Event alarms

[sheamus]

I am trying to add an alarm to an event. So an hour before a game, I
sound is played, and message is displayed.

I am assuming that for the alarm, I can give it a description which
will be the message displayed.

Looking at a ics file exported by ical, the sound played is given like
this:
ATTACH;VALUE=URI:SoundName

I am not sure how do get the ';VALUE=URI' part.
But
event do
attach :value => "SoundName", :params => { "VALUE" => "URI" }
end

does not work.

The exported ICS file from iCal also includes a TRIGGER item. Is this
the time before the event? It seems to have a value of -1PTH
regardless of whether the alert is 1 hour or 1 day before.

The exported ICS file also has a X-WR-ALARMUID value which looks like
a GUID. I am guessing this is an index into OS X's alarm system. Is
there a generic way to make alarms? i.e, the application importing the
ICS file will see the ALARM, and create it's own reminder?

[Rick DeNatale]

On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 2:34 PM, sheamus <shea....@gmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to add an alarm to an event.  So an hour before a game, I
sound is played, and message is displayed.

Exactly what happens on an alarm depends on the calendar client application. I assume you are using iCal.app on the Mac based on what follows, but I don't think there is a calendar app independent definition of how alarms are handled.

I am assuming that for the alarm, I can give it a description which
will be the message displayed.

Looking at a ics file exported by ical, the sound played is given like
this:
ATTACH;VALUE=URI:SoundName

I am not sure how do get the ';VALUE=URI' part.
But
event do
  attach :value => "SoundName", :params => { "VALUE" => "URI" }
end

does not work.

The exported ICS file from iCal also includes a TRIGGER item. Is this
the time before the event? It seems to have a value of -1PTH
regardless of whether the alert is 1 hour or 1 day before.

First off, the attachment isn't a direct property of an event but of an alarm (VALARM) subcomponent of the event. http://www.kanzaki.com/docs/ical/valarm.html

Here's an event named "Testing" excerpted from an exported iCal calendar which has two alerts displayed in the get info box:

   alert: Message with Sound

           Basso

           8 minutes before

   alert: Message

           15 minutes before

BEGIN:VEVENT

STATUS:CONFIRMED

CREATED:20111119T231159Z

UID:A5689D0D-543F-430A-BA06-D2F9B35122C2

DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20111108T180000

TRANSP:OPAQUE

SUMMARY:Testing

DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20111108T100000

DTSTAMP:20111119T232621Z

SEQUENCE:5

BEGIN:VALARM

X-WR-ALARMUID:564B8313-6D3D-46F7-B8C9-1221A091031A

TRIGGER:-PT8M

ATTACH;VALUE=URI:Basso

ACTION:AUDIO

END:VALARM

BEGIN:VALARM

X-WR-ALARMUID:ACC3A861-0EAD-4669-8C66-E982743C0134

TRIGGER:-PT15M

DESCRIPTION:Event reminder

ACTION:DISPLAY

END:VALARM

END:VEVENT

Notice that there are 2 valarms nested within the event.  The first, according to the icalendar RFC, should play a sound 8 minutes before the event.  The second should display "Event reminder" 15 minutes before the event.

But ical.app doesn't do exactly what the rfc calls for.  The AUDIO display seems to both produce the sound, AND displays an alert dialog with  the event's name as the message.  And the DISPLAY action displays exactly the same dialog, except it doesn't play a sound.  Although the 'message' only valarm has a description of "Event reminder" which is used for the title of the alert dialog box, there doesn't seem to be a way in the ical.app UI to change that description, and the AUDIO valarm uses the same title for its alert dialog. 

Note that the value of the ATTACH property of the first valarm is "URI:Basso".

So to replicate this you'd want something like

event do

   # Other event attributes

   alarm do

       attach "URI:Basso"

       trigger "-PT8M"

       action "AUDIO"

       x_wr_alarmuid '564B8313-6D3D-46F7-B8C9-1221A091031A'

    end

    alarm do

       trigger '-PT15M'

       description 'Event reminder'

       action 'DISPLAY'

       x_wr_alarmuid  'ACC3A861-0EAD-4669-8C66-E982743C0134' 

     end

end

The exported ICS file also has a X-WR-ALARMUID value which looks like
a GUID.  I am guessing this is an index into OS X's alarm system.  Is
there a generic way to make alarms? i.e, the application importing the
ICS file will see the ALARM, and create it's own reminder?

Those 'X' attributes are outside of the icalendar RFC.  I suspect they are internally generated by ical.app somehow, but I have not a clue how, or how those attributes are used by ical.app or the calendar apps in IOS, or anywhere else.

--
Rick DeNatale

Google+: +Rick DeNatale
Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Github: http://github.com/rubyredrick
Twitter: @RickDeNatale
WWR: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale

[sheamus]

That did it, thanks,
~S

On Nov 19, 6:44 pm, Rick DeNatale <rick.denat...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 2:34 PM, sheamus <shea.mar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I am trying to add an alarm to an event.  So an hour before a game, I
> > sound is played, and message is displayed.
>
> Exactly what happens on an alarm depends on the calendar client
> application. I assume you are using iCal.app on the Mac based on what
> follows, but I don't think there is a calendar app independent definition
> of how alarms are handled.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I am assuming that for the alarm, I can give it a description which
> > will be the message displayed.
>
> > Looking at a ics file exported by ical, the sound played is given like
> > this:
> > ATTACH;VALUE=URI:SoundName
>
> > I am not sure how do get the ';VALUE=URI' part.
> > But
> > event do
> >   attach :value => "SoundName", :params => { "VALUE" => "URI" }
> > end
>
> > does not work.
>
> > The exported ICS file from iCal also includes a TRIGGER item. Is this
> > the time before the event? It seems to have a value of -1PTH
> > regardless of whether the alert is 1 hour or 1 day before.
>
> First off, the attachment isn't a direct property of an event but of an

> alarm (VALARM) subcomponent of the event.http://www.kanzaki.com/docs/ical/valarm.html

> Google+: +Rick DeNatale <https://plus.google.com/102541178931067955550>