Microformats Wiki - User contributions [en]

hcalendar-faq

2007-07-14T04:33:42Z

Beat-boxing: /* Q&A */

<h1> hCalendar FAQ </h1>

This page is for documenting Q&A about [[hcalendar|hCalendar]]. If you have a new question to ask, Please consider first asking your question on the [http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss/ microformats-discuss] list. New questions and answers should be added to the end of the list. If you have a new question but not an answer, please add it to [[hcalendar-issues|hCalendar issues]].

<h2>Editing this Page</h2>
Please do not use "?" or other punctuation in the headers - it helps to keep the URLs to their fragment identifiers shorter and easier to read, copy/paste etc. See [[how-to-play]] for more wiki editing guidelines.

== Q&A ==

# ''How do I use a class inside <span class="vcalendar"> when I don't want the element I use it on to be a property of the calendar?''
#*Use a class name that isn't a defined iCalendar property name.
# ''What happens if the class is used both inside and outside <span class="vcalendar">?''
#* That works fine.
# ''What do I do if I want to add styling to a group of calendar events, especially if the calendar contains dynamic content? ''
#* You can write style rules that incorporate both the context of said group (say it is in an ordered list with class name "group" for example) and the events, e.g.:<code>ol.group .vevent { /* insert common styling here */ } </code>
# ''What do you do if you don't want the calendar or card to be displayed?''
#* If you don't want the calendar or card to be displayed, why are you publishing it on the Web?
# ''What if you don't want specific properties to show up?''
#* You can trivially use CSS to hide (or otherwise alter the display) of certain properties. E.g. if you want to hide the "location" from all your VEVENTs you would write a rule like this: <code> .vevent .location { display:none } </code>. This won't, however, keep the properties from being read in the HTML source; or seen by people who don't have CSS enabled; or discovered by search engines or other robots.
# ''If we use <abbr> title for the ISODate, how do we specify a different tooltip?''
#* For reasons of metadata transparency and visibility, it is recommended that you DO NOT specify a different tooltip. However, if in your particular content or application you must, you can do so with a nested span e.g. <code> <abbr title="20050221"><span title="tooltip text">Feb. 21st</span></abbr></code>
# ''Would the use of <acronym> for DTSTART be just as good as <abbr>?''
#* It could be, but there is no need. The <abbr> element is also preferred as it is better defined. The <acronym> element, and in particular, the term "acronym" means different things to different people, and thus we are not using it in [[hcalendar|hCalendar]].
# ''What happens if a browser doesn't support <abbr>?''
#* Then the human readable contents inside the element are displayed, which is the desirable behavior.
# ''How is [[hcalendar|hCalendar]] different from xCalendar, i.e. iCalendar XML guidelines submitted as an [http://www.ietf.org/ID.html IETF Internet-Draft]?''
#* hCalendar and xCalendar are actually very similar in that they are both based on iCalendar standard, RFC2445. However, xCalendar is a way of representing iCalendar files using non-standard XML element names and attributes. This is inadequate and unwieldly for serving on web pages. xCalendar is still a separate, encapsulated document in the context of the web, that requires yet another namespace. Nobody would ever look at an xCalendar XML file in the context of their ordinary browsing, unless it's XSLTed into something else, e.g. hCalendar. On the other hand, [[hcalendar|hCalendar]] is easily embeddable into normal XHTML web pages, easily stylable with CSS, cleanly separates human presentable date information vs. machine parsable ISO-8601 dates, etc. With hCalendar, calendar and events content appears both to the human user *and* to hCalendar-aware machine implementations, parsers, indexers, etc., on *today's* web.
# ''Can you provide more precise location data for an hCalendar event such as latitude and longitude?''
#* Yes, it is possible, by overlaying an [[hcard|hCard]] with the location markup (see [[hcalendar-brainstorming#hCard_locations|the brainstorming on hCard locations]]), e.g. using your lat long example (taking the values as given, someone feel free to fix these to be the real values). The code example(s) are presumed to be inside an element with a class name of "vevent". See the [[hcalendar-location-hcard-example]] page for details. For more discussions of location data, geographic data, and research into current and potential future formats, see the [[location-formats|location formats]] page.
