CUNY Academic Commons

Ok thanks.

I don't see an option to add a URL for a calendar on the iCal on my laptop, or on the calendar app on my phone so I can't test this, but is the idea that if you use the URL of the commons group event page (i.e. https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/gcdi/events/) then you are subscribed in a way that offers the functionality described above (new events will automatically add to your calendar) or no?

but is the idea that if you use the URL of the commons group event page (i.e. https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/gcdi/events/) then you are subscribed in a way that offers the functionality described above (new events will automatically add to your calendar) or no?

No, you wouldn't use the group calendar permalink. You would right-click the link for "Download iCalendar file" in the Subscribe block on the events calendar page and copy that URL:

And use this URL in your calendar app.

The intention is this will auto-update the calendar in your app. There might be bugs and inconsistencies as this hasn't been fully tested in all calendar apps and operating systems.

I'll try my PC's calendar app a little later to see if newly-added events are detected.

By "synced the calendar" which you say you did three times in your first point - do you mean you re-copied the URL link to your calendar or something else? And if something else, can you clarify please?

The goal functionality we're looking for is that any student of the GC will be able to copy that URL into their calendar app and stay up to date with GCDI's events and workshops. So its ok if the timing is delayed. And all events will be added and edited in the Commons group - no need to be able to edit from the calendar app. But we do want events to be added automatically to the students calendar if they have synced their calendar one time - a 60 min delay is not a big deal, but that it syncs up eventually is the point in question.

I will check again tomorrow, but right I was able to add the events to my google cal, but when i added additonal events to the Commons group cal, it did not show up on my google calendar - as of yet.

By "synced the calendar" which you say you did three times in your first point - do you mean you re-copied the URL link to your calendar or something else? And if something else, can you clarify please?

I created the calendar just once in my calendar app. The calendar app will usually take care of synchronization.

I was manually synchronizing the calendar in my calendar app because I had to test each individual change like adding, editing and deleting events on the Commons and I didn't want to wait.

Like I mentioned above, each calendar app might work differently. For my testing with Thunderbird, it appeared to work fine. If you run into any problems with other clients, please let me know.

thank you for clarifying. can we keep this ticket open until monday evening? I am waiting for the sync in google cal and we have fellows testing it on their own apps over the weekend. if its not any trouble on your end that would be good.

Ray or Kristen, might you be wiling to test with GCal? Or I can. I think we should test that calendar for the syching functionality because it's a very popular calendar tool

Thanks Ray - and for clarifying.

Matt - by GCal do you mean google calendar? if we're talking about the same thing, then I have/am testing with that one. The events have showed up using the link, I'm not getting the syncing/updates when new events are added to the Commons group calendar. I just published the event for today so I'm going to check in about an hour and will chime in if it is working. If I don't follow up, its because it is not working.

Just wanted to note from Google's documentation that synchronization changes can take up to 12 hours to appear:
https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100?hl=en&ref_topic=1672445

Note: It might take up to 12 hours for changes to show in your Google Calendar.

One bug I discovered is with private group iCalendar URLs.

Currently, when you try to fetch a private group calendar iCal URL like:
https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/PRIVATE-GROUP/events/SOME-LONG-HASH/ical/

On the Commons, it will ask you to login.

This shouldn't happen as calendar apps like Google Calendar will need the iCal URL to be publicly accessible without logging in.

I believe this used to be working, but something might have changed upstream in BuddyPress to break this functionality.

I created a new ticket to track this bug - #11891.

Kristen Hackett wrote:

Matt - by GCal do you mean google calendar? if we're talking about the same thing, then I have/am testing with that one. The events have showed up using the link, I'm not getting the syncing/updates when new events are added to the Commons group calendar. I just published the event for today so I'm going to check in about an hour and will chime in if it is working. If I don't follow up, its because it is not working.

Yes, exactly -- I meant google calendar. thanks!

Great - thanks for clarifying Matt!

So it does seem to be working for me. I am waiting to see if deleted events also sync.. like Ray mentioned, it does appear there's a 24 hour lag time.

Its not intuitive to copy the link there (it is intuitive to click on the link and download the iCal file) so my other question if if there documentation about how to use this feature on the Commons somewhere? I took a look around (i thought maybe here: https://help.commons.gc.cuny.edu/events-calendar/), and didn't see anything.

Matt, I'm thinking maybe you know, or maybe there is someone else I should ask this question of.. just let me know.

Hi Kristen -- the best person to ask about documentation is Scott Voth. I've added him to this ticket. Scott, please see above - thanks

Thanks Matt!

Scott- any insight into documentation to use this feature of the groups calendar? If not, we can include some on our calendar page when we add the link. Thanks!

Currently the documentation is pretty vague (or non-existent) about subscribing and syncing. It only focuses on the "Download ICal File" for a single event and it looks like the screenshot is slightly out of date. It doesn't mention that you can subscribe to a group's event calendar.

I will update the documentation.

Ray - Are you planning to implement your proposed changes in a maintenance release?

Ray - Are you planning to implement your proposed changes in a maintenance release?

Yes, but I wanted everyone's thoughts before I made them just in case anyone had any better ideas for the iCalendar link text and suggested description block.

This looks good to me! Thank you Ray! And thanks Scott for updating the documentation. When might these changes be implemented? I don't know the release schedule..

I don't know the release schedule

Updates are made every second Tuesday of each month. So the next update is October 8th.

If no one else has any other suggestions, I will make my proposed changes.