Proyectos de Subversion Moodle

Bennu - An object-oriented iCalendar (RFC2445) implementation in PHP

http://bennu.sourceforge.net

Bennu is copyright (C) 2005 by Ioannis Papaioannou (pj@moodle.org).

=======================================================================

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

=======================================================================

1. About Bennu

    1.1. What is Bennu?

    1.2. What is iCalendar?

    1.3. Bennu license

2. Using Bennu

    2.1. Integrating Bennu in your application

    2.2. Usage examples

3. Bugs and limitations

    3.1. Known limitations

4. Contact information

=======================================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. About Bennu

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1.1. What is Bennu?

    Bennu is a software library written in PHP that implements the

    functionality of the IETF iCalendar 2.0 specification (RFC 2445).

    Its purpose is to enable applications which have an interest in

    this format (e.g. calendaring, scheduler and organizer programs)

    to support iCalendar in an easy, powerful, and extensible way.

    In other words, Bennu exists so that developers working on such

    applications don't have to waste painful hours going through the

    standard and writing the code to implement it. Instead, they can

    include this library in their application and get to the fun part

    already: coding THEIR program.

1.2. What is iCalendar?

    The iCalendar specification is a result of the work of the IETF

    (Internet Engineering Task Force), Calendaring and Scheduling

    Working Group. It was authored by Frank Dawson of Lotus

    Development Corporation and Derik Stenerson of Microsoft

    Corporation. iCalendar is heavily based on the earlier vCalendar

    industry specification by the Internet Mail Consortium (IMC),

    which it extends and seeks to replace.

    In practical terms, iCalendar is the number one format used today

    by calendaring and scheduler applications to import and export

    data. Applications which provide support for iCalendar include:

    * Microsoft Outlook

    * Apple iCal

    * Mozilla Calendar (and Mozilla Sunbird)

    * Mulberry

    * Korganizer

    * Ximian Evolution

    Effectively, this means that iCalendar is akin to a "common

    language" which all these applications speak. If you are writing

    an application which includes scheduling or calendaring elements,

    and you want it to be able to synchronize with other such

    programs, you need to support iCalendar. Bennu is an easy way to

    do exactly that, as long as you are coding in PHP.

1.3. Bennu license

    Bennu is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License

    (LGPL). In short, this means that:

    * You are allowed to distribute and/or modify the source code of

      Bennu

    * You are allowed to use Bennu or any modified version of it in a

      commercial application

    * You do not have to pay any fees to use, modify, or distribute

      Bennu

    * You can charge others for distributing Bennu or derived versions

    * However, in ALL OF THE ABOVE CASES, you MUST provide the source

      code for Bennu (or any modified version you may have produced),

      and that source code MUST be provided under the GNU GPL -or- the

      GNU LGPL license. Furthermore, you MUST include the original

      copyright notices and credits that you received the source code

      with when you distribute it INTACT.

    * In any case, the copyright to Bennu is retained by me,

      Ioannis Papaioannou.

    ##################

    ##  DISCLAIMER  ##

    ##################

    Please be advised that the above is a very short and to the point

    explanation of the GNU LGPL terms, as I understand it, and it is

    only my personal opinion. IT IS NOT THE ACTUAL LICENSE UNDER WHICH

    BENNU IS RELEASED. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you read the

    full text of the LGPL in order to avoid any misunderstandings

    which may be caused by reading my interpretation of it. You can

    find the full text of the LGPL in the file LICENSE.TXT, which you

    must have received as part of the Bennu distribution. If you have

    not received such a file, please email me mentioning where you

    obtained your copy of Bennu.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Using Bennu

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

2.1. Integrating Bennu in your application

    To include Bennu in your application, you only need to include one

    PHP file, like this:

    <?php

       include($path_to_bennu.'/library/lib/bennu.inc.php');

       // the rest of your code goes here

    ?>

2.2. Usage examples

    Please look at the /examples/ directory for ready-to-run examples

    illustrating how Bennu is to be used. This section will be

    revisited and properly written when the source code reaches an

    acceptable level of features and meturity (no, I don't know when

    that will be).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Bugs and limitations

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1. Known limitations

    * LANGUAGE property parameters aren't semantically checked.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Contact information

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

    You can contact me at the email address pj@moodle.org for any

    suggestions, ideas, or bug reports regarding Bennu.

    At some point there will also be a site which you can use to do

    anything related to Bennu, but sadly not today. If you want to

    volunteer and give a hand, I 'll be happy to collaborate.