# ''When transforming an hCalendar to a .ics file, do I have to convert the time to UTC?''
#* Yes. The iCalendar format does not permit the time to be published with an offset. hCalendars can be published with offsets, because this promotes accuracy, as it can more easily be verified (timezone math is hard), but tools which transform hCalendar to iCalendar must transformat times to UTC.
# ''How are recurring events represented?''
#* If you take a look at [http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar-examples#Example_3 Example 3], there is a proposed means using an <em>RRULE</em> property along with a <em>freq</em> sub-property. It's a start - more brainstorming at [http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar-brainstorming#Recurring_Events hcalendar-brainstorming].
# ''How does one markup just the year as opposed to an entire date? e.g. to represent age, or discussing "the past year" ?
#* Depends on the context. If by "the past year", you mean the past *calendar* year, then mark it up as January 1st through December 31st. If you mean the past 365 days, then mark it up according to whatever date it is relative to. Etc.
# ''Are there any programs of services that convert from iCalendar to hCalender?''
#*At the moment there are no plans to create a program. There are several issues when converting, mainly HOW the information is represented in HTML. Since you can use just about any element which could the converter choose. This is not to say a converter shouldn't be built, but it is out of the scope of microformats.
# ''Is the list of possible types for an ADR and TEL case sensitive?''
#* No, enumerated values are case-INsensitive, therefore Home, home, HOME, etc are all equivalent
# ''Why won't Outlook import my ics file''
#* Outlook is picky about some properties. With outlook, UID, DTSTAMP and METHOD are mandatory. Be sure you have marked-up your hCalendar with a class="uid" and a class="dtstamp" in a class="vevent"
# ''Can I use YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss dates or do I have to use the YYYYMMDDThhmmss format?''
#* hCalendar specifies [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO8601 ISO8601 datetime format], and both examples are valid, you can use with or without hyphens/colons/spaces. Note, however, that both the [http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime w3C note] and RFC 3339 recommend the use of the former, extended (delimited) format.
# ''Do I have to specify detailed time and timezone information?''
#* Include as much information as necessary, minimally include YYYY-MM-DD
# ''Why do I have to use a 'T' between the date and time in ISO Dates?''
#* You can NOT use a white-space character, the 'T' is mandatory to separate the date from the time.
# ''Why are the root class names "vcalendar" and "vevent" and not "hcalendar"?''
#* [[hcalendar|hCalendar]] is based on the iCalendar spec (RFC 2445), which itself is based on vCalendar. The names of objects have remained consistent throughout and are based on the original names from vCalendar.
# ''How do I mark-up a date-time with the proper timezone?''
#* There are two ways to do this. First, you can add your timezone offset to the end of your date-time like this: 2006-01-01T12:00:00-0600. [[http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/world_tzones.html See a world timezone offset map here]]. Also, be sure to adjust offset to account for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time Daylight Saving Time]] for events within applicable dates and locations. The other option is to convert your date-time with a timezone into a UTC date-time. iCalendar requires that times be in UTC, but hCalendar also allows for encoding your date-times as proper ISO date-times with timezone offsets.
# ''Why does my event end a day earlier than I want?''
#* DTEND is not inclusive. If you want an event to end on January 2nd, then you will need to set DTEND to 2006-01-03, one day later. This is because the event will END the first second of the date provided, so if you specify 2006-01-02, then that says that the end of the event is at midnight between the 1st and 2nd.
# ''How do I represent a repeating event in hCalendar?''
#* See [[hcalendar-brainstorming#Recurring_Events|hCalendar brainstorming: Recurring Events]]
# ''What is the best way to represent a full address in the Location?''
#* See [[hcalendar-brainstorming#hCard_locations|hCalendar brainstorming: hCard locations]]
# ''How do you represent the language of a LOCATION?'' - AKA the language parameter.
#* Use the (X)HTML "lang" attribute. See for example [[hcard-authoring#Set_the_lang_when_different|the explanation in hCard authoring of how to use "lang"]].
# ''Is it possible to represent groups of events?'' - e.g workshops at a conference.

