Calendar export questions (ical & html)

Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Michel Blanc]

Dear Org people,

I started Org mode last week, in order to replace the GTDTiddlyWiki I
used previously. So please, bare with me, I'm just starting and my
questions are probably noobish. Also note that while I've been using
emacs for the last 15 years, my Elisp skills are close to nil (and my
emacs skills in a fuzzy spot between nil and t).

I am impressed by Org mode and I'm pretty sure it will cover all my
needs and more, and since the Carsten's GTalk definitively convinced me,
I decided to go for it and get rid of all the others agendas/note
taking/planning stuff/editor (shame on me, I'm weak and use vim from
time to time).

I have few problems though, I'd be glad if you guys could point me in
the right direction.

First, I discovered that all the calendar applications I tried do not
show TODO entries (Google Agenda, PHP-iCalndar, Thunderbird, ...)
*inside* the day/week/... view, but in sidebars or so (when the do).
However, I am required to publish my agenda on GoogleAgenda (using "Add
by URL"). Is there any way to export TODO entries as VEVENT instead of
VTODO in ical exports, so they get showed in external apps ?

Also, the HTML exports for my agenda contains nothing but TODO's,
without any date (see example here
http://leucos.lstilde.org/workcal.html). There are many
SCHEDULED/DEADLINE enabled entries, but nothing is shown besides
hierarchy. I suspect I'm off the mark in some way here...

Finally, is there a way to customize the agenda name (i.e. X-WR-CALNAME
in the ICS file) ? I export 2 different ics files (the classic
personal/work duo) and I would like to set relevant names for them.


Here is an excerpt from my .emacs :

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("h" "Home-related tasks"
         ((tags "@home")
          (tags-todo "@home"))
         ((org-agenda-ndays 300)
          (org-icalendar-include-todo t))
         ("~/org/homecal.ics" "~/org/homecal.html"))
        ("w" "Work-related tasks"
         ((tags "@work")
          (tags-todo "@work"))
         ((org-agenda-ndays 300)
          (org-icalendar-include-todo t))
         ("~/org/workcal.ics" "~/org/workcal.html"))))

(setq org-icalendar-include-todo t)

BTW, I tried with (agenda "") and without, I didn't see any change. And
I have no clue what it is for. Close to nil as I said :)

I export everything by calling update-all-calendars :

(defun update-all-calendars()
  (interactive)
  (org-store-agenda-views)
  (shell-command "scp ~/org/{workcal,homecal}.ics ...")
  (shell-command "scp ~/org/{workcal,homecal}.html ...")
)

I use Org mode 6.14 with Emacs 22.2.1 & 23.0.94.1

Thanks a lot for reading,

M
-- 
Michel Blanc - Systèmes/Réseaux Erasme
Erasme/CG69/Saint Clément les Places/FR69930
T +33-474706840 <mblanc@erasme.org>
http://reseau.erasme.org
FA67 4EDA D648 9E50 BFA4 3F29 FDF5 4971 24B3 5C22

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Bastien]

Hi Michel,

Michel Blanc <mblanc@erasme.org> writes:

> First, I discovered that all the calendar applications I tried do not
> show TODO entries (Google Agenda, PHP-iCalndar, Thunderbird, ...)
> *inside* the day/week/... view, but in sidebars or so (when the do).
> However, I am required to publish my agenda on GoogleAgenda (using "Add
> by URL"). Is there any way to export TODO entries as VEVENT instead of
> VTODO in ical exports, so they get showed in external apps ?

A todo like this

* TODO Do this
  <2009-07-28 mar>

will be exported both as a VTODO and as a VEVENT.

Note that this is not the case for DEADLINE and SCHEDULED, maybe the
code need to be more consistent about this.

> Also, the HTML exports for my agenda contains nothing but TODO's,
> without any date (see example here
> http://leucos.lstilde.org/workcal.html). There are many
> SCHEDULED/DEADLINE enabled entries, but nothing is shown besides
> hierarchy. I suspect I'm off the mark in some way here...

There are several types of agenda views: the tags and tags-todo types
don't display the dates, but the agenda type does.

