Using Perl to add entries in iCal Calendar

hoschi has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Monks,

just registered to ask this question as I feel lost. I'm neither a programmer nor do I have the broad wisdom I'm searching for here.

As a small background:

We have a shift rooster whichs is changing quite often and is managed in an xlsx sheet. Now I figured out how to get all the data out of that Excel sheet and stored it in a hash of hashes.

As I thought it would be a good idea to have me and my colleagues sync their calendars on their phones or pads with a caldav server I am looking for a way how to push the gathered data into that calendar. I installed a Baikal server on one of my machines here which is already setup.

First thing im not aware of - what modules to use. I found http:dav, Data:iCal, Cal:DAV but none of them (or their description in cpan.org) shed a light on me how to use them. It seems I am even a lil too dumb to google it properly, so I hope for the wisdom of the perl monks.

What I have so far is just a simple:

my $user = "test";
my $pass = "test";
my $url = "http://baikal.local/cal.php/principals/test/testshift";
#my $url = "http://baikal.local/cal.php";
my $cal = Cal::DAV->new( user => $user, pass => $pass, url => $url);

my $dav = $cal->dav;

print Dumper($cal);
print Dumper($dav);
[download]

which finally gives me only

$VAR1 = bless( {
                 'url' => 'http://baikal.local/cal.php/principals/test
+/testshift',
                 '_dav' => bless( {
                                    '_lockedresourcelist' => bless( {
                                                                      
+'_resources' => undef
                                                                    },
+ 'HTTP::DAV::ResourceList' ),
                                    '_comms' => bless( {
                                                         '_headers' =>
+ bless( {}, 'HTTP::DAV::Headers' ),
                                                         '_user_agent'
+ => bless( {
                                                                      
+             'max_redirect' => 7,
                                                                      
+             'protocols_forbidden' => undef,
                                                                      
+             'show_progress' => undef,
                                                                      
+             'handlers' => {
                                                                      
+                             'response_header' => bless( [
                                                                      
+                                                           {
                                                                      
+                                                             'owner' 
+=> 'LWP::UserAgent::parse_head',
                                                                      
+                                                             'callbac
+k' => sub { "DUMMY" },
                                                                      
+                                                             'm_media
+_type' => 'html',
                                                                      
+                                                             'line' =
+> '/usr/share/perl5/LWP/UserAgent.pm:612'
                                                                      
+                                                           }
                                                                      
+                                                         ], 'HTTP::Co
+nfig' )
                                                                      
+                           },
                                                                      
+             'no_proxy' => [],
                                                                      
+             'protocols_allowed' => undef,
                                                                      
+             'local_address' => undef,
                                                                      
+             'use_eval' => 1,
                                                                      
+             'requests_redirectable' => [
                                                                      
+                                          'GET',
                                                                      
+                                          'HEAD'
                                                                      
+                                        ],
                                                                      
+             'timeout' => 180,
                                                                      
+             'def_headers' => bless( {
                                                                      
+                                       'user-agent' => 'DAV.pm/v0.47'
                                                                      
+                                     }, 'HTTP::Headers' ),
                                                                      
+             'proxy' => {},
                                                                      
+             'basic_authentication' => {
                                                                      
+                                         'baikal.local:80' => {
                                                                      
+                                                                     
+  'default' => [
                                                                      
+                                                                     
+                 'test',
                                                                      
+                                                                     
+                 'test'
                                                                      
+                                                                     
+               ]
                                                                      
+                                                                     
+}
                                                                      
+                                       },
                                                                      
+             'max_size' => undef
                                                                      
+           }, 'HTTP::DAV::UserAgent' )
                                                       }, 'HTTP::DAV::
+Comms' )
                                  }, 'HTTP::DAV' ),
                 '_auto_commit' => undef
               }, 'Cal::DAV' );
$VAR1 = bless( {
                 '_lockedresourcelist' => bless( {
                                                   '_resources' => und
+ef
                                                 }, 'HTTP::DAV::Resour
+ceList' ),
                 '_comms' => bless( {
                                      '_headers' => bless( {}, 'HTTP::
+DAV::Headers' ),
                                      '_user_agent' => bless( {
                                                                'max_r
+edirect' => 7,
                                                                'proto
+cols_forbidden' => undef,
                                                                'show_
+progress' => undef,
                                                                'handl
+ers' => {
                                                                      
+          'response_header' => bless( [
                                                                      
+                                        {
                                                                      
+                                          'owner' => 'LWP::UserAgent:
+:parse_head',
                                                                      
+                                          'callback' => sub { "DUMMY"
+ },
                                                                      
+                                          'm_media_type' => 'html',
                                                                      
+                                          'line' => '/usr/share/perl5
+/LWP/UserAgent.pm:612'
                                                                      
+                                        }
                                                                      
+                                      ], 'HTTP::Config' )
                                                                      
+        },
                                                                'no_pr
+oxy' => [],
                                                                'proto
+cols_allowed' => undef,
                                                                'local
+_address' => undef,
                                                                'use_e
+val' => 1,
                                                                'reque
+sts_redirectable' => [
                                                                      
+                       'GET',
                                                                      
+                       'HEAD'
                                                                      
+                     ],
                                                                'timeo
+ut' => 180,
                                                                'def_h
+eaders' => bless( {
                                                                      
