Event duplicated, not moved

[Oystein]

Testing the ICAL importer. After three-four days it has given me nothing but headache.
This is a fresh wp install running TEC pro and some other Tribe plugins. see below.

These are the two latest in a series of issues with the ICAL importer. The others are reported on the forum. See below.
Not sure if this is expected behavior, general settings or server incompatibility.
Need help figuring this out.

Event is duplicated rather than moved

Procedure:
– Create full day event A in Google Calendar March 21
– Run ICAL import manually
– Move event A to March 22
– Run ICAL import manually
Result: Events Calendar shows event A on both March 21 plus a duplicate on March 22

Event is not deleted when deleted in Google Calendar

Procedure:
– Create full day event B in Google Calendar
– Run ICAL import manually
– Delete event B in Google Calendar
– Run ICAL import manually

Result: Event B is not deleted from Events calendar.

Calendar address: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/baadsvik.com_ckpd1gh2d5mg6k0gfnnp0kilt4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Other issues:
Wrong time zone
Multi day events imported as single day events
Show in Google map setting is reset on sync

Plugins:
The Events Calendar PRO version 4.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/20)
The Events Calendar Category Colors version 4.4.5 by Andy Fragen, Barry Hughes(http://thefragens.com)
The Events Calendar: Facebook Events version 4.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/22)
The Events Calendar: Filter Bar version 4.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/25)
The Events Calendar: iCal Importer version 4.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://tri.be)
The Events Calendar version 4.1.0.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/1x),

[Oystein]

This reply is private.

[George]

Hey @Oystein,

Thank you for reaching out! I’m really sorry to see the number and scope of issues with iCal Importer on your site.

You listed three other issues that you’re facing, with links to the threads where you are working on those issues—thank you for doing this! Each of these threads will be gotten to separately, in time.

For now, I would like to use this thread to respond to just the two specific issues you posted here.

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Event is duplicated rather than moved

Procedure:
– Create full day event A in Google Calendar March 21
– Run ICAL import manually
– Move event A to March 22
– Run ICAL import manually
Result: Events Calendar shows event A on both March 21 plus a duplicate on March 22

When you say “run iCal import manually,” if this runs successfully and Event A is created as an event within your WordPress site, then the behavior you describe here is expected. iCal Imports, at this time, are simply not “smart” enough to recognize an event on your WP site in this way: “Oh, that event is the same as this one on the Google Calendar, so I can just move the event over a day.” It sees it as another event.

If you have event A on March 21 in one import, and then the same event A in the second import—but it’s on March 22—then to iCal Importer these are basically two separate events.

---

Event is not deleted when deleted in Google Calendar

Procedure:
– Create full day event B in Google Calendar
– Run ICAL import manually
– Delete event B in Google Calendar
– Run ICAL import manually

Result: Event B is not deleted from Events calendar.

This is expected behavior, for similar reasons to what I described above.

iCal Importer does not keep two calendars perfectly in-sync. It does not “match” one calendar to another and “watch” it for deletions, edits, etc. No—it is simply an importer tool. It takes events from one source and imports them into another. So if that source calendar has 5 events, and you import those into WP, then 5 events will be imported. But once these 5 events are imported into WP, they are not deleted or edited by iCal Importer if you then go make changes to any of the 5 events on the source calendar.

I hope this information helps clarify the behavior of the plugin. And to be clear, I am not saying that iCal Importer shouldn’t do a better job of keeping calendars in sync more dynamically—we have numerous plans for improving this over time. But at this time, the behavior I describe above is the correct and designed-for behavior of the plugin.

Let me know what you think!

And stay tuned to your other issue threads—they will be addressed as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
George

[Oystein]

Hi and thanks for clarifying. I am disappointed though.
I’ve ran extensive test on one of your main competitors in WP event management, I won’t mention name out of courtesy, but their software does iCAL import the right way:
– Moves events when they are moved on the source. Different date or time of day. No duplicates created.
– Deletes events when deleted on source. Again, no duplicates.
Because of other considerations I’m using TEC, but it is REALLY about time that iCal import starts getting smarter !

[Oystein]

After looking closer at this issue and the implications it has for us, it pretty much renders our $349 investment in The Events Calendar & plugins useless.
You are assuming that once a calendar event is created by someone you have no control over, it will never be changed. In my world, this is not how it works.

Here is what we planned using your software for:
– Creating a hub for the concert activities with around 50-60 artists affiliated with our company worldwide
– Daily import data from these artists individual iCAL calendars (Google Calendar etc) and put it all together in one company profiled calendar
– Make this searchable for fans that wants to attend their events

Here is what will happen with the current behavior of ICAL importer:
– Deleted events by the artist will not be deleted in the hub. Instead they will stick, and potentially make audience show up on non existing concerts.
– When a concert is moved to another day, or even another time of the day, it will create duplicates creating confusion. What is the correct entry, the fans will ask.
– There is no way for our company administrator to know which event to delete after a duplicate is created and even if it was, it would take too much of this persons time to chase duplicates.
– Even if we just had 5 artists, this would be too time consuming to maintain with the current behavior. We might as well send event details on email for the web-admin to enter himself.

Can we ask the artists to log in and register their own concerts in our WP backend instead of using ICAL importer?
No. Most artists are using Google Calendar already, connected to their individual website, so asking them to double register the events in the WP backend is not an option.

In addition to these limitations, we have also encountered issues with multi day events, time zone import and a couple of google map issues. These are currently under investigation by TEC.

If we shall be able to use this software, ICAL importer needs to improve. A lot, and fast.

[George]

I’m sorry to disappoint on a number of fronts, @Oystein. Your feedback means a lot, and is much appreciated, and we would also love to refund any licenses we can here—I know this doesn’t magically make our plugins work as you hope for, which is the ideal, but it’s a step towards making things right, at least.

Do you agree? And do you want a refund? If so, use the steps here and we’d be happy to refund your purchases → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/refund-policy/

I’m sorry for the trouble, @Oystein.

Sincerely,
George

[Oystein]

Hi George,
As it stands right now, we simply have no use of the software so I have requested a refund.
Thanks for the follow up.
Oystein

[George]

I’m sorry to hear this, @Oystein, but am glad to do that and you should see an email in your inbox soon confirming the refund.

Thank you for giving our plugins a shot to begin with—I’m sorry for the trouble here and hope the rest of your project is smoother sailing!

Sincerely,
George

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