== Related Pages ==
{{hcalendar-related-pages}}

hcalendar-faq

2007-07-14T04:33:09Z

Beat-boxing: /* Q&A */

hcalendar-implementations

2007-07-05T10:39:23Z

Beat-boxing: /* Browsing */

<h1>hCalendar Implementations</h1>

This page is '''informative'''.

The following implementations have been developed which either generate or parse hCalendars. If you have an [[hcalendar|hCalendar]] implementation, feel free to add it to the New Implementations section.

==New Implementations==
Add new implementations here:
* ...

==Authoring==
Implementations you can use to author, create, and publish hCalendar events.

===Web-based Creators===
;hCalendar Creator : [http://microformats.org/code/hcalendar/creator hCalendar creator] ([[hcalendar-creator-feedback|hCalendar creator feedback]]) - create your own hCalendar events.
;Conference Schedule Creator : [http://dmitry.baranovskiy.com/work/csc/ Conference Schedule Creator] ([[hcalendar-schedule-creator-feedback|Conference Schedule Creator feedback]]) - create your conference schedule with hCalendar events.

===Blogging and CMS tools===
;Midgard CMS : [http://www.midgard-project.org/documentation/net-nemein-calendar/ Midgard CMS - net.nemein.calendar] - as [http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/new-event-calendar-for-midcom.html blogged by Henri Bergius]

;Drupal module : [http://hybernaut.com/upcoming-hcal Drupal Upcoming.org syndication module emits hCalendar]
;MovableType and WordPress plug-ins : [http://structuredblogging.org/formats.php StructuredBlogging] is a set of plugins [http://structuredblogging.org/structuredblogging-wp-latest.zip for WordPress] and [http://structuredblogging.org/structuredblogging-wp-latest.zip for MovableType] that supports embedding hCalendar and other microformats in templates and blog posts.
;Textpattern plug-in : [http://placenamehere.com/TXP/pnh_mf/ pnh_mf] is a plugin for [http://textpattern.com/ Textpattern] that supports embedding hCalendar and other microformats in templates and blog posts. Written by [http://placenamehere.com/ Chris Casciano].
;Textpattern plug-in : [http://euphemize.net/blog/plugins/textpattern/jmc_event_manager/ jmc_event_manager] is a plugin for [http://textpattern.com/ Textpattern] that outputs events and locations in hCalendar (and hCard) formats. Written by [http://euphemize.net/ Joel Courtney].

===Browser scripts and plug-ins===
Browser plugins that work with existing authoring tools:
; Any browser with javascript and a little bit of CSS : [http://microformats.org/code/hcalendar/creator microformats.org hCalendar creator] (see also original: [http://theryanking.com/ Ryan King] has an [http://theryanking.com/microformats/hcalendar-creator.html hCalendar creator]).
; Firefox Greasemonkey user script hCalendar creator : [http://www.decafbad.com/blog/2005/06/08/greasemonkey_magic magic_hcalendar Greasemonkey user script by Les Orchard] - allows easy form entry of an event into any textarea, e.g. into a blog post text area.
; Firefox Greasemonkey user script hCalendar to Google Calendar: [http://torrez.us Elias Torres] has created a [http://torrez.us/archives/2006/04/13/431/ simple script] that will parse hCalendar entries and create a link to add event to [http://www.google.com/calendar/ Google Calendar's] service. Based on [http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2005/11/learn-to-love-microformats George's] and [http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2005/11/learn-to-love-microformats Arve's] work.

===Desktop Authoring Tools===
;Dreamweaver Extension : [http://www.webstandards.org/action/dwtf/microformats/ Extension suite] for Dreamweaver 8 from the [http://webstandards.org/ Web Standards Project].
;xfy :
In [https://www.xfytec.com/community/ xfy Community], there are some hCalendar implementations.

* [https://www.xfytec.com/community/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=15&lid=25 hCalendar via RSS] parses an RSS feed, retrieves XHTML documents linked from that feed, and syndicates hCalendars into a calendar view.
* [https://www.xfytec.com/community/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=19&lid=23 hCalendar Marker XVCD] helps to mark up an event information in XHTML document with hCalendar.
* [https://www.xfytec.com/community/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=15&lid=17 Simple RDF Calendar XVCD] is a schedule tool which uses RDF Calendar format. It also converts RDF Calendar format to iCalendar and hCalendar format.

==Search and Discovery==

* [http://kitchen.technorati.com/search Technorati Microformats Search] indexes [[hcard|hCard]], [[hcalendar|hCalendar]], and [[hreview|hReview]] as [http://tantek.com/log/2006/05.html#d31t1802 announced by Tantek].
* [http://leftlogic.com/info/articles/microformats_bookmarklet Microformats Bookmarklet] is a bookmarklet designed for Safari (works in Firefox and Camino) that overlays on the current page to allow users to import individual [[hcard|hCards]] or [[hcalendar|hCalendars]]. Written by [http://leftlogic.com Remy Sharp].

==Conversion and Import==
Implementations you can use to importing into a Calendar Application, typically by converting hCalendar to iCalendar/vCalendar.

===Web Services===
These return iCalendar (.ics) and other calendar formats for easy importing into typical calendar programs or other processing.
* [http://feeds.technorati.com/events Technorati Events Feed service] uses X2V library to parse hCalendar and return iCalendar (.ics).
**Note friendly URL, e.g. http://feeds.technorati.com/events/http%3A//microformats.org
* [http://suda.co.uk/projects/X2V/ X2V] parses hCalendar and produces a .ics (iCalendar) stream.
**Note: needs to be updated to track changes in the specification as they occur.

