Import txt or csv to iCal

I've worked out a way to take my event data from an Excel spreadsheet into a Word mail merge document to create an iCal calendar that imports automatically into my main iCal calendar. I've posted my process at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5005334&#5005334.

This script worked for someone else. Paste it into a script editor window, read through it, ask any questions, modify the script and/or your file as needed, backup your calendars and then run the script.

AK

<pre style="font-family: 'Monaco', 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; overflow:auto; color: #222; background: #DDD; padding: 0.2em; font-size: 10px; width:400px">--Convert CSV file to iCal events
--Prompts for file, then processes
--expects date,start time,end time,event name,xxxx,calendar name
--eg 12/01/2006,20:30,22:00,Water Committee,,TestCal
--change the various text item ns if data order in a file line is different
--blank lines skipped
--if other data present (eg location, notes ...) add a line in the tell calendar Calno loop
--to include it eg set location to text item 5 of ThisLine
set OldDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set LF to ASCII character 10
set theFile to choose file with prompt "Select CSV calendar file"
set theLines to read theFile
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {LF}
set theLines to text items of theLines
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {","}
repeat with ThisLine in theLines
if (count of ThisLine) > 0 then --ignore blanks
set StartDate to date (text item 1 of ThisLine & " " & text item 2 of ThisLine)
set EndDate to date (text item 1 of ThisLine & " " & text item 3 of ThisLine)
set CalName to word 1 of text item 6 of ThisLine
tell application "iCal"
set CalList to title of every calendar
if CalName is in CalList then
repeat with CalNo from 1 to count of CalList
if CalName is item CalNo of CalList then exit repeat
end repeat
else
set NewOne to make new calendar at end of calendars with properties {title:CalName}
set CalNo to 1 + (count of CalList)
end if
tell calendar CalNo
set newItem to make new event at end of events with properties {start date:StartDate}
set summary of newItem to text item 4 of ThisLine
set end date of newItem to EndDate
end tell --calendar
end tell --iCal
end if
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to OldDelimiters</pre>

Austin,

I gave this script a whirl, and it seems to work, but it only imports the first line of my CVS file. Any idea why?

I'm no script writer...but it seems that this bit here isn't getting looped:

tell calendar CalNo
set newItem to make new event at end of events with properties {start date:StartDate}
set summary of newItem to text item 4 of ThisLine
set end date of newItem to EndDate
end tell --calendar

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Add a single new line at the very end of the script:

theLines

run the script and post back here what appears in Script Editor's result pane (or at least the first 10 lines or so it it is too big.

AK

Please, the basics for a long-time Mac user, but new to scripts. From the beginning, how do I do this script? How does this program/script get into a place or format that I can run it? I have the Indians 07 schedule in txt and csv, but I need to get it into iCal.

OK. I put the script in this thread plus the addition at the end, but it won't accept the .csv file I downloaded from the Indians web site. I have a txt/tab delineated version, too, and I deleted the first line with the column titles, but the script still says there is an error. any suggestions? It shouldn't be so difficult to be a Mac and iCal user.

1) The script is expecting lines ending with a line feed (ASCII character 10). Your lines end with return (ASCII character 13).
Change line

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {LF}

to

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return

2) The script is expecting comma-separated values (that's what the CSV stands for). Your file uses tabs.
Change line

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {","}

to

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tab

3) The script is expecting the name of the calendar as the 6th data item on each line. Your lines have only 5 data items.
Change line

set CalName to word 1 of text item 6 of ThisLine

to

set CalName to word 1 of text item 5 of ThisLine

This will put the data into a calendar called "Indians". If you want to preserve the 2007, make that line instead

set CalName to text item 5 of ThisLine

I think that should cure it, but can't test it fully as your dates are the wrong way round (from my perspective 🙂. I ran it satisfactorily with the first 12 lines.

AK

I made changes thus and get error that script doesnt recognize starttime. Starttimes in spreadsheet have been formated so that 1pm is 13:00:

--Convert CSV file to iCal events
--Prompts for file, then processes
--expects date,start time,end time,event name,xxxx,calendar name
--eg 12/01/2006,20:30,22:00,Water Committee,,TestCal
--change the various text item ns if data order in a file line is different
--blank lines skipped
--if other data present (eg location, notes ...) add a line in the tell calendar Calno loop
--to include it eg set location to text item 5 of ThisLine
set OldDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set LF to ASCII character 13
set theFile to choose file with prompt "Select CSV calendar file"
set theLines to read theFile
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
set theLines to text items of theLines
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tab
repeat with ThisLine in theLines
if (count of ThisLine) > 0 then --ignore blanks
set StartDate to date (text item 1 of ThisLine & " " & text item 1 of ThisLine)
set StartTime to StartTime(text item 2 of ThisLine & " " & text item 2 of ThisLine)
set EndTime to EndTime(text item 3 of ThisLine & " " & text item 3 of ThisLine)
set EventName to EventName(text item 4 of ThisLine & " " & text item 4 of ThisLine)
set CalName to text item 5 of ThisLine
tell application "iCal"
set CalList to title of every calendar
if CalName is in CalList then
repeat with CalNo from 1 to count of CalList
if CalName is item CalNo of CalList then exit repeat
end repeat
else
set NewOne to make new calendar at end of calendars with properties {title:CalName}
set CalNo to 1 + (count of CalList)
end if
tell calendar CalNo
set newItem to make new event at end of events with properties {start date:StartDate}
set summary of newItem to text item 1 of ThisLine
set end date of newItem to EndDate
end tell --calendar
end tell --iCal
end if
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to OldDelimiters
theLines

I finally solved the problem with the help of two people from the UK. Austin Kinsella tweeked the script posted on this thread and was able to convert the data in an Excel spreatsheet and have it import into iCal. Then Mike Hay set up his program to convert the csv file. I kept getting an error message. He even emailed me the isc file result. Of course I made a donation. His program, iCalTextimport, is found at:

http://homepage.mac.com/penicuik/FileSharing15.html

I still think this is way too much trouble. iCal should have a better import function.

If anyone finds a way to do this (convert a csv files to ics) that does not require knowing how to write computer code, please let us know. I think I am also trying to add a calendar of a baseball team to iCal, and MLB only uses team calendars as csv files for Outlook and I think Palm OS.

Hopefully iCal will add this functionality in the future.

YES! SUCCESS!

I found two ways of doing this. After searching the net, I found this online app on this guys website that worked the best:
http://manas.tungare.name/projects/yahoo2ical/

It says it's a "yahoo" csv converter, but it worked fine for my outlook csv file.



The other option is, if you have an account with google, like a gmail account, you can use their google calendar to import your csv file. Once you've done that, you can subscribe to that calendar you imported via the "share" option. Just get the .ics address. This took a couple tries on google's site to import, but it worked.

I realize this is WAY down the road from when you published this idea, but I wanted to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! I was able to get done what I needed to, without paying for another application or monkeying around with new calendars. I love google calendar, thanks again!

Hi jthor,

The lines of the csv file's data are being looped through in the repeat with ThisLine in theLines repeat loop.

Best wishes

John M

Any chance you could tell us WHAT it says when it says therre is an error? And where?

AK