ICS

Adds a sensor to Home Assistant that displays the date and number of days to the next event. E.g. 5 days until the trash will be picked up. The information will be read from a user definded ics file.

This component will set up the following platforms.

Platform	Description
sensor	Show date and remaining days to event

Features

• Supports ICS file (local and online) with reoccuring events
• Events can be filtered, so you can tell it to look only for certain events
• Has attributes that calculated the number of days, so you can easily run a automation trigger, show start / end of the events
• Low CPU and network usage, as it only updates once per day (whenever the date changes) or when the event is over (assuming force reload is disabled)
• If multiple events occure on the same time, all title will be shown, connected with "/"
• Can be configured to look for 'the event after the event'

Installation

HACS

The easiest way to add this to your Homeassistant installation is using [HACS].

It's recommended to restart Homeassistent directly after the installation without any change to the Configuration. Homeassistent will install the dependencies during the next reboot. After that you can add and check the configuration without error messages. This is nothing special to this Integration but the same for all custom components.

Manual

1. Using the tool of choice open the directory (folder) for your HA configuration (where you find configuration.yaml).
2. If you do not have a custom_components directory (folder) there, you need to create it.
3. In the custom_components directory (folder) create a new folder called ics.
4. Download all the files from the custom_components/ics/ directory (folder) in this repository.
5. Place the files you downloaded in the new directory (folder) you created.
6. Follow the instructions under Configuration below.

Using your HA configuration directory (folder) as a starting point you should now also have this:

custom_components/ics/.translations/en.json
custom_components/ics/__init__.py
custom_components/ics/manifest.json
custom_components/ics/sensor.py
custom_components/ics/config_flow.py
custom_components/ics/const.py

Setup

All you need to have is a link to a ICS file, e.g. https://www.rmg-gmbh.de/download/Hamb%C3%BChren.ics

Configuration options

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
name	string	true	None	The friendly name of the sensor
url	string	true	None	The url to the ics file usually some weblink, but can also be local file e.g. https://www.rmg-gmbh.de/download/Hamb\%C3%BChren.ics or file:///tmp/test.ics
id	int	true	None	A number to identify your sensor later on. e.g. for id=1 the entity will be sensor.ics_1 using id 1 a second will result in sensor.ics_1_2
timeformat	string	false	"%A, %d.%m.%Y"	The format that is used to display the date see http://strftime.org/ for more infomation
lookahead	int	false	365	The number of days that limits the forecast. E.g. 1 will only show the events of today
startswith	string	false	""	A filter that will limit the display of events. E.g. if your file contains multiple entries and you only want to know one type at per sensor, simply create multiple sensors and filter. Have a look at sensor 3 and 4 above. startswith: Bio will ohne show events that start with Bio.
contains	string	false	""	A filter like startswith, but this will search within the string instead of the start.
show_blank	string	false	""	Indicates whether to show empty events (events without title), and what should be used as title instead. e.g. "Meeting123" would show events with empty title with the string "Meeting123". An empty string (default) or " " will avoid showing blank events.
force_update	int	false	0	Force to update the data with given intervall (seconds). This can be useful if the calendar is very dynamic, but pointless for almost static calendars. The calendar will reload at midnight and once the (start/end) of the event is over regardless of this setting. 0 = Disabled
show_remaining	bool	false	true	Show the remaining days in the sensor state, close to the date.
show_ongoing	bool	false	false	Show events that have already started but not finished.
group_events	bool	false	true	Show events with same start date as one event
n_skip	int	false	0	Skip the given amount of events, useful to show the appointment AFTER the next appointment
description_in_state	bool	false	false	Show the title of the events in the state
icon	string	false	mdi:calendar	MDI Icon string, check https://materialdesignicons.com/

GUI configuration

As of 2020/04/20 config flow is supported and is the prefered way to setup the integration. (No need to restart Home-Assistant)

Manual configuration

To enable the sensor, add the following lines to your configuration.yaml file and replace the link accordingly:

# Example entry for configuration.yaml
sensor:

  - platform: ics
    name: Packaging
    url: https://www.rmg-gmbh.de/download/Hamb%C3%BChren.ics
    id: 1
    icon: "mdi:recycle"

  - platform: ics
    name: Trash
    url: http://www.zacelle.de/privatkunden/muellabfuhr/abfuhrtermine/?tx_ckcellextermine_pi1%5Bot%5D=148&tx_ckcellextermine_pi1%5Bics%5D=0&tx_ckcellextermine_pi1%5Bstartingpoint%5D=234&type=3333
    id: 2
    icon: "mdi:trash-can-outline"

  - platform: ics
    name: Trash 2
    url: https://www.ab-peine.de/mcalendar/export_termine.php?menuid=185&area=141&year=2020
    startswith: Rest
    id: 3
    icon: "mdi:trash-can-outline"

