[iCal Importer] "No ical found at this url" Google Calendar Import

[Russell]

No matter what kind of import I do–URL or file, reccuring or one time– I get the error, “No ical found at this url.” Trying to import Google Calendar using the provided URL and then tried to import after downloading the file. Any ideas on what might be happening here?

The host is Network Solutions, on shared hosting.

[Russell]

Is there any insight into this problem?

[Brook]

Howdy Russel,

First of all, please pardon our belated response. Our queueing system does not handle “bumped” topics very well, as it shows them as having a more recent response than even older topics. My apologies.

It seems possible that there is a file permission error. If both uploaded and URL imported files are not working, there is likely an issue with the actual saving of the file. This can happen when the file upload directory does not have the correct permissions. If you have changed any Unix file permissions on your site, you might need to change them back.

If you have not done the above, then it is likely that something else is at play. If you open up your server’s error logs, are they showing any errors around the time of your upload? If so, what are they?

Finally, it might be worth doing a conflict test. If none of the above reveals anything. This guide walks you through how to test for a conflict, and then identify what is conflicting.

Please let me know if you have any questions along the way. I’d be happy to help. 🙂

Cheers!

– Brook

[Russell]

“It seems possible that there is a file permission error.”
I thought this as well, but giving full permissions to these directories here doesn’t seem to work.

“If you open up your [server’s error logs] are they showing any errors around the time of your upload?”
Nothing as of yet that I can see. To be frank, I’m not sure if errors will be logged instantaneously, but so far it’s clean.

“Finally, it might be worth doing a conflict test. If none of the above reveals anything.”
I did run through conflict testing to make sure it wasn’t a plugin or theme issue.

Any other direction I could head in here?

[Brook]

Interesting. I appreciate all of the details you shared.

One thing to double check with file permissions is that the user and group are both correct. On plenty of servers if you FTP into a site and create or alter a folder, it will change the owner of the file. Sometimes it changes the user, sometimes the user and the group. And while you’d something think crazy permissive permissions like 777 would make this a non-issue, a lot of shared servers have security scripts that disable overly permissive files from working at all. So granting too many permissions on said server can actually cause a new problem with the exact same symptom. If you can, please make sure that PHP’s tmp or file upload dir has the proper permissions + user + group, and that the /wp-content/uploads/ directories all do as well. You might need to consult  NetSol to assist with this, particularly if your server is running PHP via FastCGI. They can let you know what the proper user/group permissions are.

One more diagnostic test makes a lot of sense to try, perhaps even before the above. Can you just try uploading a old file through WP’ Media importer. Does it upload succesfully? Do you see the old iCal files you were importing in your WP Media library?

Again, please let me know if you have questions while diagnosing. I’ll be here to help.

– Brook

[Russell]

Just as a followup for the final paragraph, checking whether the .ics file uploads through the standard media uploader without issue, the answer is yes it does.

I will attempt to run through the rest.

[Russell]

So if it’s not file permissions, what else could it be? You would think file permission issues would present themselves during any media file upload, wouldn’t they?

What other direction could we go in?

[Brook]

Howdy Russel,

I agree for sure, this is unlikely to be a file permissions error if the media importer shows them sucessfully imported.

We have had at least one dev on PHP 5.6 test the iCal importer recently. All the same I am requesting that some folks on our team with 5.6 try to reproduce, just in case. Would it be possible to get the URL of the file you are trying to import? It can be shared privately be checking the box “Set as private reply”.

I am sorry for the inconvenience Russel. This is a very puzzling issue. I have asked them team if they have any more ideas as well, and no one can see why it would not be working for you once all of your plugins were disabled and you had switched themes.

I will get back to you with our test results. If you can think of anything you might be doing that is unique or different than the usual, please share. That way we can do that as well while trying to reproduce.

Cheers!

– Brook

[Russell]

This reply is private.

[Brook]

Thank you Russell. With that .ics file I was able to reproduce an error. Although mine was a generic “An error occurred.” I am logging this for our iCal developers to look at further.

At this point we are assuming this is probably a bug in our code. It can take a bit longer to hunt down bugs than a usual support topics. I will keep you posted, but it might be a few days before I have a true status update.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the mean time. I realize you are a recent customer of the iCal importer. If you wish to get a refund while we work this out please don’t hesitate to ask. I am very sorry for the oddity and inconvenience.

• Brook

[Russell]

We look forward to finding out what is happening, and hopefully we can get this resolved.

[Brook]

Alright Russel I think we figured it out.

The error I got above was erroneous and related to something else, hence why it produced a different message. The exact same error message and circumstance you are experiencing has been reproduced on certained servers, particularly shared hosts.

Those servers do not support PHP’s file_get_contents() functions, and it would look like your server is among them. Part of our iCal importer uses a third party library for processing iCal files, and it uses that function. However, we are going to swap that out for one that is supported by more servers.

This fix is slotted to be released with the next version of our plugin, just after 3.12. 3.12 is due for release in less than a week, and all changes to it are already in place. We are thoroughly testing it now to try and make sure no new bugs were introduced, hence why we can’t make any more changes.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!

• Brook

[maa]

Hi Brook,
That’s good news for Russell and maybe me.

I have (probably the same issue) a similar support thread posted.

No ical found at this url

I checked with my host and – the file_get_contents is default AND I have curl enabled. See php info here:

http://morningside-alliance.org/site/phpinfo.php

Can I get a prelease copy of the altered ical script? It’s an important timing issue for me as I either need to hire someone for input / or not – to meet my deadline early next week.

Thanks.
Jenn

[Russell]

Thanks, Jennifer. I would have to concur, we’re on a fairly tight deadline on our end as well.

[Brook]

Howdy Guys,

That’s understandable. I will double check with the developer who discovered this and see if that is possible. He will be in tomorrow morning PST, so I can ask him if that might be feasible. Then I will report back.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

• Brook

 

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