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Automatically open ics file with Thunderbird by direct command

  • 3 iimpendulo
  • 1 inayo le ngxaki
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  • Impendulo yokugqibela ngu user1072808

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Hi All,

I'd like to find a way to double-click on an ics file, and have Thunderbird open it as a calendar event. Running on Lubuntu 15.04. Yes, I know. You read the title and thought "that has been addressed numerous times already". No. I have found quite a few that tried this very same thing, but none were successful.

Maybe it can be achieved like this. I would need Thunderbird's own command to open the ics file. Then I'd enter that command manually. When you right-click a file, you have the option to change the default program that opens it. Simply changing that to Thunderbird will open the file as a new email message. But, instead of choosing a default application, you can also enter a custom command to e executed upon double-click of the file. So, that's what I want to do. I want to enter Thunderbird's own command that it uses when you manually import an ics file into the calendar. Command would look something like this: /<path>/thunderbird/thunderbird --import file.ics -calendar

I hope I was clear, and people can understand what I'm going at. Any ideas?

Hi All, I'd like to find a way to double-click on an ics file, and have Thunderbird open it as a calendar event. Running on Lubuntu 15.04. Yes, I know. You read the title and thought "that has been addressed numerous times already". No. I have found quite a few that tried this very same thing, but none were successful. Maybe it can be achieved like this. I would need Thunderbird's own command to open the ics file. Then I'd enter that command manually. When you right-click a file, you have the option to change the default program that opens it. Simply changing that to Thunderbird will open the file as a new email message. But, instead of choosing a default application, you can also enter a custom command to e executed upon double-click of the file. So, that's what I want to do. I want to enter Thunderbird's own command that it uses when you manually import an ics file into the calendar. Command would look something like this: /<path>/thunderbird/thunderbird --import file.ics -calendar I hope I was clear, and people can understand what I'm going at. Any ideas?

All Replies (3)

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Small correction. I would assume the command would look something like this: /<path>/thunderbird/thunderbird --import -calendar %f, or %1.

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When Thunderbird import an ICS file it converts is to an SQLITE database and stores it. It does not open it in the sense your using. So there is no way to "Open" an ICS file like you would a word processing one.

If the ICS file is encoded in the mail correctly and you have lightning installed then action buttons for the ICS file will appear in the reading pane. Such things as accept buttons etc.

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Thanks Matt for responding.

I see. But shouldn't I be able to run that command manually, especially if I have Thunderbird running? It would be the same command, just instead of manually telling Thunderbird to execute it, I'll have the OS execute it by double-clicking of the file.