This describes the usage of the app.
On how to create a calendar, see the online documentation (readme) on Github.
Adding a calendar
Warning: Only use calendars from people you trust - opening links to malicious sites represents a security risk!
Click the "+" button and then "Choose..." to select a calendar file or enter the full path directly (e.g. /sdcard/Downloads/MyCalendar.txt
). Alternatively, select the calendar file in a file manager and choose LinCal to open it.
Optionally enter a custom title for the calendar to be shown in the list of calendars and as the title of notifications. Checking "Don't show any entries now" makes sure you don't see any entries directly after adding the calendar (but this can be changed later). Finally click "Add calendar".
Note: LinCal does not create a copy when adding a calendar but always uses the file at the location chosen. This allows calendars to be updated by simply replacing the calendar file with a new version. By synchronizing it with the cloud, automatic updates can be achieved. LinCal will use the newer version as soon it has been restarted. If you want to move a calendar file, you have to remove the calendar from LinCal first and readd it after moving the file.
Calendars can be added from a cloud storage provider that supports the Android Storage Access Framework (SAF). When clicking "Choose...", you can for example add calendars from Google Drive or Nextcloud. This way the calendar will be automatically updated from the cloud as soon as the cloud service synchronizes (and LinCal restarts). Note, however, that if you are offline and the cloud storage cache is cleared, LinCal won't get access to the calendar file and show an error.
Viewing a calendar
Select a calendar from the list to view the calendar's information, settings and a list of its entries.
- For each entry, the time as scheduled by the calendar is shown on the left. If the notification time differs, it is shown in brackets after the first time. Next to the time, the description of the entry is shown. Depending on the "Show entry" setting, the date or description might be hidden.
- Click on an entry to show its description and options to see and open the link (hidden entries cannot be clicked).
Notifications
A notification is shown exactly once for each entry in each calendar. Unless otherwise specified, it is shown exactly at the time as defined by the calendar. When adding a calendar or enabling notifications, also the notifications for past entries are shown.
Calendar settings
- Enable notifications: Only if this is checked notifications will be shown. When reenabling, notifications for past entries will be shown.
- Earliest notification time: If enabled, no notifications will be shown before the given time - if they are scheduled earlier by the calendar, they will be shown exactly at the time specified here. If the author of the calendar hasn't specified any times, then the entries are scheduled for 0:00 - thus choose this time to make sure you won't receive notifications when you don't want to.
- Show entry date/description: This can be used to hide the date/description of all or future entries, to not reveal a description text in advance. "Future" here refers to the time as scheduled by the calendar (as opposed to notification time). Only entries where the description is not hidden can be clicked.
Problems
- If notifications stop working, reenable notifications in the calendar's settings.
- If any text content of a calendar is displayed with cryptic or missing characters, this is probably because the calendar file does not use UTF-8 encoding as required (see online documentation). Ask the author of the calendar to use the correct encoding.