1217237 - Export is really inconsistent

Status: NEW

(Calendar :: Import and Export, defect)

Description

[Mitra Ardron]

The only thing I really need Lightning for - a conduit between TB and iCal it does really badly. 
Half the time when I try and export a Calender event it doesn't work, even if it does you have to first save as a file - changing the default name of "Home" to xxx.ics and then opening that file in iCal. 
Since pushing to iCal (or whatever default calender you are using) is likely to be a primary activity, why is it so hard ? Wouldn't it be better as a right-click or something like that ? 

Note - I appreciate some people might be using Lightning as their primary calender, but many others will have it installed ONLY because the Thunderbird team won't fix the bug that makes Outlook events readable and instead recommend installing Lightning.

Comment 1

[Stefan Sitter [:ssitter]]

Hello, unfortunately I fail to understand your problem with Lightning usage. Or problems? I hope you can provide more information to ensure that we can help you.

You can export any of your calendars to ics file from calendar list context menu or from menu Event and Tasks. If this doesn't work please check menu Tools > Error Console if there were any errors reported during the export and copy+paste them here.

If an email message contains a standard compliant event invitation you should see Lightnings action buttons to accept or decline this invitation. If accepted the event will be placed in your calendar. If this calendar is synchronized with your iCal calendar you should see the event in any application that is subscribed to this calendar.

If an email message contains a standard compliant event invitation but you don't want to use Lightning you can just select the ics attachment and choose Save As... from context menu.

Comment 2

[Mitra Ardron]

Save As doesnt work for Outlook invites (the most common kind and that aren't opened properly in Thunderbird  (see bug #505024 ) - Lightning is proposed as the solution for that. 

Accepting the event adds to the Lightning Calender as you say 
Exporting from Lightning fails at least 50% of the time, I haven't figured out all the reasons why. 
One problem is that the steps are unclear , almost all events default to a filename "Home" (no .ICS extension).
If you look in that exported file, then it has the email, not the VCALENDER 
If you forward the message then you can click on "Attached Part" and sometimes it opens in iCal - other times, it crashes TB. 

How do you sync to iCal - there is nothing in Thunderbird/Events&Tasks; Thunderbird/Preferences or Thunderbird/AddOns/Preferences, 

Yes - there are lots of calender related error messages I'm not sure if they are relevant:

Error: Couldn't find Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Source File: file:///Users/mitra/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/0io2wgel.default/extensions/%7Be2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103%7D/components/calTimezoneService.js
Line: 197

Error: : Component returned failure code: 0x804a0100 [calIICSService.parseICS]
Source File: resource://calendar/modules/calUtils.jsm -> file:///Users/mitra/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/0io2wgel.default/extensions/%7Be2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103%7D/calendar-js/calIcsParser.js
Line: 135

Error: Assert failed: TypeError: getMinimonth(...).refreshDisplay is not a function
2: [chrome://lightning/content/messenger-overlay-sidebar.js:356] refreshUIBits
3: [chrome://calendar/content/calendar-views.js:304] scheduleMidnightUpdate/udCallback.notify
4: [null:0] null
Source File: chrome://calendar/content/calUtils.js
Line: 1001


Error: 2015-10-23 08:55:46	gloda.collection	ERROR	caught exception from listener in onItemsModified: chrome://messenger/content/multimessageview.js:450: TypeError: tagsNode is null

Source File: resource:///modules/gloda/log4moz.js
Line: 693