icsorg - Import Calendar Events into Emacs Org Mode

This is a very simple script to assist in importing calendar events from an ICS file into an Emacs Org mode file. Once imported, the events will show up in your Org agenda.

This work was very much inspired by the article Google Calendar Synchronization. This script fulfils a role similar to the ics2org Awk script referenced in that article. Essentially, icsorg will read data from an .ics file, parse it to extract all the events and generate an entry in an Emacs Org mode file for each event. Provided the output file is included in the list of files scanned by org to generate the agenda, these events will show up as entries in the agenda. This script does not do any upstream synchronisation - it does not push events back out to a remote service like Google or Office 365.

The script does support using a URL to specify the input .ics file. This is useful with Google Calendar as that calendar includes a private URL you can use to retrieve all your events as an .ics file.

Caveats: This script has not been heavily tested and has only been run on Linux platforms. I wrote it to scratch my own itch, which it appears to be doing quite effectively. I don't run Windows, but will likely also use it on macOS.

Installation

A prerequisite for running this script is node* and *npm*. It is recommended to have at least =node v14.x.x, but the script should work with node 12.x.x. It is recommended you install the script globally as this will ensure it is placed in the bin directory used by globally installed modules, which is normally on your execution PATH.

Install the script either by running

npm i -g icsorg

Alternatively, you can use the npx command to both install and run the script. e.g.

npx icsorg -h

The above line will install the script and run it with the -h option, which will display a short help message.

Usage

The script has a short help screen which is displayed when you use the -h option. e.g.

Usage: icsorg <optional arguments>

Arguments:
  -a                 Author. Used for attendee matching
  -e                 Email. Used for attendee matching
  -f                 Number of days into the future to include events from. Default 365
  -h | --help        Display short help message
  -c config_file     Path to configuration file
  -i input_file      Path to the ICS file to use as input
  -o output_file     Path to the output file to be created (org file)
  -p days            Number of days in the past to include events from. Default 7
  --dump             Dump the current configuration and exit

By default, the script will look for a file called '.icsorgrc' in the
user's home directory. This can be overridden with the -c switch
Command line switches override values in the configuration file

The configuration file consists of NAME=value lines. The file will be
processed using the dotenv module, which will create environment variables
from the values in this file. The expected values are -

  AUTHOR -   Your name. Used to identify you in meeting attendee lists
  EMAIL  -   Your email address. Also used to identify you in attendee lists
  ICS_FILE - Path to ICS file to use for input. This can be overridden with the -i option
  ORG_FILE - Path to the org file to write events to. It will override any existing.
             It can be overridden with the -o option
  TITLE -    The #+TITLE: header to use in the org file. Defaults to 'Calendar'
  CATEGORY - A value for #+CATEGORY header. No default
  STARTUP -  A value for #+STARTUP header. No default
  FILETAGS - A value for #+FILETAGS header. No default
  PAST -     Number of days in the past to include events from. Default 7
  FUTURE -   Number of days into the future to include events from. Default 365

  Homepage - https://github.com/theophilusx/icsorg

The script uses the dotenv module to read a resource file of setting used by the script. Most of these settings can be overridden with command line options. The script looks for this resource file in your home directory by default. A sample configuration file is shown below.

AUTHOR="Fred Flintstone" # Your name - used to match attendees for an event
[email protected]   # Your email address - also used for attendee matching
ICS_FILE=/home/fred/google.ics # location of the ics file to use as input
ORG_FILE=/home/fred/Documents/org-data/calendar.org # file for output - an org mode file
TITLE="Google Calendar" # Org file header settings
CATEGORY=CALENDAR
STARTUP="hidestars overview"
FILETAGS=EVENT
PAST=30 # how many days into the past to look for events
FUTURE=365 # how many days into the future to look for events

The script, using the above settings, would generate an org file of events. A partial sample output is below.

#+TITLE:       Google Calendar
#+AUTHOR:      Fred Flintstone
#+EMAIL:       [email protected]
#+DESCRIPTION: converted using icsorg node script
#+CATEGORY:    CALENDAR
#+STARTUP:     hidestars overview
#+FILETAGS:    EVENT

* Rock, Stone and Pebble Conference
:PROPERTIES:
:ICAL_EVENT:    t
:ID:            [email protected]
:ORGANIZER:     [[mailto:[email protected]][[email protected]]] 
:STATUS:        CONFIRMED
:LAST_MODIFIED: [2021-08-06 Fri 00:42]
:LOCATION:      The Big Boulder Conference Center
:DURATION:      1 d 00:00 hh:mm
:ATTENDEES:     [[mailto:[email protected]][[email protected]]] (Accepted) [[mailto:[email protected]][[email protected]]] (ACCEPTED)
:END:
<2021-08-06 Fri 00:00>--<2021-08-07 Sat 00:00>

All day talk - large lunch provided. Bowling afterwards.
* Shopping with Wilma
:PROPERTIES:
:ICAL_EVENT:    t
:ID:            [email protected]
:ORGANIZER:     [[mailto:[email protected]][[[mailto:[email protected]][[email protected]]] 
:STATUS:        CONFIRMED
:LAST_MODIFIED: [2021-08-05 Thu 12:28]
:LOCATION:      Downtown Bedrock
:DURATION:      00:50 hh:mm
:ATTENDEES:     [[mailto:[email protected]][[email protected]]] (MAYBE) [[mailto:[email protected]][[email protected]]] (ACCEPTED)
:END:
<2021-08-05 Thu 12:30-13:20>

Fun shopping for a new dress!

Workflow

The basic workflow I use is to retrieve my events from my Google calendar. I use the private URL Google provides for accessing your calendar events. That URL returns an .ics file of all your events. The URL is used in the .icsorgrc configuration file for the ICS_FILE variable. I then have a basic cron task which runs this script every 6 hours to update my list of calendar events.

Note that because this script is installed as a node module globally, it creates a symbolic link in the global NPM bin directory. However, as cron does not source your profile, the script may not be in your PATH. There are a number of ways to fix this, but the easiest is to just call the script with a full execution path. In my case, that is /home/tim/.npm_global/bin/icsorg.