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Comments

$\"Gravatar\"$ Thank you a lot - this is really handy, I've always wanted my shedule to be displayed right on the desktop $\"\"$

One question though - how could I change character encoding to display non-latin characters?
vicont | Homepage | 02.18.09 - 9:01 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Sorry, I couldn't figure that one out either. It is limited by what is allowed in the Terminal, so that means no special characters at all, only ASCII I think.
Matt | Homepage | 02.18.09 - 9:08 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Excellent article. Tried a few of the commands listed on iCalBuddy's website. Works a treat.

Thank you for a fantastic document.

Jay
Jay Valambhia | Homepage | 02.19.09 - 10:56 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Something strange with encodings. I have many items in iCal in russian. If I launch icalBuddy from terminal I get correct encoding in output. But its not in geektool.

I've try to wrap icalBuddy in bash script and set locale in it with lines:

export LANG=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"
export LC_COLLATE=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"
export LC_CTYPE=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"
export LC_MESSAGES=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"
export LC_MONETARY=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"
export LC_NUMERIC=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"
export LC_TIME=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"
export LC_ALL=\"ru_RU.UTF-8\"

But it does nothing.

Any ideas?
bm | Homepage | 02.19.09 - 11:29 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ You can see available encodings in icalBuddy:
$ icalBuddy --strEncoding 'strEncodings'

Then choose the right one. For me, the option was:
--strEncoding 'Western (ISO Latin 1)'

Thus, in GeekTool I have:
/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy --strEncoding 'Western (ISO Latin 1)' -nc eventsToday+1 | sed -e 's/*/--/' | sed -e 's/!/!!/'

Curiously, UTF-8 was not working.
Ludovic Kuty | 02.19.09 - 11:51 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I find a solution. GeekTool is not supporting russian. I don't know why. But one good man build own GeekTool with russian support. It can be downloaded here: http://ay4.getalime.ru/files/RuG.../RuGeekTool.zip

It works for me but fonts are not antialiased.
bm | Homepage | 02.19.09 - 12:57 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ i can't figure out how to change the format of the output.
i want to change the time from 24hr to 12 hr with am/pm and also how the date for to do's are formated from yr/mo/day to mo/day/yr and yr with just the last two #'s if possible
i appreciate any help with this stuff as i am a complete noob with any kind of code, thanks
eddie | 02.20.09 - 9:26 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Hi guys,

It's nice to see people other than myself find use for icalBuddy!

The latest version allows you to set values for the bullet points (among others) so that you wouldn't have to filter the output through sed anymore: http://hasseg.org/icalBuddy/#1.3.5

I also added a custom date-formatting specifier %RW (\"relative week\" which outputs something like \"last week\", \"next week\" or \"2 weeks from now\"), which is something that I've personally been wanting to add for a while now. $\"\"$

To eddie: You can use the argument -tf \"%I:%M %p\" to tell icalBuddy that you want your times formatted like: 09:30 PM and the argument -df \"%m/%d/%y\" to have dates formatted like: 29/11/08. See here for more datetime formatting specifiers that you can use in the same way as these examples: http://developer.apple.com/docum.../TP40007972-SW9
Ali Rantakari | Homepage | 02.21.09 - 1:57 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Hey Eddie,

I am not sure if this will help (I am completely new to this thing), but I might have had your same problem with the time. I am not sure if I can help you with the month formatting but I did fix my time format. If you would like here is the string I used for my ical list, here you go.

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc -tf %I:%M%p -eep url eventsToday | sed -e \"s/*/-/\" | sed -e \"s/!/!!/\"

the -tf stands for time format... the %I:%m%p stands for time in 12 hour with am/pm at the end... hope that helps!
Drew Rhoda | 02.21.09 - 5:45 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Hi all,

First I want to thank the author for a great post and informing me about icalBuddy. Second, I wanted to post some info that might be helpful. Since I like to have geek be dark transparent, I find it easier to make one geektool window that runs all of the commands I want. Since geektool can only handle one command at a time I do this through creating a shell script. If anyone else wants to do here is my setup.

Open the terminal: type cd ~
type vim .desktop.sh
hit the i key (enters insert mode)
on the first line type: !#/bin/sh

on subsequent lines enter the commands you want to run (one command per line) (note if you want a line between the outputs enter the command echo \" \")

when you are done hit the escape key then type :w then hit return

in the terminal type cd ~
then chmod +x .desktop.sh

finally in geektool for the shell command type /users/{yourUserName}/.desktop.sh

hope this was helpful
Mark Schumacher | 02.21.09 - 7:37 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Thanks for the tips Mark.
Matt | Homepage | 02.22.09 - 12:34 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Ali:
How did you create a custom date-formatting specifier? I'd like to create two of them - one for \"tomorrow\" and one for \"day after tomorrow\".
jimmy james | 02.22.09 - 5:59 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Hi Jimmy,

In icalBuddy, I have the following function that I use to get a \"pretty-printed\" date string:

