[Ietf-calsify] Why no empty calendar?

[Tim Hare]

What's the use case for publishing an empty calendar?

Why would I want to open that file, assuming I found it using some sort of
calendar search? 

If this _were_ allowed in some future revision, then I would vote that a UA
MUST warn that the file is empty when opened. No one wants to open an .ics
file (say for example the schedule for the Irish National Hurling
Championships) to add something to their calendar, get nothing added, and
not be informed.  It's already sometimes onerous when a UA opens a calendar
file _with_ data but doesn't position you to, or tell you about, the first
item added - you then end up hunting through calendar entries to make sure
what you thought would happened did in fact happen.


Tim Hare
Interested Bystander, Non-Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: ietf-calsify-bounces at osafoundation.org
[mailto:ietf-calsify-bounces at osafoundation.org] On Behalf Of Cyrus Daboo
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 4:44 PM
To: ietf-calsify at osafoundation.org
Subject: [Ietf-calsify] Why no empty calendar?

Hi,
(Whilst I realize it is too late for changes to 2445bis now, I think it is
still worth raising issues and using the issue tracker to log problems that
could be considered in a future revision - assuming Eliot does not mind
leaving the tracker up).

Currently both 2445 and 2445bis make it impossible to have an empty
VCALENDAR object. i.e. a VCALENDAR with only properties - no components. 
The relevant ABNF is:

        icalbody   = calprops component


        component  = 1*(eventc / todoc / journalc / freebusyc /
                     timezonec / iana-comp / x-comp)

The workaround is to send a single VTIMEZONE object or a bogus X- component
(perhaps BEGIN:X-2445-IS-SILLY), or a bogus "regular" component. But that
seems a little silly. It should be perfectly possible for me to publish an
empty calendar.

Proposal: relax the restriction that a VCALENDAR object has to contain "one
or more" components, to instead allow "zero or more" components, and adjust
ABNF and text accordingly.

--
Cyrus Daboo

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