iCal creating multiples of imported events

[Rosie]

Hi,

I’m running into a problem with the iCal importer where everything looks good for future events, but for some reason past events are getting their dates extended to where they show up as events that span over multiple days or even weeks. For example, an event that took place on October 2 now shows up on the calendar as going from October 2 through October 25. Here’s a link to the current page with the full calendar: http://bcca.winwithmidas.com/events/

Not sure if it’s related or not, but I’m also getting an error within the WP dashboard: 1 saved import did not complete. | click to view | dismiss

Let me know what you need from me in order to get to the bottom of this 🙂

Also, please CC me on the email replies (if possible) so they come to me directly. I’m working on this website for a client and I don’t want them to have to forward everything to me. Here’s my email address: alex at winwithmidas dot com

Thanks!
Alex

[Geoff]

Hey there, Alex!

That’s a really odd issue and definitely want to check that out with you.

Before we get too deep, will you make sure the latest version of iCal Importer is installed? It looks like you have 3.12 in there now and there is a 3.12.2 available. Let’s see if updating has any impact since it’s possible that one of the last two releases patched up any related bugs.

You may need to remove the events you’ve already imported and try re-importing from there to see if the events continue to import in a weird way. If you have a test or development site where you can test, that might be ideal.

Also, if you want to send me the URL of the iCal feed you’re using, I’d be happy to try it out on my site as well just to cover our bases.

Cheers!
Geoff

[Rosie]

This reply is private.

[Geoff]

Hey there, Alex! Thanks for following up.

I tried importing the events onto my test site and everything appears to be correct. Just to confirm, which event are you specifically referring to that stretching longer than it should? Is it the “C Our Story” Event? I see it is scheduled for 10/1-10/28. I have a feeling there are others you are referring to based on looking at your calendar, but let’s start with one example and see if we can trace it from there.

What happens if you delete all of your existing events and only import the events from today forward?

Thanks for your patience as we work on this together!

Geoff

[Rosie]

This reply is private.

[Geoff]

Hi Alex and good morning!

I went ahead and downloaded the ics file that’s being used to import the events. When I did, I looked specifically for the “Labour Day No School” event because it seems to be one of the events that should appear on one day but actually displays everywhere.

Turns out there are two instances of that event in the file. That’s fine and not alarming to me at all. However, what is interesting is the “Date Created” stamp on the event:

CREATED:19000101T120000Z

That basically means the event is somehow registered as having been created on Jan. 1, 1900 at 12:oo am. That’s really weird.

What I’d like to try setting up a fresh test site in a new directory. This will allow us to start with a clean slate. Basically, what we’ll do is start with a fresh WordPress installation on a default WordPress theme, then try to pinpoint exactly where the issue is introduced to see if it’s a bug with the plugin or a conflict with something else.

• Please install a fresh copy of WordPress in a subdirectory (if you have a cPanel-type hosting account there will probably be a one-click install to make this easy)
• Don’t install anything except the fresh versions of The Events Calendar and iCal Imoprter)
• Please also stick to a default theme, like Twenty Thirteen–there’s no need to install anything else just yet!
• Import events from the iCal feel–starting from 10/1 on.

Do you see the issue now on the test site? It would be awesome if you could stop and let us know so we can take a look while the site is still running under these default conditions.

Please give these steps a shot and let me know what you find. Thanks again for working with me–I really hope this gets us closer to figuring this thing out!

Cheers!
Geoff

[Rosie]

This reply is private.

[Geoff]

Yeah, it does seem to have something to do with how those events were created on the other calendar. Do you have access to modify those events? Or perhaps remove them to prevent them from importing on a fresh attempt?

Geoff

[Rosie]

I don’t currently, but I’ll see if I can get access to it. Is it possible that the events were created correctly and there iCal URL is just wrong?

Alex

[Geoff]

It’s totally possible. The fact that the Created date was in the ics file leads me to believe that the event was either set up incorrectly or that perhaps the information in the ics file is being incorrectly assembled.

Let me know if you’re able to edit those events and we can see from there. 🙂

[Rosie]

This reply is private.

[Geoff]

Hey Alex!

Man, I am stumped on this one. I have been able to replicate the issue on my end using the same settings you are on fresh test site, so I’ve opened up a ticket for our team to look into this a little further to make sure I’m not missing anything. I’ll set this ticket to “Pending Fix” for now and will update you when I have some news to share.

Thanks so much for your patience and cooperation as we’ve looked into this together!

Geoff

[Geoff]

Hi Alex,

Just wanted to check in and let you know that (1) we’ve dug into this much deeper and (2) there is definitely a bug in the plugin. We’ve bumped the issue up in priority and will provide a patch in an upcoming release.

So sorry for the trouble here but thanks a ton for reporting this and bearing with me while we pinpointed the issue together–you’ve been great and I really appreciate your help!

I’ll keep this ticket in Pending Fix status for now and will certainly keep you posted as we know more.

Thanks!
Geoff

[Rosie]

Great, thanks Geoff. Any idea when the update will be going live? My client is getting anxious to have access to their calendar 🙂

[Geoff]

Hi Rosie and thanks for following up!

I checked the ticket and it appears we’re still working on it. I’ll continue to keep you posted as I learn more, but I do know our next release is planned for sometime in the next several weeks. Again, I don’t have a firm date to share, but I’ll definitely post here when I know more.

Thanks for your patience and cooperation while we work on this–I really appreciate it!

Geoff

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