Usually, when I need to display the dates in a tags-todo type view, I
just switch on the column view.  But for now there is no way to store
the dates in the HTML output of the tags-todo agenda view, the way to 
go is to define an agenda-type view.

> Finally, is there a way to customize the agenda name (i.e. X-WR-CALNAME
> in the ICS file) ? I export 2 different ics files (the classic
> personal/work duo) and I would like to set relevant names for them.

Again, sorry to disappoint but the answer is no -- at least not to my
knowledge. 

HTH,

-- 
 Bastien

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Bastien]

Bastien <bastienguerry@googlemail.com> writes:

> * TODO Do this
>   <2009-07-28 mar>
>
> will be exported both as a VTODO and as a VEVENT.

Note that this is true with the latest Org (6.28trans) and you're using
6.14.  So maybe you need to upgrade.

-- 
 Bastien

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Michel Blanc]

Bastien a écrit :
> Hi Michel,
> 
> A todo like this
> 
> * TODO Do this
>   <2009-07-28 mar>
> 
> will be exported both as a VTODO and as a VEVENT.
> 
> Note that this is not the case for DEADLINE and SCHEDULED, maybe the
> code need to be more consistent about this.

Well, TODOs exported as VTODOS seems fine to me. And using TODOs in Org
for project management is really very helpful, but it seems that
calendar application out there consider TODOs as laundry lists and never
display them in views.
May be it could be nice to ask Org mode to force exporting VTODOs as
VEVENTs (just like it does for non-TODO DEADLINEd events) to circumvent
those applications limitations ? Don't know if it could be useful to
others though, and this could be done easily with an external script too.

>> Also, the HTML exports for my agenda contains nothing but TODO's,
>> without any date (see example here
>> ...
>> I suspect I'm off the mark in some way here...
> 
> There are several types of agenda views: the tags and tags-todo types
> don't display the dates, but the agenda type does.

Oh well, I probably didn't read the manual deeply enough, sorry about that.

>> Finally, is there a way to customize the agenda name (i.e. X-WR-CALNAME
>> in the ICS file) ? 
> Again, sorry to disappoint but the answer is no -- at least not to my
> knowledge. 

Ok. Thanks Bastien for your answers et bonne continuation.

M
-- 
Michel Blanc - Systèmes/Réseaux Erasme
Twitter : l3u
http://reseau.erasme.org
FA67 4EDA D648 9E50 BFA4 3F29 FDF5 4971 24B3 5C22

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Richard Riley]

Bastien <bastienguerry@googlemail.com> writes:

> Hi Michel,
>
> Michel Blanc <mblanc@erasme.org> writes:
>
>> First, I discovered that all the calendar applications I tried do not
>> show TODO entries (Google Agenda, PHP-iCalndar, Thunderbird, ...)
>> *inside* the day/week/... view, but in sidebars or so (when the do).
>> However, I am required to publish my agenda on GoogleAgenda (using "Add
>> by URL"). Is there any way to export TODO entries as VEVENT instead of
>> VTODO in ical exports, so they get showed in external apps ?
>
> A todo like this
>
> * TODO Do this
>   <2009-07-28 mar>
>
> will be exported both as a VTODO and as a VEVENT.
>
> Note that this is not the case for DEADLINE and SCHEDULED, maybe the
> code need to be more consistent about this.
>
>> Also, the HTML exports for my agenda contains nothing but TODO's,
>> without any date (see example here
>> http://leucos.lstilde.org/workcal.html). There are many
>> SCHEDULED/DEADLINE enabled entries, but nothing is shown besides
>> hierarchy. I suspect I'm off the mark in some way here...
>
> There are several types of agenda views: the tags and tags-todo types
> don't display the dates, but the agenda type does.
>
> Usually, when I need to display the dates in a tags-todo type view, I
> just switch on the column view.  But for now there is no way to store
> the dates in the HTML output of the tags-todo agenda view, the way to 
> go is to define an agenda-type view.
>
>> Finally, is there a way to customize the agenda name (i.e. X-WR-CALNAME
>> in the ICS file) ? I export 2 different ics files (the classic
>> personal/work duo) and I would like to set relevant names for them.
>
> Again, sorry to disappoint but the answer is no -- at least not to my
> knowledge. 
>
> HTH,

