Export to .ics does not convert internal URLs to absolute links

Thanks, that is clear, it makes it far more easy to pinpoint the cause: the ALT-X-DESK is ok, but the DESCRIPTION part is where is still some work left. There is no conversion of the URLs done, at the moment. And even more.

Here the steps what we've done, and how we found an easy solution:

Event in JEvents we created as a test:
____________________________________
This is a test with link and an e-mail address.

List:

• Bullet one
  
• Bullet twee
  

====

email: [klik hier om te mailen]

End of content
_____________________________________

Export from JEvents
_____________________________________
This is a test with link (index.php/nl/nieuws/pp-nieuws) and an e-mail address.
List:

- Bullet one
- Bullet twee====

- email: [klik hier om te mailen (index.php/mail-aan-jan-allerman)]
End of content
_____________________________________
So, a local (useless) link as text (and the e-mail link nice as a link), list as dashed lines, \n missing after 'Bullet twee' and '====', next line still seen as if part of list, an other local link and an other missing \n. (And I think first line starting with DESCRIPTION might be some characters too long.)

DESCRIPTION:This is a test with link (index.php/nl/nieuws/pp-nieuws) and an <a href="/ma

 ilto:test@emailad.res">e-mail</a> address.\nList:\n\n - Bullet one\n - Bull

 et twee====\n\n -  email:              [klik hier om te mailen (index.php/m

 ail-aan-jan-allerman)] \nEnd of content\n

So we were curious if we would have made the event directly in Google Calendars...

Event pasted directly in Google Calendars
This shows exactly the same as in JEvents, with working links.
The code we see if we export that event is how it would nice if it was exported this way from JEvents:

DESCRIPTION:<blockquote>This is a test with <a href="http://www.peddelpraat

 .nl/index.php/nl/nieuws/pp-nieuws">link</a> and an <a href="mailto:test@ema

 ilad.res">e-mail</a> address.<br><br>List:<br><ul><li>Bullet one<br></li><l

 i>Bullet twee</li></ul>==== <br><br>email:              <a href="https://ww

 w.peddelpraat.nl/index.php/mail-aan-jan-allerman">[klik hier om te mailen]<

 /a><br><br>End of content</blockquote>

Aha, quite a lot of that code looks equal to the code at ALT-X-DESK. So let's try that...

A nice test!
As a test I have pasted exactly the content of the ALT-X-DESK in the DESCRIPTION part. That fixes all! 👍
So, if the content of both is how it is exported now at ALT-X-DESK, everything is perfect in Google Calendars too!

DESCRIPTION:<p>This is a test with <a href="http://www.peddelpraat.nl/">link</a> and an

  <a href="mailto:test@emailad.res">e-mail</a> address.</p><p>List:</p><ul><

 li>Bullet one</li><li>Bullet twee</li></ul><p>====</p><ol><li><span style="

 font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family:

  Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt 'Times N

 ew Roman';"> </span></span></span>email:              [<strong><a href="/htt

 ps://http://www.peddelpraat.nl/index.php/mail-aan-jan-allerman">klik hier om te ma

 ilen</a></strong>]</li></ol><p> </p><p>End of content</p>

Beautiful!

Request
I don't know if there any other calendars which cannot handle this code, otherways this would be the golden solution to have exact the same lines of code at ALT-X-DESK as at DESCRIPTION.
And if some other calendars might have problems with this, then a checkbox to switch on/off Google Calendars export would be an option.

Is there a possibility add this fix to the export function of JEvents? That would be marvellous!

Google won't import HTML calendar data - or didn't used to. We export x-alt-desc as the HTML version as many calendars use that as the HTML version of the raw event data

Hi, (back from some days off)

Thanks for your patience and help again.

Patch installed and Joomla update to 5.0,3 too.
When we export we see the content of the events twice in every item:
- first in plain text,
- second in html.
The html version looks good, so that is fine. But the plain text version is shown in Google Calendar. And that is without the right urls. So I think we are close.

* Is that right the export does 2 versions in every event?
* Or can we disable that?
* Or force to use only the html version?

(We have had an option before (checkbox) to export with format we had switched on before it disappeared. Although we don't have that option anymore, might it have any correlation?)

The installed version should make this work in google calendar as well as general iCal exports. I would suggest you install that package and see if it resolves your issue

Very hopeful to hear it should already be there. So probably there is something why it doesn't work at our site yet.

We are checking the versions. I will let you know.

I can't recreate the problem with my server - all relative Links are converted to absolute when I create an export. The change was implemented in JEvents 3.6.78

This modified version should apply the same change to the google calendar export and also not truncate the description since the google calendar now seems to support long URLs (in the past there was a limit so we truncated the description).

Ah - I think we are at 'cross-purposes'. I am talking about the link to the event within your calendar and I think you are talking about links embedded in the event description already.

The URLs should be converted to absolute URLs already - I'll run some more checks in our code

If it helps to search for the cause, or anyhow else in development, you can create more JEvents exports at our site:
Site home → [Menu] Activiteiten → Vaarkalender jaar → agenda export

We export the category: WK

Ok, no problem. We are very happy you take care of our issue. No complains!

No, we export a year and a single category. We've put 1 event in 2025, especially one where you can see our problem. That is why the ics is short.

Sorry for the slow response - I am away from the office this week and not online as often as normal.

Are you exporting single events to google calendar from the popup?

Is the question still clear?
The internal link is not working from a Google Calendar. So I hope the export will add:
https://www.domain.abc/

If I you need more info, please let me know.

Hi Geraint,

Sorry for the delay.
In the attached ics you can see the internal link, in stead of the URL:

Aanmelden:      <a href="/index.php/mail

 -aan-kees-huisman">via e-mail </a>

We have released a new build of JEvents now.

Can you upgrade to that and then give us an example of the iCal export that isn't generating valid URLs for you.

No, sorry.
I've been looking whether there were any extra possibilities within this version.
Unfortunately did not experience improvements for the URLs. All relative links in the agenda items are still useless in external agenda's.

Does this version resolve that issue?