Calendar Class

-iCalendar .NET library

A .Net iCalendar library used to parse,create, manipulate, databind and export iCalendar data in various formats.

For a list of all members of this type, see Calendar Members.

System.Object
Calendar

public sealed class Calendar

Remarks

Overview

The iCalendar library is designed to allow developers to create new file or parse an iCalendar (.ics) file and expose the parsed data via the iCalendar rich object model. It also alows for the iCalendar object to be persisted as a new iCalenar (.ics) file, xCal - XML iCalendar format, Resource Description Framework (RDF) - .rdf format.

The library is built 100% in .NET managed code(C#). The iCalendar object model is based on the formal iCalendar Specification, RFC 2445, from the Internet Engineering Task Force.

The iCalendar object design and implementation follows very closely the iCalendar UML specification done by Michael Arick at the Baskin School of Engineering, University of California.

Feature List

Parse iCalendar content from a file on disk.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	CalendarParser oParser = new CalendarParser();
            	oCalendar = oCalParser.Parse("C:\CalFiles\Jan-Meetings.ics");

Parse iCalendar content from a file on the Web.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	CalendarParser oParser = new CalendarParser();
            	oCalendar = oCalParser.Parse("http://www.yourdomain.com/calendars/Events.ics");

Parse iCalendar content from a stream of character data.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	CalendarParser oParser = new CalendarParser();
            	//Should return data like "BEGIN:VCALENDAR BEGIN:VEVENT... END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR"
            	String calData = GetCalendarData();
            	oCalendar = oCalParser.Parse(calData);

Display the iCalendar data with the rich object model.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Components;
            	...
            	
            	ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	//This assumes you build a valid Calendar object
            	//Declare a VEvent object
            	VEvent calEvent;
            	
            	//Find the event with UID="1122DFG"
            	calEvent = oCalendar.Events.FindEventByUID("1122DFG");
            	if (calEvent != null)
            	{
            		//Show the Event contents
            		txtSummary.Text = calEvent.Summary.Value;
            		txtStartDate.Text = calEvent.DateTimeStart.DateTime;
            		
            		and so on...			
            	
            	}

Manipulate the iCalendar data with the rich object model.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Components;
            	...
            	
            	ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	//This assumes you build a valid Calendar object
            	//Declare a VEvent object
            	VEvent calEvent;
            	
            	//Find the event with UID="1122DFG"
            	calEvent = oCalendar.Events.FindEventByUID("1122DFG");
            	if (calEvent != null)
            	{
            		//Update the Event contents
            		calEvent.Summary.Value = "This is just the summary for event.";
            		calEvent.DateTimeStart.DateTime = DateTime.Now; //Set today 
            		
            		and so on...			
            	}
            	
            	//Finally save the new updated Calendar.

Validate the iCalendar data with the rich object model.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Components;
            	...
            	
            	ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	CalendarParser oParser = new CalendarParser();
            	oCalendar = oCalParser.Parse("C:\CalFiles\Jan-Meetings.ics"); 
            	
            	//Validate that all the Properties and Components according to the
            	//iCalendar specification requirements for properties and parameters
            	oCalendar.Validate();
            	
            	//You can validate only the components
            	foreach(ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Component c in oCalendar.Components)
            	{
            		c.Validate();
            	}
            	
            	//After calling ToBindable(), you can Validate only certain types of Components
            	oCalendar.ToBindable();
            	
            	//Validate Events only
            	foreach(ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Components.VEvent ev in oCalendar.Events)
            	{
            		ev.Validate();
            	}

Output iCalendar data to file in iCalendar format ( .ics).

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	 ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	//Once calendar object is created, modifications are made to the data
            	//Persist the new updated object to a new file.
            	
            	CalendarWriter calWriter = new CalendarWriter();
            	
            	//Persist as iCalendar file ( .ics)
            	calWriter.Write(oCalendar,"C:\CalFiles\MyEvents.ics");

Output iCalendar data to xCal - XML iCalendar format

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	 ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	//Once calendar object is created, modifications are made to the data
            	//Persist the new updated object to a new file.
            	
