Problem with formatting of ICal Download

By rusasadmins on Tuesday, 26 April 2022

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When someone downloads an iCal file from our calendar, the formatting is incorrect.

If you don't click "Preserve formatting in description" you see something like this in the downloaded iCal:

Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience\nCBN Seminar Series\nZoom Link | Meeting ID: 983 2799 5166| Password: 139285\n12:00PM, Friday, May 6, 2022\nFollowed by a book signing by the author\nD406 Nelson Labs\nDr. Karl Herrup\nUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and author of “How Not to Study a Disease”\n“Alzheimer's alternatives: new insights into the function of APP (the amyloid precursor protein)”\n

If you do click "Preserve formatting in description" you get HTML code:



<p style="text-align: center;">Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience</p><p style="text-align: center;">CBN Seminar Series</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/98327995166?pwd=UThCWWNuNHRjdTRXK1VITnh2YmhRUT09">Zoom Link</a> | Meeting ID: 983 2799 5166| Password: 139285</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>12:00PM, Friday, May 6, 2022</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Followed by a book signing by the author</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>D406 Nelson Labs</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Dr. Karl Herrup</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine </strong><strong>and author of “How Not to Study a Disease”</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;">“Alzheimer's alternatives: new insights into the function of APP (the amyloid precursor protein)”</p>

Is there a solution for this?

Thanks,
Eddie

Sorry - a slip up, I used 'h' in the time format instead of 'H' and I'd only tested with am events

geraint

2 years ago

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#226061

The description field in an iCal export should be in quoted-printable format - no HTML, wrapping at 75 characters etc.

The importing calendar app should convert this back to a more readable format.

What calendar app are you importing into? Can you give us the iCal export URL to take a look at?

geraint

2 years ago

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#225902

Here is an example of a JEvent that gives us this problem:

https://cbn.rutgers.edu/seminars-events/seminar-series/icalrepeat.detail/2022/05/06/663/-/dr-karl-herrup-seminar

We are using Outlook to import the events. What is strange is that Outlook can handle other ics files without this problem - for example, Zoom invitations. It is only JEvents that is giving us this problem.

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#225904

Outlook is capable of handling the formatted output (which other calendars are not) - perhaps we could add new buttons for creating the event directly in outlook (like to do for google) e.g.

https://outlook.office.com/owa/?path=/calendar/action/compose&rru=addevent&startdt=2021-05-24T12%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&enddt=2021-05-25T12%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&subject=Test&location=Attineos&body=blabla

or

https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/calendar/action/compose&rru=addevent&startdt=2021-05-24T12%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&enddt=2021-05-25T12%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&subject=Test&location=Attineos&body=blabla

I'd need to experiment with the HTML formatting.

geraint

2 years ago

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#225905

Thanks, that would be great!

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#225908

This will be included in the next release of JEvents - I've done some testing and it appears to work ok.

If you'd like to try it on a test site I am attaching a pre-release build

geraint

2 years ago

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#225922

This works really well on Joomla! 4. On Joomla! 3, most of the icons are missing in the Download iCal modal window:

https://cbn.rutgers.edu/seminars-events/events/icalrepeat.detail/2022/05/06/663/-/seminar-alzheimer-s-alternatives-new-insights-into-the-function-of-app-the-amyloid-precursor-protein-dr-karl-herrup

Thanks,
Eddie

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#225986

That's really strange, do you have an override in templates/your_templates/com_jevents/ by any chance?

Many thanks
Tony

tonyp

2 years ago

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#225990

We have one template override for com_jevents:

/html/com_jevents/flatplus/search/form_body.php



<?php 

defined('_JEXEC') or die('Restricted access');

?>



<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">

	<tr>

		<td align="center" width="100%">

			<form action="<?php echo JRoute::_("index.php?option=".JEV_COM_COMPONENT."&task=search.results&Itemid=".$this->Itemid);?>" method="post" style="font-size:1;">

				<label for="keyword"><?php echo "Enter your search terms:";?></label>

				<input type="text" id="keyword" name="keyword" size="30" maxlength="50" class="inputbox" value="<?php echo $this->keyword;?>" />

				<label for="showpast"><?php echo JText::_("JEV_SHOW_PAST");?></label>

				<input type="checkbox" id="showpast" name="showpast" value="1" <?php echo JFactory::getApplication()->input->getInt('showpast',0)?'checked="checked"':''?> />

				<input class="button" type="submit" name="push" value="<?php echo JText::_('JEV_SEARCH_TITLE'); ?>" />

			</form>

		</td>

	</tr>

</table>

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#225996

There should be new icons in https://cbn.rutgers.edu/media/com_jevents/images/icons-32/ e.g. gcal32.png, outlookicon31.png (sic) and yahoo32.png.

These are not on this server but they are in the package I uploaded last week and I just tested them on a Joomla 3 site and they worked ok. Can you check your server?

geraint

2 years ago

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#226001

I checked the server and they weren't there. I copied them over from the Joomla! 4 site I used to test the pre-release file. Note: on the site that was missing the icons, I had updated JEvents using YourSites.

Thanks, Eddie

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#226007

OK, now when I click "Send to Microsoft Outlook" it doesn't add the event to the right day and time - it adds it to today:

https://cbn.rutgers.edu/seminars-events/events/icalrepeat.detail/2022/05/06/663/-/seminar-alzheimer-s-alternatives-new-insights-into-the-function-of-app-the-amyloid-precursor-protein-dr-karl-herrup

-Eddie

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#226008

Strange - the date fields have been dropped in the URL.

Can you try this alternative build - I've just tested with various event times and dates and they seem to work ok (documentation is pretty sketchy!!).

geraint

2 years ago

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#226012

OK, we're getting closer. The date is correct now, but the time is incorrrect (off by 4 hours). I checked the JEvents config and the time zone is correct on both the main details and the iCal Export settings.

Please see screen shots:

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#226014

What timezones do you have for:

1. PHP/Server
2. Joomla (Global config)
3. JEvents (bottom of first tab)
4. JEvents (import/export tab)
5. Outlook

6. Outlook Meeting TimeZone

I'll then try to recreate the problem.

geraint

2 years ago

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#226025

Here's what we have:

1. PHP/Server = UTC
2. Joomla (Global config) = New York
3. JEvents (bottom of first tab) = AMERICA/NEW YORK
4. JEvents (import/export tab) = AMERICA/NEW YORK
5. Outlook = (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
6. Outlook Meeting TimeZone = (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Thanks,
Eddie

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#226052

Ok - I think I have it now

Sometimes being based in the UK with our timezone means testing these timezone offsets can be fiddly!

geraint

2 years ago

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#226054

Thanks for your continued efforts. Unfortunately, it added the event at 12:00am for Friday, instead of 12:00pm.

-Eddie

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#226057

It works! Thanks for all your work on this.

-Eddie

rusasadmins

2 years ago

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#226084