Cannot download any data "The preview is taking longer than expected."

[Jason]

I just purchased the Events Aggregator but so far have not been able to import the feed which is most critical to me. I get a message that “Your preview is taking a bit longer than expected, but it is still being generated.” And then it just quits after a few minutes.

The feed is this:
http://nt-evanced.ccclib.org/evanced/lib/eventsxml.asp?ag=&et=&lib=18&nd=30&feedtitle=Pleasant+Hill+Library%3CBR%3EPrograms+and+Events&dm=ical&LangType=0

I’ve tried the URL and the ICS file. Both fail with “The preview is taking longer than expected. Please try again in a moment.”
I’ve turned off all other plugins except for the Maintenance mode plugin while I test and the Events Calendar plugins.

I am so hoping this can be worked out. I tried many plugins before deciding on The Events Calendar and this was the one critical feature I could not test before purchase. I was able to import this feed with Time.ly so I was sure Events Calendar could do the same.

[Nico]

Hi there Jason,

Thanks for getting in touch to report this issue!

I could verify this is not returning the preview at any point. But I think this is due to the ICS file being invalid (validation results). Anyway let me check with our dev team to see why this hangs and doesn’t show an error message as it should.

I’ll be back with more on this soon!

Best,
Nico

[Jason]

Hi Nico,
Here is the Evanced feed guide: http://kb.evanced.info/article.php?id=77

I’ve tried modifying the string to eliminate seemingly unnecessary items which don’t seem to modify the output but I do get a different error when trying to import such output as an ics file.

For example, this modified query downloaded as an ICS:
http://nt-evanced.ccclib.org/evanced/lib/eventsxml.asp?&lib=18&nd=7&dm=ical (7 days)

Gives this error:
“There was an error fetching the results from your import: cURL error 28: Operation timed out after 5000 milliseconds with 0 bytes received”

I tried importing as iCal and get the same message.
I modified the ics file with my text editor to remove the illegal title property for the query above and I got the same error message.
The validator for my modified file says “organizer” must be specified once. Hmm.

So this is a bit of a problem. I can import this feed just fine into Google Calendar and from there that Google Calendar feed imports fine into Events Calendar. So that’s a workaround, but I really wanted to preserve and import the categories. But I see no way to assign a specific category to a specific feed even if were to create separate calendars in Google for each.

So this is a bit of a disappointment being that Time.ly could do the import job with categories but had no method to import as draft.

I’m hoping you guys might be able to figure out a workable solution. Thanks.

[Jason]

This reply is private.

[Jason]

Whatever you guys did on the last update cured the problem!!
Wow. I’m in love. I hope it lasts.

[Nico]

Hey Jason,

Sorry for the delay in my reply! I had to wait a bit for an answer from the dev team, but let me explain what was the issue about.

Basically your feed caused a silent error in the server that handles imports. Meaning the issue was not computed as an error, but the import wasn’t completing successfully either. This happened because the feed had an unidentifiable encoding. The current fix that is in place allows the import to occur but might bring up in funky characters due to the feed’s encoding. If this is happening to you, the best way to fix it might be to reach out to feed providers and ask them about this.

Anyway I’m really glad it’s working now 🙂

Thanks for the patience while we worked on the fix! I’ll go ahead and close out this thread, but if you need help with anything else please don’t hesitate to create a new one and we will be happy to assist you.

Best,
Nico

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