Client-side backup of caldav/carddav?

🍱 Features & apps Backup
, , ,
1

Suppose I am an unprivileged user of Nextcloud instance that has the Contacts and Calendar apps enabled. (That is, I am not an administrator of the instance, nor do I have SSH access to the server.)

I can manually download a backup of my contacts and calendar through the web GUI. However, I would like to do this programmatically (e.g. from a cron job). How can I do this?

I am looking for solutions on all platforms that support the official Nextcloud client app (so Windows, Mac, and Linux).

2

If you are on the link, you can show the link, for contacts:
https://nextcloud.example.net/remote.php/dav/addressbooks/users/username/default/?export

Can’t you use that?

Alternative: Use a script language that can handle calDAV/cardDAV. chatGPT and others can help you, but be sure to test it.

3

chatGPT with a python solution (untested):

import caldav
from caldav.elements import dav, cdav
from icalendar import Calendar
from datetime import datetime

# Replace these values with your CalDAV server details
caldav_url = "https://example.com/path/to/caldav/"
username = "your_username"
password = "your_password"

# Connect to CalDAV server
client = caldav.DAVClient(url=caldav_url, username=username, password=password)
principal = client.principal()

# Replace this with your calendar URL
calendar_url = "https://example.com/path/to/calendar.ics"
calendar = principal.calendar(url=calendar_url)

# Function to backup all calendar data
def backup_calendar_data(output_folder):
    # Create the output folder if it doesn't exist
    os.makedirs(output_folder, exist_ok=True)

    # Get all events in the calendar
    all_events = calendar.date_search(datetime(1970, 1, 1), datetime(2030, 1, 1))

    for event in all_events:
        # Get the event data
        event_data = event.data
        event_ical = Calendar.from_ical(event_data)

        # Extract event details
        event_component = event_ical.subcomponents[0]
        event_summary = event_component.get('summary', 'Untitled')
        event_uid = event_component.get('uid')

        # Save the event to a file
        output_file_path = os.path.join(output_folder, f"{event_uid}.ics")
        with open(output_file_path, 'wb') as output_file:
            output_file.write(event_data)

# Example usage:
# Replace this with the desired output folder
backup_folder = "path/to/backup"
backup_calendar_data(backup_folder)
4

Check out calcardbackup. I’ve been using it for several yerars. I’ve even written a cron job to update it from time to time.

2 Likes