org-mode Google calendar sync in Windows

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The instructions at Org-mode does not cover the Windows case. I explain how you can get the sync between Google calendar and org-mode in Windows.

1 Dependencies

1.1 ical2org.py

Get the ical2org.py script from https://github.com/asoroa/ical2org.py. You have to have Python installed, and also need to install icalendar and pytz: 

> pip install icalendar
> pip install pytz

1.2 Find your private URL for your calendar

Follow step 2 in this instruction to get the private URL for your calendar.

2 PowerShell script

First check if you can download your calendar with Invoke-WebRequest: 

> Invoke-WebRequest -URI <url to your private Google calendar>

If it works, make a PowerShell script file, convert-gcal-to-org.ps1: 

# customize these
$ICS2ORG = "<path to ical2org.py>"
$ICSFILE = "<path for icsfile>"
$ORGFILE = "<path to orgfile>"
$URL = "<url to your private Google calendar>"

# no customization needed below
$Content = (Invoke-WebRequest -URI $URL).Content
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($ICSFILE, $Content)

python $ICS2ORG $ICSFILE $ORGFILE

for example: 

# customize these    
$ICS2ORG = "~/bin/ical2org.py"
$ICSFILE = "~/bin/gcal-shared.ical"
$ORGFILE = "~/gcal.org"
$URL = "https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/...../basic.ics"

# no customization needed below
$Content = (Invoke-WebRequest -URI $URL).Content
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($ICSFILE, $Content) 

python $ICS2ORG $ICSFILE $ORGFILE

Now try the script and see if it works: 

> convert-gcal-to-org.ps1

If you have the output org file in your org-agenda-files list, you will see the entries from Google calendar when you update your agenda in Emacs.

3 Install cron

You can install IntelliAdmin Cron to periodically run the script and sync your calendars with org-mode. Here is a blog post about this specific cron utility.

Then, use the following to set up the cronjob, with appropriate schedule settings:

EXE File
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Arguments
-file C:\PATH\TO\convert-gcal-to-org.ps1

For example:

Capture-crontab-org-mode-google-sync.png

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