk from macports.
>
> Glad you got it.  I did make use of whatever GNU awk provided and did
> not try to keep to vanilla awk.  Sorry about that!

No prob at all!

>> Hitting data error now:
>>
>> gawk: ./importGoogleCalendar.awk:143: (FILENAME=- FNR=34026) fatal:
>> strftime: second argument less than 0 or too big for time_t
>>
>> I am investigating this now and will report my findings

> Keep us posted.  I've not seen this error before but I am not confident
> that the parsing of date and time stamps in the awk script is
> comprehensive.  If you don't track it down, I would be happy to look at
> your calendar file.

There's no error in the script :)

My ics file had a.o. my elder sister's birthday, and unfortunately her's
as well as mine is (way) before the start of the epoch, so mktime
returns a negative timestamp at line 63 and strftime at line 143 doesn't
grok it.

Anyway, I don't need these records as I have them in a separate
anniversaries.org file that uses diary-style sexp entries for the
birthdays.

So Eric, rest assured, the script works fine for events occurring since
the start of the epoch. It was quite a help to me.

Thanks for your effort and for sharing it,


Guido

--
APL is a write-only language.  I can write programs
in APL, but I can't read any of them.
		-- Roy Keir

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Eric S Fraga]

Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:

[...]

> My ics file had a.o. my elder sister's birthday, and unfortunately her's
> as well as mine is (way) before the start of the epoch, so mktime
> returns a negative timestamp at line 63 and strftime at line 143 doesn't
> grok it.

Ah, I see.  The script should at least not break just because some of us
(me included) are older than Unix... ;-)

The fix should be straightforward.  Could you try adding the lines

   if (timestamp < 0) timestamp = 0;

after the call to mktime in the datetimestamp function?  This should at
least make the script not crap out although obviously the date will be
wrong (set to start of epoch).  If this works, I will update the script
on Worg and put in a warning message of some sort, maybe even in the
entry itself.

Suggestions on how to handle this case would be welcome, of course.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga, GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D
: in Emacs 24.3.50.1 and Org release_8.0.2-68-g40635b

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1246 bytes --]

Eric,

Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:
>
> [...]
>
>> My ics file had a.o. my elder sister's birthday, and unfortunately her's
>> as well as mine is (way) before the start of the epoch, so mktime
>> returns a negative timestamp at line 63 and strftime at line 143 doesn't
>> grok it.
>
> Ah, I see.  The script should at least not break just because some of us
> (me included) are older than Unix... ;-)
>
> The fix should be straightforward.  Could you try adding the lines
>
>    if (timestamp < 0) timestamp = 0;
>
> after the call to mktime in the datetimestamp function?  This should at
> least make the script not crap out although obviously the date will be
> wrong (set to start of epoch).  If this works, I will update the script
> on Worg and put in a warning message of some sort, maybe even in the
> entry itself.

With this change the script assigns the wrong date, but no longer stops.

> Suggestions on how to handle this case would be welcome, of course.

I created a patch so that the date and time string is built directly
from the iCal data for times before the epoch. This function produces
valid date/time strings albeit without weekday info.

Patch file is attached.


[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: ical2org.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 3069 bytes --]

--- ical2org.awk.orig	2013-05-09 14:15:14.000000000 +0200
+++ ical2org.awk	2013-05-09 15:11:44.000000000 +0200
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 # no further revision log after this as the file was moved into a git
 # repository...
 #
-# Last change: 2011.01.28 16:08:03
+# Last change: 2013.05.09 15:11:44
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 # a function to take the iCal formatted date+time, convert it into an
@@ -60,12 +60,31 @@

     # print "adjusted    : " timestamp
     # print "Time stamp  : " strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", timestamp);
+    if(timestamp < 0) timestamp = 0;
     return timestamp;
 }

+# a function to comvert the iCal date+time string into a date time string;
+# it uses the datetimestamp subroutine to compute the value to feed to strftime;
+# if the iCal date falls before time 0, the string is built from the iCal input;
+
+function datetimestring(input)
+{
+    # try to create datetimestring from the datetimestamp
+    timestamp = datetimestamp(input);
+    if (timestamp > 0)
+        return strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
+
+    # this is a date before the start of the epoch
+    # create the yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm string from the input (without day of week)
+    datespec = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1-\\2-\\3 \\4:\\5", "g", input);
+    # print "==> datespec:" datespec;
+    return datespec;
+}
+
 BEGIN {
     ### config section
-    max_age =  7; # in days
+    max_age =  -1; #7; # in days
                   # set this to -1 to get all entries or to N>0 to only get
                   # that start or end less than N days ago
     ### end config section
@@ -90,6 +109,7 @@
     indescription = 0;
     lasttimestamp=-1;

+
     print "#+TITLE:     Main Google calendar entries"
     print "#+AUTHOR:    Eric S Fraga"
     print "#+EMAIL:     e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"
@@ -140,12 +160,12 @@

 /^DTSTART;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
+    date = datetimestring(datetmp);
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
 }
 /^DTEND;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
+    time2 = datetimestring(datetmp);
     date = date ">--<" time2;
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
 }
@@ -154,7 +174,7 @@
 # we ignore the seconds

 /^DTSTART[:;][^V]/ {
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
+    date = datetimestring($2);
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
     # print date;
 }
@@ -165,7 +185,7 @@

 /^DTEND[:;][^V]/ {
     # print $0
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
+    time2 = datetimestring($2);
     date = date ">--<" time2;
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
 }

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 141 bytes --]


Kind regards,


Guido

--
Accident:
	A condition in which presence of mind is good,
	but absence of body is better.
		-- Foolish Dictionary

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Eric S Fraga]

Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:

> Eric,
>
> Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

[...]

