NAME

Tie::iCal - tie iCal fils to Perl hashes.

SYNOPSIS

use Tie::iCal;

tie %my_events, 'Tie::iCal', "mycalendar.ics" or die "Failed to tie file!\n";
tie %your_events, 'Tie::iCal', "yourcalendar.ics" or die "Failed to tie file!\n";

$my_events{"A-NEW-UNIQUE-ID"} = [
	'VEVENT',
	{
		'SUMMARY' => 'Bastille Day Party',
		'DTSTAMP' => '19970714T170000Z',
		'DTEND' => '19970715T035959Z',
	}
];

tie %our_events, 'Tie::iCal', "ourcalendar.ics" or die "Failed to tie file!\n";

# assuming %my_events and %your_events
# have no common keys (unless that's your intention)
#
while (my($uid,$event) = each(%my_events)) {
	$our_events{$uid} = $event;	
}
while (my($uid,$event) = each(%your_events)) {
	$our_events{$uid} = $event;
}

untie %our_events;
untie %your_events;
untie %my_events;

DEPENDENCIES

Tie::File

DESCRIPTION

Tie::iCal represents an RFC2445 iCalendar file as a Perl hash. Each key in the hash represents an iCalendar component like VEVENT, VTODO or VJOURNAL. Each component in the file must have a unique UID property as specified in the RFC 2445.

The module makes very little effort in understanding what each iCalendar property means and concentrates on the format of the iCalendar file only.

FILE LOCKING

The Tie::iCal object returned by tie can also be used to access the underlying Tie::File object. This is accessable via the 'A' class variable. This may be useful for file locking.

my $ical = tie %events, 'Tie::iCal', "mycalendar.ics";
$ical->{A}->flock;

How Tie::iCal interprets iCal files

Tie::iCal interprets files by mapping iCal components into Perl hash keys and iCal content lines into various Perl arrays and hashes.

Components

An iCal component such as VEVENT, VTODO or VJOURNAL maps to a hash key:-

BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:a_unique_uid
NAME1:VALUE1
..
END:VEVENT

corresponds to

$events{'a_unique_uid'} = ['VEVENT', {'NAME1' => 'VALUE1'}]

Content Lines

Once unfolded, a content line may look like:-

NAME;PARAM1=PVAL1;PARAM2=PVAL2;...:VALUE1,VALUE2,...

having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

'NAME' => [{'PARAM1'=>'PVAL1', 'PARAM2'=>'PVAL2', ..}, 'VALUE1', 'VALUE2', ..]

or

NAME:VALUE1,VALUE2,...

having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

'NAME' => ['VALUE1', 'VALUE2', ..]

or

NAME:VALUE

having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

'NAME' => 'VALUE'

Multiple contentlines with same name, i.e. FREEBUSY, ATTENDEE:-

NAME;PARAM10=PVAL10;PARAM20=PVAL20;...:VALUE10,VALUE20,...
NAME;PARAM11=PVAL11;PARAM21=PVAL21;...:VALUE11,VALUE21,...
...

having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

'NAME' => [ 
    [{'PARAM10'=>'PVAL10', 'PARAM20'=>'PVAL20', ..}, 'VALUE10', 'VALUE20', ..],
    [{'PARAM11'=>'PVAL11', 'PARAM21'=>'PVAL21', ..}, 'VALUE11', 'VALUE21', ..],
    ...
]

or

NAME:VALUE10,VALUE20,...
NAME:VALUE11,VALUE21,...
...

having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

'NAME' => [ 
    ['VALUE10', 'VALUE20', ..],
    ['VALUE11', 'VALUE21', ..],
    ...
]

or in a mixed form, i.e.

NAME:VALUE10,VALUE20,...
NAME;PARAM11=PVAL11;PARAM21=PVAL21:VALUE11,VALUE21,...
NAME:VALUE12,VALUE22,...
...

having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

'NAME' => [ 
    ['VALUE10', 'VALUE20', ..],
    [{'PARAM11'=>'PVAL11', 'PARAM21'=>'PVAL21', ..}, 'VALUE11', 'VALUE21', ..],
    ['VALUE12', 'VALUE22', ..],
    ...
]

BUGS

Property names are assumed not to be folded, i.e.

	DESCR
	 IPTION:blah blah..
     

RRULE property does not support parameters.

Property names that begin with UID can potentially confuse this module.

Subcomponents such as VALARM must exist after any UID property.

Deleting events individually may leave non-RFC2445 compliant empty VCALENDAR objects.

cpanm Tie::iCal

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Tie::iCal