IC/VC is a general import/export utility for the Newton. It plugs into the regular application framework and allows sending of items from the Names and Dates application in iCalendar or vCard format as well as importing data from the Inbox application. It can also be used to put away packages from the Inbox which have been downloaded via Nitro or NHttpLib, and can export and import OPML formatted data.
- Version: 2.6
- Authors: Eckhart Köppen with support from Gavin McKenzie
- License: LGPL 2.0
- Download via SourceForge (NHttpLib and ntox are needed as well)
Usage
Export
IC/VC adds a vCard format choice to the Names application and iCalendar and vCalendar format choices to the Dates application. These format options will also show up in applications that are based on the Names and Dates soups, e.g. Dateman.
The iCalendar and vCard format choices are available for any transport that permits sending of text data, including E-Mail and IrOBEX.
IC/VC also allows sending of checklists and outlines in OPML format. OPML can for example be read by OmniOutliner.
Import
Import of received iCalendar, vCalendar and vCard data is possible from the Inbox application when the data has been received by IrOBEX or NHttpLib’s Fetch URL transport. Other transports can make use of IC/VC as well if they save the data in body.data slot of an Inbox soup entry and set the body.class slot to ‘|text/calendar| or ‘|text/directory|.
Import behaviour is controlled via the preferences panel, accessible from the Inbox application. The preferences specify the action to take when an item to import matches an existing item. Matching is defined as same first and last name for Names and same start date and description for Dates entries. Possible actions are keeping the original and replacing the original entry for Names and Dates. In addition, merging the original and the new entry is possible for Names. This preserves fields with the same values in the original and new data but adds any new fields from the to be imported data. It is further possible to overwrite existing information with new data but keep the rest of the data in a Names entry untouched by chosing the overwrite option.
Automatic Filing
IC/VC can use the CATEGORIES field in iCal and vCard data to file items automatically. Automatic filing is enabled in the preferences. IC/VC will use the first category from the CATEGORIES field as the folder name, other categories are ignored.
Package Import
IC/VC also lets you put away packages downloaded via Nitro or the Fetch URL transport of NHttpLib. Overwriting any already installed package can be controlled via the preferences setting.
iCal Subscription
The IC/VC application is used to subscribe to calendar data in the iCal format. Subscribed calendars are accessed from any web server via HTTP. To subscribe to a calendar, a new subscription item needs to be created in the IC/VC app and at least the URL field needs to be filled in. If the URL is given as a webcal URL, the “webcal://” part of the URL can be replaced with “http://”.
IC/VC can file meetings and appointments in different folders which can be used e.g. by DateMan. Filing can either use the CATEGORIES field in the calendar data or items can be filed in the available calendar folders.
Subscribed calendars are updated manually via the “Update” menu item in the Action menu. IC/VC can remove existing subscribed meetings before adding new items from the subscribed calendar.
Limitations
The data format and data fields used by the Newton are not completely compatible with vCard and iCalendar. Some fields will not be represented at all, some have a limitation regarding their values.
Character Set
The default character set on the Newton is Unicode (16 bit characters), iCalendar and vCard use however 8 bit characters. IC/VC uses UTF-8 to represent wide characters (i.e. codes above 255), it depends on the receiving application to recognize those.
Exporting vCards
Pagers and anniversary events are not exported.
Phone number will only map area code if there are parenthesis around the area code (i.e. (xxx)xxx-xxxx NOT xxx-xxx-xxxx). Also, to avoid a leading space on the phone number, there cannot be a space after the ending parenthesis and the start of the phone number (i.e. (xxx)xxx-xxxx NOT (xxx) xxx-xxxx).
Importing vCards
The following vCard fields are ignored: NICKNAME, PHOTO, LABEL, MAILER, TZ, GEO, SOUND, UID.
OS X Address Book lets you have multiple groups for a contact. Newton only supports one folder per contact. IC/VC selects the first one.
If using a group named “Business” in OS X Address Book, IC/VC will file under unfiled instead of Business.
OS X Address Book will auto format the display of telephone numbers. This does not correct the stored format of the phone number. To have consistent style on the Newton, disable the auto format number feature in the OS X address book.
Due to Newton limitation, can have only one URL address. IC/VC selects the first one in OS X Address Book.
Due to Newton limitation, can only have one Messaging address. IC/VC selects the first one in OS X Address Book.
OS X Address Book “Main” phone label will convert as plain phone label on Newton.
OS X Address Book Name prefix does not map to Mr/Ms field.
Exporting iCalendar Entries
Location and invitees are not exported. Recurring events are supported, except those that are set to repeat on a specific week in the month or year.
Importing iCalendar Entries
There is only limited support for recurring events. iCalendar allows very complex recurrance rules which the Newton cannot support natively. Also, the ATTENDEE field is ignored. IC/VC does not support VALARM, VTODO, VJOURNAL and VTIMEZONE objects. It honours the alarms setting in Dates for meetings (not all-day events) and adds an alarm according to the preference settings for Dates.