>> Suggestions on how to handle this case would be welcome, of course.
>
> I created a patch so that the date and time string is built directly
> from the iCal data for times before the epoch. This function produces
> valid date/time strings albeit without weekday info.
>
> Patch file is attached.

Excellent.  Thanks for this.  Can you update the file on Worg directly?
If not, I will try to do it.

One point, however.  Should the first return statement in your
datetimestring(input) function (see last line in patch excerpt below)
refer to "input" instead of "datetmp"?  What you have works because of
all variables being global but is less clear than using the argument, I
would suggest?

> +function datetimestring(input)
> +{
> +    # try to create datetimestring from the datetimestamp
> +    timestamp = datetimestamp(input);
> +    if (timestamp > 0)
> +        return strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));

Thanks again,
eric

-- 
: Eric S Fraga, GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D
: in Emacs 24.3.50.1 and Org release_8.0.2-101-gce5988

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1077 bytes --]

Hi Eric,

Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Eric,
>>
>> Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:
>
> [...]
>
>>> Suggestions on how to handle this case would be welcome, of course.
>>
>> I created a patch so that the date and time string is built directly
>> from the iCal data for times before the epoch. This function produces
>> valid date/time strings albeit without weekday info.
>>
>> Patch file is attached.
>
> Excellent.  Thanks for this.  Can you update the file on Worg directly?
> If not, I will try to do it.
>
> One point, however.  Should the first return statement in your
> datetimestring(input) function (see last line in patch excerpt below)
> refer to "input" instead of "datetmp"?  What you have works because of
> all variables being global but is less clear than using the argument, I
> would suggest?

It should be "timestamp" rather than "datetmp" :(

I have attached the corrected patch.

I don't know whether I have access to Worg.
Would you mind updating it?

> Thanks again,

My pleasure,

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: ical2org.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 3071 bytes --]

--- ical2org.awk.orig	2013-05-09 14:15:14.000000000 +0200
+++ ical2org.awk	2013-05-09 19:52:37.000000000 +0200
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 # no further revision log after this as the file was moved into a git
 # repository...
 #
-# Last change: 2011.01.28 16:08:03
+# Last change: 2013.05.09 19:52:37
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 # a function to take the iCal formatted date+time, convert it into an
@@ -60,12 +60,31 @@

     # print "adjusted    : " timestamp
     # print "Time stamp  : " strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", timestamp);
+    if(timestamp < 0) timestamp = 0;
     return timestamp;
 }

+# a function to comvert the iCal date+time string into a date time string;
+# it uses the datetimestamp subroutine to compute the value to feed to strftime;
+# if the iCal date falls before time 0, the string is built from the iCal input;
+
+function datetimestring(input)
+{
+    # try to create datetimestring from the datetimestamp
+    timestamp = datetimestamp(input);
+    if (timestamp > 0)
+        return strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(timestamp));
+
+    # this is a date before the start of the epoch
+    # create the yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm string from the input (without day of week)
+    datespec = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1-\\2-\\3 \\4:\\5", "g", input);
+    # print "==> datespec:" datespec;
+    return datespec;
+}
+
 BEGIN {
     ### config section
-    max_age =  7; # in days
+    max_age =  -1; #7; # in days
                   # set this to -1 to get all entries or to N>0 to only get
                   # that start or end less than N days ago
     ### end config section
@@ -90,6 +109,7 @@
     indescription = 0;
     lasttimestamp=-1;

+
     print "#+TITLE:     Main Google calendar entries"
     print "#+AUTHOR:    Eric S Fraga"
     print "#+EMAIL:     e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"
@@ -140,12 +160,12 @@

 /^DTSTART;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
+    date = datetimestring(datetmp);
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
 }
 /^DTEND;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
+    time2 = datetimestring(datetmp);
     date = date ">--<" time2;
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
 }
@@ -154,7 +174,7 @@
 # we ignore the seconds

 /^DTSTART[:;][^V]/ {
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
+    date = datetimestring($2);
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
     # print date;
 }
@@ -165,7 +185,7 @@

 /^DTEND[:;][^V]/ {
     # print $0
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
+    time2 = datetimestring($2);
     date = date ">--<" time2;
     if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
 }

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 77 bytes --]



Guido

--
"Life is like a buffet; it's not good but there's plenty of it."

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Eric S Fraga]

Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:


[...]

> I have attached the corrected patch.
>
> I don't know whether I have access to Worg.
> Would you mind updating it?

