Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format

Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format

[Tory S. Anderson]

Cross-posted from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23463962/emacs-export-calendar-bad-timezone-format-in-ics

Using orgmode I export my agenda to an ics file, upload it to my site, and import it into Google calendar. This seems like an easy ideal solution, but when I check the calendar I find that it is not recognizing the time zone of my ics file and so is assuming GMT, making my imported times uselessly off. The problem seems to be the same as the one described here:

http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/

Checking my exported ics, sure enough, it is using X-WR-TIMEZONE:EST, which Google calendar does not respect. This must be a well-known problem, but I haven't been able to locate a solution anywhere. Help would be appreciated: how can I get the right time on my events (and they must be a feed; the "add to calendar" trick is no good)?

Re: Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format

[Arun Persaud]

Hi

On 05/05/2014 02:24 AM, Tory S. Anderson wrote:
> Cross-posted from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23463962/emacs-export-calendar-bad-timezone-format-in-ics
> 
> Using orgmode I export my agenda to an ics file, upload it to my site, and import it into Google calendar. This seems like an easy ideal solution, but when I check the calendar I find that it is not recognizing the time zone of my ics file and so is assuming GMT, making my imported times uselessly off. The problem seems to be the same as the one described here:
> 
> http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/
> 
> Checking my exported ics, sure enough, it is using X-WR-TIMEZONE:EST, which Google calendar does not respect. This must be a well-known problem, but I haven't been able to locate a solution anywhere. Help would be appreciated: how can I get the right time on my events (and they must be a feed; the "add to calendar" trick is no good)?

I have this in my .emacs file to set the timezone.

(setq org-icalendar-timezone "America/Los_Angeles")

HTH

Arun

Re: Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format

[Tory S. Anderson]

Thanks for the response, Arun; but my problem isn't which time zone it's using, but the way it outputs it. As described at http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/, iCalendar outputs a X-WR-TIMEZONE parameter which is problematic; it should, instead, use BEGIN:VTIMEZONE. Anyone know any solutions? 

- Tory


> Date: Mon, 05 May 2014 15:11:25 -0700
> From: Arun Persaud <apersaud@lbl.gov>
> To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: [O] Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format
> Message-ID: <53680C8D.6040705@lbl.gov>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi
>
> On 05/05/2014 02:24 AM, Tory S. Anderson wrote:
>> Cross-posted from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23463962/emacs-export-calendar-bad-timezone-format-in-ics
>> 
>> Using orgmode I export my agenda to an ics file, upload it to my site, and import it into Google calendar. This seems like an easy ideal solution, but when I check the calendar I find that it is not recognizing the time zone of my ics file and so is assuming GMT, making my imported times uselessly off. The problem seems to be the same as the one described here:
>> 
>> http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/
>> 
>> Checking my exported ics, sure enough, it is using X-WR-TIMEZONE:EST, which Google calendar does not respect. This must be a well-known problem, but I haven't been able to locate a solution anywhere. Help would be appreciated: how can I get the right time on my events (and they must be a feed; the "add to calendar" trick is no good)?
>
> I have this in my .emacs file to set the timezone.
>
> (setq org-icalendar-timezone "America/Los_Angeles")
>
> HTH
>
> Arun

Re: Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format (problem found)

[Tory S. Anderson]

I've located the problem: it is `org-icalendar-start-file` in org-icalendar.el. It specifically writes X-WR-TIMEZONE tags out when modern standards seem to require BEGIN:VTIMEZONE. When I have time I'll look at re-writing it, unless any of you wizards have already done this/can do it faster than an elisp newbie like myself. 

- Tory

torys.anderson@gmail.com (Tory S. Anderson) writes:

> Thanks for the response, Arun; but my problem isn't which time zone it's using, but the way it outputs it. As described at http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/, iCalendar outputs a X-WR-TIMEZONE parameter which is problematic; it should, instead, use BEGIN:VTIMEZONE. Anyone know any solutions? 
>
> - Tory
>
>
>> Date: Mon, 05 May 2014 15:11:25 -0700
>> From: Arun Persaud <apersaud@lbl.gov>
>> To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
>> Subject: Re: [O] Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format
>> Message-ID: <53680C8D.6040705@lbl.gov>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> On 05/05/2014 02:24 AM, Tory S. Anderson wrote:
>>> Cross-posted from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23463962/emacs-export-calendar-bad-timezone-format-in-ics
>>> 
>>> Using orgmode I export my agenda to an ics file, upload it to my site, and import it into Google calendar. This seems like an easy ideal solution, but when I check the calendar I find that it is not recognizing the time zone of my ics file and so is assuming GMT, making my imported times uselessly off. The problem seems to be the same as the one described here:
>>> 
>>> http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/
>>> 
>>> Checking my exported ics, sure enough, it is using X-WR-TIMEZONE:EST, which Google calendar does not respect. This must be a well-known problem, but I haven't been able to locate a solution anywhere. Help would be appreciated: how can I get the right time on my events (and they must be a feed; the "add to calendar" trick is no good)?
>>
>> I have this in my .emacs file to set the timezone.
>>
>> (setq org-icalendar-timezone "America/Los_Angeles")
>>
>> HTH
>>
>> Arun

Re: Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format

[Eric S Fraga]

On Tuesday,  6 May 2014 at 05:29, Tory S. Anderson wrote:
> Thanks for the response, Arun; but my problem isn't which time zone
> it's using, but the way it outputs it. As described at
> http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/,
> iCalendar outputs a X-WR-TIMEZONE parameter which is problematic; it
> should, instead, use BEGIN:VTIMEZONE. Anyone know any solutions?

But I think you will find that Arun's solution works for Google
calendar, which is what you said you were trying to export to?  I do the
same thing (although obviously for a different time zone) and I have no
problems with Google's calendar.

In fact, the blog entry you point to highlights that the X-WR-TIMEZONE
information works for Google but not Hotmail.


-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.4.50.2, Org release_8.2.6-937-g60502a

Re: Export Agenda to Google Calendar ICS Format

[Tory S. Anderson]

hahaha *facepalm* yeah. Are you implying I read that incorrectly? Never!

Okay. Fixed now and you are right. Apologies for misunderstanding, Arun; I set my timezone the way you mentioned and Google Calendar is friends again. Still, I suppose the code should be updated to standard now; it just won't be the same priority for me. 

- Tory

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

> On Tuesday,  6 May 2014 at 05:29, Tory S. Anderson wrote:
>> Thanks for the response, Arun; but my problem isn't which time zone
>> it's using, but the way it outputs it. As described at
>> http://blog.jonudell.net/2011/10/17/x-wr-timezone-considered-harmful/,
>> iCalendar outputs a X-WR-TIMEZONE parameter which is problematic; it
>> should, instead, use BEGIN:VTIMEZONE. Anyone know any solutions?
>
> But I think you will find that Arun's solution works for Google
> calendar, which is what you said you were trying to export to?  I do the
> same thing (although obviously for a different time zone) and I have no
> problems with Google's calendar.
>
> In fact, the blog entry you point to highlights that the X-WR-TIMEZONE
> information works for Google but not Hotmail.