  - platform: ics
    name: Bio
    url: https://www.ab-peine.de/mcalendar/export_termine.php?menuid=185&area=141&year=2020
    startswith: Bio
    show_ongoing: true
    id: 4

  - platform: ics
    name: Work
    url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/xxxxxxxxxxxxxgroup.calendar.google.com/private-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/basic.ics
    timeformat: "%d.%m. %H:%M"
    force_update: 600
    show_remaining: false
    id: 5

  - platform: ics
    name: Work today
    url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/xxxxxxxxxxxxxgroup.calendar.google.com/private-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/basic.ics
    timeformat: "%H:%M"
    lookahead: 1
    force_update: 600
    show_remaining: false
    id: 6

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      ics_5_txt:
        value_template: '{{ states.sensor.ics_5.attributes.description}} @ {{states.sensor.ics_5.state}}'
        friendly_name: "Work Next"
      ics_6_txt:
        value_template: '{{ states.sensor.ics_6.attributes.description}} @ {{states.sensor.ics_6.state}}'
        friendly_name: "Work today"

Automation

Example that executes on the day before one of the 'events'

automation:
  - alias: 'trash pickup msg'
    initial_state: 'on'
    trigger:
      - platform: time_pattern
        hours: 19
        minutes: 00
        seconds: 00
    condition:
        condition: or
        conditions:
        - condition: template
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('sensor.ics_1', 'remaining') == 1 }}"
        - condition: template
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('sensor.ics_2', 'remaining') == 1 }}"
        - condition: template
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('sensor.ics_3', 'remaining') == 1 }}"

and create / send some beautiful messages like this:

script:
   seq_trash:
      sequence:
         - service: notify.pb
           data_template:
           title: "Trash pickup tomorrow"
           message: >
             {% if is_state_attr("sensor.ics_1", "remaining",1) %} {{states.sensor.ics_1.attributes.friendly_name}} pickup tomorrow.{% endif %}
             {% if is_state_attr("sensor.ics_2", "remaining",1) %} {{states.sensor.ics_2.attributes.friendly_name}} pickup tomorrow.{% endif %}
             {% if is_state_attr("sensor.ics_3", "remaining",1) %} {{states.sensor.ics_3.attributes.friendly_name}} pickup tomorrow.{% endif %}

Use-cases for skip property

Show the next n-Events. Simply by creating three sensors with n_skip:0 / n_skip:1 / n_skip:2
Setting 'description_in_state: True` will also show the title.

Or list the next sport events

Advance feature

Reoccuring events, events at the same time, skippig events (EXDATE) ... all that can have quite some complexity to it.

The image above shows my test calendar (year = 2030! thus all lookahead must be >> 365)

Regular (with grouping)

sensor:
- platform: ics
    name: "regular"
    url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/...
    id: 3
    timeformat: "%A, %d.%m.%Y"
    lookahead: 36500
    startswith: ""
    show_blank: ""
    force_update: 0
    show_remaining: True
    show_ongoing: False
    group_events: True
    n_skip: 0
    description_in_state: False

Without advance options (all defaults) we'll get a sensor, showing both event1 and event3 because grouping is enabled (group_events: True).

Setting group_event: False would either show event1 or event3 (depends on their order in the ics file)

Skip 3 next events

  - platform: ics
    name: "skip 3, no blank"
    url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/...
    id: 5
    timeformat: "%d.%m. "
    lookahead: 36500
    startswith: ""
    show_blank: ""
    force_update: 0
    show_remaining: False
    show_ongoing: False
    group_events: True
    n_skip: 3
    description_in_state: True

This configuration will show 'allday'. group_events will combine the "event1/event3". show_blank is not set, so the event without title will be ignored.

Skip 3 next events but show blank events

- platform: ics
    name: "skip 3, incl blank"
    url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/...
    id: 6
    timeformat: "%A, %d.%m.%Y"
    lookahead: 36500
    startswith: ""
    show_blank: "Hallo"
    force_update: 0
    show_remaining: False
    show_ongoing: False
    group_events: True
    n_skip: 3
    description_in_state: False

Setting show_blank: 'Hallo' will add the previous empty event to the list and thus show 'Hallo' instead of 'allday'

Filter and Skip

- platform: ics
    name: "second reoccur"
    url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/...
    id: 8
    timeformat: "%A, %d.%m.%Y"
    lookahead: 36500
    startswith: "reocc"
    show_blank: ""
    force_update: 0
    show_remaining: True
    show_ongoing: False
    group_events: True
    n_skip: 1
    description_in_state: False

This will only look at events that startswith: 'reocc'. The first occurance on the 7.1.2030 will be skipped (n_skip:1), [the exdate will drop the 8.1.2030] and thus 9.1.2030 will be shown.