Importing tasks

Jeffrey Needle · Oct 19, 2010

I'm using Outlook 2002. I'm trying to import tasks from Essential PIM.
I've saved the file as an ical file. But the tasks don't import. No error
message, just no action at all.

Any thoughts on what might be causing the problem?

Thanks.

VanguardLH · Oct 19, 2010

Jeffrey said:
I'm using Outlook 2002. I'm trying to import tasks from Essential PIM.
I've saved the file as an ical file. But the tasks don't import. No error
message, just no action at all.

Any thoughts on what might be causing the problem?

Thanks.

How big are the ical files? Did you look inside (using Notepad or other
text editor) to see if they contained anything useful? They should have
contents that look something similar to that described at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar#Core_object

Are the entries defined as VCALENDAR events (which puts them in your
calendar, not in to-do/tasks)? Or are they defined as VTODO entries?

Is it a secret on just HOW you are trying to do the import into Outlook?

There also seems to be a problem that there isn't a one-standard
structure for ical files. For example, the Microsoft KB article at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944094 mentions having problems
accepting "Apple" ical files. So maybe check if EPIM has a format
option when generating ical files to make sure they are compatible with
Outlook.

Jeffrey Needle · Oct 20, 2010

Jeffrey Needle wrote:

error

How big are the ical files? Did you look inside (using Notepad or

other text editor) to see if they contained anything useful? They

should have contents that look something similar to that described at:

Are the entries defined as VCALENDAR events (which puts them in your

calendar, not in to-do/tasks)? Or are they defined as VTODO entries?

Here are the first lines and the first entry:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR

VERSION:2.0

CALSCALE:GREGORIAN

METHOD

UBLISH

BEGIN:VTODO

UID:301760850941464906

LAST-MODIFIED:20100103T054822Z

SUMMARY:Call Leonard

PERCENT-COMPLETE:100

CLASS

UBLIC

DTSTAMP:20101020T050325Z

END:VTODO

BEGIN:VTODO

UID:310830907597236578

LAST-MODIFIED:20090928T032259Z

SUMMARY:Contact Oxford University Press

DESCRIPTION:When Souls Had Wings\NCopies for Joe Geisner and/or Blair

Hodges\N\N

Teryl Givens book on BOM Short Introduction

PERCENT-COMPLETE:100

CLASS

UBLIC

DTSTAMP:20101020T050325Z

END:VTODO

The file itself has about 100 events -- not very large.

Is it a secret on just HOW you are trying to do the import into

File - Import and Export -- Import ical

There also seems to be a problem that there isn't a one-standard

structure for ical files. For example, the Microsoft KB article at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944094 mentions having problems

accepting "Apple" ical files. So maybe check if EPIM has a format

option when generating ical files to make sure they are compatible

with Outlo

Nope, no such thing. Only one export ability. The link above doesn't seem

to apply to my problem, AFAIK.

VanguardLH · Oct 20, 2010

Jeffrey said:
VanguardLH wrote ...

Here are the first lines and the first entry:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR

...

BEGIN:VTODO

...

END:VTODO

The file itself has about 100 events -- not very large.

You should blank lines between each var:value pair. Maybe that doesn't
hurt but the example shown in the wiki article doesn't have any blank
lines so maybe it causes a parsing problem. The blank lines may have
been a result of how you replied here since I had to remove lots of
blank lines and repair indentation levels.

Also, the END:VCALENDAR closing pair is missing at the end to close the
BEGIN:VCALENDAR opening pair. Again, since you cut out all the other
VTODO or other groups then maybe you truncated the last line that closes
the VCALENDAR group. If not, I'm pretty sure you will need to close the
calendar group just like the VTODO and VEVENT groups need to get closed.

File - Import and Export -- Import ical

In OL2003 (which I am using), it says it will import .vcs files, not
..ical files. OL2003 will import the following calendar files:

iCalendar (.ics)
iCalendar (.vcs)

You would have to select "All files" in order to pick an .ical file but
that doesn't mean Outlook will support it. You'll have to see if EPIM
will export in ICS or VCS format.

It may be that OL2002 has a selection for .ical import; however, it
doesn't appear to be a format supported by later versions of Outlook.
Maybe .ical is considered an obsolete format (or Microsoft is into their
proprietary or "we're different" mode again). iCal was a format created
by Apple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICal). It is not some ISO,
industry, or de facto community standard, so there's probably some
compatibility problems. iCalendar (using the .ics extension) is an
industry standardized format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar).
If EPIM doesn't provide a standard iCalendar export output file (.ics)
then it appears they glommed onto the old Apple format which, yeah,
e-mail clients on Macs might understand.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287865 discusses an incompatibility when
trying to use the Apple-sourced .ical format. It looks like you need to
find a utility that converts from .ical to .ics or .vcs format. Maybe
something found by Google or a download site will help:

http://www.google.com/search?q=+outlook++ical++ics++vcs++calendar++convert
http://www.softpedia.com/dyn-search.php?search_term=outlook+ical+ics+convert

I see EPIM says it will import iCalendar (.ics) files according to
http://www.essentialpim.com/ky/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=12.
So it's peculiar that they won't export as an .ics file, too. Looks
like it might be time to review the help, ask in their forums, or
contact them (http://www.essentialpim.com/?r=support) to see why they
won't export as an .ics file.

Jeffrey Needle · Oct 20, 2010

VanguardLH said:
You should blank lines between each var:value pair. Maybe that doesn't
hurt but the example shown in the wiki article doesn't have any blank
lines so maybe it causes a parsing problem. The blank lines may have
been a result of how you replied here since I had to remove lots of
blank lines and repair indentation levels.

Sorry about that. The blank lines are not in the original -- the cut
and paste added the lines, for some reason.

Also, the END:VCALENDAR closing pair is missing at the end to close the
BEGIN:VCALENDAR opening pair. Again, since you cut out all the other
VTODO or other groups then maybe you truncated the last line that closes
the VCALENDAR group. If not, I'm pretty sure you will need to close the
calendar group just like the VTODO and VEVENT groups need to get closed.

These are in the source file just fine.

It may be that OL2002 has a selection for .ical import; however, it
doesn't appear to be a format supported by later versions of Outlook.
Maybe .ical is considered an obsolete format (or Microsoft is into their
proprietary or "we're different" mode again). iCal was a format created
by Apple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICal). It is not some ISO,
industry, or de facto community standard, so there's probably some
compatibility problems. iCalendar (using the .ics extension) is an
industry standardized format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar).
If EPIM doesn't provide a standard iCalendar export output file (.ics)
then it appears they glommed onto the old Apple format which, yeah,
e-mail clients on Macs might understand.

Sheesh, I'll have to look for it and see what's happening. This could
be the whole problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287865 discusses an incompatibility when
trying to use the Apple-sourced .ical format. It looks like you need to
find a utility that converts from .ical to .ics or .vcs format. Maybe
something found by Google or a download site will help:

http://www.google.com/search?q=+outlook++ical++ics++vcs++calendar++convert
http://www.softpedia.com/dyn-search.php?search_term=outlook+ical+ics+convert

I see EPIM says it will import iCalendar (.ics) files according to
http://www.essentialpim.com/ky/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=12.
So it's peculiar that they won't export as an .ics file, too. Looks
like it might be time to review the help, ask in their forums, or
contact them (http://www.essentialpim.com/?r=support) to see why they
won't export as an .ics file.

A great idea. I'll do it.

Thanks so much for your help on this!