blog: facebook birthdays blog

content/blog/2019-10-10-facebook-birthday.md

++++
+title = "Facebook Birthday List to ICS file"
+date = 2019-10-11T01:03:03+05:30
+draft = false
+categories = ["notes"]
+type = "post"
+url = "blog/2019/10/10/facebook-birthday"
++++
+
+I have recently stopped using facebook, but I really miss the convenience of 
+the birthday notifications. I tried to find the `.ics` which you could
+export from facebook events page to your calendar program
+but it was nowhere to be found and I thought I would have to 
+script scraping it myself.
+
+A quick search on github later, I found that someone had already beat me to it.
+
+You can find the repository on [github](github.com/mobeigi/fb2cal) and follow the documentation, but I 
+have documented the steps I followed below:
+
+The first step is to fetch the repository from github and editing the config.
+
+```bash
+git clone [email protected]:mobeigi/fb2cal.git
+
+cd fb2cal
+
+cp config/config-template.ini config/config.ini
+vim config/config.ini
+```
+
+I did not want to upload to google drive which is default so I edited the default config
+to save the file locally. In case you face errors, you might need to 
+set logging to `DEBUG` to figure out what went wrong.
+
+```ini
+[AUTH]
+fb_email = [email protected]
+fb_pass = xxxxxxxxxxx
+
+[DRIVE]
+upload_to_drive = False
+drive_file_id = 
+ics_file_name = birthdays.ics
+
+[FILESYSTEM]
+save_to_file = True
+ics_file_path = ./birthdays.ics
+
+[LOGGING]
+level = INFO
+```
+
+Now we need to download the dependencies, I prefer to use `pipenv` to automate
+the virtual environment creation but you can install them using `pip` as well. 
+
+```bash
+pipenv shell
+pipenv install
+```
+
+Now we need to run the script and wait for it to complete.
+
+```bash
+cd src
+python fb2cal.py
+```
+
+After it is complete you can view the `.ics` file and import it into your 
+calendar app.
+
+```bash
+cat birthdays.ics
+```
+
+Afterwards, don't forget to delete the `config.ini` file
+containing your facebook password in plaintext.