Invocation¶
There are three ways to invoke PdbConverter. You can either run it from a small GUI, or you can use the command line. There is also an online tool, so you won't need Java at all.
Online Converter¶
If you want to convert a Calendar file to iCalendar, you should have a look at the PdbConverter online tool:
You just upload your CalendarDB.pdb or DateBook.mdb file there, and get the converted iCalendar file returned.
WebStart¶
WebStart is a way to run a Java application right from the internet. If you have Java installed, just click on the following link to install and run PdbConverter.
If you start PdbConverter for the first time, you are asked if you trust the application. You need to accept the dialog, to give PdbConverter access to the files on your hard disk. Note that the package is not signed with an official signature, because such a signature is rather expensive.
When the GUI is shown, you can select the converter, the source file and the target file name. After clicking on "Convert", the database file is converted into your desired format.
An advantage of WebStart is that updates are automatically detected, so you will always run the latest version of PdbConverter.
Note that none of your data will be transmitted to a server! Even though the application starts from the internet, the entire conversion process runs locally on your machine.
Command Line¶
First download the latest "pdbconverter.jar" from the file section.
You can invoke PdbConverter by opening a terminal and running
java -jar pdbconverter.jar
You will see a short usage summary.
Example: If you want to convert a Calendar database, you would invoke PdbConverter like this:
java -jar pdbconverter.jar -c icalendar -i CalendarDB.pdb -o CalendarDB.ics
To open the user interface of PdbConverter, invoke it like this:
java -jar pdbconverter.jar --gui
Categories¶
The --category option only exports the records of the given category name. For example, use this invocation to export only the records of the "Private" category:
java -jar pdbconverter.jar --category 'Private' -c icalendar -i CalendarDB.pdb -o CalendarDB.ics
Category names are case sensitive. This option is currently not available in the GUI.
Another option is --split, which exports the record of each category in a separate file. The file name consists of the given output file name and the category name. For example, if a calendar has the categories "private", "job" and "important", the command
java -jar pdbconverter.jar --split -c icalendar -i CalendarDB.pdb -o CalendarDB.ics
would create the files CalendarDB-private.ics, CalendarDB-job.ics and CalendarDB-important.ics.