Trouble importing new events

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  • #1379317
    Rhonda
    Participant

    We recently began having trouble importing new events. When I run the
    import manually, it seems to work but nothing gets imported. It seems as if
    the problem might be similar to Event Aggregator not syncing certain future
    events in December (
    https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/event-aggregator-not-syncing-certain-future-events-in-december/
    ).

    – The url of the source website
    https://cals.ncsu.edu/intranet/
    – The url of the feed that you are trying to import
    https://cals.ncsu.edu/
    – Sample Events
    – Not getting pulled

    https://cals.ncsu.edu/event/dr-anna-whitfield-plant-infecting-arboviruses-new-and-old-foes-that-threaten-global-food-security/
    – It appears in the events feed of the source website, but does
    not import even when I make changes to it.
    – Did get pulled

    Poultry Science Club Annual Turkey and Ham Sale


    (I think? It’s in the pending events que, which is what is supposed to
    happen.)

    #1381344
    Andras
    Keymaster

    Hello Rhonda,

    Thanks for using our plugins and welcome to the forums!

    I’m sorry about your issue, let me try to help you with this.

    I will need some information from you to be able to help you with this.

    • What is your Event Update Authority setting under Events > Settings > Imports tab? (looks like this)
    • On the same page is there an import limit set in the Global Import Settings section?

    Thanks!

    Andras

    #1381853
    Rhonda
    Participant

    What is your Event Update Authority setting under Events > Settings > Imports tab?
    – Import events but preserve local changes to event fields.

    On the same page is there an import limit set in the Global Import Settings section?
    – Three months

    #1382294
    Andras
    Keymaster

    Thanks Rhonda,

    You say:

    https://cals.ncsu.edu/event/dr-anna-whitfield-plant-infecting-arboviruses-new-and-old-foes-that-threaten-global-food-security/
    – It appears in the events feed of the source website, but does
    not import even when I make changes to it.

    And you say your setting is:

    Import events but preserve local changes to event fields

    This means that the event will be imported, but you change for example the description of the event in your site, then it will not be updated with a re-import.

    Is this the case, or is it something else?

    Also under Events > Settings > Imports tab the import date range for other URLs is independent from the global settings. What do you have there? (screenshot)

    Cheers,
    Andras

    I can think of 2 cases when an event doesn’t want to import like that.

    1. The import has a start date set up, which is – based on your settings – 3 months or more before the event that is not imported. To check this go to Events > Import > Scheduled Imports and edit the import. Check if there is a date entered which could influence this. (screenshot)

    2. The event was imported before and then has been deleted / ignored, and it is still in the ignored list.

    #1387380
    Rhonda
    Participant

    These are the issues that I still have:

    – I was able to import my sample missing event using One Time import, but I cannot figure out why it didn’t import in the first place. I can’t find any sign that this event ever existeded in the destination site prior to my manually importing it. My import “Refine” setting reads: “Events on or after November 1, 2017”. This events is on 12/13/17.

    – Events with a date and no time and “all day” not checked don’t show up in the calendar or the feed. The indicators state that it is published, and no error message appears on the page when you save the event. We can alert people to watch out for this, but it would be better if users were prevented from committing this invalid combination.

    – An event series with dates that are set using “once” options only offers me the first one in the list for import, as a non-recurring event. Events for the other dates cannot be imported. This includes items that are within the three month “window”. How do we get the other dates to make the trip? (Would the “Clear this cache” option that appears beneath the event’s listing on the event admin page have any effect

    #1388279
    Andras
    Keymaster

    Hi Rhonda,

    Events with a date and no time and “all day” not checked don’t show up in the calendar or the feed

    You are absolutely right about this. This looks like a bug. I created a bugticket so our developers will take a look at it.

    An event series with dates that are set using “once” options only offers me the first one in the list for import, as a non-recurring event. Events for the other dates cannot be imported. This includes items that are within the three month “window”. How do we get the other dates to make the trip? (Would the “Clear this cache” option that appears beneath the event’s listing on the event admin page have any effect

    At the moment we don’t support importing recurring events. All recurrences should be imported though as single events.

    Can you send me a url to the event in question, so I can test it?

    I was able to import my sample missing event using One Time import,

    I’m sorry, which event exactly are we talking about here? Can you share a url for this as well?

    Cheers,
    Andras

    #1393008
    Rhonda
    Participant
    #1393529
    Andras
    Keymaster

    Hello Rhonda,

    Thanks for sharing those.

    I ran an import from scratch and 6 events from https://cals.ncsu.edu/ were imported with their corresponding venues and organizers. (screenshot)

    When importing I used “Other URL (beta)” as the import source.

    Meanwhile I also realized that for the “Other URL” there is a separate setting for how many events should be imported, which overrides the global setting. You can find this at the bottom of Events > Settings > Import tab and looks like this. The import date range is set to one month by default, so that could be the cause why some December events were not imported when you set up the import at the beginning of November.

