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Still no iCal URL subscription in calendar app? [released]

asked 2019-03-31 20:38:04 +0300

tortzuhrwelt gravatar image

updated 2019-03-31 23:31:57 +0300

Maus gravatar image

Multiple questions about iCal/ics have been closed with the remark, CalDAV implementation would be sufficient in that regard.

Just to make clear, what I would like to do by an easy example: Imagine one wants to import school holiday dates from different regions in Germany. Each should be shown in different colors, and it should be possible to turn any of them on and off separately. So that one can plan for holidays with friends and family from different regions regularly, but having only the own region visible most of the time. There are different providers of updated calendars, they provide links like this one:

http://i.cal.to/ical/76/hessen/ferien/33fea274.08627e19-76527123.ics

With any other device, it is possible to import that format. As far as I understand, the only way to import synchronizing calendar data in Sailfish is to sync via CalDAV. But this is not possible for resources like the above, wich only transfer data in one direction and therefore don't need username nor password.

So my feature request is the following: It would be nice for calendar data in general, to be able subscribing to it out of the app, independent of the format. But for this simple one-way-services, it would make even more sense. It should be possible to import services like that by pulldown from the menu "organize calendars".

This request has been made for years and years, one of the earliest was in 2013. And many of them have been closed, as mentioned above. Please, vote this one up!!! And don't close it down!!! (Unless there is an easy solution to this.)

ANYWAY it would be much more intuitive to be able to set up ALL calendar synchronization services from inside the app.

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The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by Damien Caliste
close date 2020-04-28 23:08:06.707106

Comments

1

AFAIK, you can download the ICS, open it in the file browser and import it that way.

bomo ( 2019-03-31 21:00:00 +0300 )edit

Thanks for your advice, that way I can import the newest data to an existing calendar. It would not synchronize that way to the original source. Also, this solution makes it impossible to switch it on and of. And synchronizing it with my mailbox.org account, from where anything else is distributed to my other devices, is problematic: Having set up the *.ics-link as separate calendars everywhere else, the data would now not only show up permanently, but also twice in any calendar app outside the sailfish device. With other words, using my Sailfish device shouldn't block me from using *.ics-links on all other devices.

I really hope for a clean solution. There are companies and schools, who distribute their latest updated list of events via .ics-link. Or cultural players like concert halls and opera houses. As far as I understand, this is a basic standard. It can not be so difficult to implement (...speaks somebody who is totally illiterate at coding...)

tortzuhrwelt ( 2019-03-31 22:11:26 +0300 )edit
1

The part I don't understand: If you are syncing via a caldav server anyway, why not creating a second calendar on the server that subscribes to the ICS link from above?

bomo ( 2019-03-31 22:42:44 +0300 )edit
1

@torzurwelt: today im doing "shoot first, ask questions later". I have renamed the question.
That is: The way I get it you would like to subsribe to an online iCal containing German holidays. Not import an ICS file into any calendar stored on (or synced to) your device, which already is possible

rozgwi ( 2019-03-31 22:57:34 +0300 )edit

@bomo: Up until now, setting up a caldav account on my Sailfish device only did import one of the several calendars there at a time. For any single calendar on the same external account, like, say, my mailbox.org account, I need to create a separate account on my Sailfish device. Wich is a simple but tidy solution. Not as simple as importing it directly via the calendar app, but I see the logic there. On the other hand, that does only work for the caldav protocol (???if that is the right word-choice???), it does not work for calendars without password etc. And the server above does not simply translate these *.ics feature into a caldav to be distributed from, in my case, mailbox.org. So: Sailfish does only pick single calendars via caldav and that excludes the simlpe *.ics-links. IDK, perhaps because they work oneway, read only.

tortzuhrwelt ( 2019-03-31 23:01:06 +0300 )edit

3 Answers

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answered 2019-09-09 23:30:46 +0300

updated 2020-04-28 23:09:17 +0300

Edit 2020-04-28: this has been merged in version 3.3.0.

See https://together.jolla.com/question/651/support-for-icalvcal-calendars/?answer=213235#post-id-213235

I'm proposing there a very preliminary implementation for this feature request.

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1

answered 2019-08-22 13:48:06 +0300

gustl gravatar image

updated 2019-08-22 13:48:25 +0300

Please add this!

Sadly many organisations only offer their events as online .ical-files... The thing is: These cange often, therefore it is not an option to re-import them every time. And having to use workarounds for simple things like this (at least seemingly simple - from an end-user perspective) deters people from using sailfish on a day-to-day basis.

As of the access to the calendar account settings: I actually quite like having all accounts in one place, but having some kind of link in the calendar app forwarding you to the corresponding settings page would be nice. Same thing for the mail app.

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answered 2019-04-01 10:03:41 +0300

Maus gravatar image

What you want to achieve is quite easy to do with mailbox.org, but rather tedious in combination with SFOS in its current state. But it's possible to get what you want!

In mailbox.org, in calendar view, click on Add calendar in the left panel. Then choose Add from URL (iCal). There you can add the URL you want to use. After finishing this step, you can rename the calendar appropriately, like School holidays state X 2019.

Now to the Sailfish part of the problem. Unfortunately, you have to remove your DAV account whenever you add or delete a calendar on the remote end, and re-create the account to have those server-side changes reflected on your phone.

Before you re-create the account, look at the Propertiesof your primary calendar in mailbox.org. It will show a CalDAV URL similar to this: https://dav.mailbox.org/caldav/ABCDEFGHIJKL12. Use this address as Server address when creating the DAV account on your phone. Be sure to leave both fields Address book path and Calendar path empty.

After pressing Accept, the account creation process will list all calendars and address books it has access to. All of them are usually pre-selected. Choose those you need and accept the settings. Now you have a *DAV account with multiple calendars.

In your Calendar app, use Manage calendars to assign colors to your calendars and switch them on or off as you like.

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Comments

1

This answer will work with a standard SFOS installation. As @bomo commented above, Schturman's candle lighting times (Lichtzündzeiten) patch will also solve your problem. This is because school holidays are known long in advance, and don't ever change, so it's OK to import an .ics file instead of subscribing to an URL.

Maus ( 2019-04-01 13:46:37 +0300 )edit

Whilst this is a solution, it is kind of sad one has to resort to such workarounds using external services for such a basic function...

gustl ( 2019-08-22 13:37:08 +0300 )edit

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Asked: 2019-03-31 20:38:04 +0300

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Last updated: Apr 28 '20