VCS to ICS Calendar Converter

Author(s):

• dragomerlin
• greenflash1986

Source code: Java only
Java Version: 1.8
Licenses: GPL
Platform: multi (java runtime dependant)
Interface type: command line only, console
Runtime: userspace
Permissions: read / write on jar's present dir for vcs and ics subfolders
Internal behaviour:

• read, convert and write strings of characters into text files
• decode quoted printable strings into UTF-8
• Convert calendars to version 2.0 (remove quoted-printable)

Warning: Java may contain a bug where some letters will result in a unknown symbol when applying the org.apache.commons.codec.net.QuotedPrintableCodec.decodeQuotedPrintable routine on strings that are not totally coded in quoted printable. This shouldn't happen, and the issue was only found on windows, on vcs files provided by Microsoft Works. See dair.vcs for more details. In this case, it is recommended to use other operating system until it's solved. The program makes a quick check that is output to command line every time it is run.

How to use:

Delete the ics folder
Put the vcs files in vcs folder
Run it with launch-from-windows.bat

or

if you are running the application direct from console, email can be specified or not. To specify use -e or --email arguments.

java -jar VCS2ICS.jar will prompt for email
java -jar VCS2ICS.jar somethingstrange will prompt as well
java -jar VCS2ICS.jar -e OR java -jar VCS2ICS.jar --emailwill use blank email and don't ask
java -jar VCS2ICS.jar -e youremail OR java -jar VCS2ICS.jar --email youremail will use that string.

How it works:

It looks for vcs folder and ics folder. Under vcs folder looks for .vcs files and for each one that matches the calendar format creates the corresponding into the ics dir. Already existent are overwritten. Email field may be required for third party software.

Getting the vcs files:

• You can send them to your computer via bluetooth from the phone, some symbian devices allow it.
• Use third party software running inside your phone.
• Connect the device to the computer via USB or Bluetooth or Wifi.
• Create a NBU, NBF, NFB, NFC and ARC type backups and extract calendar files inside with NbuExplorer.
• Get the contacts in the native database that the device uses and use third party software to parse.

Tips:

• Use an application like Notepad++ or Kate to edit files and see / change the encoding of the file itself.

Known issues:

• VCS files, when using quoted printable format, it is always expected to be ASCII and UTF-8 charset even if no specified (ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE;CHARSET=UTF-8). Other charsets different than UTF-8 for printable are unsupported and non standard.
• Some applications may limit the number of characters per field when importing ics files, truncating the lines and thus resulting in a loss of data.
• Alarms are not converted since each Nokia phone may use different labels for fields or structure for specifying it. The same way, each software may automatically overwrite or skip alarm settings or automatically overwrite with a new one. Some alarm settings are not exportable because are too much specific for the device, for example using an internal ringtone on Nokia that does not exist on iCal; system pop-up notifications or vibration reminders. There are no complete specifications as well.
• Other issues may be present on third parties software due to closed specifications.

Disclaimer / Notes

I fixed the issues / made this project in my spare time and used this project as playground to improve some of my skills. Because of this I won't promise to do further work on this project. I provided it online on Github for you that you can use the (partially) fixed version. Hopefully it's useful for some people and / or feel free to fork or made contributions. I will do my best to honor these efforts.