Okay; I'll try to do this early next week.
-- 
: Eric S Fraga, GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D
: in Emacs 24.3.50.1 and Org release_8.0.2-101-gce5988

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

Eric,

Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:
>
>
> [...]
>
>> I have attached the corrected patch.
>>
>> I don't know whether I have access to Worg.
>> Would you mind updating it?
>
> Okay; I'll try to do this early next week.

Hang on, I am still looking into the UTC aspect.

Right now the offset is dependent upon the execution time rather than
upon the date being converted.

I'll keep you posted.


Guido

--
NOTICE:
	Anyone seen smoking will be assumed to be on fire and will
	be summarily put out.

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Eric S Fraga]

Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:

[...]

> Hang on, I am still looking into the UTC aspect.
>
> Right now the offset is dependent upon the execution time rather than
> upon the date being converted.

Yes, if by execution time you mean by the time zone of the computer
running the script.  This is definitely a problem and one which I gave
up trying to solve.  Mind you, it did cause me no end of problems last
year and this year again when I moved from the UK to Australia and then
back again...

> I'll keep you posted.

Okay.  No rush from my point of view.  I would love to see a solution to
this problem!

-- 
: Eric S Fraga, GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D
: in Emacs 24.3.50.1 and Org release_8.0.2-94-g5a1400

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2623 bytes --]

Hi Eric,

> Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> writes:
>
> [...]
>
>> Hang on, I am still looking into the UTC aspect.
>>
>> Right now the offset is dependent upon the execution time rather than
>> upon the date being converted.
>
> Yes, if by execution time you mean by the time zone of the computer
> running the script.  This is definitely a problem and one which I gave
> up trying to solve.  Mind you, it did cause me no end of problems last
> year and this year again when I moved from the UK to Australia and then
> back again...

What I meant is that running the script during winter time applies the
winter time offset to all times, and running during summer time would
apply the summer time offset to all times.

As far as handling the tz difference between th file and the computer, I
suggest to use a remote shell to a computer that has the same time zone
as the file. The offsets will be different, and probably the switchover
times too. Not something to handle in an awk script, I am afraid.

> Okay.  No rush from my point of view.  I would love to see a solution to
> this problem!

The attached patch provides a solution. UTC times are corrected with the
offset appropriate to that specific time. This will work for full hour
offsets as well as offsets with any number of minutes (e.g. -0145,
+0230). Still, this conversion uses the computer's time zone...


I added some additional configuration options that allow for easy
tailoring of the script's behaviour:

    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output a header block with TITLE,
    # AUTHOR, EMAIL etc...
    header = 1;

    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical preamble as
    # comment
    preamble = 1;

    # set to 1 to output time and summary as one line starting with
    # the time (value 1) or to 0 to output the summary as first line
    # and the date and time info as a second line
    condense = 0;

    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical entry as a
    # comment (mostly useful for debugging purposes)
    original = 1;

    # google truncates long subjects with ... which is misleading in
    # an org file: it gives the unfortunate impression that an
    # expanded entry is still collapsed; value 1 will trim those
    # ... and value 0 doesn't touch them
    trimdots = 0;

    # change this to your name
    author = "Eric S Fraga"

    # and to your email address
    emailaddress = "e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"


I left the default values to produce the output as you initially
intended.

I prefer to toggle preamble, condense, original and trimdots, but that
is very subjective.

With kind regards,


[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: ical2org.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 13250 bytes --]

--- ical2org.awk.orig	2013-05-09 14:15:14.000000000 +0200
+++ ical2org.awk	2013-05-10 23:33:50.000000000 +0200
@@ -9,9 +9,22 @@
 # Note: change org meta information generated below for author and
 # email entries!
 #
-# Known bugs:
-# - not so much a bug as a possible assumption: date entries with no time
-#   specified are assumed to be independent of the time zone.
+# Caveats:
+#
+# - date entries with no time specified are assumed to be local time zone;
+#   same remark for date entries that do have a time but do not end with Z
+#   e.g.: 20130101T123456 is local and will be kept as 2013-01-01 12:34
+#   where 20130223T123422Z is UTC and will be corrected appropriately
+#
+# - UTC times are changed into local times, using the time zone of the
+#   computer that runs the script; it would be very hard in an awk script
+#   to respect the time zone of a file belonging to another time zone:
+#   the offsets will be different as well as the switchover time(s);
+#   (consider a remote shell to a computer with the file's time zone)
+#
+# - the UTC conversion entirely relies on the built-in strftime method;
+#   the author is not responsible for any erroneous conversions nor the
+#   consequence of such conversions
 #
 # Eric S Fraga
 # 20100629 - initial version
@@ -27,101 +40,105 @@
 # no further revision log after this as the file was moved into a git
 # repository...
 #
-# Last change: 2011.01.28 16:08:03
+# Last change: 2013.05.10 23:33:50
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-# a function to take the iCal formatted date+time, convert it into an
-# internal form (seconds since time 0), and adjust according to the
-# local time zone (specified by +-UTC_offset calculated in the BEGIN
-# section)
+BEGIN {
+    ### config section

