NAME

       Tie::iCal - Tie iCal files to Perl hashes.

VERSION

       This document describes version 0.14 released 1st September 2006.

SYNOPSIS

               use Tie::iCal;

               tie %my_events, 'Tie::iCal', "mycalendar.ics" or die "Failed to tie file!\n";
               tie %your_events, 'Tie::iCal', "yourcalendar.ics" or die "Failed to tie file!\n";

               $my_events{"A-NEW-UNIQUE-ID"} = [
                       'VEVENT',
                       {
                               'SUMMARY' => 'Bastille Day Party',
                               'DTSTAMP' => '19970714T170000Z',
                               'DTEND' => '19970715T035959Z',
                       }
               ];

               tie %our_events, 'Tie::iCal', "ourcalendar.ics" or die "Failed to tie file!\n";

               # assuming %my_events and %your_events
               # have no common keys (unless that's your intention)
               #
               while (my($uid,$event) = each(%my_events)) {
                       $our_events{$uid} = $event;
               }
               while (my($uid,$event) = each(%your_events)) {
                       $our_events{$uid} = $event;
               }

               untie %our_events;
               untie %your_events;
               untie %my_events;

DEPENDENCIES

               Tie::File

DESCRIPTION

       Tie::iCal represents an RFC2445 iCalendar file as a Perl hash. Each key in the hash
       represents an iCalendar component like VEVENT, VTODO or VJOURNAL. Each component in the
       file must have a unique UID property as specified in the RFC 2445. A file containing non-
       unique UIDs can be converted to have only unique UIDs (see samples/uniquify.pl).

       The module makes very little effort in understanding what each iCalendar property means
       and concentrates on the format of the iCalendar file only.

FILE LOCKING

       The Tie::iCal object returned by tie can also be used to access the underlying Tie::File
       object.  This is accessible via the 'A' class variable.  This may be useful for file
       locking.

               my $ical = tie %events, 'Tie::iCal', "mycalendar.ics";
               $ical->{A}->flock;

DATES

       The iCalendar specification uses a special format for dates. This module makes no effort
       in trying to interpret dates in this format. You should look at the Date::ICal module that
       can convert between Unix epoch dates and iCalendar date strings.

How Tie::iCal interprets iCal files

       Tie::iCal interprets files by mapping iCal components into Perl hash keys and iCal content
       lines into various Perl arrays and hashes.

   Components
       An iCal component such as VEVENT, VTODO or VJOURNAL maps to a hash key:-

               BEGIN:VEVENT
               UID:a_unique_uid
               NAME1:VALUE1
               ..
               END:VEVENT

       corresponds to

               $events{'a_unique_uid'} = ['VEVENT', {'NAME1' => 'VALUE1'}]

   Subcomponents
       An iCal subcomponent such as VALARM maps to a list of hash keys:-

               BEGIN:VALARM
               TRIGGER;VALUE=DURATION:-PT1S
               TRIGGER;VALUE=DURATION:-PT1S
               END:VALARM
               BEGIN:VALARM
               X-TIE-ICAL;VALUE=ANOTHER:HERE
               X-TIE-ICAL:HERE2
               X-TIE-ICAL-NAME:HERE2
               END:VALARM

       corresponds to

               'VALARM' => [
                       {
                               'TRIGGER' => [
                                       [{'VALUE' => 'DURATION'},'-PT1S'],
                                       [{'VALUE' => 'DURATION'},'-PT1S']
                               ]
                       },
                       {
                               'X-TIE-ICAL' => [
                                       [{'VALUE' => 'ANOTHER'},'HERE'],
                                       ['HERE2']
                               ],
                               'X-TIE-ICAL-NAME' => 'HERE2'
                       }
               ]

       To see how individual content lines are formed see below.

   Content Lines
       Once unfolded, a content line may look like:-

           NAME;PARAM1=PVAL1;PARAM2=PVAL2;...:VALUE1,VALUE2,...

       having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

           'NAME' => [{'PARAM1'=>'PVAL1', 'PARAM2'=>'PVAL2', ..}, 'VALUE1', 'VALUE2', ..]

       or

           NAME:VALUE1,VALUE2,...

       having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

           'NAME' => ['VALUE1', 'VALUE2', ..]

       or

           NAME:VALUE

       having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

           'NAME' => 'VALUE'

       An blank value is mapped from

               NAME:

       to

               'NAME' => ''

       Multiple contentlines with same name, i.e. FREEBUSY, ATTENDEE:-

           NAME;PARAM10=PVAL10;PARAM20=PVAL20;...:VALUE10,VALUE20,...
           NAME;PARAM11=PVAL11;PARAM21=PVAL21;...:VALUE11,VALUE21,...
           ...

       having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

           'NAME' => [
               [{'PARAM10'=>'PVAL10', 'PARAM20'=>'PVAL20', ..}, 'VALUE10', 'VALUE20', ..],
               [{'PARAM11'=>'PVAL11', 'PARAM21'=>'PVAL21', ..}, 'VALUE11', 'VALUE21', ..],
               ...
           ]

       or

           NAME:VALUE10,VALUE20,...
           NAME:VALUE11,VALUE21,...
           ...

       having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

           'NAME' => [
               ['VALUE10', 'VALUE20', ..],
               ['VALUE11', 'VALUE21', ..],
               ...
           ]

       or in a mixed form, i.e.

           NAME:VALUE10,VALUE20,...
           NAME;PARAM11=PVAL11;PARAM21=PVAL21:VALUE11,VALUE21,...
           NAME:VALUE12,VALUE22,...
           ...

       having an equivalent perl data structure like: -

           'NAME' => [
               ['VALUE10', 'VALUE20', ..],
               [{'PARAM11'=>'PVAL11', 'PARAM21'=>'PVAL21', ..}, 'VALUE11', 'VALUE21', ..],
               ['VALUE12', 'VALUE22', ..],
               ...
           ]

BUGS

       Property names are assumed not to be folded, i.e.

               DESCR
                IPTION:blah blah..

       RRULE property does not support parameters.

       Property names that begin with UID can potentially confuse this module.

       Subcomponents such as VALARM must exist after any UID property.

       Deleting events individually may leave non-RFC2445 compliant empty VCALENDAR objects.

AUTHOR

       Blair Sutton, <mailto:bsdz@cpan.org>, <http://www.numeninest.com/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 2006 Blair Sutton. All rights reserved.  This program is free software; you
       can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

       perl, Tie::File, Date::ICal