Google Calendar integration is unusable

  • Resolved thejagon

    (@thejagon)


    5 years, 9 months ago

    Hi, I’ve been using the iCal Export add-on to get appointments appearing in Google calendar, the only problem is that google calendar takes an inordinate amount of time to update the “from URL” file. There is no refresh option and the only way to get new appointments to appear is to cache bust the file loading by adding “?someRandomText” after the URL.

    It’s really mind boggling why google haven’t fixed this after 5-6 years of people complaining, but is there any chance you have considered using the google calendar API to add/remove/update appointments instead of using an iCal file? That would be a really awesome feature for me, otherwise I may have to find a better solution as my client is not really impressed with having to wait between 12-48 hours for appointments to update in her calendar.

    Another issue is that using the iCal method you have to do weird offsetting for the local time, for example, you need to set the “iCal timezone difference vs server time” to negative whatever your local time is, for me -11 because my client is in Melbourne which is +11. Google calendar seems to add +11 to whatever the time in the iCal file which makes it equal to the local time. This is very strange. Should just be able to set the offset to +11 because the server time is 0 (GMT). So overall, this method is not very useful for me.

    I’m sure that many other people are suffering from google’s unwillingness to fix this too.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Author codepeople

    (@codepeople)

    Hi,

    We have just published the plugin version 1.0.91 that makes easier the iCal timezone configuration, including a feature to detect the recommemded settings.

    Regarding to the delay in the iCal automatic exports to Google, we are aware about the delays due to the way Google Calendar manage the iCal refresh (out of the scope of the plugin).

    We are already working in a Google API export add-on for real-time exporting to Google. This feature will be initially an add-on for the commercial version of the plugin, however if you want to test the beta version of the add-on please post a private ticket at https://apphourbooking.dwbooster.com/

    Thank you for your feedback!

    Thread Starter thejagon

    (@thejagon)

    Awesome! Thanks for that!

    Plugin Author codepeople

    (@codepeople)

    Hi,

    This is just a quick note to confirm that there are new tags available for being used in both the emails and iCal integrations, allowing additional customization to the contents exported to third party calendars like Google Calendar, the new tags are listed in the following FAQ entry: https://apphourbooking.dwbooster.com/faq#q81

    This new feature is valid for both the iCal Export add-on available in the free version of the plugin and the new real-time Google Calendar API add-on already available in the commercial version of the plugin.

    Thank you for your feedback!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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