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author | nobody <nobody@localhost> | 2000-05-22 06:40:15 +0800 |
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committer | nobody <nobody@localhost> | 2000-05-22 06:40:15 +0800 |
commit | dc29053b0bf6030dc903fbb79962443276c776a1 (patch) | |
tree | 70ea22d6a4da2e07bedfe85a5cddc5e7ad0a1246 /libical/doc/UsingLibical.txt | |
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diff --git a/libical/doc/UsingLibical.txt b/libical/doc/UsingLibical.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f80ea31121..0000000000 --- a/libical/doc/UsingLibical.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,302 +0,0 @@ - - -Using Libical - -Eric Busboom (eric@softwarestudio.org) - -January 2000 - -1 Introduction - -Libical is an Open Source implementation of the iCalendar protocols -and protocol data units. The iCalendar specification describes how -calendar clients can communicate with calendar servers for users can -store their calendar data and arrange meetings with other users. - -Libical implements the following specifications and protocols - -+----------+-------+ -|iCal Core | 2445 | -+----------+-------+ -+----------+-------+ -| iTIP | 2446 | -+----------+-------+ -+----------+-------+ -| iMIP | 2447 | -+----------+-------+ -+----------+-------+ -| iRIP | draft | -+----------+-------+ -+----------+-------+ -| CAP | draft | -+----------+-------+ - - -(The current version, 0.14, does not implement iRip or CAP. ) - -This documentation assumes that you are familiar with the iCalendar -standards RFC2445 and RFC2446. - -1.1 The libical project - -This code is under active development. If you would like to contribute -to the project, you can contact me, Eric Busboom, at eric@softwarestudio.org. -The project has a webpage at - -http://softwarestudio.org/libical/index.html - -and a mailing list that you can join by sending the following mail: - ------------- - -To: minimalist@softwarestudio.org - -Subject: subscribe libical - ------------- - -1.2 License - -The code and datafiles in this distribution are licensed under the -Mozilla Public License. See http://www.mozilla.org/NPL/MPL-1.0.html -for a copy of the license. Alternately, you may use libical under -the terms of the GNU Library General Public License. See http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/lesser.html -for a copy of the LGPL. - -This dual license ensures that the library can be incorporated into -both proprietary code and GPL'd programs, and will benefit from improvements -made by programmers in both realms. I will only accept changes into -my version of the library if they are similarly dual-licensed. - -1.3 Purpose & Goals - -1.4 Document version - -$Id$ - -2 Building the Library - -3 Structure - -The iCal calendar model is based on four types of objects: components, -properties, values and parameters. - -Properties are the fundamental unit of information in iCal, and they -work a bit like a hash entry, with a constant key and a variable value. -Properties may also have modifiers, called parameters. In the iCal -content line - -ORGANIZER;ROLE=CHAIR:MAILTO:mrbig@host.com - -The property name is ``ORGANIZER,'' the value of the property is ``mrbig@host.com'' -and the ``ROLE'' parameter specifies that Mr Big is the chair of the -meetings associated with this property. - -Components are groups of properties that represent the core objects -of a calendar system, such as events or timezones. - -The central goal of libical is to parse iTIP data into an internal -representation of Components, Properties, Parameters an Values, and -to allow the user to manipulate the data in various ways - -3.1 Components - -3.2 Properties - -3.3 Values - -3.4 Parameters - -3.5 Enumerations - -3.6 Types - -3.7 The Parser - -3.8 Restrictions - -3.9 Memory Management - -4 Differences From RFCs - -Libical has been designed to follow the standards as closely as possible, -so that the key objects in the standards are also keey objects in -the library. However, there are a few areas where the specifications -are (arguably) irregular, and following them exactly would result -in an unfriendly interface. These deviations make libical easier to -use by maintaining a self-similar interface. - -4.1 Pseudo Components - -Libical defines components for groups of properties that look and act -like components, but are not defined as components in the specification. -XDAYLIGHT and XSTANDARD are notable examples. These pseudo components -group properties within the VTIMEZONE components. XDAYLIGHT starts -with ``BEGIN:DAYLIGHT'' and ends with ``END:DAYLIGHT, just like other -components, but is not defined as a component in RFC2445. ( See RFC2445, -page 61 ) In Libical, it is a component. - -There are also pseudo components that are conceptually derived classess -of VALARM. RFC2446 defines what properties may be included in each -component, and for VALARM, the set of properties it may have depends -on the value of the ACTION property. - -For instance, if a VALARM component has an ACTION property with the -value of ``AUDIO,'' the