ical2paleventfile

'pal' is a command-line calendar on unixoid systems - it's really small and fast, especially when you work with the console a lot to begin with. Most of us keep their calendars on some online service today, though, so synchronisation to pal is a bit of pain.

This little script converts an ical to a pal-compatible eventfile

License

This script is licensed under the GPLv3 or later.

Requirements

• Python 3
• ics 0.4 or later (--> pip install ics)

Installation

1. Download this repository

2. Install the script

This script installs into /usr/local/bin - on most Linux distributions, that a directory that is included into the $PATH, so you should be able to run ical2paleventfile from anywhere in your cli.

sudo make install

3. Create the configuration

ical2paleventfile needs a configuration file under ~/.ical2paleventfile/calendars.conf. This file must be manually created by you.

$ mkdir ~/.ical2paleventfile
$ pico ~/.ical2paleventfile/calendars.conf

In this file, you need to add a section for every ical file you want to syncronize down to pal. A section follows this structure:

[calendar0815]   # Make sure the section name is different for every calendar. Only alphanumerical characters, no spaces!
url = [URL of the ICS file - escape % with %%]
palname = [output pal event filename] # always in your userdir under ~/.pal
name = [name of the calendar]
shorthand = [2-character shortcode]

So, for example, this may look like the following:

[myCalendar]
url = http://www.example.com/myCalendar.ics
palname = mycalendar.pal
name = my personal calendar
shorthand = mc

You can add as many sections as you like. If you want to deactivate a section, you can comment out all lines related to it by adding a # in front of it.

4. Run ical2paleventfile for the first time.

This is a good time to start ical2paleventfile for the first time so calendars can be downloaded.

$ ical2paleventfile

There now should be pal event files in ~/.pal/ corresponding to your configuration.

5. Make pal aware of the new file

$ pico ~/.pal/pal.conf

For each calendar file you have just created, add a new line in the form

file mycalendar.pal

You can use colours to distinguish between calendars later

file mycalendar.pal (red)

6. (optional) Make sure the script runs regularily

ical2paleventfile only runs when you allow it to run. You may want to create a cronjob for it, or to add it to your ~/.profile script.