            	CalendarWriter calWriter = new CalendarWriter();
            	
            	//Persist as xCal - XML iCalendar file ( .xml)
            	calWriter.WriteXML(oCalendar,"C:\CalFiles\MyEvents.xml");

Output iCalendar data to RDF - iCalendar format ( .rdf).

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	 ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	//Once calendar object is created, modifications are made to the data
            	//Persist the new updated object to a new file.
            	
            	CalendarWriter calWriter = new CalendarWriter();
            	
            	//Persist as RDF file ( .rdf)
            	calWriter.WriteRDF(oCalendar,"C:\CalFiles\MyEvents.rdf");

Provide DataBinding support for Calendar Components, Properties and their values.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	 ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Calendar oCalendar;
            	
            	CalendarParser oParser = new CalendarParser();
            	oCalendar = oCalParser.Parse("C:\CalFiles\Meetings.ics"); 	
            	
            	//Call the ToBindable() method to expose the properties for each object
            	//Read the notes on the ToBindable method for more details
            	oCalendar.ToBindable();
            	
            	//Now the object is ready to provide data for databinding...
            	
            	//Bind all the Events to a datagrid
            	//Here is a sample DataGrid databinding syntax for VEvent properties.
            	//
            	// DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.UniqueIdentifier.Value")
            	// DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.DateTimeStart.DateTime")
            	//
            	dgEvents.DataSource = oCalendar.Events;
            	dgEvents.DataBind();
            	
            	//Bind all the ToDo's to a datagrid
            	dgToDo.DataSource = oCalendar.ToDos;
            	dgToDo.DataBind();
            	
            	//Bind all the Journals to a datagrid
            	dgJournals.DataSource = oCalendar.Journals;
            	dgJournals.DataBind();

Generate Recurrence DateTimes list from a Recurrenc Rule (RRULE) input.

This library supports the most common recurrence patterns for recurrence datetimes generation. It can take input of type, "FREQ=DAILY;COUNT=10;INTERVAL=2" - repeat 10 times, every other day, and it will generate 10 dates, given a start date. It can generate dates for recurrences created by an interface similar to the one below.

The generator above can generate recurrence rules like the following:

RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;BYMONTHDAY=15;BYMONTH=4 Every April 15th
RRULE:FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=1SU; - Every First Sunday of each month
RRULE:FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=-1SU; - Every Last Sunday of each month
RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=SU - Every Sunday of each week
RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;COUNT=10;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=MO,WE - Every Mon,Wed each week, 10 times
RRULE:FREQ=DAILY;COUNT=30;INTERVAL=3 - Every third day for 30 occurences

Here is some sample code on how to use the recurrence object.

            	using ZsoftNet.iCalendar;
            	...
            	
            	 ZsoftNet.iCalendar.Recurrence oRecurrence;
            	
            	//Create Recurrence Instance from the RRULE input
            	//"RRULE:FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=1SU;"
            	oRecurrence = new Recurrence("FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=1SU;");
            	
            	DateTimeCollection recurrenceDates;
            	DateTime startDate = DateTime.Now;
            	
            	//For items that repeat forever, specify the max number of dates to generate. 
            	//This is ONLY applicable for RRules that do not have Count, or DateUntil specified
            	//like the example above.
            	
            	int totalDatesToGenerate = 20; 
            	
            	//Call the static method to generate the dates for this RRULE.
            	//The list will have 20 dates, The Last Sunday of the Month from today for the next 20 months.
            	recurrenceDates = Recurrence.GenerateRecurrenceDates(oRecurrence,startDate,totalDatesToGenerate);

This library provides a very rich object model for working with iCalendar data.

Requirements

Namespace: ZsoftNet.iCalendar

Assembly: ZsoftNet.iCalendar.1.0 (in ZsoftNet.iCalendar.1.0.dll)

Calendar Class

Remarks

Requirements

See Also