NSString* dateStr(NSDate *date, BOOL includeDate, BOOL includeTime)

In this function, I take the value of the global variable dateFormatStr and replace the date formatting string specifier (in this case, \"%RW\") with whatever value it should evaluate to in that particular case (e.g. \"last week\".) I then use this value as the argument to NSDate's -descriptionWithCalendarFormat:timeZone:locale: method to get the final string representation of the date. If you're a programmer and want to implement something there for yourself, the code is open source and included in the distribution package so go right ahead. It's licensed under the MIT license. $\"\"$

Also, if you look at that function, you'll see that dates representing the current day will be printed as \"today\" and dates representing the next day as \"tomorrow\", so those are already there. I haven't yet implemented \"yesterday\", \"day before yesterday\" or \"day after tomorrow\", but now that you mention it, I'll add them to the next version (those are very easy to add.) I'll also be adding an argument that would switch this behaviour off in case someone doesn't like it.
Ali Rantakari | Homepage | 02.23.09 - 10:10 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Thanks for the response, Ali. Although I've fiddled with a bit of programming, most of it's self-taught and pretty weak, so I think I'll pass on trying to work that in myself, thanks though $\"\"$

I hadn't noticed the \"today\" or \"tomorrow\" since I'd tested it out with nothing showing up on my list until the day after tomorrow. All I had seen was the date.

Great work btw Ali, this is really useful. Now if only someone will finally implement a to-do list sync with iPod Touch I'll be set!
jimmy james | 02.23.09 - 12:30 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Thank you for this! I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of the notes that come along with the to do's. Please help!
josh | 02.27.09 - 2:29 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Hi Josh,

Just use the --excludeTaskProps argument like this:

icalBuddy --excludeTaskProps \"notes\"

.
Ali Rantakari | Homepage | 03.01.09 - 7:54 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Thank you Ali!
josh | 03.02.09 - 5:05 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ As GeekTool uses LATIN-1 and not UTF-8 which is the accepted standard nowadays, I have found I have to modify my commands a bit to make my iCal items (in Swedish) display properly in GeekTool.

Anyone having trouble with accented characters not displaying properly, add the following pipe:

| iconv -f UTF-8 -t LATIN1

to the end of every command, and everything should show up fine.
Peeter | 03.12.09 - 12:21 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Of course, as Ludovic commented above, in iCalBuddy it's possible to change the encoding, but in other cases you might need to use the pipe to iconv.
Peeter | 03.12.09 - 12:54 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ How can I get the output 100% transparent
agnarsv | 03.19.09 - 4:59 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ it asks for a password when i try to install ical buddy. HELP!
kjsfak | 04.24.09 - 3:37 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ i downloaded this today and i praise you for coming up with this it is pure genius!

i can get the date to show up perfectly, but i tried to make the events and to do list appear nothing comes. i have events and items on my to do list but it shows nothing.

right now i have it on:
/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc eventsToday | sed -e \"s/*/--/\" | sed -e \"s/!/!!/\" in the command box
the console option is checked as well as the enable geektool button
and its on shell

what am i doing wrong?
Alexandra | 05.03.09 - 10:20 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Try typing that command into Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities) and see if it works. I currently use

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc -eep url eventsToday | sed -e \"s/*/--/\"

Maybe that will work better. If anything Terminal is more likely to give you an error message so you can see which part of the command isn't working.
Matt | Homepage | 05.03.09 - 10:38 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ okay. i figured out what i did wrong.
i didn't install icalbuddy correctly.
i opened the terminal and i dragged the ibuddy folder into the file.
the document starts with:
USAGE: icalBuddy [options]
and then your directions ask me to type cd and a space somewhere but it will not let me type in the document so i dont know where to type it at.
please help. thank you.
Alexandra | 05.03.09 - 10:40 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I think my instructions are a bit out of date. Now you can install icalbuddy simply by double-clicking on install.command located in the icalbuddy folder that you download
Matt | Homepage | 05.03.09 - 10:57 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ okay figured it out.
but i need to password.
HELP!
Alexandra | 05.04.09 - 3:31 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ oh and thank you so much for your helpful direction!
Alexandra | 05.04.09 - 3:34 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ THe password is the password for the administrator account on the Mac. If you only have one account, it's just the password for your account. You set this when you got your computer, and you need it when installing most applications.
Matt | Homepage | 05.04.09 - 1:25 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ i'm sorry. i really need some help here. i have geek tool currently showing the date and a little month calendar along with the weather. i would really like to be able to display my ical stuff.

however, i just can't figure this out. i believe icalbuddy is installed correctly but i am not able to get anything but a blank little window whenever i try these commands.

i have icalBuddy in my \"patrickmurphy\" folder.

what have i done wrong?
Patrick Murphy | 06.09.09 - 4:20 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ This article helped me make use of my empty desktop space at last. One question though: how did you format the separator between the \"To Do List\" header and the body? Now that I look at my Geektool setup all day I need to have it just right...
Dave | 06.13.09 - 12:49 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ In case anyone is interested, here's a quick ruby script I whipped up which does the following:

* pretty word wrapping (breaks at word boundaries, indents wrapped event lines appropriately)
* capitalizes 'today' and 'tomorrow'
* doesn't show duplicate events if they are consecutive and on the same day (sometimes I get the same thing on more than one subscribed calendar)

http://gist.github.com/129796

You can use it by:

1. paste the contents into a text file or click the link to download and then rename it
2. use chmod +x on the file in terminal (as described in an earlier comment) to make it executable
3. tweak the config line (or whatever else) as you deem appropriate.

