[emacs-berlin] Export org mode files to iCalendar format

[Tilmann Singer]

Hi Antonio,

Good question. It took me some time to figure out how to generate the
ics files that are attached to the meetup announcement mails. What works
for me is: set the region to contain all lines of the entry to export,
then run "M-x org-icalendar-export-to-ics RET".

For example with this entry:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
*** March 2022 Emacs Meetup
:PROPERTIES:
:TIMEZONE: Europe/Berlin
:LOCATION: The Internet
:END:
<2022-03-30 Wed 19:00-21:00>
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

this file is generated:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:emacs
PRODID:-////Emacs with Org mode//EN
X-WR-TIMEZONE:CEST
X-WR-CALDESC:
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20230404T135957Z
UID:TS1-f1aa8108-0432-4ebe-b17e-3d59900b27fb
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20220330T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20220330T210000
SUMMARY:March 2022 Emacs Meetup
LOCATION:The Internet
DESCRIPTION:<2022-03-30 Wed 19:00>–<2022-03-30 Wed 21:00>
CATEGORIES:emacs
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Not sure why it has mixed kinds of line endings. Also it would be nicer
if the DESCRIPTION wouldn't include the org formatted timestamps - oh
well. The TIMEZONE property was necessary at some point, but I can't
remember why. I've added LOCATION in this test, apparently it is
exported as well.

The same entry exported with "C-c C-e C-s c f" produces this, which
looks very different from your example – even less useful:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:emacs
PRODID:-////Emacs with Org mode//EN
X-WR-TIMEZONE:CEST
X-WR-CALDESC:March 2022 Emacs Meetup
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
END:VCALENDAR
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

You didn't say that you are limiting to the subtree, so you exported a
whole org file I suppose?

I would have expected that exporting a subtree produces a complete ics
file, but apparently it only works when setting the region. I wonder if
this is some misunderstanding on my part how the calendar export works,
or an oversight.

Oh, and now that I write this I found out that setting the region and
then calling "C-c C-e c f" has the desired effect of only exporting the
entry in the region as well. That's a bit more convenient.


cheers, Til
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