-function datetimestamp(input)
-{
-    # convert the iCal Date+Time entry to a format that mktime can understand
+    # maximum age in days for entries to be output: set this to -1 to
+    # get all entries or to N>0 to only get enties that start or end
+    # less than N days ago
+    max_age = -1;
+    max_age =  7;
+
+    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output a header block with TITLE,
+    # AUTHOR, EMAIL etc...
+    header = 1;
+
+    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical preamble as
+    # comment
+    preamble = 1;
+
+    # set to 1 to output time and summary as one line starting with
+    # the time (value 1) or to 0 to output the summary as first line
+    # and the date and time info as a second line
+    condense = 0;
+
+    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical entry as a
+    # comment (mostly useful for debugging purposes)
+    original = 1;
+
+    # google truncates long subjects with ... which is misleading in
+    # an org file: it gives the unfortunate impression that an
+    # expanded entry is still collapsed; value 1 will trim those
+    # ... and value 0 doesn't touch them
+    trimdots = 0;

-    # datespec in UTC, i.e. ending with Z
-    UTC = "no"
-    UTC = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])Z.*[\r]*", "yes", "g", input);
-
-    # parse date and time
-    datespec  = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1 \\2 \\3 \\4 \\5 \\6", "g", input);
-
-    # print "date spec : " datespec; convert this date+time into
-    # seconds from the beginning of time and include adjustment for
-    # time zone, as determined in the BEGIN section below.  For time
-    # zone adjustment, I have not tested edge effects, specifically
-    # what happens when UTC time is a different day to local time and
-    # especially when an event with a duration crosses midnight in UTC
-    # time.  It should work but...
-    if(UTC == "yes")
-        timestamp = mktime(datespec) + UTC_offset ;
-    else
-        timestamp = mktime(datespec);
-
-    # print "adjusted    : " timestamp
-    # print "Time stamp  : " strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", timestamp);
-    return timestamp;
-}
+    # change this to your name
+    author = "Eric S Fraga"
+
+    # and to your email address
+    emailaddress = "e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"

-BEGIN {
-    ### config section
-    max_age =  7; # in days
-                  # set this to -1 to get all entries or to N>0 to only get
-                  # that start or end less than N days ago
     ### end config section

     # use a colon to separate the type of data line from the actual contents
     FS = ":";

-    # determine the number of seconds to use for adjusting for time
-    # zone difference from UTC.  This is used in the function
-    # datetimestamp above.  The time zone information returned by
-    # strftime() is in hours * 100 so we multiply by 36 to get
-    # seconds.  This does not work for time zones that are not an
-    # integral multiple of hours (e.g. Newfoundland)
-    UTC_offset = gensub("([+-])0", "\\1", "", strftime("%z")) * 36;
+    # we only need to preserve the original entry lines if either the
+    # preamble or original options are true
+    preserve = preamble || original

     date = "";
     entry = ""
-    first = 1;                  # true until an event has been found
+    first = 1;      # true until an event has been found
     headline = ""
     icalentry = ""  # the full entry for inspection
     id = ""
     indescription = 0;
-    lasttimestamp=-1;
+    lasttimestamp = -1;

-    print "#+TITLE:     Main Google calendar entries"
-    print "#+AUTHOR:    Eric S Fraga"
-    print "#+EMAIL:     e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"
-    print "#+DESCRIPTION: converted using the ical2org awk script"
-    print "#+CATEGORY: google"
-    print "#+STARTUP: hidestars"
-    print "#+STARTUP: overview"
-    print " "
+    if (header) {
+        print "#+TITLE:       Main Google calendar entries"
+        print "#+AUTHOR:     ", author
+        print "#+EMAIL:      ", emailaddress
+        print "#+DESCRIPTION: converted using the ical2org awk script"
+        print "#+CATEGORY:    google"
+        print "#+STARTUP:     hidestars"
+        print "#+STARTUP:     overview"
+        print ""
+    }
 }

-# continuation lines (at least from Google) start with two spaces
+# continuation lines (at least from Google) start with a space
 # if the continuation is after a description or a summary, append the entry
 # to the respective variable

-/^[ ]+/ {
+/^[ ]/ {
     if (indescription) {
-        entry = entry gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", $0));
+        entry = entry gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]", "", "", $0));
     } else if (insummary) {
-        summary = summary gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", $0))
+        summary = summary gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]", "", "", $0))
     }
-    icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
+    if (preserve)
+        icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
 }

 /^BEGIN:VEVENT/ {
-    # start of an event.  if this is the first, output the preamble from the iCal file
+    # start of an event.
     if (first) {
-        print "* COMMENT original iCal preamble"
-        print gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
-        icalentry = ""
+        # if this is the first event, output the preamble from the iCal file
+        if(preamble) {
+            print "* COMMENT original iCal preamble"
+            print gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
+        }
+        if (preserve)
+            icalentry = ""
     }
     first = false;
 }
+
 # any line that starts at the left with a non-space character is a new data field

