Re: [Orgmode] UIDs in icalendar export (exporting my agenda)

[Nick Dokos]

aldrin d'souza <address@hidden> wrote:

> i want to export my org-agenda as an icalendar file so that i can load it 
> into some online calendar and access it on my phone. however, i'm facing some
> issues with the iCalendar files which org is generating. i can reproduce the 
> problem by using org-export-icalendar-this-file on the following (simple)
> org file
> 
> ---<test.org>----
> * <2009-05-24 +1y> bob dylan
> * <2009-01-27 +1y> mozart
> ---</test.org>----
> 
> here's the test.ics that gets generated:
> 
> ---<test.ics>----
 ....
> ---</test.ics>----
> 
> if you notice, the UIDs in both the events are same. aren't they supposed to 
> be different? when i import this file into an online calendar (like google)
> one of the event is dropped.
> am i missing something? i'm using org 6.28trans on emacs 23.0.94.
> 

I tried your test.org and my test.ics has different UIDs for the two events.
They also have a different format:

UID: TS-01503584-f7a0-4b1d-b826-6a573852c4f7
UID: TS-891e3508-5228-4101-84dd-72f509a4b757

so we must be using different methods of UID generation. What is the value
of org-id-method in your setup? Mine says:

   C-h v org-id-method<RET>

,----
| org-id-method is a variable defined in `org-id.el'.
| Its value is uuidgen
| ...
`----

Then, looking at the code, the UID is set through this expression:

                (if org-icalendar-store-UID
                        (org-id-get-create)
                      (or (org-id-get) (org-id-new)))

I presume (but you should check) that you have org-icalendar-store-UID
set to t (mine is defaulted to nil) which means that it gets the UID
stored in an ID property in the item (with the variable set to nil, a
new UID is generated every time, which is OK for experimentation, but
probably not OK for synchronizing: you'd want the ID of an item to
remain constant in that case).

Could it be that both your items have the same value for this property?
What happens if you delete the ID value from one (or both) and then try
the export again?

HTH,
Nick