ical-generator

What is ical-generator?

The ical-generator npm package is a powerful tool for creating iCalendar (.ics) files in Node.js. It allows developers to generate calendar events programmatically, which can be used for scheduling, reminders, and other time-based functionalities.

What are ical-generator's main functionalities?

Create a Calendar

This feature allows you to create a new calendar instance with a specified domain and name. The `toString` method converts the calendar object to an iCalendar string format.

const ical = require('ical-generator');
const calendar = ical({
  domain: 'example.com',
  name: 'My Calendar'
});
console.log(calendar.toString());

Add Events

This feature allows you to add events to the calendar. You can specify the start and end times, summary, description, and location of the event.

const ical = require('ical-generator');
const calendar = ical();
calendar.createEvent({
  start: new Date(),
  end: new Date(new Date().getTime() + 3600000),
  summary: 'Meeting',
  description: 'Discuss project updates',
  location: 'Office'
});
console.log(calendar.toString());

Set Timezone

This feature allows you to set the timezone for the calendar and its events. This is useful for ensuring that events are displayed at the correct local time.

const ical = require('ical-generator');
const calendar = ical({
  timezone: 'America/New_York'
});
calendar.createEvent({
  start: new Date(),
  end: new Date(new Date().getTime() + 3600000),
  summary: 'Meeting',
  timezone: 'America/New_York'
});
console.log(calendar.toString());

Generate .ics File

This feature allows you to generate an .ics file from the calendar object. The .ics file can be shared and imported into various calendar applications.

const ical = require('ical-generator');
const fs = require('fs');
const calendar = ical();
calendar.createEvent({
  start: new Date(),
  end: new Date(new Date().getTime() + 3600000),
  summary: 'Meeting'
});
fs.writeFileSync('calendar.ics', calendar.toString());

Other packages similar to ical-generator

node-ical

node-ical is a package for parsing iCalendar files. Unlike ical-generator, which focuses on creating iCalendar files, node-ical is used for reading and parsing existing .ics files. It can extract events, todos, and other components from an iCalendar file.

icalendar

icalendar is a comprehensive library for both creating and parsing iCalendar files. It offers more extensive functionality compared to ical-generator, including support for more iCalendar components like VTODO and VJOURNAL. However, it may have a steeper learning curve due to its broader feature set.

ical.js

ical.js is a low-level library for parsing and manipulating iCalendar data. It provides fine-grained control over iCalendar components and properties, making it suitable for advanced use cases. However, it requires more effort to use compared to ical-generator, which offers a simpler API for common tasks.

README

ical-generator is a small but fine library with which you can very easily create a valid iCal calendars, for example to generate subscriptionable calendar feeds.

📦 Installation

npm install ical-generator

⚡️ Quick Start

import ical, { ICalCalendarMethod } from 'ical-generator';
import http from 'node:http';

const calendar = ical({ name: 'my first iCal' });

// A method is required for outlook to display event as an invitation
calendar.method(ICalCalendarMethod.REQUEST);

const startTime = new Date();
const endTime = new Date();
endTime.setHours(startTime.getHours() + 1);
calendar.createEvent({
    start: startTime,
    end: endTime,
    summary: 'Example Event',
    description: 'It works ;)',
    location: 'my room',
    url: 'http://sebbo.net/',
});

http.createServer((req, res) => {
    res.writeHead(200, {
        'Content-Type': 'text/calendar; charset=utf-8',
        'Content-Disposition': 'attachment; filename="calendar.ics"',
    });

    res.end(calendar.toString());
}).listen(3000, '127.0.0.1', () => {
    console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:3000/');
});

See the examples folder for more examples.

📑 API-Reference

• Index
  • ICalCalendar
  • ICalEvent
    • ICalAlarm
    • ICalAttendee
    • ICalCategory

🕒 Date, Time & Timezones

ical-generator supports native Date, Day.js, Luxon's DateTime and the older moment.js, moment-timezone objects and TZDate. You can also pass a string which is then passed to javascript's Date internally.

It is recommended to use UTC time as far as possible. ical-generator will output all time information as UTC time as long as no time zone is defined. For day.js, a plugin is necessary for this, which is a prerequisite. If a time zone is set, ical-generator assumes that the given time matches the time zone. If a time zone is used, it is also recommended to use a VTimezone generator. Such a function generates a VTimezone entry and returns it. For example, ical-timezones can be used for this:

import { ICalCalendar } from 'ical-generator';
import { getVtimezoneComponent } from '@touch4it/ical-timezones';

const cal = new ICalCalendar();
cal.timezone({
    name: 'FOO',
    generator: getVtimezoneComponent,
});
cal.createEvent({
    start: new Date(),
    timezone: 'Europe/London',
});

If a moment-timezone object or Luxon's setZone method works, ical-generator sets it according to the time zone set in the calendar/event.

🚦 Tests

npm test
npm run coverage

🙋 FAQ

Where's the changelog?

It's here. If you need the changelog for ical-generator 1.x.x and older, you'll find it here.

I get a ReferenceError: TextEncoder is not defined error (in some browsers)

This library uses TextEncoder, which is available in node.js ≥ 11.0.0 and all modern browsers. Outdated browsers may not have the necessary API and generate this error when generating the calendar.

🙆🏼‍♂️ Copyright and license

Copyright (c) Sebastian Pekarek under the MIT license.