    At this point to see what works and what not, the best would be to

    • Delete all imported events AND remove them from the ignored list (or at least the upcoming imported events)
    • Delete the scheduled import
    • Check your ‘Event Update Authority Setting’, your ‘Global Import Settings’ and the ‘Other URL Import Settings’ on the page Events > Settings > Import tab
    • Set up the scheduled import again
    • Check if events are imported according to your settings

    Would you be able to do this?

    In the feeds you provided I didn’t find any recurring events. My hunch is that recurrences were not imported because they are far in the future. I just ran some tests with importing recurring events (within a 1 month time range), both with ‘once’ rules and other rules. When I used the generic calendar url to import, they were imported. When I used the “/all” url (which lists all recurrences of an event) then the recurrences didn’t show up. We are investigating this.

    Andras

     

    #1400305
    Rhonda
    Participant

    When I checked the import history, I found a bunch of “Import Failed” errors. The “failed” imports happened at the times when wp-cron is scheduled to run for that site (it is run by a cron job every 15 min).

    I ran wp-cron manually, and the imports started running normally – for about eight hours. Then the scheduled import, which is supposed to run hourly, stayed at “Pending” for 21 hours, and remained “Pending” when I ran wp-cron manually.

    When I deleted and re-created our scheduled import. The history initially showed the pending import still pending, but with a successful import listed above that. Eventually, that “pending” import was reported completed. I don’t see any missing events, but there don’t appear to be any new events available for import from the parent site.

    Currently, the only missing events are the ones that are future iterations of recurring events. For example, [Spend a Day at State | https://cals.ncsu.edu/intranet/event/spend-a-day-at-state-2/%5D has an event on Jan 19, but does not have events for Jan. 22, 26, 29, and some dates in Feb.

    (Note: I’ve checked the import date settings a bunch of times, and am completely positive that both the Global import Date Range Limit and the Other URL Import Date Range are set to three months.)

    #1401028
    Andras
    Keymaster

    Hi,

    Happy to hear that re-creating the import seems to have solved it.

    the only missing events are the ones that are future iterations of recurring events. For example, [Spend a Day at State] has an event on Jan 19, but does not have events for Jan. 22, 26, 29, and some dates in Feb.

    If this is your source https://cals.ncsu.edu/intranet/events/2018-01/, there aren’t any other events for “Spend a Day at the State”. I only see one event there for Jan 19.

    Is this right?

    Andras

    #1401471
    Rhonda
    Participant

    My source shouldn’t be the single month calendar, it should just be http://cals.ncsu.edu/events, with a three month range.

    Spend a Day at State had two events existing in the destination calendar, one on 1/19 and one on 4/2. I tried adding the missing dates to the 4/2 event manually using the Schedule Multiple Events button and then adding multiple “Once” dates. The additional dates do not currently appear on the calendar. The first additional date on 1/22 appears on the edit pages, but for all of the other dates I added, the item that should show the date appears, but the date field now reads “false”. Reviewing the event I realize now that the 4/2 event that the other events are based off of is a multi-day event (from 4/2 to 4/6).

    The Imported Event sidebar box show the following:

    Origin:Other URL (beta)
    Source:http://cals.ncsu.edu/events
    Last Import:12/7/2017 11:27 am
    If this event is re-imported, event fields that have not been changed locally will be overwritten with any changes from the source.

    I updated the 1/19 event (which is a single-day all-day event) to add “once” items for the other dates, and so far that appears to be working.

    #1402672
    Andras
    Keymaster

    Hi,

    Thanks for sharing that. If I understand correctly, then all seems to be working now. Is that right?

    Some notes:

    one on 1/19 and one on 4/2

    The event on April 2 is definitely out of the 3 month range, so if you have 3 months as a limit, it will not import until beg. Jan.

    If you set up a recurring event, then a setting influences how far into the future the recurrences will be created. A cron / script runs daily to check this and create new events in the future based on the rules. The setting is under Events > Settings > General tab > Create recurring events in advance for X months.

    The first additional date on 1/22 appears on the edit pages, but for all of the other dates I added, the item that should show the date appears, but the date field now reads “false”.

    This is curious. If you would like me to look into this, then please send me a screenshot of the recurrence rule settings so I can try to recreate.

    Cheers,
    Andras

    #1402884
    Rhonda
    Participant

    This reply is private.

    #1407610
    Andras
    Keymaster

    Hi Rhonda,

    I’m sorry for the delay in replying to you. I was out sick.

    Thanks for sharing that screenshot, that helps.

    I see that your event is set up for April and the recurrences are in the past. Although I cannot fully confirm yet, but that could cause an issue. Could you try setting it up having the base event furthest in the past and have all the recurrences in the future from that point on and see if that changes anything?

    Andras

    #1411174
    Rhonda
    Participant

    Deleting the “broken” additional dates and adding dates in the future did indeed make it work correctly. Everything is working correctly at the moment. Thank you for the help.

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