 /^[A-Z]/ {
@@ -130,7 +147,9 @@
     # org file as I output the original input.  This change, which is
     # really content free, makes a revision control system update the
     # repository and confuses.
-    if (! index("DTSTAMP", $1)) icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
+    if (preserve)
+        if (! index("DTSTAMP", $1))
+            icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
     # this line terminates the collection of description and summary entries
     indescription = 0;
     insummary = 0;
@@ -140,22 +159,19 @@

 /^DTSTART;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
+    date = datetimestring(datetmp);
 }
 /^DTEND;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
+    time2 = datetimestring(datetmp);
     date = date ">--<" time2;
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
 }

 # this represents a timed entry with date and time stamp YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS
 # we ignore the seconds

 /^DTSTART[:;][^V]/ {
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
+    date = datetimestring($2);
     # print date;
 }

@@ -165,9 +181,8 @@

 /^DTEND[:;][^V]/ {
     # print $0
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
+    time2 = datetimestring($2);
     date = date ">--<" time2;
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
 }

 # The description will the contents of the entry in org-mode.
@@ -184,6 +199,10 @@
 /^SUMMARY/ {
     $1 = "";
     summary = gensub("\r", "", "g", $0);
+
+    # trim trailing dots if requested by config option
+    if(trimdots && summary ~ /\.\.\.$/)
+        sub(/\.\.\.$/, "", summary)
     insummary = 1;
 }

@@ -209,23 +228,27 @@
     #output event
     if(max_age<0 || ( lasttimestamp>0 && systime()<lasttimestamp+max_age*24*60*60 ) )
     {
-    # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
-    print "* " gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", " ", "g", summary))
-    print "  <" date ">"
-    print "  :PROPERTIES:"
-    print "  :ID:       " id
-    if(length(location))
-        print "  :LOCATION: " location
-    if(length(status))
-        print "  :STATUS: " status
-    print "  :END:"
-    # for the entry, convert all embedded "\n" strings to actual newlines
-    print ""
-    # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
-    if(length(entry)>1)
-    print gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", "\n", "g", entry));
-    print "** COMMENT original iCal entry"
-    print gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
+        # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
+        if (condense)
+            print "* <" date "> " gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", " ", "g", summary)))
+        else
+            print "* " gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", " ", "g", summary))) "\n<" date ">"
+        print ":PROPERTIES:"
+        print     ":ID:       " id
+        if(length(location))
+            print ":LOCATION: " location
+        if(length(status))
+            print ":STATUS:   " status
+        print ":END:"
+
+        print ""
+        # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
+        if(length(entry)>1)
+            print gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", "\n", "g", entry)));
+
+        # output original entry if requested by 'original' config option
+        if (original)
+            print "** COMMENT original iCal entry\n", gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
     }
     summary = ""
     date = ""
@@ -238,6 +261,48 @@
     lasttimestamp = -1
 }

+# funtion to convert an iCal time string 'yyyymmddThhmmss[Z]' into a
+# date time string as used by org, preferably including the short day
+# of week: 'yyyy-mm-dd day hh:mm' or 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm' if we cannot
+# define the day of the week
+
+function datetimestring(input)
+{
+    # print "________"
+    # print "input : " input
+    # convert the iCal Date+Time entry to a format that mktime can understand
+    spec  = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1 \\2 \\3 \\4 \\5 \\6", "g", input);
+    # print "spec :" spec
+
+    stamp = mktime(spec);
+    if (max_age>0)
+        lasttimestamp = stamp;
+
+    if (stamp <= 0) {
+        # this is a date before the start of the epoch, so we cannot
+        # use strftime and will deliver a 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm' string
+        # without day of week; this assumes local time, and does not
+        # attempt UTC offset correction
+        spec = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1-\\2-\\3 \\4:\\5", "g", input);
+        # print "==> spec:" spec;
+        return spec;
+    }
+
+    if (input ~ /[0-9]{8}T[0-9]{6}Z/ ) {
+        # this is an utc time;
+        # we need to correct the timestamp by the utc offset for this time
+        offset = strftime("%z", stamp)
+        pm = substr(offset,1,1) 1 # define multiplier +1 or -1
+        hh = substr(offset,2,2) * 3600 * pm
+        mm = substr(offset,4,2) * 60 * pm
+
+        # adjust the timestamp
+        stamp = stamp + hh + mm
+    }
+
+    return strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", stamp);
+}
+
 # Local Variables:
 # time-stamp-line-limit: 1000
 # time-stamp-format: "%04y.%02m.%02d %02H:%02M:%02S"

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 98 bytes --]


Guido

--
All of the animals except man know that
the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

Re: Problem with Google Calendar Synchronization

[Guido Van Hoecke]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3668 bytes --]