FYI and still half asleep here, I think you can do the name. here is my
ical cust section:


      org-combined-agenda-icalendar-file "~/webs/richardriley/sync/org.ics"
      org-icalendar-include-todo t
      org-icalendar-combined-name (quote "Richard Riley ORG")
      org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due  event-if-todo event-if-not-todo)
      org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo event-if-not-todo)
      org-icalendar-timezone "Europe/Berlin"
      org-icalendar-include-bbdb-anniversaries t
;      org-icalendar-timezone nil
      org-icalendar-store-UID t


hth

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Michel Blanc]

Richard Riley a écrit :

> FYI and still half asleep here, I think you can do the name. here is my
> ical cust section:
> 
> 
>       org-combined-agenda-icalendar-file "~/webs/richardriley/sync/org.ics"
>       org-icalendar-include-todo t
>       org-icalendar-combined-name (quote "Richard Riley ORG")
>       org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due  event-if-todo event-if-not-todo)
>       org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo event-if-not-todo)
>       org-icalendar-timezone "Europe/Berlin"
>       org-icalendar-include-bbdb-anniversaries t
> ;      org-icalendar-timezone nil
>       org-icalendar-store-UID t

Hey Richard,

Woohoo it seems that this solves everything !
I had to fiddle a bit (again, my Elisp abilities are more than lame) to
make it work for my 2 agendas. Here is my .emacs section if it can help
anyone :

========8<=======8<=======8<=======
(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("h" "Home-related tasks"
         ((tags "@home")
          (tags-todo "@home"))
         ((org-agenda-ndays 300)
          (org-icalendar-include-todo t)
          (org-icalendar-combined-name "Perso")
          (org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due  event-if-todo
event-if-not-todo))
          (org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo
event-if-not-todo)))
         ("~/org/homecal.ics" "~/org/homecal.html"))
        ("w" "Work-related tasks"
         ((tags "@work")
          (tags-todo "@work"))
         ((org-agenda-ndays 300)
          (org-icalendar-include-todo t)
          (org-icalendar-combined-name "Work")
          (org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due  event-if-todo
event-if-not-todo))
          (org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo
event-if-not-todo)))
         ("~/org/workcal.ics" "~/org/workcal.html"))))
========8<=======8<=======8<=======

Now TODOs dates are exported (DEADLINEs and SCHEDULED) and I realize how
late I am in my work playing too much with Org mode :)

I'll drop HTML export now that ICS works perfectly. Too bad GoogleAgenda
refresh is so random...

Thanks a lot Richard for the tips,

M
-- 
Michel Blanc

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Bastien]

Michel Blanc <mblanc@erasme.org> writes:

> ========8<=======8<=======8<=======
> (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
>       '(("h" "Home-related tasks"
>          ((tags "@home")
>           (tags-todo "@home"))
>          ((org-agenda-ndays 300)
>           (org-icalendar-include-todo t)
>           (org-icalendar-combined-name "Perso")
>           (org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due event-if-todo \ 
>                                          event-if-not-todo))
>           (org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo \
>                                          event-if-not-todo)))

Btw, unless you use different global values for the variables
`org-icalendar-use-deadline' and sisters, maybe you can simply
add them to your Org configuration?

-- 
 Bastien

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Michel Blanc]

Bastien a écrit :
> Michel Blanc <mblanc@erasme.org> writes:
> 
>>           (org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due event-if-todo \ 
>>                                          event-if-not-todo))
>>           (org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo \
>>                                          event-if-not-todo)))
> 
> Btw, unless you use different global values for the variables
> `org-icalendar-use-deadline' and sisters, maybe you can simply
> add them to your Org configuration?
> 

Indeed. I started this way because I didn't know how org-agenda-ndays
would impact things and I ended up stuffin everything there. But when I
get to stable situation I'll do some factorizing.

