# Exchange calendar to Ruby object. Please comment the code

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exchange-calendar-to-ruby-object-please-comment-the-code/88994>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 16, 2007, 10:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exchange-calendar-to-ruby-object-please-comment-the-code/88994 "2007-03-16T10:36:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ther](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@ther](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ther)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 10:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exchange-calendar-to-ruby-object-please-comment-the-code/88994/1 "2007-03-16T10:36:23Z")

</div>

I have written this peace of code to extract data from Exchange calendar  
folder and fill it into ruby object, so it can be accesed later like:  
puts calendar.vevent.dtstart  
puts calendar.vevent.dtend  
puts calendar.vevent.attendee  
puts calendar.vevent.description

Since I am still lerning Ruby I am interested what do you old Rubyists  
think of the code. Could it be done any better.

Translating this to Hash or even XML should be trivial.

by

TheR

#############################################################################

# 

# Read message from Exchange calendar folder with IMAP and create object

# filled with values from message.

# 

# Written by Damjan R. 16.03.2007

# 

#############################################################################  
require ‘net/imap’

ExchangeCalendar

def addVar(var, val)  
var.gsub!(‘-’,‘\_’) # - is not allowed  
as variable name  
if instance\_variable\_get(“@#{var}”) == nil # if not already set  
instance\_variable\_set(“@#{var}”, val) # set it  
eval(“def #{var}; @#{var}; end”) # define method for  
retrive  
else # if already defined than it should be array of values  
if instance\_variable\_get(“@#{var}”).class != ‘Array’ # second  
value  
a = Array.new # create  
array  
a \<\< instance\_variable\_get(“@#{var}”) # add old  
value to first element  
instance\_variable\_set(“@#{var}”, a) # set  
variable to array  
else  
a = instance\_variable\_get(“@#{var}”)  
end  
a \<\< val # add new  
element to array  
end  
end  
end

#############################################################################  
def msg2calendar(msg)  
ar = Array.new  
ix = 0  
ar[ix] = ExchangeCalendar.new

# 

msg.gsub!("\r\n ",‘’) # Remove line breaks in data  
msg.each\_line do |l|  
l.chomp! # remove whitespace  
dc = l.index(‘:’) # Some keywords are delimited  
with colon (🙂  
i=if (ds = l.index(‘;’)) == nil # some with semicolon (😉  
dc  
elsif dc==nil  
ds  
else  
ds \< dc ? ds : dc  
end  
key = l[0,i].downcase # get keyword and lowercase it  
val = l[i+1,l.length] # get value

```
if key == 'begin' # Create new level if begin
  if val != 'VCALENDAR' # First level is already

```

prepared  
ix += 1  
ar[ix] = ExchangeCalendar.new  
ar[ix-1].addVar(val.downcase, ar[ix])  
end  
elsif key == ‘end’ # Step one level back  
ix -= 1  
else  
ar[ix].addVar(key,val) # add new variable  
end  
end  
ar[0]  
end

imap = Net::IMAP.new(‘[mail.domain.com](http://mail.domain.com)’)  
imap.login(‘user’, ‘pwd’)  
imap.select(‘Public Folders/Any calendar’)  
imap.search([“SINCE”, “10-Mar-2007”]).each do |message\_id|  
calendar = msg2calendar(imap.fetch(message\_id,  
“BODY[2]”)[0].attr[“BODY[2]”])  
puts calendar.vevent.dtstart  
puts calendar.vevent.dtend  
puts calendar.vevent.attendee  
puts calendar.vevent.description  
end