+                    'user-agent' => 'DAV.pm/v0.47'
                                                                      
+                  }, 'HTTP::Headers' ),
                                                                'proxy
+' => {},
                                                                'basic
+_authentication' => {
                                                                      
+                      'baikal.local:80' => {
                                                                      
+                                                    'default' => [
                                                                      
+                                                                   't
+est',
                                                                      
+                                                                   't
+est'
                                                                      
+                                                                 ]
                                                                      
+                                                  }
                                                                      
+                    },
                                                                'max_s
+ize' => undef
                                                              }, 'HTTP
+::DAV::UserAgent' )
                                    }, 'HTTP::DAV::Comms' )
               }, 'HTTP::DAV' );
[download]

On the Baikal Server the user test with password test is there and has a calendar created named testshift.

I found some sniplets in the web but none of them enabled me to understand HOW to add an entry. Most of them even only show how to write .ics files which I guess is not what io want.

Anyone ?

Thanks

Comment on Using Perl to add entries in iCal Calendar Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Using Perl to add entries in iCal Calendar (cpan secrets) by Anonymous Monk on May 01, 2014 at 02:47 UTC
I show you a secret , Cal::DAV -> https://metacpan.org/release/Cal-DAV -> https://metacpan.org/source/SIMONW/Cal-DAV-0.6/ -> https://metacpan.org/source/SIMONW/Cal-DAV-0.6/t -> https://metacpan.org/source/SIMONW/Cal-DAV-0.6/t/01basics.t `$cal->add_entry(...` See also same for HTTP::DAV -> dave	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Using Perl to add entries in iCal Calendar (cpan secrets) by hoschi (Initiate) on May 01, 2014 at 13:46 UTC
Thanks for your reply. I played around with the sniplets I could find there but I am afraid Cal::DAV is not working for me here as new <args> Must have at least user, pass and url args where url is the url of a remote, DAV accessible .ics file. The Baikal server stores everything in a mysql database. I can connect with my iPad to the baikal server and update stuff in the 2 calendars I created there. I don't see a way with the modules in question to connect w/o having an ics file ? edit: Checking the mysql database for baikal server it shows the following in "calendarobjects" table: `id calendardata uri calendarid lastmodified etag + size componenttype firstoccurence lastoccurence 1 [BLOB - 361Bytes] C7BA52BD-351F-4E64-8313-80C8B3E646E1.ics + 2 1398950718 022413b6addaecadea550ea8a8e45020 361 V +EVENT 1398902400 1398988800` [download] where calendarid 2 reflects the "testshift" calendar. It also shows an *.ics is there but this one can not be found in filesystem. Seems the server sends the "fake ics" to the client somehow, so maybe there is a chance for Cal::DAV .. but I'm lost again. "My" google doesnt know much about perl and baikal :-/	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Using Perl to add entries in iCal Calendar (cpan secrets) by Anonymous Monk on May 02, 2014 at 08:40 UTC
I don't see a way with the modules in question to connect w/o having an ics file ? Um, but I thought you already connected, you gave it a url, thats all you had to do to make a connection, the url is the file, it doesn't matter how the webserver stores it on the webserver, the url is what you're getting/editing/updating... Try this next `print Dumper( $cal->cal );` this should fetch the calendar from the webserver, so you can read it update program for you #!/usr/bin/perl -- use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper (); Main( @ARGV ); exit( 0 ); sub Main { my $user = "test"; my $pass = "test"; my $url = "http://baikal.local/cal.php/principals/test/testshift" +; my $cal = Cal::DAV->new( user => $user, pass => $pass, url => $url, auto_commit => 0, ## don't ->save any changes, we're testing h +ere ); dd( $cal->errors ); dd( $cal->cal ); dd( $cal ); } sub dd { use Data::Dumper; print Data::Dumper->new([@_])->Sortkeys(1) ->Indent(1)->Useqq(1)->Dump . "\n"; } [download] Then to add entries call add_entries ... to figure out what you need add `print Dumper( make_entry() );` to `Cal-DAV-0.6/t/01basics.t` and examine the output (show me) Also try dave , CalDav is just WebDav which is just HTTP get :) `dave -tmpdir ./i-baikal-tmp -debug 3 -u test -p test "http://baikal.local/cal.php/principals/test/" ... dave> get testshift dave> quit` This should download the testshift database and save it in -tmpdir (or cwd)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Using Perl to add entries in iCal Calendar (cpan secrets) by hoschi (Initiate) on May 12, 2014 at 17:56 UTC
Re: Using Perl to add entries in iCal Calendar by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on May 01, 2014 at 18:59 UTC
Useful? Dunno. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/09/20/ical_webdav.html ... http://www.brownbearsw.com/ical/icalendarcom.html ... http://www.raptorized.com/2006/08/16/sharing-syncing-and-editing-ical-over-webdav/ At this point do you know if it is a problem with your Perl code or some configuration problem e.g. with the system(s) you are talking to? If the code you have and/or are writing were working correctly (as far as Perl is concerned), would it ... work? Kinda sounds like there is some information missing or not set up correctly such that no WebDAV client (Perl or not) would be successful. There are many things which could be affecting a situation like this so you need to try to reduce that list of possibilities first.