[Building Sakai] calendar subscriptions problems

[Nuno Fernandes]

Also, for the community interest, I am sending my answer to sakai-dev :)
----


The external calendar subscriptions feature work in Sakai, but, AFAIK, it
still has some (big) limitations:

   - doesn't support full event days;
   - doesn't support events not defined with <VEVENT>;
   - doesn't support re-occurring events;
   - doesn't support events without end time

Most of these issues are limitations of the library used (ical4j) and the
ical import feature from the Schedule tool.
Although the same code is used for parsing, there's no need to have
"ical.experimental
= true" in sakai.properties - but yes, you can have it enabled!. Also, these
issues implies that the feature must be marked as "*experimental*".

That said, we are able to use it at production, but we need to carefully
review the ical file by hand after exporting it from 3rd party systems
(Google Calendar exports often need tweaking from my little experinece). As
an example, I have attached two ical files you may test in your
installation.

The only requirement for the feature to work is to have "
calendar.external.subscriptions.enable=true" in sakai.properties (all the
other settings are optional). Below, you'll find the excerpt from our
production servers:

# Enable External iCal Subscriptions (default: false)
calendar.external.subscriptions.enable=true
calendar.external.subscriptions.url.count=4
calendar.external.subscriptions.url.1=file:///servicos/sakai/ical/calendario-academico_2008-2009.ics
calendar.external.subscriptions.url.2=file:///servicos/sakai/ical/calendario-academico_2009-2010.ics
calendar.external.subscriptions.url.3=file:///servicos/sakai/ical/feriados-2009.ics
calendar.external.subscriptions.url.4=file:///servicos/sakai/ical/feriados-2010.ics
calendar.external.subscriptions.name.count=4
calendar.external.subscriptions.name.1=Calend\u00e1rio Acad\u00e9mico
2008-2009
calendar.external.subscriptions.name.2=Calend\u00e1rio Acad\u00e9mico
2009-2010
calendar.external.subscriptions.name.3=Feriados 2009
calendar.external.subscriptions.name.4=Feriados 2010
calendar.external.subscriptions.eventtype.count=4
calendar.external.subscriptions.eventtype.1=Academic Calendar
calendar.external.subscriptions.eventtype.2=Academic Calendar
calendar.external.subscriptions.eventtype.3=Special event
calendar.external.subscriptions.eventtype.4=Special event
calendar.external.subscriptions.institutional.cachetime=5
calendar.external.subscriptions.user.cachetime=5

Also, for "Institutional" calendar feeds, it is recommended to properly test
them against these kind of issues before putting them in production!

I hope this helps explainig your difficulties with setting up this feature.
In a sentence, some (or most) ical feeds will need to be revised before
attempting to subscribe on the Schedule tool.

Thanks,
Nuno

2009/9/30 Adam Marshall <adam.marshall at oucs.ox.ac.uk>

>  I thought I'd re-send this with a better subject line! ;)
>
>
>
> adam
>
>
>
> *From:* Adam Marshall [mailto:adam.marshall at oucs.ox.ac.uk]
> *Sent:* 30 September 2009 11:11
> *To:* wl-team at weblearn.ox.ac.uk
> *Subject:* Schedule woe
>
>
>
> I was going to send this to Sakai dev but then remembered matthews email
> about the types of events that subscribe didn't recognise. Is the ics file
> incompatible? It works fine as a subscription within google calendar.
>
> ==============
>
> Is this a bug or a 'feature'? Or is there a work around.
>
> I have a regular project site containing a schedule.
>
> The schedule has been exported:
>
> https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/access/calendar/ical/radiation-biology-09.ics
>
> This URL used as a subscription address for another schedule on a public
> (.anon) site. The permissions for the schedule on the public site are set
> such that .anon has read access for all events.
>
> One can subscribe to this URL without issue using a Google calendar.
>
> Why O why when I visit the site without logging-in do I see a calendar with
> no events listed? This sounds like a bug to me.
>
> adam
>  ------------------------------
>
>
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-- 
Nuno Fernandes  [www.linkedin.com/in/nfgrilo]
Software Developer - UFP-UV  [Universidade Virtual]
Software Developer - Sakai Foundation  [sakaiproject.org]
Sakai Fellow 2008 - Sakai Foundation  [
confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/FIF9AQ]

Universidade Fernando Pessoa  [www.ufp.pt]
Praça 9 de Abril, 349
4249-004 Porto
tel: + 351 22 507 13 00
fax: + 351 22 550 82 69
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