Scheduled imports not working

[johnsnow]

That makes sense. Few more questions:

1) So since the events have not been importing with an assigned UID, if we now assign a UID to all events. The in our next import, ALL events imported will seem new for the first time. So on that first import we’d expect our entire calendar to be duplicated, is that correct?

2) If so, how would those mass-event duplications be cleared out?

3) And, is the UID something that the developer can generate from the feed? Can the feed’s internal event ID be used for the UID value?

4) Let’s say this UID fix resolves the duplication issue. How, if any, does it explain why the aggregator is not fetching any new events nor running on a schedule anymore since switching over from iCal Importer?

[Cliff]

1. Yes… but, to clarify, you don’t ever manually assign a UID. It’s generated by the software generating the .ics file.
2. No good way to do so. I sympathize for the extra work this causes, but this would be an issue from the iCal source, not our software.
3. The UID is part of the iCalendar Specification (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545#section-3.8.4.7), not anything from WordPress core or our plugins. If you create an event in Google Calendar or The Events Calendar or elsewhere and open the .ics in a text editor, you’ll see some UID examples.
4. Event Aggregator has definitely experienced some pain points. I believe the only solution for what you mentioned is manually migrating them by deleting and re-adding each iCal source one-by-one in Event Aggregator’s settings.

[johnsnow]

Hi again,

The iCal feed is being adjusted and we should have some feedback from that soon. However, re: the response to item #4 – On Oct 27th I’d explained how we’d already tried testing that suggested fix for the scheduling issue by deleting the existing scheduled import and running it again. This approach did not yield any results. The scheduler still did not run a daily import (and a manual run of the import still does not pull in new events and duplicated just some[not all] of the events).

Which brings us back to the original

[Cliff]

Please provide each iCal URL that is experiencing an issue. For example:

• example.com/ical-1 doesn’t import any events at all
• example.com/ical-2 imports all events fine for manual but no new ones for scheduled imports
• example.com/ical-3 has 10 events but only 2 are importing. They are “Event A” and “Event B”

With such information, I should be able to look further into each. However, please do run each one through severinghaus.org/projects/icv/ before reporting issues to us about them. We can only be expected to handle valid data.

[johnsnow]

This reply is private.

[Cliff]

Thanks for all the details.

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If an import is hung up and no longer importing, I’d suggest deleting that scheduled import, make sure you’re on the latest version of The Events Calendar, and then re-setup the same iCal feed import.

===

If you “delete” via wp-admin, they’re actually not deleted… this is done so that EA knows not to re-import an event that isn’t found (because it was deleted)… otherwise you’d have to keep deleting the same event after each import.

This is why the tool I shared does things directly in the database. This is also done for much quicker performance.

===

Creating events directly in wp-admin is definitely possible and is common, even for people using EA.

[johnsnow]

Yes, we’d already tried the deleting the scheduled import, creating a new one, etc. It was the very first thing we recommended and attempted for troubleshooting and did not resolve the issue. We’ve tried it multiple times on our own and each time that support has suggested it.

The question about whether we can create add new events manually via the dashboard while waiting for an import fix, wasn’t focused on whether it’s possible. Understanding that it’s possible, the question is whether or not doing so then sets us up for creating a duplicates situation when the importing issue is resolved. For example, if I manually add an event called “The Birthday Party” and then when the import successfully runs, it pulls the event called “The Birthday Party” from the feed, will it then start duplicating that event each time upon new import — because they share the same name even though they would not share the same UID? We’re trying to avoid doing things now that would complicate matters when the import works properly in the future. Does that make sense?

You wrote: If you “delete” via wp-admin, they’re actually not deleted… this is done so that EA knows not to re-import an event that isn’t found (because it was deleted)… otherwise you’d have to keep deleting the same event after each import. This is why the tool I shared does things directly in the database. This is also done for much quicker performance.
<—- What is the tool referenced here? I’ve reviewed this support thread and there’s no links any tool included there.

[Cliff]

Thanks for all the details and your efforts, John.

I confirmed with one of our Event Aggregator developers that they’ve addressed this and similar issues in an upcoming release.

I marked this thread as Pending Fix, which means it should receive a reply once the applicable fix has been released. I cannot guarantee when it will be fixed as it’s in the development team’s hands now.

I apologize for this issue and appreciate your understanding and patience.

[johnsnow]

It’s good to know that the issue will be addressed in the next release. Since there’s no ETA for when the fix will be available, the outstanding questions left unanswered is even more important.

The question is whether or not adding new events manually via the dashboard while waiting for an import fix, would set us up for creating a duplicates situation when the importing issue is resolved.

For example, if I manually add an event called “The Birthday Party” and then when the import successfully runs, it pulls the event called “The Birthday Party” from the feed, will it then start duplicating that event each time upon new import — because they share the same name even though they would not share the same UID? We’re trying to avoid doing things now that would complicate matters when the import works properly in the future.

We need your team to answer this point so that we’re not stuck with a nearly empty calendar while waiting for an unknown duration of time for a fix.

[Cliff]

If you currently have events in your database with a missing _uid custom field, yes duplicates will again (hopefully for the last time) import when Event Aggregator runs once again (after your source adds the missing UIDs).

Please add this code to your site and see if it reveals any results (see the notes within the code):

https://gist.github.com/cliffordp/63f285cf719eda762b3349bdf03401f9

Please let me know how this goes for you.

[Victor]

Hello John!

Just wanted to share with you that a new release for the Event Aggregator server is out including a fix for this issue.

No action is needed on your end as this is all on our server side of things, but we do recommend you update to the latest version of The Events Calendar (currently 4.6.6)

Please try it out and let us know if the fix works for your site.

Best,
Victor

[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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