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From: Howard Brazee on 6 Apr 2010 07:52
I have an e-mail with a few .ics files on it. These have different
I have some .ics files I created at work saving them from Outlook on
an XP machine.

When I click on the first one, it creates an event in iCal. That
event looks correct.

When I click the next .ics file for a different date, it loads in iCal
correctly, but the previous event disappears from iCal. This happens
for all six .ics files.

After this started, I rebooted and tried again with the same result.

I have them attached to an e-mail in Mail, and I also have them in a
folder in my .Mac account. The same behavior happens either way.

Before I started, I had these in iCal from when I first created them a
couple of months ago before I added detail that I know now.

Any ideas why I'm getting this bizarre behavior?
From: Harald Hanche-Olsen on 6 Apr 2010 15:41
+ Howard Brazee <howard(a)brazee.net>:

> I have some .ics files I created at work saving them from Outlook on
> an XP machine.
>
> When I click on the first one, it creates an event in iCal. That
> event looks correct.
>
> When I click the next .ics file for a different date, it loads in iCal
> correctly, but the previous event disappears from iCal. This happens
> for all six .ics files.
> [...]
> Any ideas why I'm getting this bizarre behavior?

They wouldn't all happen to have the same UID, do they?
If so, that probably explains it.

--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell
From: Howard Brazee on 6 Apr 2010 16:48
On Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:41:04 -0400, Harald Hanche-Olsen
<hanche(a)math.ntnu.no> wrote:

>+ Howard Brazee <howard(a)brazee.net>:
>
>> I have some .ics files I created at work saving them from Outlook on
>> an XP machine.
>>
>> When I click on the first one, it creates an event in iCal. That
>> event looks correct.
>>
>> When I click the next .ics file for a different date, it loads in iCal
>> correctly, but the previous event disappears from iCal. This happens
>> for all six .ics files.
>> [...]
>> Any ideas why I'm getting this bizarre behavior?
>
>They wouldn't all happen to have the same UID, do they?
>If so, that probably explains it.

Pulling out my editor and looking for UID... Yes they do.

My UID doesn't look like the ones I found in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar

I suspect they may be the same because I created my events in Outlook
by copying one from one place to another (left button drag), then
modifying them. But that's just a guess.

So I'm assuming I can edit these UIDs to make them unique then load
them.

Is it safe to post UIDs in a public forum such as this? (Not that I
see any need to do so - I'm just trying to learn more about this).

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
From: Harald Hanche-Olsen on 6 Apr 2010 17:53
+ Howard Brazee <howard(a)brazee.net>:

> On Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:41:04 -0400, Harald Hanche-Olsen
> <hanche(a)math.ntnu.no> wrote:
>
>>They wouldn't all happen to have the same UID, do they?
>>If so, that probably explains it.
>
> Pulling out my editor and looking for UID... Yes they do.
>
> My UID doesn't look like the ones I found in
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar

They don't have to. See below.

> I suspect they may be the same because I created my events in Outlook
> by copying one from one place to another (left button drag), then
> modifying them. But that's just a guess.
>
> So I'm assuming I can edit these UIDs to make them unique then load
> them.

Yes. Here is the description of the UID from RFC 5545
(http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545):

Description: The "UID" itself MUST be a globally unique identifier.
The generator of the identifier MUST guarantee that the identifier
is unique. There are several algorithms that can be used to
accomplish this. A good method to assure uniqueness is to put the
domain name or a domain literal IP address of the host on which
the identifier was created on the right-hand side of an "@", and
on the left-hand side, put a combination of the current calendar
date and time of day (i.e., formatted in as a DATE-TIME value)
along with some other currently unique (perhaps sequential)
identifier available on the system (for example, a process id
number). Using a DATE-TIME value on the left-hand side and a
domain name or domain literal on the right-hand side makes it
possible to guarantee uniqueness since no two hosts should be
using the same domain name or IP address at the same time. Though
other algorithms will work, it is RECOMMENDED that the right-hand
side contain some domain identifier (either of the host itself or
otherwise) such that the generator of the message identifier can
guarantee the uniqueness of the left-hand side within the scope of
that domain.

As you can see, the format is pretty free, so why not just use UUIDs
there? Just run uuidgen in a Terminal window to create as many as you
wish.

> Is it safe to post UIDs in a public forum such as this?

Sure, unless they leak information about a user name and domain that you
wouldn't want to leak.

--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell
From: Howard Brazee on 6 Apr 2010 18:33
Thanks, they are all loaded now.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
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