Parse .ics data in iPhone project - iphone

I am making an iPhone application and i want to use libical to parse .ics dat from an .ics file OR from the URL location of the .ics file..
Firstly i want to know how i would go about using libical in my project? How to add it into my iphone project etc.. ive seen some guides but they seem to be specific to OSX projects and not iphone projects..
Secondly i want to parse event names and their descriptions, so i that i can store the event names/ descriptions as variables..
I was wondering if this was possible using libical.. if so could someone please show me roughly how i may go about implementing this...
Any and all information will be very much appreciated!
Thank You For Reading

I know it might not be a very helpful answer - posting it because i can't comment on the question, so sorry for that - but ics data files are relatively easily parsable. Open one in a text editor and take a look, i've implemented an ics parser before for exactly what you're trying to do, took me a couple of hours, and trying to get all sorts of libraries to compile used taken me more in a few occasions :)

Found an excellent library for parsing .ics files. There are a whole lot of functions too for other tasks like managing calendar and calendar events.
https://github.com/KiranPanesar/MXLCalendarManager

Related

How do I open a file in my IOS SwiftUI App?

I have an app that saves data in my Documents directory. It would be very useful to be able to mail the data file to some other users so they can also use the gathered information. I have spent most of today looking for a solution, but have not found any answers basic enough to be of any help. So, I would greatly appreciate some help to get me started. Like, what do I need to do to make IOS aware that I am interested in opening ( in my case actually only copying the file to the app’s Documents directory for further chewing) a file with, for example the .xyz-extension and how this is done.
Much appreciated,
stalle
Running on a real device, there seems to be no problem.

Is it possible to attach a file to an ios calender event?

In Mac OS it is possible to attach files to a calender event and read that files on the iOS calender.
Question: Is it possible to attach a file to an iOS calender event using the Event Kit framework?
I could not find any hint in the Event Kit documentation
The short answer to your question is no - there is no way to attach a file to an iOS Calendar Event.
Why? Because there is no place to put a file. Looking at the EKEvent Class Reference turns up a short list of properties, none of which would work for our goal of adding a file to the event.
If we go up to the super class EKCalendarItem there are also no place to put a file.
However, what is it you are trying to do exactly?
If you want to attach a file on one device, say a photo of a cat, and then have that photo sync with the event to another device, you are out of luck. The documentation shows no place you could attach a binary blob to a calendar event.
However there are some other tricks you might want to try if you are ok only making it look like a file is attached:
EKCalendarItem has a notes property that stores an NSString. You could try something hacky like putting the file as binary data in a string format in there, but I wouldn't as thats silly and could break in all sorts of ways. If you are trying to just store plain text, though, that could work well.
If you want to link to the file using a URL you can put the URL in the notes property as another comment suggests, but I would suggest you use a different property - the URL property.
As for how you can give the impression there is a file attached to a calendar event (without actually being able to) I would suggest you look into the magic a good URL scheme can provide. I'm not sure what functionality you are looking for, but a URL scheme is an Apple approved way to tell your software to show a 'file' (Well, a view in your app that could be a file) by clicking a URL attached to a Calendar Event. You will still have to take care of getting the file onto the device, but that should get you closer to what you want. Good luck!
No, EventKit does not allow you to add an attachment to an EKEvent.
The only idea I can offer is to use the notes attribute to keep the file's url.
You can add an attachment like a photo in the OS X iCal application. When synced to you iPhone it will be visible in the iOS Calendar App.
Save it to Dropbox, copy the link and paste it to the URL box in Calendar Event. It's kind of wonky but it does work. Maybe Apple would do well to creat the functionality to link to photos, docs etc. It should be pretty straight forward.
I don't know if this was untrue at the time this was asked, but now... you certainly CAN add an attachment such as an image. AND...there are actually SEVERAL file types you can add!!
I wanted to add my mobile concert ticket & barcode image to the my iCal event so everything for the night would be consolidated.
Albeit this is more sort of a work around, because it's not done directly in your iOS iCal, but it's very much possible to do. (and all from your iOS device) You simply go about doing it through your iCloud within a browser.
TO ADD AN ATTACHMENT TO iCAL EVENT:
Open icloud.com in and enter your Apple ID and PW.
Double-click the event to open it (if it isn't open already).
Do any of the following: Click Add File next to “attachments,” locate the file on your computer, then click Choose. Drag the file into your event. ...
Click OK. A paper clip icon appears on the event to indicate there's an attachment.
SOURCE:
https://support.apple.com/kb/ph12080?locale=en_US
It is possible attaching files to your calendar entries! There is a little application for iPhone and iPad you can use (secretary-app.de).

Retrieving updated files from server to replace files on documents folder of an iPhone

Im new to iPhone programming and wanted to see how people have solved this problem:
Ive created my app which will ship with certain pLists and .png files in the main bundle. However, what I want to do is when the app starts up, Id like it to check my server to see if there are updated versions of the files in the documents folder available. If so Id like the app to download those files.
I was wondering if someone can point me to some resources on how to do this? Ive searched online but haven't come up with good hits.
Whats the google key-word for searching this topic anyways?
Thanks a lot
you can use NSUrlRequest to download the files, to move them to the correct place you can use NSFileManager, if you look at the apple docs for both these classes there should be sample code explaining how to copy/save a file from NSData, and also how to download it.
I don't have any example resources of how to do exactly this, though I would probably do something along the lines of onAppLoad checking to see if the content of the application that you want to keep updated is the most recent, and if not, download it.
As for keywords to search I would try something along the lines of "Automatic App Content Updating/Verification" and throw in "iOS/iPhone/iPad" or some similar combination.
I'll do some more poking around and shoot you a comment notification if I find anything worthwhile, and then edit my post with it.

HTTP file upload taking component for iOS

I noticed the functionality on some PDF viewer for iOS. You can actually turn phone in server and upload files there from a normal computer. I found HTTP server implementation from iOS on Google site, so implementing upload accepting functionality isn't a big deal for me. However I would like to save couple hours of my time, so if somebody could point me to ready to use solutions in sources, I will own you a bottle of your favorite beer.
It looks like I will have an extra beer this weekend. No I didn't create one, but i found one
enter link description here
Actually I found bunch of them, but this one seems has upload handling code which was my goal. If somebody found a better server solution, then do not hesitate to share with me.

Adding PDF to iBooks by code

I was recently asked if I could code a simple IPhone/IPad app that:
Checks an FTP server for changes to a PDF file (easy)
Downloads the lastest PDF (easy)
Adds or replace the file on iBooks (hmm...)
I have tried to find any code that deals with inserting/adding/updating files inside iBooks, but sadly there is very little on the subject. Is this even possible except manually through iTunes? My gut feeling says that it's just a matter of writing the file to a folder..
It makes sense if it were such an API. There are many companies that would like to keep their product portfolios up to date, or research manuals that (in theory at least) could benefit greatly from being updated automatically through an app.
Any help or comments are welcome.
My gut feeling says that it's just a
matter of writing the file to a
folder..
Unfortunately, this probably isn't the case. I'd imagine iBooks using some sort of database to keep track of books, rather than simple files.
There is a URL schema for iBooks, but it's undocumented, and nobody has found any methods that would update/replace a book (I don't know if any even exist): How do I launch iBooks e-reader programmatically on iPad?
If you feel this is something that would be beneficial to iBooks, you should consider filing a feature request on the Apple dev site.
UIDocumentInteractionController is your friend in this case