Calendar Feeds (ICS)

If your church already keeps its calendar somewhere else, you can show that calendar on your site instead of entering events twice. Any calendar that has a public ICS link works, including Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud, and Church Center.

Keep editing events in your calendar as usual. Your site reads the calendar directly, so nothing is copied into Studio. That also means feed events don't appear in your Events list and can't be edited in Studio.

Connect your calendar (~5 minutes)

You'll need: your calendar's public ICS link, and access to Settings → Events in Studio.

1. Copy your calendar's public ICS link. It usually ends in .ics, and webcal:// links work too.
2. In Studio, open Settings → Events.
3. Under Event Source, choose Calendar feed (ICS link).
4. Paste the link into Calendar Feed URL.
5. Click Test feed. If the link works, you'll see the calendar's name, how many upcoming events it found, and the next few events.
6. Click Publish.

Testing doesn't save anything, and your site won't change until you publish. Changes can take up to 15 minutes to appear.

Finding the link in Google Calendar

1. Open Google Calendar's Settings and select your calendar.
2. Turn on Make available to public.
3. Copy the Public address in iCal format.

For other calendar apps, look for a sharing option that makes the calendar public and gives you an ICS or iCal link. The link to the calendar's web page won't work.

What visitors see

Feed events appear on your Events page in the list, grid, and month views, and in Upcoming Events blocks that show upcoming events automatically.

• Title, time, description, and location come from the calendar. Descriptions are shown as a short plain-text summary.
• Times use the Display Timezone in Event Settings, and all-day events show as all day.
• Recurring events appear as one entry per date.
• Images don't come from the calendar. Every feed event uses the Fallback Event Image from Event Settings, so it's worth setting one.
• Maps: a location links to a Google Maps search for that address. Feed events don't show the map used on Studio events.
• Date range: only events in the next 180 days are shown, up to 500 events.
• Hidden events: cancelled events and events marked private are left out.

Where event links go

Feed events don't get their own page on your site. If a calendar entry has a URL of its own, the event links there. Otherwise it links to the Calendar Page Link in Event Settings, which is a good place to put your church's public calendar page. If neither is set, the event appears without a link.

What changes in your existing blocks

• Filter by Category does nothing on an automatic Upcoming Events block. The block shows events from the whole feed, even if a category is selected. To show only one ministry's events, enter them in Studio and hand-pick them on the block.
• Hand-picked events still work. If Show Upcoming events? is turned off on a block, it keeps showing the Studio events you chose.

Your existing Studio events aren't deleted. Switch Event Source back to Events entered in this Studio and publish, and they'll return.

Troubleshooting

Test feed explains most problems when you run it. These are the most common:

| Message | What to do | |---|---| | Couldn't reach that calendar | Check the link and that the calendar is shared publicly. | | The calendar server answered with an error | In Google Calendar, make sure Make available to public is on. | | That link didn't return a calendar (ICS) file | You probably copied the calendar's web page. Copy the ICS or iCal address instead. | | It has no upcoming public events | The link works, but there's nothing public in the next 180 days. Add an event, or check that your events aren't marked private. | | The calendar took too long to respond | Wait a minute and try again. |

A change in my calendar isn't on the site yet. Wait 15 minutes, then refresh the page. Some calendar services also take a while to update their public link.

My events disappeared. If your calendar can't be reached, your site keeps showing the last copy it loaded when it can. If it has no copy, the page shows no events until the calendar is back. Run Test feed to check the link.