{"id":261,"date":"2012-01-19T12:59:46","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T19:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joshualyman.com\/?p=261"},"modified":"2020-07-06T20:57:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T01:57:13","slug":"get-linkedin-contact-birthdays-in-ical-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joshualyman.com\/2012\/01\/get-linkedin-contact-birthdays-in-ical-format\/","title":{"rendered":"Get all your LinkedIn contacts’ birthdays in iCal format"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 2:<\/strong> Unfortunately LinkedIn removed the ability to grab the birthdays of your connections from its API a while ago, so this tool no longer works. \ud83d\ude41 Sorry all! Tell LinkedIn you want this back!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Update:\u00a0<\/strong>I recently reworked this tool and added some more options, and moved it to its own domain: http:\/\/www.linkedinbirthdays.com\/<\/a> Enjoy!<\/strike><\/p>\n

Presenting a little tool to the world that others may find handy: my LinkedIn Birthday Reminders web app<\/a>. It hooks into the LinkedIn API, grabs a list of your contacts, and generates an iCal file that you can import into your calendaring program and receive reminders throughout the year. (Can be imported into Outlook, Google Calendar, OS X’s iCal, etc.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

The motivation behind creating this? First, LinkedIn gives you no easy way of exporting the data yourself. Second, I needed an excuse to learn Node.js<\/a>. A few hours and an entire RFC<\/a> later, I had a nice working prototype.<\/p>\n

How does it work? It begins with the official LinkedIn API, and the ability to do an OAuth sign-in from any site. When you click on the sign in button (and don’t worry, I never gain access to your credentials), LinkedIn authorizes the request, and then some Javascript extracts a list of your contacts’ names and birthdays. This is then sent to my Node server and script via AJAX, and for everyone that has a usable birth date, the Node script cycles through them and generates a .ics file to download. The link to the file is passed back to the browser and presented as a download button, and after the download is complete, the file is then scrubbed from the server. Fairly simple stuff, and when I get around to it, I’ll put the source on GitHub. If you spot any bugs, be sure to let me know<\/a>!<\/p>\n

I invite you to try it out<\/a> and grab the downloadable .ics for your contacts, and then make everyone’s birthday a little bit brighter by sending them some special day wishes!<\/p>\n

Resources used:<\/h3>\n