[Orgmode] Problems with iCalendar export of my Calendar

[Georg C. F. Greve]

Hi all,

I've been using Org Mode for a while, and as long as things stay in
Emacs, things work just fine. But I still have problems when trying to
share my information with others or other devices -- especially in terms
of Calendar entries.

Below I have attached a (real) example of my trip to FSCONS in Sweden in
Org mode format. In agenda view, I see the following:

Friday      7 December 2007
 example:         10:40...... Flight SK 602 Zurich to Copenhagen --[2007-12-07 
Fri 12:25]
 example:         14:10...... Flight SK 438 Copenhagen to Gothenburg 
--[2007-12-07 Fri 14:55]
 example:         Gothenburg, Sweden --[2007-12-09 Sun]
 example:         FSCONS conference --[2007-12-08 Sat]
Saturday    8 December 2007
 example:         17:15...... Speech at closing ceremony 
Sunday      9 December 2007
 example:         15:30...... Flight SK 439 Gothenburg to Copenhagen 
--[2007-12-09 Sun 16:15]
 example:         17:40...... Flight SK 609 Copenhagen to Zurich --[2007-12-09 
Sun 19:25]

Note how I am using the inactive tags to delimit periods, which makes
sure that things covering more than one day (e.g. being in a city, or a
conference) only show up on their first day with information on when
they'll end.

This is pretty much how I like it.

Now I want to share this with another application or device, and do an
export to iCalendar. The resulting file is attached below.

The following things are immediately visible:

 - The "Gothenburg, Sweden" entry contains the end in the description,
   but in fact has a wrong end date (DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20071208).

   I would prefer this to have the correct end date, and not list it in
   the description for iCalendar export. If I change the second date tag
   to an active one, the end date/time is correct.

 - The description for "Gothenburg, Sweden" contains the flight as
   description, which is not very helpful.

 - The accomodation, which might make an interesting piece of
   description for the Gothenburg, Sweden entry is entirely missing from
   the iCalendar.

With the possible exception of the problem with defining periods with
inactive end time stamps, they are not necessarily what one would call
bugs of Org Mode, but rather issues resulting from the way the file is
structured.

Unfortunately I was unable to find any guidance about how to do this,
and did not find the time yet to look at the source code in order to see
how the iCalendar export is getting its information.

The question at hand is: How to improve the structure of the file, and
can we put this into the documentation so users get an idea of the
canonical structure for calendars in Org Mode?

I am aware that putting a rather open question is always a bit more
difficult, but hope that we'll still manage to find a solution.

Suggestions and hints appreciated.

Regards,
Georg


* Gothenburg, Sweden <2007-12-07 Fri>--[2007-12-09 Sun]
** Flight SK 602 Zurich to Copenhagen <2007-12-07 Fri 10:40>--[2007-12-07 Fri 
12:25]
** Flight SK 438 Copenhagen to Gothenburg <2007-12-07 Fri 14:10>--[2007-12-07 
Fri 14:55]
** Taxi waiting at airport arrival gate in Gothenburg
** FSCONS conference <2007-12-07 Fr>--[2007-12-08 Sat]
** Accomodation: Hotel Riverton
                Stora Badhusgatan 26
                411 21 Goteborg, Sverige
                Telefon +46 31 750 10 00
                Fax     +46(31)7501001
** Speech at closing ceremony <2007-12-08 Sat 17:15>
** Flight SK 439 Gothenburg to Copenhagen <2007-12-09 Sun 15:30>--[2007-12-09 
Sun 16:15]
** Flight SK 609 Copenhagen to Zurich <2007-12-09 Sun 17:40>--[2007-12-09 Sun 
19:25]

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:example
PRODID:-//Georg Greve//Emacs with Org-mode//EN
X-WR-TIMEZONE:CET
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: address@hidden
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20071207
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20071208
SUMMARY:Gothenburg\, Sweden --[2007-12-09 Sun]
DESCRIPTION: ** Flight SK 602 Zurich to Copenhagen <2007-12-07 Fri 
10:40>--[2007-12-07 Fri 12:25]\n** Flight SK 4
CATEGORIES:example
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: address@hidden
DTSTART:20071207T104000
DTEND:20071207T124000
SUMMARY:Flight SK 602 Zurich to Copenhagen --[2007-12-07 Fri 12:25]
DESCRIPTION: \n
CATEGORIES:example
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: address@hidden
DTSTART:20071207T141000
DTEND:20071207T161000
SUMMARY:Flight SK 438 Copenhagen to Gothenburg --[2007-12-07 Fri 14:55]
DESCRIPTION: \n
CATEGORIES:example
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: address@hidden
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20071207
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20071208
SUMMARY:FSCONS conference --[2007-12-08 Sat]
DESCRIPTION: \n
CATEGORIES:example
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: address@hidden
DTSTART:20071208T171500
DTEND:20071208T191500
SUMMARY:Speech at closing ceremony 
DESCRIPTION: \n
CATEGORIES:example
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: address@hidden
DTSTART:20071209T153000
DTEND:20071209T173000
SUMMARY:Flight SK 439 Gothenburg to Copenhagen --[2007-12-09 Sun 16:15]
DESCRIPTION: \n
CATEGORIES:example
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: address@hidden
DTSTART:20071209T174000
DTEND:20071209T194000
SUMMARY:Flight SK 609 Copenhagen to Zurich --[2007-12-09 Sun 19:25]
DESCRIPTION: \n
CATEGORIES:example
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

-- 
Georg C. F. Greve                                 <address@hidden>
Free Software Foundation Europe                  (http://fsfeurope.org)
President                                      +41 43 500 03 66 ext 400

Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom!     (http://www.fsfe.org)

pgpwLAVsSrHR5.pgp
Description: PGP signature