Converts the ICS download of garbage collection dates into a single A4-sized Excel file for printing. Useful in some parts of Germany.
The ICS download is available from https://YOURCITY.mein-abfallkalender.online/, where YOURCITY must be replaced with, you guessed it, your city. Not all communities in Germany are listed, but if yours is missing, you can register for a notification as soon as it gets added.
The result of the conversion looks something like this:
The file should be printed on one page, so select "Fit sheet on one page" when printing from Excel. Also, choosing narrow margins is a good idea.
https://github.com/tsjensen/abfall/releases
In order to run the program, you need:
- Java 8 or newer (download) - A JRE is sufficient, unless you want to develop it (see below).
- The
JAVA_HOMEenvironment variable points to your Java. This normally means it is set to a value similar toC:\PROGRA~1\Java\jdk8u202-b08(on Windows). - The downloaded program unzipped to a directory somewhere.
Change into the directory where you unpacked the program, then:
bin\abfall -y 2024 my-downloaded.ics
and it will generate the .xlsx file.
Additional options are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-h,--help |
Print usage information |
-l,--locale <code> |
Locale for printing date information (not a real translation; default: de) |
-o,--output <xls> |
Name of the Excel file to create (output file) |
-y,--year <year> |
(required) The four-digit year for which the summary is being created |
The --locale option will only affect the month and weekday names, it is not a full translation.
When a garbage collection date falls onto a public holiday, the weekday name will appear underlined. This is to signify that it is unlikely that they will be able to actually come on that day.
Holidays are configured in a property file. They are specific to a particular year, so they may not fit. I will update to the current year when I use the program for myself.
Same prereqs as for running it, but make sure you have a JDK, plus Git.
git clone https://github.com/tsjensen/abfall.git
cd abfall
.\gradlew build
The unpacked distribution will be created in build/distributions/unpacked.
The program is complete and ready to use.
But: It makes a lot of assumptions about its input, and is only used once per year by myself anyway, so your mileage may vary. Do let me know about any quirks, though.
The program is free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3.