ical functions
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greetings, thank you for taking the time to help in these matters. i have downloaded and installed event organizer on my wordpress site. it is not live yet till i figure out some bugs. my main question concerns ical sync. if i am correct, the free version of event organizer will allow you to import an ical from your computer and display it in a calendar format. the imported information seems fairly limited in terms of what people will be able to see on your website. currently on my website (www.johnnyblive.com) if you click on a gig the location, website and a map appear. with the free version it seems that only location and time appear. do i need to purchase something that would allow me to easily export my ical, have appear on my website calendar and have links that people could click to get further information. my current theme makes me add shows one at a time into the theme and i also add them to my ical so the family can keep up to date with me. i am trying to avoid entering the same gig twice, once im my ical and once on my wordpress site. i’m not sure if i have explained it well enough and i am hoping you can help. i am more than willing to buy the pro version or anything that will make my life simple. once again thank you for your help in these matters and i look forward to hearing from you.
johnny b
johntbarney@yahoo.comjohnny b
the free version of event organizer will allow you to import an ical from your computer and display it in a calendar format
That is correct :).
the imported information seems fairly limited in terms of what people will be able to see on your website.
Yes, but only limited to what the iCal format provides for. For instance the iCal format doesn’t provide for venue details beyond a name and latitude/longitude co-ordinates. If you upload (or sync) with an iCal feed then the venue name and co-ordinates (if present) will be used to create a venue (if necessary), or assign the imported event to an existing venue. When manually you uploading an ical file you will need to click the appropriate checkboxes to import venues (and categories).
with the free version it seems that only location and time appear.
Even in the free version a map will automatically appear on the event’s page if you have assigned the event a venue, and that venue is given an address. (see, for example).
do i need to purchase something that would allow me to easily export my ical,
No, the free version generates an iCal feed for your site automatically. These feed is given in your Settings > Event Organiser > General page.
I hope I’ve answered all your questions, if not or if you have any follow up ones, I’ll be happy to answer them for you.
Stephen Harris
thank you so much for getting back to me so quick. i believe i only have one more question for you, hopefully. how should i create the event in ical so it properly imports into event organizer? for example, when i create a new event in ical the new event entry point should be the title of event? the location entry point should be where the event is (should i put address there so a map is created? or what information is needed to create the map?). i’m very impressed with this addition to my wordpress site and i really want to do it right the first time. once again thank you very much for your help in these matters.
johnny b
Hi Johnny,
You’re welcome :). So you are maintaining an iCal feed which you would like to import automatically into your WordPress site?
If you manually creating a
.icsfile then- SUMMARY = event title
- DESCRIPTION = event content
- VENUE = the venue name
- GEO = latitude,longitdude (seperated by a semi-colon).
(other fields should hopefully be obvious, e.g. start, end date/time)
If you are using a calendar client to generate the iCal feed (e.g. Google calendar) it will depend very much on that client. But hopefully that client will make it obvious for you.
I should note that the iCal specifications don’t provide a set format for VENUE. Event Organiser just uses this as the name of the venue. Details such as an address would have to be entered manually, but only once. The venue name and geo tags should be enough to create a map however.
greetings once again,
i am maintaining an ical for all of my gigs on my computer which i export to my desktop and import into the event organizer, unless there is an easier way. in terms of the new event creation, the only choices are: event title and location plus the obvious ones such as time and repeat event. i assume the title is what it is and location is where it is. in terms of where it is do i enter a street address, city, state and zip code or something else?<br />
i’m sure you’re excited to know i also have a new question for you. i have noticed when i import a new version of my calendar into event organizer that the old version is still there and now i have duplicate entries for the same event. is there a way to clear the schedule before i import a new one? thanks again for everything.johnny b
Hi Johnny,
As mentioned above the iCal specification doesn’t provide for venue address (road/city/state etc). You would just entered the name of the location, e.g. “The Kings Theatre”, or “Biblos Bar”. The address would have to be added manually as through WordPress as there is no specification on how addresses should be handled in an iCal feed.
But would it not be simpler just to create the events in WordPress? If you required a copy of your events in iCal format that you can just let Event Organiser do it for you. (It generates an iCal feed automatically for you, and you can also download the iCal file if needed).
Regarding duplication, unfortunately currently the manual import doesn’t handle duplicates – only iCal sync does this.
thank you once again. i don’t know what i would do without you. i believe the best scenario is buying the ical sync and letting it do the work for me, do you agree? if the pro version is better i would be glad to buy it or if all i need is ical sync i will buy it now. thank you.
Unless there is anything in Pro that you need, then I’d recommend just purchasing iCal sync.
That said, it seems you only needed iCal sync to import events from an iCal feed. If instead you’re creating events through the WordPress admin, then there is no need for subscribing to iCal feeds. I think, you just need the free version 🙂
so, once again i’m sorry. i purchased and installed the ical sync. where do i find my ical name and source to supply the wordpress site?
The name is anything you like, the source is the publicly accessible url by which the feed can be obtained. I should have made this clearer, because I don’t think iCal sync is what you need – if the ‘feed’ is a file on a computer, it (in general) won’t be accessible publicly via an url.
I’d be happy to refund the purchase, if you’d like me to.
However, as I mentioned in my previous message – if you just create the events through your WordPress site, that will safe you a lot of effort. Additionally, if you want an iCal feed for others to subscribe to, then it generates one for you (in the free version).
greetings,
you will be glad to know i now have made a yahoo calendar and i am now syncing dates/gigs between wordpress and yahoo. so far so good, i realized i had to create a yahoo calendar for this syncing to work. you have been a wonderful help, thank you for everything. early in this thread we talked about the ability for a map to pop up when somebody clicks on the show. i have entered addresses for all my shows, does the map appear when the page is live or am i doing something wrong?
johnny b
Hi Johnny,
The map should appear on the event page. If it’s not visible there, are you able to post a link to the site? (Otherwise, you can e-mail it privately via wp-event-organiser.com/contact).
Can you confirm that the venues are being created (See Events > Venues in your WordPress admin) and that they are assigned to the events (see Events in your WordPress admin).