Using VFreebusy iCalendar component

Question

I making a scheduling application and I am using iCalendar format. I am aware that I can use this code to get the free time slots from current calendar:

DateTime start = new DateTime();
DateTime end = new DateTime(start.getTime() + 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 7);
VFreeBusy request = new VFreeBusy(start, end, new Dur(0, 2, 0, 0));
VFreeBusy response = new VFreeBusy(request, myCalendar.getComponents());

And I get the following output from using this code on a couple of events in the calendar.

DTSTAMP:20140323T204423Z
DTSTART:20020202T040023Z
DTEND:20020203T040023Z
DURATION:PT45M
FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=FREE:20020202T040023Z/PT2H,20020202T070023Z/PT4H,20020202T120023Z/PT16H
END:VFREEBUSY

What I don't know is how to use that VFreeBusy object with those free time slots and actually get them out, so I can compare them and use them as dates and times.

I used response.getProperties().getProperty(Property.FREEBUSY) to get the part that I need, but I don't know how to parse all that String. If you have any other ways for me to get those time slots please advise.

Answer 1

Assuming that you are using ical4j. Once you get the property, you can cast it to a FreeBusy property which has a getPeriods() method.