We have done a lot of work with processing iCal directly. We initially started off with source code from phpicalendar and found it to be very messy to deal with. Since then we have coded both an AS3 and PHP5 algorithm to parse the iCal format, and transcode it into our sCal format that is nearly like xCal the proposed xml format standard of iCal. We choose to break away from the un-ratified standard of xCal because the standard was a week xml version of the iCalendar format. We have with sCal included a number of data values into parsed attributes which makes filtering, and parsing of the xml much easier. We also plan to add RDF formats for easy geo-location, and easier processing of recurring dates. Currently the RRule processing engine takes 1-2k lines of code in java to process the rules and even then there are strong challenges in getting to the 1000th date in a series of events that occur on the 12th day of a month. We hope to provide a cache of event dates, and event ids so in the sCal so that one can simply add them to the calendar without processing the rules.
If WEB414 would like to use the PHPcode or the AS3 code we are willing to offer it.
I'm not sure of the current status of all the modules listed, but I think I may start playing with a few of them to see which will most come close to how Meetup handled events.
Ok, I've started playing with the Event module and the Signup module. They basically do what we would need, but they could use some improvement. I'll keep experimenting to see how they work and what else may be needed.
iCal Processing
We have done a lot of work with processing iCal directly. We initially started off with source code from phpicalendar and found it to be very messy to deal with. Since then we have coded both an AS3 and PHP5 algorithm to parse the iCal format, and transcode it into our sCal format that is nearly like xCal the proposed xml format standard of iCal. We choose to break away from the un-ratified standard of xCal because the standard was a week xml version of the iCalendar format. We have with sCal included a number of data values into parsed attributes which makes filtering, and parsing of the xml much easier. We also plan to add RDF formats for easy geo-location, and easier processing of recurring dates. Currently the RRule processing engine takes 1-2k lines of code in java to process the rules and even then there are strong challenges in getting to the 1000th date in a series of events that occur on the 12th day of a month. We hope to provide a cache of event dates, and event ids so in the sCal so that one can simply add them to the calendar without processing the rules.
If WEB414 would like to use the PHPcode or the AS3 code we are willing to offer it.
From Blake
Blake pointed me towards this page: http://drupal.org/node/50287
I'm not sure of the current status of all the modules listed, but I think I may start playing with a few of them to see which will most come close to how Meetup handled events.
Event & Signup
Ok, I've started playing with the Event module and the Signup module. They basically do what we would need, but they could use some improvement. I'll keep experimenting to see how they work and what else may be needed.
Event module
Looks like we should dig into the Event Module. Anyone have any experience using it?