Thanks,

M
-- 
Michel Blanc - Systèmes/Réseaux Erasme
Erasme/CG69/Saint Clément les Places/FR69930
T +33-474706840 <mblanc@erasme.org>
http://reseau.erasme.org
FA67 4EDA D648 9E50 BFA4 3F29 FDF5 4971 24B3 5C22

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Bastien]

Richard Riley <rileyrgdev@googlemail.com> writes:

> FYI and still half asleep here, I think you can do the name. here is my
> ical cust section:
>
>
>       org-combined-agenda-icalendar-file "~/webs/richardriley/sync/org.ics"
>       org-icalendar-include-todo t
>       org-icalendar-combined-name (quote "Richard Riley ORG")
>       org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due  event-if-todo event-if-not-todo)
>       org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo event-if-not-todo)
>       org-icalendar-timezone "Europe/Berlin"
>       org-icalendar-include-bbdb-anniversaries t
> ;      org-icalendar-timezone nil
>       org-icalendar-store-UID t

Very useful - thanks for this!

-- 
 Bastien

Re: Calendar export questions (ical & html)

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi,

maybe someone could turn this information into a tutorial
or a FAQ entry?  I think it would be useful to write it up
and have it somewhere accessible.

- Carsten


On Jul 28, 2009, at 9:30 AM, Richard Riley wrote:

> Bastien <bastienguerry@googlemail.com> writes:
>
>> Hi Michel,
>>
>> Michel Blanc <mblanc@erasme.org> writes:
>>
>>> First, I discovered that all the calendar applications I tried do  
>>> not
>>> show TODO entries (Google Agenda, PHP-iCalndar, Thunderbird, ...)
>>> *inside* the day/week/... view, but in sidebars or so (when the do).
>>> However, I am required to publish my agenda on GoogleAgenda (using  
>>> "Add
>>> by URL"). Is there any way to export TODO entries as VEVENT  
>>> instead of
>>> VTODO in ical exports, so they get showed in external apps ?
>>
>> A todo like this
>>
>> * TODO Do this
>>  <2009-07-28 mar>
>>
>> will be exported both as a VTODO and as a VEVENT.
>>
>> Note that this is not the case for DEADLINE and SCHEDULED, maybe the
>> code need to be more consistent about this.
>>
>>> Also, the HTML exports for my agenda contains nothing but TODO's,
>>> without any date (see example here
>>> http://leucos.lstilde.org/workcal.html). There are many
>>> SCHEDULED/DEADLINE enabled entries, but nothing is shown besides
>>> hierarchy. I suspect I'm off the mark in some way here...
>>
>> There are several types of agenda views: the tags and tags-todo types
>> don't display the dates, but the agenda type does.
>>
>> Usually, when I need to display the dates in a tags-todo type view, I
>> just switch on the column view.  But for now there is no way to store
>> the dates in the HTML output of the tags-todo agenda view, the way to
>> go is to define an agenda-type view.
>>
>>> Finally, is there a way to customize the agenda name (i.e. X-WR- 
>>> CALNAME
>>> in the ICS file) ? I export 2 different ics files (the classic
>>> personal/work duo) and I would like to set relevant names for them.
>>
>> Again, sorry to disappoint but the answer is no -- at least not to my
>> knowledge.
>>
>> HTH,
>
> FYI and still half asleep here, I think you can do the name. here is  
> my
> ical cust section:
>
>
>      org-combined-agenda-icalendar-file "~/webs/richardriley/sync/ 
> org.ics"
>      org-icalendar-include-todo t
>      org-icalendar-combined-name (quote "Richard Riley ORG")
>      org-icalendar-use-scheduled '(todo-due  event-if-todo event-if- 
> not-todo)
>      org-icalendar-use-deadline '(todo-due event-if-todo event-if- 
> not-todo)
>      org-icalendar-timezone "Europe/Berlin"
>      org-icalendar-include-bbdb-anniversaries t
> ;      org-icalendar-timezone nil
>      org-icalendar-store-UID t
>
>
> hth
>
>
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