Calendar() class can not be initialized

[b3nmore]

Using the simple example from upstreams readme (https://github.com/bear/parsedatetime) raises an error:

$python
>>> import parsedatetime.parsedatetime as pdt
>>> cal = pdt.Calendar()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/parsedatetime/__init__.py", line 216, in __init__
    self.ptc = Constants()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/parsedatetime/__init__.py", line 1733, in __init__
    self.locale = pdtLocales['icu'](self.localeID)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/parsedatetime/pdt_locales.py", line 151, in __init__
    self.icu = pyicu.Locale(localeID)
icu.InvalidArgsError: (<type 'icu.Locale'>, '__init__', (None,))

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Greg Lutostanski (lutostag)]

parsedatetime has an optional dependency on a specific version python-pyicu, which is not documented -- it seems that the current trusty version 1.5-2ubuntu4 does not play nice.

Workaround is to explicity disable pyicu, for example use:

import parsedatetime.parsedatetime as pdtal = pdt.Calendar()
cal = pdt.Calendar(pdt.Constants(usePyICU=False))

I'll dig and see if I can come up with the exact pyicu version dependency parsedatetime expects.

[bear (bear42)]

Technically I made it so that any version of PyICU will work but from what I see of that bug it appears that something has changed in the parameters.

Removing PyICU completely would break things for the folks who are using parsedatetime for non-US languages - do you want me to fix this bug with the most recent version of PyICU (or the version you tell me is needed for Ubuntu?)

[Greg Lutostanski (lutostag)]

Hi bear,

Good point, looks like disabling PyICU is not a good workaround then.

If we can get it to work with the python-pyicu version (1.5) currently in trusty I think that would be best for now. I know its quite a bit outdated, I will look into getting that updated to a more recent version as well.

If getting it to work with 1.5 turns out to be a debacle, comment here and we'll look for a better solution.

I am willing to test the changes on my end if need be.

BTW, this is such a useful package, I love it :). Thanks!

[bear (bear42)]

Glad it is still useful!

I will schedule some time tonight or tomorrow to get it up to at least PyICU 1.5 and report back

[bear (bear42)]

I am having troubling in stalling pyicu-1.7 from the tarball - is there a v1.5 plus ppa available that I can use?

[Greg Lutostanski (lutostag)]

I don't think you need to install pyicu-1.7, the released packages for pyicu are at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pyicu

I can setup a ppa if needed. But if you are on trusty or saucy you should just be able to:
apt-get install python-pyicu
and then go about seeing if a fix works.

What release are you testing on?

also, feel free to ping me on irc if desired.

[icactus (itrapkus)]

Looks like this is also part of an old problem with parsedatetime. (https://github.com/maebert/jrnl/issues/52)

I just updated parsedatetime and everything works now:

sudo pip install --upgrade parsedatetime

[Greg Lutostanski (lutostag)]

Glad to hear it was updated upstream.

The two commits that need to be cherry-picked into a patch for the deb from upstream git repo at https://github.com/bear/parsedatetime.git to fix this directly are:
51d47dd57a8ac
692168f4bd336

Also making a note that this package needs to be updated in debian as well.

[Andrés (cyver-yo)]

The icactus' workaround may need that you install pip first.

sudo apt-get install python-pip

then you can upgrade parsedatetime.

[Jackson Doak (noskcaj)]

This is fixed in debian, i'll sync it soon

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package parsedatetime - 1.2-1

---------------
parsedatetime (1.2-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * Team upload.

  [ Jakub Wilk ]
  * Use canonical URIs for Vcs-* fields.

  [ Jackson Doak ]
  * Sync from ubuntu. Closes: #485054 #717991
  * Bump standards-version to 3.9.5 (no changes)
  * Use dh and debhelper 9 for building

  [ Vincent Cheng ]
  * Remove obsolete patches.

 -- Jackson Doak <email address hidden> Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:08:43 +1000

[JAPrufrock (rwcarlson)]

Got it! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Giulio Malventi (giulio-people)]

Still valid on 14.04.

[eric (vongesell)]

On 14.04 pip --upgrade parsedatetime appears to work. Additionally installing from sources with latest version works. Just make certain you dont have old copies of the library laying around. Then actual route I got to the fix involved removing the library from /usr/lib and /usr/local/lib and then installing via pip. To check the solution via sources I installed the version installed via pip and installed then from sources. So both options worked for me on 14.04

[Unit 193 (unit193)]

parsedatetime 1.4-1~ubuntu14.04.1 has now been backported to Trusty (LP: #1510329)