Hi Eric,

>>> Hang on, I am still looking into the UTC aspect.
>>>
>>> Right now the offset is dependent upon the execution time rather than
>>> upon the date being converted.
>>
>> Yes, if by execution time you mean by the time zone of the computer
>> running the script.  This is definitely a problem and one which I gave
>> up trying to solve.  Mind you, it did cause me no end of problems last
>> year and this year again when I moved from the UK to Australia and then
>> back again...
>
> What I meant is that running the script during winter time applies the
> winter time offset to all times, and running during summer time would
> apply the summer time offset to all times.
>
> As far as handling the tz difference between th file and the computer, I
> suggest to use a remote shell to a computer that has the same time zone
> as the file. The offsets will be different, and probably the switchover
> times too. Not something to handle in an awk script, I am afraid.
>
>> Okay.  No rush from my point of view.  I would love to see a solution to
>> this problem!
>
> The attached patch provides a solution. UTC times are corrected with the
> offset appropriate to that specific time. This will work for full hour
> offsets as well as offsets with any number of minutes (e.g. -0145,
> +0230). Still, this conversion uses the computer's time zone...
>
>
> I added some additional configuration options that allow for easy
> tailoring of the script's behaviour:
>
>     # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output a header block with TITLE,
>     # AUTHOR, EMAIL etc...
>     header = 1;
>
>     # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical preamble as
>     # comment
>     preamble = 1;
>
>     # set to 1 to output time and summary as one line starting with
>     # the time (value 1) or to 0 to output the summary as first line
>     # and the date and time info as a second line
>     condense = 0;
>
>     # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical entry as a
>     # comment (mostly useful for debugging purposes)
>     original = 1;
>
>     # google truncates long subjects with ... which is misleading in
>     # an org file: it gives the unfortunate impression that an
>     # expanded entry is still collapsed; value 1 will trim those
>     # ... and value 0 doesn't touch them
>     trimdots = 0;
>
>     # change this to your name
>     author = "Eric S Fraga"
>
>     # and to your email address
>     emailaddress = "e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"
>
>
> I left the default values to produce the output as you initially
> intended.
>
> I prefer to toggle preamble, condense, original and trimdots, but that
> is very subjective.
>
> With kind regards,
>

The attached patch replaces the one of my previous mail. It is to be
applied to the version that is available at
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-google-sync.html

Until now the script generated a date string for both the start and end
times found in the ics file. This resulted in redundant data.

If the start and end time fall belong to the same day, the script will
now output one single date with a hyphen-separated time span, rather
than two individual (double-hyphen-separated) dates with resp. the start
date/time and the end date/time.

In the same spirit, when start and end date are 1 day apart and no time
info is present (birthdays, anniversaries etc.), only the start date
will be output. So it would output <2013-05-11 Sat> rather than
<2013-05-11 Sat 00:00>--<2013-05-12 Sun 00:00>.

For dates before the epoch this would be <1913-05-11> rather than
<1913-05-11 00:00>--<1913-05-12 00:00>.

Have a nice weekend,


Guido

--
Computer programmers do it byte by byte.



[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: ical2org.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 13992 bytes --]

--- ical2org.awk.orig	2013-05-09 14:15:14.000000000 +0200
+++ ical2org.awk	2013-05-11 16:46:37.000000000 +0200
@@ -9,9 +9,22 @@
 # Note: change org meta information generated below for author and
 # email entries!
 #
-# Known bugs:
-# - not so much a bug as a possible assumption: date entries with no time
-#   specified are assumed to be independent of the time zone.
+# Caveats:
+#
+# - date entries with no time specified are assumed to be local time zone;
+#   same remark for date entries that do have a time but do not end with Z
+#   e.g.: 20130101T123456 is local and will be kept as 2013-01-01 12:34
+#   where 20130223T123422Z is UTC and will be corrected appropriately
+#
+# - UTC times are changed into local times, using the time zone of the
+#   computer that runs the script; it would be very hard in an awk script
+#   to respect the time zone of a file belonging to another time zone:
+#   the offsets will be different as well as the switchover time(s);
+#   (consider a remote shell to a computer with the file's time zone)
+#
+# - the UTC conversion entirely relies on the built-in strftime method;
+#   the author is not responsible for any erroneous conversions nor the
+#   consequence of such conversions
 #
 # Eric S Fraga
 # 20100629 - initial version
@@ -27,101 +40,105 @@
 # no further revision log after this as the file was moved into a git
 # repository...
 #
-# Last change: 2011.01.28 16:08:03
+# Last change: 2013.05.11 16:46:37
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-# a function to take the iCal formatted date+time, convert it into an
-# internal form (seconds since time 0), and adjust according to the
-# local time zone (specified by +-UTC_offset calculated in the BEGIN
-# section)
+BEGIN {
+    ### config section

-function datetimestamp(input)
-{
-    # convert the iCal Date+Time entry to a format that mktime can understand
+    # maximum age in days for entries to be output: set this to -1 to
+    # get all entries or to N>0 to only get enties that start or end
+    # less than N days ago
+    max_age = -1;
+    max_age =  7;
+
+    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output a header block with TITLE,
+    # AUTHOR, EMAIL etc...
+    header = 1;
+
+    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical preamble as
+    # comment
+    preamble = 1;
+
+    # set to 1 to output time and summary as one line starting with
+    # the time (value 1) or to 0 to output the summary as first line
+    # and the date and time info as a second line
+    condense = 0;
+
+    # set to 1 or 0 to yes or not output the original ical entry as a
+    # comment (mostly useful for debugging purposes)
+    original = 1;
+
+    # google truncates long subjects with ... which is misleading in
+    # an org file: it gives the unfortunate impression that an
+    # expanded entry is still collapsed; value 1 will trim those
+    # ... and value 0 doesn't touch them
+    trimdots = 0;

