Importing events from google after delete from event from event aggregator

[Mark Trudgill]

We’re experiencing an issue with the events aggregator when importing events from google calendar. Here is the issue:

1) If a recurring event needs changing we’ve worked out that we can’t just change it in google calendar so we have to delete it in google calendar and also into the events calendar moving it to the bin or hiding & ignoring it and then permanently deleting it.

2) If we then want to add in a new event with the same name at the same time the event aggregator doesn’t pick this up either within the active events list or the hide and ignore lists. Surely, if we’ve permanently deleted the event off the calendar then it should be possible to add it again with the aggregator import from google?

I’m wondering if there is a hidden list of events not to import or show from a google import that I need to clear or reset in order fo the import to work for the second time.

Thanks,

Matthew

[Sky]

Hi Matthew,

I will try to help with your questions.

Can I ask why you are deleting the events from the Google Calendar in order to make changes? I just set up a little test to see how exactly this works. I created a recurring event that happens every week. I imported my calendar into my test site with Aggregator. I then went and made an edit to the event in my Google calendar. After running the Aggregator import again, all of the events were updated with the changes I just made.

I then tried permanently deleting all of the events from my site. Running the import again, and they were all replaced.

Can you explain in more detail the steps I could take to replicate the issue you are experiencing? I’m not exactly clear what you’re trying to do, and the steps you are taking to achieve it.

Thanks,
Sky

[Mark Trudgill]

Hi Sky,
I’m Mark and I was recently appointed Operations Manager at our church, Emmanuel Baptist Church. Matthew, our Assistant Pastor, went on annual leave on Wednesday so I am trying to pick up this issue with his permission. I hope you can help…

Where are we now ?
At present, no public event published on our Google calendar is pulling through to the WordPress Website Calendar. Yesterday, I trialled publishing several public events on different days on Google Calendar and ran the import, but nothing would publish in the WordPress Calendar.

How did we get to this position ?
Monday 23rd July (am/pm) : I noticed that the WordPress Calendar was showing an event ‘The Toddler Group’ which wasn’t taking place in the summer holidays. It needed removing. I removed the event from the Google Calendar for the six week summer holidays, but it didn’t feed through to the WordPress Calndar (according to Matthew this is a typical problem). I therefore removed the ‘Toddler Group’ event by going into WordPress Events and using ‘Hide and Ignore’ for the six Toddler Group events in question on the six Wednesdays from July 25th to August 29th. Those dates then disappeared from the WordPress Calendar, but unfortunately, so did all the subsequent Toddler Group dates in September 2018, October 2018 and beyond, even though they were still showing in our Google Calendar.

Monday 23rd July (pm) : I therefore decided to create a completely new ‘Toddler Group’ event in the Google Calendar. First I deleted all the Toddler Group events in our Google Calendar from September 2018 onwards. Then I recreated the ‘Toddler Group’ recurring event in the Google Calendar, starting on 5th September, 2018. Unfortunately, when I did this, I designated it as recurring ‘daily’ instead of ‘weekly’ – my careless error. This then fed through to the WordPress Calendar and suddenly we had a Toddler Group every day from September 2018 through until Christmas 2018. Matthew sorted this out by going into WordPress and using ‘hide and ignore’ to remove the event from the WordPress Calendar. (I decided to permanently delete this daily recurring event from WordPress yesterday).

Tuesday 24th July : Matthew tried to recreate a weekly Toddler Group event starting on Wednesday September 5th 2018, but it wouldn’t pull through to the WordPress Calendar. Other trial events would pull through on a range of days, but not anything called ‘Toddler Group’. At this point, Matthew contacted you.

Thursday 26th July : I tried to create a weekly recurring event called ‘EBC Toddlers’ in the Google Calendar, starting on Wednesday 5th Sept 2018, but it would not pull though to the WordPress Calendar when I ran the import. I tried other trial events on other days in Google and they would not pull through either.

So, there’s the current situation, Sky. I’m new to this, but essentially, nothing we publish is pulling through from our Google Calendar via the event aggregator to the WordPress Calendar when we import it.

To sort out his glitch, is the answer to restore the system to 10am on Monday 23rd September ? I don’t know how to do that unfortunately. Or is something else likely to be causing the problem which can be easily fixed ?

