Reminders.app: How to transform a TXT file to a proper ICS for an import?

Here is the protocol specification: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545

ToDos are in section 3.6.2. There are some examples.

You can also just export your Reminders and open that file with a text editor. Use your current reminders as a template.

You can make up some dummy reminders so that you can see the format needed for particular elements such as alarms.

You can strip out the UIDs:, X-Apple stuff, and create/modified dates.

I don't know how much of the header info is required, here is an example of a copy/edit that imported just fine:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR

VERSION:2.0

PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//Mac OS X 10.13.3//EN

CALSCALE:GREGORIAN

BEGIN:VTODO

DUE;TZID=America/Chicago:20180407T190000

DTSTAMP:20171008T002219Z

DESCRIPTION:This is the Description

STATUS:NEEDS-ACTION

SUMMARY:Test Import of ics

DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20180407T190000

RRULE:FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=6;BYDAY=1SA

BEGIN:VALARM

TRIGGER;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180408T000000Z

DESCRIPTION:Event reminder

ACTION:DISPLAY

END:VALARM

END:VTODO

END:VCALENDAR

My entries in the original TXT file are not sorted by any attribute but just by me manually.

Your sorting is irrelevant. Once imported into Reminders, the chosen sort will be used.

I don't know if you have Manually chosen for the sort how it will order the events.

No, have no program which does Mail Merge. Can you please explain, what you meant with that suggestion?

Some word processing apps have a "Mail Merge" feature which allows you to create "form" letters. Microsoft Word has one, and older versions of Pages can do it.

You would create a template file that has placeholders for certain text. In a form letter, it would be things like name, address, etc.

If you have a list of addressees in a spreadsheet, it can take each entry and create a letter with the placeholders replaced with the fields in the spreadsheet.

With this, the template would be the basic format fo the ics file, with placeholders for things like Description, Due Date, Status. The Mail Merge feature would go through the list of entries and create individual ToDos from them.

Your "template" would look something like this:

BEGIN:VTODO

DUE;TZID=[dueDate]

DTSTAMP:[createDate]

DESCRIPTION:[description]

STATUS:[status]

SUMMARY:[summary

END:VTODO

The items in brackets would be the column names of the spreadsheet list.

For each entry in the spreadsheet, the template would be copied and the things in brackets would be replaced with the contents of the matching cell.

I created a dummy list and reordered it manually. When I exported, it added a "sort order" extension:

X-APPLE-SORT-ORDER:538239281

If you embed this in your ics file using 1 through N, it should import them into that order. If you are importing into a list with existing entries, you may have to export that list to determine where to start with the sequence numbers.

Reminders can be sorted by various attributes. The display should be based upon that chosen sort.

Since you didn't at any date info, and the creation date for the entire import is likely the same, the only different characteristic is the Title.

I don't know if it breaks a Date Created tie with the Title, but I would assume so.

If you are sorting by Date Created, you may be able to embed that date/time stamp into the TODO.

I don't know of a tool to take a list of items and convert into ToDo Entries.

If you have a program that does Mail Merge, you may be able to use that.

If you have manually selected and they show up in a different order, then there is no way to control that.

Check the import to see if you are getting first in is last in list. You could then reverse the import order.

Even, when you export a task list from Reminders.app and reimport it to Reminders.app all order will be destroyed?

If there was no basis for the ordering, like Date Created, Date Due, Title, there will be no order to what is imported.

You can read for yourself in the linked RFC that there isn't a "Order"-type field in the object.

I do not know how Reminders initially orders them upon import. You may be able to figure it out by how they started and how they end up. You could then possibly re-order the import such that they import in the order you wish. It may require that you create a file for each entry and import those one-by-one. Probably easier to just re-order them in Reminders after import.

There isn't any order in the ics ToDo entry. The order is maintained by the application displaying the ToDo entries.