Retrieving and parsing iCal data over HTTP on Android

I am making an application that asks the user for userid, appends the userid to a static HTTP link to retrieve the user's daily schedule info file that has a .ical (calendar) extension.

I need to read the data from file, format in new UI and representing some useful data on an Android device.

My query is can 开发者_C百科I access a static HTTP link behind the scenes? And when I use the same link on desktop browser, it asks user to save the file — how can I do this on a mobile? Do I need to read the data and save it somewhere or I can save the .ical file and read from it?

Android devices generally cannot handle iCalendar-formatted files (.ics) — there is no way to just "open" such a file and have the information displayed. You would have to write some code (or use a library such as iCal4j) to parse the information in the calendar file.

Based on your question and comments, you need to break this into a few parts:

1. Get the user's ID entered in the UI
   • String userId = ((EditText) findById(R.id.user_id)).getText.toString();
2. Generate the user's unique calendar URL
   • static final String CALENDAR_BASE = "http://example.com/cal/";
String escapedUserId = URLEncoder.encode(userId, "UTF-8");
String url = CALENDAR_BASE + escapedUserId +"/events.ics";
3. Retrieve the calendar file over HTTP
4. Save the file locally
   • Android download binary file problems
     (thanks to Pentium10)
5. Display the calendar data to the user
   • Read the file from disk that you saved directly from the web
   • Parse the data with iCal4j and display in whatever UI format you like

You can search Stack Overflow or post a more particular question regarding any of the individual parts if you're unsure or need some more specific info. :)