event-parse

Fantastical-style natural language parsing of events into title, locations, and times. Utilizes date.js parsing method.

Usage

Calling Event.parse(YOUR_STRING) will return an object with the following properties.

• title (string) the main text associated with the event
• location (string)
• startTime (js date object)

Simple example

// parse some natural language describing an event
Event.parse("Pick up milk at Giant Eagle on Friday afternoon");
...
// output of Event.parse
{
  title: "Pick up milk", 
  location: "Giant Eagle", 
  startTime: Fri May 03 2013 16:00:00 GMT-0400 (EDT)
}

Realtime Example

The real value of clientside event parsing is in providing realtime feedback to the user. In this example we're watching for natural language in input#parsedField, and applying the parsed attributed to input#parsedTitle, input#parsedLocation, and input#parsedStart.

To see a working example, open up index.html in the /demo folder.

// Select our inputs
var $parsedInput = $('#parsedField'),
    $parsedTitle = $('#parsedTitle'),
    $parsedLocation = $('#parsedLocation'),
    $parsedStart = $('#parsedStart');

// Create a function that reads, parses, and updates the fields,
// while also preventing things from running too slowly.
var parseAndUpdate = _.debounce(function(){

  // Read and parse the natural language string from $parsedInput
  var parsed = Event.parse($parsedInput.val());
  
  // Apply the parsed attributed to their respective fields
  $parsedTitle.val(parsed.title);
  $parsedLocation.val(parsed.location);
  $parsedStart.val(parsed.startTime.toString("dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy h:mm:ss tt"));
  
}, 100);

// Listen for any changes (keystrokes) in our main input.
$parsedInput.keypress(parseAndUpdate);