* [http://spanningsalesforce.com/ Spanning Salesforce] produces hCalendar-enabled RSS feeds and .ics calendars from Salesforce.com.
* [http://makedatamakesense.com/myspace/event/ MySpace Events RSS Creator] creates RSS feeds of MySpace events with hCalendar markup.

===Firefox Greasemonkey Plugins===
* [http://george.hotelling.net/90percent/ George] has built a [http://george.hotelling.net/90percent/geekery/greasemonkey_and_microformats.php Greasemonkey user script that detects hCalendar events and allows users to easily add them to their calendar application(s)].
* [http://inside.glnetworks.de/ Martin Rehfeld] has updated the work of [http://blogmatrix.blogmatrix.com/ David Janes] and produced a [[Greasemonkey]] [http://inside.glnetworks.de/2006/06/05/microformats-have-arrived-in-firefox-15-greasemonkey-06/ script] that finds many microformat elements, including hCalendar events, and [http://blog.davidjanes.com/mtarchives/2005_08.html#003379 provides a popup menu of actions]. The hCalendar to vCalendar conversion is done internally within the script. ''This will work with FireFox 1.5+/GreaseMonkey 0.6.4+ now.''

===Aggregators===
* [http://placenamehere.com/mf/nnwextract/ Extract Microformats] is a script for NetNewsWire that supports extracting hCard and hCalendar data in blog posts (via Technorati service). Written by [[User:ChrisCasciano|Chris Casciano]]
* [http://kula.jp/software/endo/screenshots/ Endo], an OS X aggregator, supports discovering hCalendar and adding those events to iCal. Look at the last screenshot at the bottom of the page.

==Browsing==
Implementations that detect, display and otherwise highlight hCalendar events in pages.

* In [http://www.xfytec.com/community/ xfy Community], there are some hCalendar implementations. "hCalendar via RSS" parses an RSS feed, retrieves XHTML documents linked from that feed, and syndicates hCalendars into a calendar view.
* [http://code.google.com/p/js-hcalendar js-hcalendar] parses hCalendar and produces a displayable HTML table/CSS-based calendar (formerly called JSCalendar).

===Firefox extension===
*[http://blog.codeeg.com/tails-firefox-extension/ Tails is a Firefox Extension] that will display the presence of microformats ([[hcard|hCard]], [[hcalendar|hCalendar]], [[hreview|hReview]], [[xfolk|xFolk]]) on a webpage.
*[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4106 Operator] also displays the presence of microformats, is extensible, and allows you to add actions such as "Add hCalender to Yahoo! Calendar".

====Pending====
*[http://reminderfox.mozdev.org/ ReminderFox] have hCalendar import on their "to do " list.

===Flock extension===
*[http://blog.codeeg.com/2006/03/20/flock-tails-flocktails/ Flocktails] - port of Tails extension for Flock 0.5.12 that looks for hCards, hCalendar, xFolk and hReview and tosses them into a handy topbar

==Libraries==
Open source libraries of hCalendar parsers and other related code for building hCalendar implementations.
; Javascript : [http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2005/11/learn-to-love-microformats simple hCalendar parser] by [http://virtuelvis.com/ Arve Bersvendsen]
; PHP :
*[http://randomchaos.com/microformats/base/ Microformat Base] is an open-source PHP microformat aggregation crawler, currently recognizing hreview, hcalendar, and hcard (Source code no longer available as of 6 Dec 06).
*[http://enarion.net/phpmicroformats/ phpMicroformats] is a PHP class library that generates microformats for calendar events (hCalendar) and vcards (hCard).
* [http://fresh.t-systems-sfr.com/unix/src/www/WebCalendar-devel-1.1.1.tar.gz:a/WebCalendar-1.1.1/includes/classes/hKit/hcal.profile.php hCalendar profile] for the [http://allinthehead.com/hkit/ hKit] parser.
; Ruby [http://rubyforge.org/projects/uformats/ uformats]: is a ruby library that can parse [[hCalendar]], [[hCard]], [[hReview]] and [[rel-tag]]
; XSLT :
* X2V is available as an XSLT library
* [http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/2001/palmagent/ palmagent] by [[User:DanC]] includes toICal.xsl and test materials; it works much like xhtml2vcal.xsl in X2V. See also: [http://www.w3.org/2002/12/cal/ RDF Calendar workspace] with icalendar test materials.

== Related Pages ==
{{hcalendar-related-pages}}