-    # datespec in UTC, i.e. ending with Z
-    UTC = "no"
-    UTC = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])Z.*[\r]*", "yes", "g", input);
-
-    # parse date and time
-    datespec  = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1 \\2 \\3 \\4 \\5 \\6", "g", input);
-
-    # print "date spec : " datespec; convert this date+time into
-    # seconds from the beginning of time and include adjustment for
-    # time zone, as determined in the BEGIN section below.  For time
-    # zone adjustment, I have not tested edge effects, specifically
-    # what happens when UTC time is a different day to local time and
-    # especially when an event with a duration crosses midnight in UTC
-    # time.  It should work but...
-    if(UTC == "yes")
-        timestamp = mktime(datespec) + UTC_offset ;
-    else
-        timestamp = mktime(datespec);
+    # change this to your name
+    author = "Eric S Fraga"

-    # print "adjusted    : " timestamp
-    # print "Time stamp  : " strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", timestamp);
-    return timestamp;
-}
+    # and to your email address
+    emailaddress = "e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"

-BEGIN {
-    ### config section
-    max_age =  7; # in days
-                  # set this to -1 to get all entries or to N>0 to only get
-                  # that start or end less than N days ago
     ### end config section

     # use a colon to separate the type of data line from the actual contents
     FS = ":";

-    # determine the number of seconds to use for adjusting for time
-    # zone difference from UTC.  This is used in the function
-    # datetimestamp above.  The time zone information returned by
-    # strftime() is in hours * 100 so we multiply by 36 to get
-    # seconds.  This does not work for time zones that are not an
-    # integral multiple of hours (e.g. Newfoundland)
-    UTC_offset = gensub("([+-])0", "\\1", "", strftime("%z")) * 36;
+    # we only need to preserve the original entry lines if either the
+    # preamble or original options are true
+    preserve = preamble || original

     date = "";
     entry = ""
-    first = 1;                  # true until an event has been found
+    first = 1;      # true until an event has been found
     headline = ""
     icalentry = ""  # the full entry for inspection
     id = ""
     indescription = 0;
-    lasttimestamp=-1;
+    lasttimestamp = -1;

-    print "#+TITLE:     Main Google calendar entries"
-    print "#+AUTHOR:    Eric S Fraga"
-    print "#+EMAIL:     e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk"
-    print "#+DESCRIPTION: converted using the ical2org awk script"
-    print "#+CATEGORY: google"
-    print "#+STARTUP: hidestars"
-    print "#+STARTUP: overview"
-    print " "
+    if (header) {
+        print "#+TITLE:       Main Google calendar entries"
+        print "#+AUTHOR:     ", author
+        print "#+EMAIL:      ", emailaddress
+        print "#+DESCRIPTION: converted using the ical2org awk script"
+        print "#+CATEGORY:    google"
+        print "#+STARTUP:     hidestars"
+        print "#+STARTUP:     overview"
+        print ""
+    }
 }

-# continuation lines (at least from Google) start with two spaces
+# continuation lines (at least from Google) start with a space
 # if the continuation is after a description or a summary, append the entry
 # to the respective variable

-/^[ ]+/ {
+/^[ ]/ {
     if (indescription) {
-        entry = entry gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", $0));
+        entry = entry gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]", "", "", $0));
     } else if (insummary) {
-        summary = summary gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", $0))
+        summary = summary gensub("\r", "", "g", gensub("^[ ]", "", "", $0))
     }
-    icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
+    if (preserve)
+        icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
 }

 /^BEGIN:VEVENT/ {
-    # start of an event.  if this is the first, output the preamble from the iCal file
+    # start of an event.
     if (first) {
-        print "* COMMENT original iCal preamble"
-        print gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
-        icalentry = ""
+        # if this is the first event, output the preamble from the iCal file
+        if(preamble) {
+            print "* COMMENT original iCal preamble"
+            print gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
+        }
+        if (preserve)
+            icalentry = ""
     }
     first = false;
 }
+
 # any line that starts at the left with a non-space character is a new data field

 /^[A-Z]/ {
@@ -130,7 +147,9 @@
     # org file as I output the original input.  This change, which is
     # really content free, makes a revision control system update the
     # repository and confuses.
-    if (! index("DTSTAMP", $1)) icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
+    if (preserve)
+        if (! index("DTSTAMP", $1))
+            icalentry = icalentry "\n" $0
     # this line terminates the collection of description and summary entries
     indescription = 0;
     insummary = 0;
@@ -140,34 +159,37 @@

