ical2rem.rb
===========
Author: Patrick Hof
Copyright: Copyright (C) 2008 Patrick Hof
License: GPLv3
Download: git clone git://github.com/courts/ical2rem.rb.git
YARD docs: [http://courts.github.com/ical2rem.rb](http://courts.github.com/ical2rem.rb)
`ical2rem.rb` is based on the Perl program
[`ical2rem.pl`](http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/ICal2Rem) by Justin B.
Alcorn . It converts an _iCalendar_ file's `VEVENT` and `VTODO` components to
[_Remind_](http://www.roaringpenguin.com/products/remind) syntax. You should be
able to use it as a drop-in replacement for `ical2rem.pl` with only minor
modifications. The command line client which comes with ical2rem.rb is called
`ical2rem-cli` and can be found in the `/bin` directory.
Installation
============
`ical2rem.rb` requires [RiCal](http://ri-cal.rubyforge.org/) You can
install it with RubyGems:
gem install ri_cal
`ical2rem.rb` itself has a gemspec file, so you can easily build a gem
and install it with:
gem build ical2rem.rb.gemspec
gem install ical2rem.rb.-x.x.x.gem
Besides that, no further installation steps are required.
Usage
=====
You can get usage information by running `ical2rem-cli` with the
`-h` switch:
Usage: ical2rem-cli [options] < input-file [> output-file]
--label LABEL Calendar name
--lead-time LEAD Advance days to start reminders
--heading HEADING Define a priority for static entries
-t, --todos Process TODOs?
-c, --config-file FILE Use config file FILE (default: .ical2rem.yaml)
-d, --debug Show debug info
-h, --help Show this help
The configuration file (default `.ical2rem.yaml`) further explains the
options you can supply.
`ical2rem-cli` will read any iCalendar file parseable by RiCal from
`STDIN` and print its output to `STDOUT`.
Overview
========
`ical2rem.rb` was mainly written because `ICal::Parser`, the iCal
parsing library `ical2rem.pl` uses, bailed out on my 64bit Ubuntu I was
using at the time. Also, `ical2rem.pl` does not support showing starting
and ending times of events.
The first version used Sam Roberts' vPim, but since it didn't work well with
Ruby 1.9 for some time, I decided to switch to RiCal.
Events
------
`ical2rem.rb` parses iCalendar `VEVENTs` in a similar way to
`ical2rem.pl`, but it will also recognize `TIME-DATE` values in
`DTSTART` and `DTEND` and add them to the output by using remind's
`DURATION` property.
ToDos
-----
Like `ical2rem.pl`, `ical2rem.rb` also parses iCalendar
`VTODOs`. Unlike `ical2rem.pl`, `ical2rem-cli` will not
parse them by default, parsing has to be enabled with the command line switch
'-t'. At the moment, the same simple approach to parsing as in
`ical2rem.pl` is used. This may improve in future versions.
Bug Reports / Feature Requests / Patches
----------------------------------------
Please send bug reports to my e-mail address given above. Adding
`[BUG ical2rem.rb]` to the subject will greatly increase your chance of not
getting stuck in my spam filter. The same goes for feature requests, including
`[FEATURE ical2rem.rb]` would be nice.
For patches, please send them as git patches formatted with
`git-format-patch -n` if possible. Make sure they commit cleanly against
the current `master` branch.
Otherwise, at least include `[PATCH ical2rem.rb]` in your subject.
Thanks
------
* [Justin B. Alcorn](http://www.jalcorn.net/) for writing `ical2rem.pl`
* Rick DeNatale for [RiCal](http://ri-cal.rubyforge.org)
* Sam Roberts for [vPim](http://vpim.rubyforge.org)