[pmwiki-devel] iCalendar standards implementation

[Crisses]

I highly recommend that there be a PmWiki plug-in visually similar to  
the current calendar plug-ins but using the iCalendar standard -- to  
the point that I'm currently researching the ability to do so.  The  
file format dumped straight into PmWiki is compatible with the PmWiki  
page variable ($:var) markup in that all iCalendar textual data is in  
a colon-delimited format.  iCalendar files allow a portable and  
extensible means by which groups can share scheduling data across  
applications and should be easy for PmWiki to include iCalendar data  
as a download, and for plug-ins such as ZAP to create iCalendar  
markup wikipages to store event data from webforms. [Note to Caveman:  
for this standard, ZAP would have to remove the space after the  
colon, and encapsulate the entire block as shown below, and the event  
itself would be nested inside BEGIN: and END: statements.]

sample iCalendar format (borrowed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
ICalendar) (it has the mime type text/calendar)

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:19970714T170000Z
DTEND:19970715T035959Z
SUMMARY:Bastille Day Party
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR


Improving the current calendaring features of PmWiki was on my  
schedule of things to do.  It has now become something I *am* doing  
-- but I'm pretty sure it would be much better for the plug-in if I'm  
not handling it all by myself :)


Anyone who wants to help out, help would be VERY welcome.  I will be  
borrowing heavily from the current calendar options, but instead of  
"just a calendar" for one-a-day events or blog/journal entries, I'm  
hoping for a more robust "events calendar" for recurring, spanning  
and overlapping events... hoping.  LOL.

If there already is such a thing, in open source, PHP, GPL  
compatible, that can be used to create the plug in for PmWiki, please 
(!) let me know.  I'm searching for a FOSS event/calendaring solution  
for a non-PmWiki project and not having a whole lot of luck.  It does  
NOT need to be iCalendar compatible, but it is VERY preferable.  I  
may be looking at Drupal and other OSS projects that may already have  
plug-ins for these features, for ideas on implementation, but I see  
many things that are unique to PmWiki that are already a long way  
towards implementing this idea.

If anyone has hints for PHP or PmWiki implementation, please contact  
me or add to the Talk page.  If anyone who has already worked on the  
calendaring plug-ins on the visual end wants to help out, that would  
ALSO be very helpful!!


http://pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/ICalendarEvents

http://pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/ICalendarEvents-Talk

Thanks!! :)

Crisses
----
My what an appropriate random sig file you have, Crisses...