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Handy is a small console program to convert the output of Lotus Notes client version 5.x or 6.x into a vCal Version 2.0 file and/or sends the appointments to a cellphone of type SIEMENS S45 and maybe S35 also. In general it should be able to handle every device, that understands the vCal standard. But that's untested!
First, you should have a Lotus Notes client version 5.x or 6.x available, where you manage your appointments. Start Lotus Notes, open the appointment scheduler and choose the menu point "File->export". Tell it to export all appointments, give it a file name and save the file as Structured Text. Now you have what you need to import it into the Organizer of KDE 3.x and/or send to your cell phone.
With the command line option -h or --help you can get detailed help. The program was tested with the cell phone SIEMENS S45 but should also work with SIEMENS S35, or any other device that understands the vCal 2.0 format. Since version 0.3.0 the program converts also repeating entries as well as holidays. Only alert settings are still not supported, but a basic concept is already implemeted.
In case you have questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to write me an email to andreas at theossoft dot net. Patches are also welcome!
TODO list:
Download the program here:
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 05/16/2006 | Added a switch called [-l] or [--line-feed], what is the same. If this switch is set, the line feeds in the commands of the output file are omitted. This should make the output file importable even for a Palm, for example. |
| 03/02/2006 | Fixed a bug in time recognition. Now even 12 hour format with AM or PM should work. |
| 12/16/2005 | Fixed a minor bug. Now the time should be correct again. |
| 12/13/2005 | Added a new feature to set the date format of the date contained in the Lotus Notes file. If the date is not central european or us, you can set the format manually to support your country. |
| 09/13/2005 | Added support for Lotus Notes 6.x client (tested with version 6.5). Some basic functions like parsing attendies, date and time is completely new. Now only appointments of the current and future years are exported into the vCal format, excepted repeating entries. |
| 06/09/2003 |
Added language support. All messages are now in an optional external
file. This makes it easy to translate the messages into any language. Added support for repeating appointments, like holidays. All kinds of holidays are supported now, when exporting to KOrganizer. They are still not send to a cellphone. Now I check for a SIEMENS S35/S45 cellphone, but if I find anything other, I only display a warning and try to send the appointments to it. |
| 05/22/2003 | Corrected a minor bug in recognizing the keywords in the source file. Now it's not case sensitive any more. |
HANDY will work only, if you have a file in structured text format, that contains your appointments. The Lotus Notes client version 5.x and also 6.x can create such a file.
First, start Lotus Notes and open your appointment calendar. Click on the menu point File and choose Export. A file dialog box appears. Choose a name and a directory where you want to save the appointments and click on Export. Make sure, that the file type is set to Structured Text. In case the choosen file already exists, Lotus Notes gives you the choice to overwrite it or terminate the action.
After clicking on the button Export in the file dialog box, another dialog window pops up. Tell it to export all entries of your calendar and click on the button OK. In case you're still using Lotus Notes 5.x, this window comes first and then the file dialog window comes up. At least a small window with a growing beam in it appears and shows how much appointments already saved. Now the appointments are exported and we can go to convert them into a vCal file.
Open a shell (in case of Windows, click on start, choose Run..., type cmd in the small dialog window and click OK. A command line window should appear.) and go to the directory where you've stored the calendar file. Now it's necessary to know, where you've connected your cellphone to the computer. One possibility is, that you have a data cable and the phone is connected to serial device one or two. On Linux, this is /dev/ttyS0 (first serial device) or /dev/ttyS1 (second serial device). This is also true for the windows version!
If your cellphone is connected over the IR Port, you don't need speed settings at all. On Linux the device depends on the type of IR Port you have. One possibility may be /dev/ircomm0. On Windows your IR Port is simply another serial device therefore one of /dev/ttyS[0-4].
Now, that we know our port where our cellphone is connected, we can start HANDY to send the contents of our previously saved file. Type the following command on the command line:
handy -a <calendar file> -w -d <device>
The above command assumes, that the cellphone is connected over an IR Port. <calendar file> is your previous saved calendar file and <device> is the path and name of the device your cellphone is connected to.
handy -a <calendar file> -w -d <device> -b 19200
The above command assumes, that the cellphone is connected over a serial device. It sets the baudrate of the device to 19200 baud. This speed must be the same you set on your cellphone. Read the manual of your cellphone on how to set the baudrate!
To create a file that KOrganizer can import, you can use HANDY with the following parameters:
handy -a <calendar file> -o icalout.ics
The above command tells HANDY to convert the previous stored calendar file into the file icalout.ics. You can name the file different of course, but you should always add the extension .ics. Because this is what KOrganizer expects.
Another problem may be the time zone at your location. HANDY tries to find out the correct time zone itself. Lotus Notes 6.5 supports the time zone and HANDY uses this information. If however the time appears not correct, you can manualy correct it using the following parameter on the command line:
handy -a <calendar file> -o icalout.ics -t +2
The above command makes the conversation as described above, and sets all time codes two hours back. The stored time of 09:00:00 MESZ is translated into 07:00:00 UTC, for example.
That's it! There are some more parameters available, but you'll not need them mostly. The parameter -h or --help gives you a short description of all possible parameters.
In case you have questions, write an email to andreas at TheosSoft dot net. If you're still using Windows, your are at your own! I can not and will not answer any questions about Windows!
