Thunderbird Calendar csv Export

[Somebody_Else]

Hi

I recently upgraded my Thunderbird client to v102.
The calendar export options have changed and when reviewing the Release Notes I note in the "Changed"
- Support for importing and exporting calendars from Outlook CSV format was removed

This has significantly impacted my usage. This is where my timesheets are created / stored.
This format is excellent for further analysis and billing tools.
To use html or ics is very limiting and problematic for such purposes.

From what I have found online, all ics to csv convertible tools are a extremely poor substitute

Can this be reversed or can someone suggest an add-on to remedy this situation ?

Thanks

[Jaxom_99]

I also concurr to the thread : please bring back this function, or provide a functionnal workaround for us users.

Maybe another developper would be interested in providing such a tool, released as FLOSS? The needed pieces of code/software are laying around, but a professionnal may forge them into a functionning tool 😄 I open a pad to gather suggestions (and maybe funding ?) : https://md.metanum.fr/YSQ5vecySPOcryMl7_JmYw#

[rodspencer]

I don't know, why a good working function gets deleted for no reason.

Please bring back import and export csv function. I need it for easily sending and importing appointments for my non-profit association. Hope this is possible in some of the next version.

[Alpacaman]

I couldn't find a suitable tool, so decided to use an AI (ChatGPT) for a solution. I knew that it was possible using sed or awk, so formulated the query below:

"i need a script (e.g. sed) to replace all occurrences of the letter T in between groups of two digits bounded by a dash (-) at the start and a colon (:) at the end (e.g. -05T15:30:) with a comma (,)"

ChatGPT came straight back with a suggested sed command, which I then fine-tuned into the following:

# Replace stray 'T's in each line with a comma:

sed -E 's/(-[0-9]{2})T([0-9]{2}:)/\1,\2/g' input_file > output_file

# Remove stray 'Z's in each line:

sed -E 's/(00)Z/\1/g' input_file > output_file

Simply change the file names to suit and Bob's your uncle!

[jwq]

> I don't know, why a good working function gets deleted for no reason.

Bug 1226851 (reported 2015-11-21; actioned 2021-08-14) answers this question: someone thought that "known limitations" of the export were sufficient reason to remove this feature. This was mis-read in that bug as "broken". There were no comments pointing out that CSV export/import has much wider utility than interoperability with Outlook.

Commit 2f14d5c8 to comm-central shows the code changes.

Bug 1802813 (reported 2022-11-27) was summarily closed on 2022-11-30 on the basis that "there's plenty of resources on how to convert them to CSV via Google" and "We're not planning to add CSV export at this time."

It appears that the comments here are not being received by Thunderbird employees.

[wsmwk]

At this time, there is not a plan to bring this capability back to Thunderbird, but thank you for all the information and interest.  I have added the helpful information to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1802813#c2.

It is certainly possible that this could change in the future. And please continue to vote and add new information to this topic that might other users.

[rmcgonegal]

It would appear that the current TB (115.11.0 (64-bit)) "export calendar" is broken

1. Steps to reproduce
2. Export a calendar to ics file
3. Try to import same ics file - "no importable items" in file
4. Open ics file with Notepad - it appears that the file has had carriage returns inserted to keep line lengths to 80 chars or less. So basically unreadable for import
5. AFAIK I should be able to import the file that was exported ??

rick

[wsmwk]

> Can this be reversed or can someone suggest an add-on to remedy this situation ?

Sorry, there are no plans to do this.