iCal import stopped working

[Lisa LaGrou]

We are trying to use the iCal import to grab a feed from a third party site. It had been working just fine, but stopped working the other day. The iCal URL is https://api.bizyhood.com/events/ics/all?pc=48363&pc=48348. We set the date for 12/1/2015. No keywords, no location and 50 mi. radius. When we try it, we are told that our search returns no result.

However, when we simply go to that URL, it downloads an .ics file with 3 events in it. And our friends at Bizyhood tried this exact feed on another site and it presented the three events. Can you please advise?

[Josh]

Hey Lisa,

Thanks for reaching out to us!

I just tested the link and was able to get the 3 events to show in the results when using the “12/1/2015” start date https://cloudup.com/cveidjYzKXX. As a test, try removing the 50 mile radius option and leave it as the default “Radius(mi)” option like in the screenshot and see if that allows the 3 events to show up for you in the import options?

Thanks!

[Lisa LaGrou]

Hi Josh,

We have tried leaving the radius default. I just ran it again – no Keyword, no Location, default radius – and we’re still getting 0 results. The three events you found are the correct ones, and they were imported initially. But as of 2 weeks ago, import simply stopped working. What now?

We are running v4.0.4 of Events Calendar, v4.0.3 of Events Calendar Pro, and v4.0.2 of Events Calendar iCal Importer

[Josh]

Hey Lisa,

I just tested again and was able to see the events and import with all of the latest versions of the plugins activated.

As a next step, have you tried following the Testing for Conflicts procedures to see if there is something else like a theme or plugin conflict that could be causing the issues that you’re currently experiencing?

Thanks!

[Lisa LaGrou]

Josh,

We just added some new Events to the feed and it’s picking those up fine. It’s just these original 3 events that seem to have disappeared.

We started running the import in early December, and these three events were imported fine. Then we seemed to get “stuck” and the import wasn’t working anymore, so we actually removed our import rules altogether and started again. When it wasn’t finding any events to import we thought maybe the fact that we already had these events in the DB was an issue, so we removed the posts. Is there someplace else where a record of imports is stored so that it’s “ignoring” these posts from December?

[Josh]

Hey Lisa,

Thanks for following up. I’m glad the general import is working for you!

To clarify, when importing the older events, have you tried the combination of a “12/1/2015” start date with no radius when trying to import? I see different variations mentioned throughout the thread but not that specific setup stated explicitly. Just wanted to verify since I’m able to import with those settings without issue.

Thanks!

[Lisa LaGrou]

Yes, we’ve tried the combination of 12/1/2015 and no radius. We’ve tried pretty much every combo we can think of!

Can you remove the three events from December from posts, remove the import rule, and then try to import again? Again, we’re back up and able to import, but only new events that have been added since those three. And they were manually deleted from the Events posts – so we’re wondering if that is somehow screwing it up.

[Josh]

Hey Lisa,

Thanks for following up with us!

I did some further testing and was still able to initially see and import the events again. However, after going through and deleting all of my events and emptying the trashed events, I’m now seeing the issue you’re describing.

If I now try to import the same file (the already uploaded and then re-uploaded) no matter what parameters I set it doesn’t recognize any events in the file. Let me do some further testing to see if there is anything else I can come up with or what the particular bug might be here.

Thanks!

[Lisa LaGrou]

Thanks! We would expect to “purge” Events somewhat regularly, so getting a fix (or understanding the process to do this “correctly”) would be very helpful.

[Josh]

Hey Lisa,

To clarify, when purging events, is the intention to delete all events and re-import some of those same events?

Thanks!

[Lisa LaGrou]

Yes – that is one use case. We may also want to delete a portion of events for a time period and re-import some those same events too. Lastly, we’ve noticed that sometimes TEC “skips” an event, so we might want to delete an entire months events and re-import to see if the skipped event gets picked up. All of these are possibilities.

[Josh]

Hey Lisa,

Thanks for following up here!

I’ve created an internal bug ticket documenting this odd behavior and have added this thread to that ticket. You’ll be notified here as we make progress on this one. If you have any questions or concerns about that process please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks!

[Lisa LaGrou]

Josh, one more thing. We thought uninstalling and re-installing the plugin would fix this problem, but that doesn’t do it either. Something must be stored persistently in the WordPress database or something. Just thought that might be helpful info.

[Josh]

Hey Lisa,

I don’t believe the issue here would be database, however one other thing that would persist when deactivating would have been any import files that were uploaded. Have you tried deleting the previously uploaded .ics files and then uploading again?

Thanks!

[Lisa LaGrou]

I’m not sure I’m following – we aren’t uploading ics files, we’re grabbing information from a feed (URL) – so what files exactly would be getting uploaded and where would they be stored for us to delete?

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