Using remind to show next appointment

This is a script I use so I don't forget my appointments, even when I forget to check remind or wyrd. It returns the next appointment from a reminders file and tries to output it in a nice way. I use it to populate a textwidget in my awesome wibox so my next appointment is always on the screen.

Dependencies

Usage

The script is called with no arguments, everything is set in the configurables. You just configure the reminders file it should use and the months it should check ahead. When called, the script returns the next appointment, or the current one if one is in progress in the following manner:

Next appointment:

user@host ~> bash Scripts/reminderwidget
2011/08/25 10:00-12:00 Structured computer organization

When one is already in progress:

user@host ~> bash Scripts/reminderwidget NOW: 08:00-10:00 Important

talk I really should attend

The script

#!/bin/bash
#Configurables:
MONTHSTOCHECKAHEAD=12
REMINDERSFILE=/home/USERNAME/.reminders

#Helper function to check if a date is in the future
is_futuredate()
{
TODAY=$(date +%s)
COMPARE=$(date -d "$(date -d "$1")" +%s)
test $(($COMPARE-TODAY)) -le 0 && return 1 || return 0
}

#This gives a nice and structured output of coming reminders
remind -s$MONTHSTOCHECKAHEAD -b1 $REMINDERSFILE |
while read line
do
#Check if the reminder has a duration, I'm only interested in those
if [ "$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f 4)" != "*" ]; then
#Extract the date, time and duration
DATE=$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f 1)
TIMES=$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f 6)
STARTTIME=$(echo "$TIMES" | cut -d'-' -f 1)
BEGDATETIME=$(date -d "$(echo $DATE $STARTTIME)")
DURMINS=$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f 4)
#Calculate the end of the reminder
ENDDATETIME=$(date -d "$(echo $BEGDATETIME +$DURMINS minutes)")

#Check if the ending of this reminder is still in the future
if is_futuredate "$ENDDATETIME"; then
#Check if the beginning is in the past
if ! is_futuredate "$BEGDATETIME"; then
echo "NOW: $(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f 6-)"
exit
fi
echo "$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f 1,6-)"
exit
fi
fi
done

AwesomeWM Integration

To integrate it in Awesome, just put it in your scripts folder (I like ~/Scripts) and add the following to your rc.lua (Don't forget to change the location of the script):

-- {{{ Next reminder
remindericon = widget({ type = "imagebox" })
remindericon.image = image(beautiful.widget_org)
myreminder = widget({ type = "textbox", name = "reminder", align = "right" })
function next_reminder()
local fd=io.popen("bash /home/USER/Scripts/reminderwidget", "r") --next reminder
local line=fd:read()
return line
end
myreminder.text = " " .. next_reminder() .. " "
my_reminder_timer=timer({timeout=31})
my_reminder_timer:add_signal("timeout", function()
myreminder.text = " " .. next_reminder() .. " "
end)
my_reminder_timer:start()
-- }}}

Oh, and of course add myreminder to your wibox.

Fun hacks

  • Give it coloured output, perhaps different colours depending on how far away the appointment is.
  • Make it show a popup window with an overview when clicked.

Screenshot

A screenshot should be here

Disclaimer

I don't think there's a lot that could go wrong here but don't blame me if you do screw up. It works fine here. You can always ask questions however, just post them below and I'll read them. (eventually)

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