NAME
    Date::ICal - Perl extension for ICal date objects.

SYNOPSIS
        use Date::ICal;

        $ical = Date::ICal->new( ical => '19971024T120000' );
        $ical = Date::ICal->new( epoch => time );

        $hour = $ical->hour;
        $year = $ical->year;

        $ical_string = $ical->ical;
        $epoch_time = $ical->epoch;

        $ical->epoch( time+60 ); # Set the time a minute ahead

DESCRIPTION
    Date::ICal talks the ICal date format, and is intended to be a base
    class for other date/calendar modules that know about ICal time format
    also.

    See http://dates.rcbowen.com/unified.txt for details

METHODS
    Date::ICal has the following methods available:

  new

    A new Date::ICal object can be created with any valid ICal string:

        my $ical = Date::ICal->new( ical => '19971024T120000' );

    Or with any epoch time:

        my $ical = Date::ICal->new( epoch => time );

    If you call new without any arguments, you'll get a Date::ICal object
    that is set to the time right now.

        my $ical = Date::ICal->new();

  ical

        $ical_string = $ical->ical;

        $ical->ical( '19981016' );

    Retrieves, or sets, the date on the object, using any valid ICal
    date/time string.

    The ICal represenatation is the one authoritative value in the object,
    and so if it is changed, it must be able to indicate that the other
    values are no longer valid. Or set the correctly. Or something. Comments
    welcomed.

  epoch

        $epoch_time = $ical->epoch;
    
        $ical->epoch( 98687431 );

    Sets, or retrieves, the epoch time represented by the object, if it is
    representable as such. (Dates before 1971 or after 2038 will not have an
    epoch representation.)

    Internals note: The ICal representation of the date is considered the
    only authoritative one. This means that we may need to reconstruct the
    epoch time from the ICal represenatation if we are not sure that they
    are in synch. We'll need to do clever things to keep track of when the
    two may not be in synch. And, of course, the same will go for any
    subclasses of this class.

  Other Accessors

        second
        minute
        hour
        day
        month
        year

    Generic set/get methods.

        $sec = $t->second;

        $t->minute(12);

  _parse_ical

        $self->_parse_ical;

    "_parse_ical" is an internal method (although I suppose you could call
    it externally if you really wanted to) which repopulates other
    attributes based on the ical field. This should be called by various
    methods if an attribute is undefined.

  _format_ical

        $self->_format_ical;

    This is an internal method used to rebuild the ical string when one
    component, such as the "second" or "month" field has been changed.

AUTHOR
    Rich Bowen (DrBacchus) rbowen@rcbowen.com

SEE ALSO
    datetime@perl.org mailing list

    http://reefknot.org/

    http://dates.rcbowen.com/