 /^DTSTART;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
+    date = datetimestring(datetmp);
+    starttimestamp = lasttimestamp
 }
 /^DTEND;VALUE=DATE/ {
     datetmp = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(.*[\r])", "\\1T000000\\2", "g", $2)
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp(datetmp));
-    date = date ">--<" time2;
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp(datetmp);
+    time2 = datetimestring(datetmp);
+    if (lasttimestamp == starttimestamp + 86400)
+        # is a full day activity, keep first date without time part
+        date = substr(date, 1, length(date) - 6)
+    else
+        date = date ">--<" time2;
 }

 # this represents a timed entry with date and time stamp YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS
 # we ignore the seconds

 /^DTSTART[:;][^V]/ {
-    date = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
+    date = datetimestring($2);
     # print date;
 }

-# and the same for the end date; here we extract only the time and append this to the
-# date+time found by the DTSTART entry.  We assume that entry was there, of course.
-# should probably add some error checking here!  In time...
+# and the same for the end date;

 /^DTEND[:;][^V]/ {
-    # print $0
-    time2 = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", datetimestamp($2));
-    date = date ">--<" time2;
-    if(max_age>0)     lasttimestamp = datetimestamp($2);
+    time2 = datetimestring($2);
+    if (substr(date,1,10) == substr(time2,1,10))
+        # timespan within same date, use one date with a time range
+        date = date "-" substr(time2, length(time2)-4)
+    else
+        # timespan extends over at least two dates
+        date = date ">--<" time2;
 }

 # The description will the contents of the entry in org-mode.
@@ -184,6 +206,10 @@
 /^SUMMARY/ {
     $1 = "";
     summary = gensub("\r", "", "g", $0);
+
+    # trim trailing dots if requested by config option
+    if(trimdots && summary ~ /\.\.\.$/)
+        sub(/\.\.\.$/, "", summary)
     insummary = 1;
 }

@@ -209,23 +235,27 @@
     #output event
     if(max_age<0 || ( lasttimestamp>0 && systime()<lasttimestamp+max_age*24*60*60 ) )
     {
-    # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
-    print "* " gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", " ", "g", summary))
-    print "  <" date ">"
-    print "  :PROPERTIES:"
-    print "  :ID:       " id
-    if(length(location))
-        print "  :LOCATION: " location
-    if(length(status))
-        print "  :STATUS: " status
-    print "  :END:"
-    # for the entry, convert all embedded "\n" strings to actual newlines
-    print ""
-    # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
-    if(length(entry)>1)
-    print gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", "\n", "g", entry));
-    print "** COMMENT original iCal entry"
-    print gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
+        # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
+        if (condense)
+            print "* <" date "> " gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", " ", "g", summary)))
+        else
+            print "* " gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", " ", "g", summary))) "\n<" date ">"
+        print ":PROPERTIES:"
+        print     ":ID:       " id
+        if(length(location))
+            print ":LOCATION: " location
+        if(length(status))
+            print ":STATUS:   " status
+        print ":END:"
+
+        print ""
+        # translate \n sequences to actual newlines and unprotect commas (,)
+        if(length(entry)>1)
+            print gensub("^[ ]+", "", "", gensub("\\\\,", ",", "g", gensub("\\\\n", "\n", "g", entry)));
+
+        # output original entry if requested by 'original' config option
+        if (original)
+            print "** COMMENT original iCal entry\n", gensub("\r", "", "g", icalentry)
     }
     summary = ""
     date = ""
@@ -238,6 +268,47 @@
     lasttimestamp = -1
 }

+# funtion to convert an iCal time string 'yyyymmddThhmmss[Z]' into a
+# date time string as used by org, preferably including the short day
+# of week: 'yyyy-mm-dd day hh:mm' or 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm' if we cannot
+# define the day of the week
+
+function datetimestring(input)
+{
+    # print "________"
+    # print "input : " input
+    # convert the iCal Date+Time entry to a format that mktime can understand
+    spec  = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1 \\2 \\3 \\4 \\5 \\6", "g", input);
+    # print "spec :" spec
+
+    stamp = mktime(spec);
+    lasttimestamp = stamp;
+
+    if (stamp <= 0) {
+        # this is a date before the start of the epoch, so we cannot
+        # use strftime and will deliver a 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm' string
+        # without day of week; this assumes local time, and does not
+        # attempt UTC offset correction
+        spec = gensub("([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])T([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9]).*[\r]*", "\\1-\\2-\\3 \\4:\\5", "g", input);
+        # print "==> spec:" spec;
+        return spec;
+    }
+
+    if (input ~ /[0-9]{8}T[0-9]{6}Z/ ) {
+        # this is an utc time;
+        # we need to correct the timestamp by the utc offset for this time
+        offset = strftime("%z", stamp)
+        pm = substr(offset,1,1) 1 # define multiplier +1 or -1
+        hh = substr(offset,2,2) * 3600 * pm
+        mm = substr(offset,4,2) * 60 * pm
+
+        # adjust the timestamp
+        stamp = stamp + hh + mm
+    }
+
+    return strftime("%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M", stamp);
+}
+
 # Local Variables:
 # time-stamp-line-limit: 1000
 # time-stamp-format: "%04y.%02m.%02d %02H:%02M:%02S"