Prototype support for Google Calendar
By waveywhite on Tuesday, 07 April 2009
Posted in Contribute to JEvents
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Hi,

I got excited about this idea and tried it out. [i:2dhp11r8]Please let me know what you think![/i:2dhp11r8].

Attached are a couple of files I have hacked to test the idea of putting Google Calendar support into JEvents.

The main benefit of doing this is to be able to share calendars between JEvents sites and anyone using Google Calendar. You would be able to still have local calendars but also include Google Calendars in your JEvents site.

Just reading Google Calendar data is enough to start sharing, but adding support for writing events using the Google calendar API would allow full editing of Google Calendars from JEvents.

After this, adding support for the full Google Calendar API would turn JEvents sites into data repositories and allow you to do things such as sync your PDA with your JEvents site without Google Calendar being involved.

This prototype is hard wired to the calendar it accesses but it downloads the data and parses it into the internal data model. To try it out place these files in the appropriate places in com_jevents, replacing existing files where necessary. This is definately Alpha code! This hack hides your existing calendar data but that isn't the aim of this idea.

-David.

p.s. If someone takes this on and code it I would be delighted! I don't have the bandwidth to do this myself atm. [attachment=0:2dhp11r8]<!-- ia0 -->com_jevents_gcal.zip<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2dhp11r8]
Hi David

A very interesting idea (unfortunately I think you missed your modified dbmodel.php file from the zip archive).

The data could be merged in with the JEvents calendar via merging result arrays using a plugin. In fact I've been wondering about importing events from other 'calendar' type applications like the EventsList component using this method.

Back to Google Calendar - why not just import the events from your google calendar using the ical link and using an autoupdater to keep JEvents in sync? My goal is to write a full iCal export which would allow the data to pass the other way.

Geraint
geraint
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16 years ago
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Hi Geraint,

Thank you for the response.

Oops, wrong version of dbmodule.php! Attached is an updated archive. [attachment=0:2ns7y1zz]<!-- ia0 -->com_jevents_gcal.zip<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2ns7y1zz]

Having a single repository for each calendar is the way to go on an on-line system. Having a single repository means that all updates are applied to one repository and reflected immediately everywhere that calendar is accessed from. This is scalable, there could be many different sites accessing and managing the same calendar.

In JEvents, merging results is certainly the way to go. in my hack (definitely a hatchet job) I bypassed the database but merging arrays of jIcalEventRepeat from different sources would be very easy. That layer in your data model looks ideal for this.

-David.
waveywhite
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16 years ago
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Hi David

I'm not sure you understood my point about the iCal import. This can be auto-updated via a cronjob so Google is your primary data source and you'd update your JEvents calendar on a daily basis (say) to reflect any changes in the Google dataset.

Geraint
geraint
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16 years ago
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Hi Geraint,

iCal support is definately important, it's great that you're putting it in. People will be able to sync their laptops, PDAs, phones with a JEvents calendar directly. Where supporting an API like Google's is important is in distributing data more widely, perhaps to several different websites including Google.

Google Calendar is very important, many people already use it to manage their time and have already set up to synchronise their calendar application with it, often paying a small amount for software to do it. They often won't be able to link up with a JEvents website as well, either because their software is not suitable or because they don't have the knowledge. Supporting Google's APIs would allow a user to modify an event on a JEvents website and then sync their mobile device with Google immediately. Also, other JEvents websites, also accessing the same Google Calendar, would also immediately show the change.

Supporting Google API would also be easy for website admins to set up and manage, only requiring the calendar identifier and access criteria. Many people will struggle to set up cron jobs properly and safely on their websites and some simply won't have that facility.

So there you have it, supporting Google API would be great for disseminating data without latency and for ease of use! You must be convinced now .

-David.
waveywhite
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16 years ago
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Hi Geraint,

Thank you for the response.

Oops, wrong version of dbmodule.php! Attached is an updated archive.


Hi Dave,
is this working? And is there a introduction how to install it?

Cheers Michael
pinguair
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15 years ago
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JEvents is easily integrated with Google Calendar.

Please open a new topic if you are having issues.

Thanks
Tony
tonyp
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11 years ago
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