HOME

5h-3LL 1.0
DIR: /srv/http/vyvoj.adent.cz/egroupware/khkstc/icalsrv/doc
/srv/http/vyvoj.adent.cz/egroupware/khkstc/icalsrv/doc/
Current File : /srv/http/vyvoj.adent.cz/egroupware/khkstc/icalsrv/doc/EgwIcal-intro.dox
/*!  @mainpage EgwIcal package for Egroupware

@todo rewrite the overview, add small synopsis, remove the talk about WURH etc.
in here talk about the usage of the various routines/classes of the package (eg how to use
icalvcb to combine retrieving from different resources and etc. Basic handling should be given
in class descriptions, though.
 
@NOTE <b>this text is not up to date, please for the moment, use the class descriptions
for up to date documentation</b>
@version 0.9.01
@author jvl

The EgwIcal package provides routines for converting between iCalendar RFC
2445 conformant dataelements (like VEVENTS, VTODOS, VALARMS etc.) and
corresponding Egroupware database entries (like calendar events,
infolog tasks etc.). EgwIcal also provides routines to do import to
and export from the Egroupware system for these iCalendar elements,
thereby doing the conversion on the fly. Finally, EgwIcal provides a
buffering feature where mixed sets of these elements can be accumulated and
then be imported or exported all at once.

@section secinstall SHORT experimental Install How-To:

 - Install the EgwIcal package by either checking out the egwical module from cvs
 or untarring some tarball egwical-vx.y.x.tgz of the package (when available).


@section  secusage Usage of the EgwIcal system

The EgwIcal system allows four(or 3?) characteristic ways to help you
with manipulating iCalendar data in a Egw context:.....

@section secusageiecnv Converting iCalendar elements to Egw elements

To convert a iCalendar datacomponent e.g. of type "VEVENT" into a
corresponding egw component of e.g. "calendar event" you can use the
following in your code: 

<code> ......
</code>

@section secusageeicnv Converting Egw elements to iCalendar elements.

To convert a egw component of e.g. "calendar event"  into a
corresponding  iCalendar datacomponent of e.g. type "VEVENT"you can use the
following in your code: 

<code> ......
</code>

@section secusageimport Importing iCalendar elements into Egw
applications storage.

To import a iCalendar datacomponentof e.g. type "VEVENT" as a
corresponding egw component of type "calendar event"  into your
calendar application (its database) you can use the
following in your code: 

<code> ......
</code>

@section secusageexport Exporting Egw application elements as iCalendar elements.

To export  as a  egw datacomponent of e.g. type "calendar event" from your
calendar application (its database) as a iCalendar datacomponentof e.g. type "VEVENT",
you can use the following in your code: 

<code> ......
</code>

@section secusageexpimpbuffer Exporting (mixed) collections of iCalendar elements.

Beside directly exporting single elements or sets of
iCalendar data generated generated from a egw application like
calendar, you can also use the "buffer" system of EgwIcal, to collect
various sets of such dataelements, even from different Egw
applications (like calendar and infolog), and then later on export
these all together as one big iCalendar.

To do collection followed by export you can use code like below:
<code> ......
</code>


@section secimplementation How is EgwIcal implemented?

To use or extend EgwIcal best, as a developer, it may be good know a bit about
its implementation. 
EgwIcal is built according to the Workers Union Representatives
Hierarchy (WURH) pattern. Quite a mouthfull, and probably there are
somewhere better names for this pattern (see ...). In @ref pageegwicalwurh
you can read more on this.

Basically it means that there is one super "worker" class
@ref egwical that uses for specific work like e.g. conversion
between VEVENTS and calendar tasks, a specific subclass
like e.g. bocalupdate_vevents that is connected to the
egwical object via a socalled "representative" member in the registry $reg_rscs
(attribute).

Currently EgwIcal has the following subclasses:

- <code>bocalupdate_vevents</code> for manipulating calendar events as
  VEVENTS.

- <code>boinfolog_vtodos</code> for manipulating infolog tasks as VTODOS.

Future subclasses might be:

- <code>???_vjournals</code> for manipulating .... as VJOURNALS.

- <code>bocal_vfreebusies</code> for manipulating calendar data as
  VFREEBUSY elements.

- <code>addressbook_vcard</code> for manipulating addressdata data as
  VCARDS.

- <code>???_vnotes</code> for manipulating .... as VNOTES.



@section secdeletioncheatcode Cheatcode for Deleting Calendars, events or todos

Egwical provides a special "hackish" feature specifically meant for
use with the crippeld ical-over-http (aka webcal) implementation that
the package IcalSrv provides for Egroupware.

This IcalSrv implementation does not support deletion of egw calendar
or infolog elements directly (see the IcalSrv package). As a help out
the "cheat" is implemented that: you can though delete an item by
simply giving the VEVENT or VTODO 'SUMMARY' field a value
<code>X-DELETE</code> or <code>_DELETED_</code> and then importing it
through the Egwical system.  I you do so the the corresponding egw
element from calendar or infolog will get deleted.


@section secpatches Patches


You may need to apply some of the patches found in PATCHES.
Currently there a two patches to fix a warning and a bug (related to EXDATE 
fields handling) in the horde routines.
Note these may be already committed in the CVS version.



@section sectest Extra testing

The package contains two "compatibility" classes (@ref boical and @ref vcalinfolog) with
which you can replace 
the current <code>infolog/inc/class.vcalinfolog.inc.php</code> resp.
<code>calendar/inc/class.boical.inc.php</code>
files.

When done so, the egw syncml, ical import/export and infolog import/export in egw 
will all use the new code. This way you can discover more bugs and failure in the code :)

But, when not renamed, these programs will use the old code (and thus are not broken or
improved by the new one..)


@section secdocumentation Documentation

There is (somewhere) complete doxygen generated documentation for the
EgwIcal package. Otherwise you can generate it yourself by using
doxygen on the source filetree. Maybe phpdocumenter can give you also
something usefull. And maybe you are just reading it now this very moment...



@section secbugandtodo BuG and todo list

 @todo notably timezone handling in EgwIcal should be documented and
possible features to allow import/export and use of iCalendar
VTIMEZONE components should be provided.

  -see BUGs and TODOs in  @ref pageegwicalbugandtodo




have fun


JVL


*/