iCal v4 is out and better than ever

[derDaniel]

I've updated my iCal app to version 4.

iCal is an application to import, read and save appointments encoded in the popular ics/ical format. The most wanted feature request were Daylight Saving Support (this one was insanely hard to get right), an easier way to import a big bunch of appointments and better Time Zone recognition.

Changelog:
- Daylight Saving Support
- Import from URL
- Import from File System
- Use App Calendars for big imports
- Bigger Time Zone Database
- Improved Machine Learning

I am really looking for some critics on this app.

Download here: iCal | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

This app is open source. You can look at every single line I wrote.

Moreover I did not find any useful api to read in ical files in C#. As a solution I wrote a free & open-source C# interface called ical.NET. Feel free to fork, use and manipulate it, according to you needs.

 

[Kevin N Smith]

I'm assuming your library is available on NuGet? If not, you really should add it. I'm a weather app developer (Atmosphere Weather), so your library won't be of use to me, but I could see something like this being useful to other developers

 

[TheOrbitter]

Well, as much as I like the fact that you've made ics files accessible for the Windows Phone calendar in the first place, IMHO the latest two versions of iCal are ... hnn ... let's just say I don't like them that much and - at least for me - I shouldn't have updated the app after v2015.125.913.5732. Or maybe v2015.410.1209.2537. But for my liking and use of the app you've not done us users much of a favor with v2015.425.1302.5257 and v2015.427.1909.5867.
Is there a way I can have the xap offline installer from January 25th back, please?
I think with the recent releases iCal has become too ... hnn ... complex and maybe complicated? Plus, in contrast to the previous versions the two latest ones fail to properly import the additional description ("Beschreibung" in German WP 8.1) at the bottom of the event page.
At the very least please have a look at this to check why the latest releases ommit picking up that information from the ics file. Thanks.

 

[derDaniel]

I'm assuming your library is available on NuGet? If not, you really should add it. I'm a weather app developer (Atmosphere Weather), so your library won't be of use to me, but I could see something like this being useful to other developers

Yes, I am planing so.

 

[derDaniel]

Well, as much as I like the fact that you've made ics files accessible for the Windows Phone calendar in the first place, IMHO the latest two versions of iCal are ... hnn ... let's just say I don't like them that much and - at least for me - I shouldn't have updated the app after v2015.125.913.5732. Or maybe v2015.410.1209.2537. But for my liking and use of the app you've not done us users much of a favor with v2015.425.1302.5257 and v2015.427.1909.5867.
Is there a way I can have the xap offline installer from January 25th back, please?
I think with the recent releases iCal has become too ... hnn ... complex and maybe complicated? Plus, in contrast to the previous versions the two latest ones fail to properly import the additional description ("Beschreibung" in German WP 8.1) at the bottom of the event page.
At the very least please have a look at this to check why the latest releases ommit picking up that information from the ics file. Thanks.

I will have a close look at why and how the description is read incorrectly.
Furthermore, I really like to know why you think the new features are to cuddled.
The big enhancement is being able to save big icalendar with lot of appointments to your phone in a second. Therefor you need to use App Calendars.
I do understand that a user, who just work with very small calendar files, has the impression that there are 1-2 steps to much within his workflow.

But this is mandatory in order to guarantee big file imports.

 

[tuxedo323]

Hi derDaniel! I downloaded this once last year and a lot of detail was missing from the ics files I tried to download. Now it works great without a hitch! One feature that would really help me though, automatic setting to my time zone. I currently have to select my time zone for every ics file each time i import to my live calendar. Heading to the store to give you 5 stars now.

 

[Chris Sandiford]

Just trying this for the first time with Win 10. Experiencing a few duplications, glitches, needing to repeat the import etc.. Time zones aren't coming cross either. Is this a Win 10 thing or something that has happened before in 8.1?