Hope this help someone, thanks for this post!
Matt Sanders | 06.14.09 - 9:10 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Interesting way of doing this... ofcource, i would not be able to call myself a geek if i did not roll my own solution: http://logylaps.wordpress.com/20...ool-and-remind/
Logy Laps | 06.24.09 - 12:47 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Only valid for OS X 10.5 and above. [sigh...]
Kirby | 07.05.09 - 6:10 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Every time I try to use iCal buddy, I get this:

dyld: Library not loaded: /System/Library/Frameworks/CalendarStore.framework/Versions/A/CalendarStore
Referenced from: /Users/kupietz/Documents/Files/icalBuddy-v1.6.7/icalBuddy
Reason: image not found

is it not compatible with 10.4? Would be nice if the article mentioned this.
Mike | 07.13.09 - 5:18 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Is there some way to make a separation line as it shown on a pic and not a hypens?
Artiom | 07.30.09 - 9:09 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Thanks for the icalBuddy tutorial! Now I understand what I'm doing a little better!
Kathy | 08.05.09 - 2:28 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ awesome
Anonymous | 08.09.09 - 9:52 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ So super helpful! I love this! What would be even more helpful would be some basics for newbies like me on precisely HOW to string the different commands so that you can get Geektool to do what you want. I understand all the different pieces, but whenever I add a piece to the pre-printed strings you use, it never works out.
A. Marks | 09.18.09 - 12:03 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Artiom:
I think that in the image above, the separator is indeed a series of hyphens -- it just looks like a solid line because of the font (Futura). It also looks like the author has probably used separate GeekTool entries to create the header with the date and the line below it. But if you'd like to show a solid line below section titles in icalBuddy's output, you can do this:

1. Specify a true boolean value as the value for the \"formatOutput\" key in the icalBuddy configuration file's \"constantArguments\" section (see the icalBuddyConfig man page for more info). This will enable rich formatting for the output every time you call icalBuddy.

2. Specify \"underlined\" as the formatting parameter for the \"sectionTitle\" key in the icalBuddy configuration file's \"formatting\" section. This will make the section titles underlined.

3. Specify an empty string as the value for the \"sectionSeparator\" key in the icalBuddy configuration file's \"constantArguments\" section. This will remove the series of hyphens as the section separator.

This is exactly how I'm doing it.

Note that the easiest way to edit icalBuddy's configuration file is to install the OS X developer tools (from the OS discs you got with your Mac) and then run \"icalBuddy editConfig\" in the Terminal. That'll create the configuration file for you and open it up in the Property List Editor application (that's included with the Developer Tools) which is a nice and simple GUI editor for property list files (which the icalBuddy config file is).
Ali Rantakari | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 12:44 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ A.Marks:
If you haven't already, start by checking out the manual page.

The gist of it is that on the command line, first you have the executable you want to run (in this case, /usr/local/bin/icalBuddy), and after that a bunch of arguments you want to pass to that program. In icalBuddy's case, the last argument should always be the 'general action' you want icalBuddy to take (such as \"eventsToday+3\", \"uncompletedTasks\" or \"calendars\"). All the other arguments go in between (that is, after the name of the executable (icalBuddy itself) and before the 'general action'). Here are some quick examples:

This'll just print out some info about what kinds of arguments icalBuddy accepts:

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy

Print today's events:

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy eventsToday

Same as above, but also separate by calendar:

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -sc eventsToday

Same as above, but also use rich formatting:

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -sc -f eventsToday

Same as above, but also use \"--\" as the bullet point instead of \"*\":

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -sc -f -b \"-- \" eventsToday

Same as above, but also exclude the \"notes\" and the \"location\" event properties:

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -sc -f -b \"-- \" -eep \"notes,location\" eventsToday

I hope this helps a bit.
Ali Rantakari | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 12:58 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Kirby & Mike:

Yes, unfortunately icalBuddy only works in 10.5 and above. $\"\"$

This is due to the fact that Apple introduced the CalendarStore API, which icalBuddy uses to access the calendar data, in Leopard. In theory one could program their own implementation of these APIs from scratch and run that on Tiger as well, but it's really time-consuming and really difficult to get right.
Ali Rantakari | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 1:05 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Super thanks a lot!!!!
Katja | 11.09.09 - 7:44 pm | #

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