component must also have an ``ATTACH'' property. -However, if the ACTION value is ``DISPLAY,'' the component must have -a DESCRIPTION property. - -To handle these various, complex restrictions, libical has pseudo components -for each type of alarm: XAUDIOALARM, XDISPLAYALARM, XEMAILALARM and -XPROCEDUREALARM. - -4.2 Combined Values - -Many values can take more than one type. TRIGGER, for instance, can -have a value type of with DURATION or of DATE-TIME. These multiple -types make it difficult to create routines to return the value associated -with a property. - -It is natural to have interfaces that would return the value of a property, -but it is cumbersone for a single routine to return multiple types. -So, in libical, properties that can have multiple types are given -a single type that is the union of their RFC2445 types. For instance, -in libical, the value of the TRIGGER property resolves to struct icaltriggertype. -This type is a union of a DURATION and a DATE-TIME. - -4.3 Multi-Valued Properties - -Some properties, such as CATEGORIES have only one value type, but each -CATEGORIES property can have multiple value instances. This also results -in a cumbersome interface -- CATEGORIES accessors would have to return -a list while all other accessors returned a single value. In libical, -all properties have a single value, and multi-valued properties are -broken down into multiple single valued properties during parsing. -That is, an input line like, - -CATEGORIES: work, home - -becomes in libical's internal representation - -CATEGORIES: work - -CATEGORIES: home - -Oddly, RFC2445 allows some multi-valued properties ( like FREEBUSY -) to exist as both a multi-values property and as multiple single -value properties, while others ( like CATEGORIES ) can only exist -as single multi-valued properties. This makes the internal representation -for CATEGORIES illegal. However when you convert a component to a -string, the library will collect all of the CATEGORIES properties -into one. - -5 Implementation Limitations - -6 Using libical - -6.1 Creating Components - -6.1.1 Constructor Interfaces - -6.1.2 vaargs Constructors - -6.1.3 Parsing Text Files - -6.2 Accessing Components - -6.2.1 Finding Components - -6.2.2 Removing Components - -Removing an element from a list while iterating through the list can -cause problems, since you will probably be removing the element that -the internal iterator points to. This will result in the iteration -loop terminating immediately after removing the element. To avoid -the problem, you will need to step the iterator ahead of the element -you are going to remove, like this: - -for(c = icalcomponent_get_first_component(s); - - c != 0; - - c = next) - -{ - - next = icalcomponent_get_next_component(s); - - icalcomponent_remove_component(s,c); - -} - -6.2.3 Finding Properties - -6.2.4 Removing Properties - -6.2.5 Getting Values - -6.2.6 Setting Values - -6.2.7 Getting Parameters - -6.2.8 Setting Parameters - -6.2.9 Removing Parameters - -6.2.10 Checking Component Validity - -6.3 Storing Objects - -The libical distribution inclues a seperate library, libicalss, that -allows you to store iCal component data to disk in a variety of ways. -This library is documented seperately. - -6.4 Memory Management - -Here are the memory rules for the library: - -1) If the function name has "new" in it, the caller gets control - of the memory. ( such as icalcomponent_new(), or icalproperty_new_clone() - ) - -2) If you got the memory from a routine with new in it, you must - call the corresponding *_free routine to free the memory. ( Use - icalcomponent_free() to free objects created with icalcomponent_new()) - -3) If the function name has "add" in it, the caller is transfering - control of the memory to the routine. ( icalproperty_add_parameter() ) - -4) If the function name has "remove" in it, the caller passes in - a pointer to an object and after the call returns, the caller owns - the object. So, before you call icalcomponent_remove_property(comp,foo), - you do not own "foo" and after the call returns, you do. - -5) If the routine returns a string, libical owns the memory and will - put it on a ring buffer to reclaim later. You'd better strdup it - if you want to keep it, and you don't have to delete it. - -6.5 Error Handling - -6.5.1 Return values - -6.5.2 icalerrno - -6.5.3 Component errors - -6.6 Naming Standard - -Structures that you access with the ``struct'' keyword, such as ``struct -icaltimetype'' are things that you are allowed to see inside and poke -at. - -Structures that you access though a typedef, such as ``icalcomponent'' -are things where all of the data is hidden. - -Component names that start with ``V'' are part of RFC 2445 or another -iCal standard. Component names that start with ``X'' are also part -of the spec, but they are not actually components in the spec. However, -they look and act like components, so they are components in libical. -Names that start with ``XLIC'' or ``X-LIC'' are not part of any iCal -spec. They are used internally by libical. - -7 Hacks and Bugs |