Essentially the real issue seems to have started since I mistakenly posted a daily recurring ‘Toddler Group’ event on Monday 23rd September at about 4.00pm and then Matthew removed it from the WordPress Calendar using ‘hide and ignore’. Since then, things have gone downhill, I’m afraid. Perhaps you can advise. I’ll definitely look forward to hearing from you – I’m beginning to panic and think I’ve somehow broken the website…

Many thanks,
Mark Trudgill
(Operations Manager)

[Sky]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the detailed information. It sounds like you’ve got a lot of different stuff going on there!

Let’s just focus on the main issue it seems that you are having, not being able to import events from your Google Calendar.

Looking at the records from the Aggregator service, I see there are multiple imports per hour pulling from the same Google calendar. I was able to successfully import the events from this calendar in my local test install.

Are you saying these events have not been actually imported into your site?

Here’s the steps I would take.

Permanently delete all of the events that are being pulled in via the imports from your Google calendar. Make sure to get rid of the events in the ignored grouping, and empty any from the trash.

Remove all of the scheduled imports that are pulling from this Google Calendar.

Then, create a new scheduled import. This seems like something that you could probably set up to just import new events once a day. After previewing and saving, it should run the import immediately. Check to make sure the events were imported.

You should also review your settings in Events > Settings > Imports. You can set how far in advance, or how many events to pull in, each time the import runs.

Can you try this and tell me what happens? Do you see the imported events?

Thanks,
Sky

[Mark Trudgill]

Hi Sky,

Thankyou for your reply.

Here is my response to your key comments :

Looking at the records from the Aggregator service, I see there are multiple imports per hour pulling from the same Google calendar. I was able to successfully import the events from this calendar in my local test install.
Are you saying these events have not been actually imported into your site?

It’s only new events that aren’t importing, Sky. Is it a rpblem that multiple events per hour are pulling from the same Google Calendar ? is that normal or not ?

Here’s the steps I would take.
Permanently delete all of the events that are being pulled in via the imports from your Google calendar. Make sure to get rid of the events in the ignored grouping, and empty any from the trash.
Remove all of the scheduled imports that are pulling from this Google Calendar.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable deleting all events that we import from our Google Calendar, Sky. Do you mean deleting all events related to The Toddler Group ?

Many thanks,

Mark

[Sky]

Hi Mark,

I wouldn’t say it’s a “problem” but it may be unnecessary for your particular needs.

As to deleting events, I am wondering if you have put events into the “ignored” status. If events have been moved here, they can still be updated by the import, but still may not show in your events.

If the events on your site from the Google Calendar have not been modified locally, you should be able to easily pull them all in again from your Google calendar. But I understand not wanting to try this if you are unsure of what you are doing.

Can you tell me a specific event that is not being pulled in by the import?

And can you share with me a screenshot of your import settings? In Events > Settings > Imports, I would like to verify what you have set for Event Update Authority, Global Import settings, and Google Calendar settings.

Thanks,
Sky

[Mark Trudgill]

This reply is private.

[Sky]

Hi again,

Thanks for the screenshots. I see that you have “import date range limit” set to “one month”. This means that it will only import events between today and a month from now. September 5th is a bit beyond that range.

Try setting this to “two months” and rerunning the import.

Thanks,
Sky

[Mark Trudgill]

Thanks for the idea, Sky.

I changed the import date range limit to two months in both the Global URL settings and the Other URL Import Settings.

I then scheduled Toddler Group to run from Sept 5th to Oct 24th on Google Calendar.

Hooray – suddenly Toddler Group appeared in the Website Calendar throughout September, ie the 5th, the 12th, the 19th and the 26th !!!

However, nothing pulled through for October 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th – I guess because these dates are ‘out of range’ of the two month limit.

Sky, most events in our website calendar are showing for months and months in advance of today, way into 2019 and beyond. Why can’t I set Toddler Group up the same way ? I know all Toddler Group dates for the next 12 months.

Any thoughts ?

Thankyou for solving half of my problem at least…

Every blessing,

Mark

[Sky]

Mark,

There is a setting that goes with the one you changed above. If you look at Events > Settings > Imports > Import Limit Type, you can set this to limit by total number of events, or no limit at all.

You may try number of events first, as removing the limits can sometimes create issues with server timeouts etc.

Hope that helps!

Thanks,
Sky

[Support Droid]

Hey there! This thread has been pretty quiet for the last three weeks, so we’re going to go ahead and close it to avoid confusion with other topics. If you’re still looking for help with this, please do open a new thread, reference this one and we’d be more than happy to continue the conversation over there.

Thanks so much!
The Events Calendar Support Team

[Author]

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