Project

General

Profile

Paste
Download (13.4 KB) Statistics
| Branch: | Revision:

root / drupal7 / sites / all / modules / date_ical / README.txt @ 55670b15

1
Date iCal
2

    
3
This module allows users to export iCal feeds using Views, and import iCal feeds
4
from other sites using Feeds. Any entity that contains a Date field can act as
5
the source/target to export/import an iCal feed.
6

    
7

    
8
===============================================================================
9
INSTALLATION
10
===============================================================================
11
Date iCal has several required dependencies, and an optional one:
12
- The Views (version 3.5+), Entity API, Libraries API (version 2.0+), and Date
13
  modules are required.
14
- The iCalcreator library is required.
15
- PHP 5.3 is required for the iCalcreator library to properly handle timezones.
16
- The Feeds module is optional. It's needed only if you you wish to import iCal
17
  feeds from other sites.
18

    
19
To install the iCalcreator library, download the project's official zip file:
20
https://github.com/iCalcreator/iCalcreator/archive/master.zip
21
Extract it, and copy iCalcreator.class.php to a folder in your Drupal site
22
named sites/all/libraries/iCalcreator (you'll need to create that folder).
23

    
24
Or, if you have drush, you can install iCalcreator by running this command from
25
your site's root directory:
26
drush make sites/all/modules/date_ical/date_ical.make --no-core
27

    
28
Then, clear the cache on your site by using either "drush cc all" or logging in
29
to your site and going to Configuration -> Development -> Performance and click
30
the "Clear all caches" button. This is necessary because libraries are cached,
31
and you may see confusing behavior from Date iCal if the iCalcreator library
32
gets cached at a bad time.
33

    
34
To confirm that iCalcreator is installed correctly, log in to your Drupal site
35
and navigate to the admin/reports/status page. If the row titled "Date iCal" is
36
green, Date iCal is ready to go. If it's red, the iCalcreator library is not
37
properly installed. If it's missing, you'll need to enable Date iCal.
38

    
39

    
40
===============================================================================
41
EXPORTING AN ICAL FEED USING Views
42
===============================================================================
43
There are two plugins that export iCal feeds. You can use either one, though
44
the iCal Fields plugin (described later) is a bit more versatile.
45

    
46
HOW TO EXPORT AN ICAL FEED USING THE iCal Entities PLUGIN
47

    
48
1.  Go to the Manage Display page for the content type you want to export in an
49
    iCal feed. On the "Default" tab, check the box for "iCal" in the section
50
    titled "Use custom display settings for the following view modes", then
51
    click Save.
52
2.  Click the new "iCal" tab that now appears in the upper-right corner of the
53
    Manage Display page for this content type.
54
3.  Set up the iCal view mode to contain whatever should be exported as the
55
    'Description' field for the iCal feed. You can trim the text to the desired
56
    size, include additional information from other fields, etc.
57
4.  Do this for each of the content types that you wish to include in your
58
    site's iCal feeds.
59
5.  Create a new View that displays the entities that you want to include in
60
    the iCal feed.
61
6.  Add a "Feed" display to the same View. Change the Format to "iCal Feed".
62
    When you click "Apply" from that dialog, you'll be given the option to name
63
    the calendar, which will appear in your users' calendar clients as the
64
    calendar's title.
65
7.  Change the Show setting to "iCal Entity".
66
8.  In the settings for iCal Entity, select the date field that should be used
67
    as the event date for the iCal feed. Make sure that you choose a field that
68
    is a part of every entity that your View displays. Otherwise, the entities
69
    which don't have that field will be left out of the iCal feed.
70
9.  You may optionally choose a field that will be used to populate the 
71
    Location property of events in your iCal feed. This field can be a text
72
    field, a Node Reference field, an Addressfield, or a Location field.
73
10. Give the Feed a path like 'calendar/%/export.ics', including a '/%/' for
74
    every contextual filter in the view.
75
11. Make sure the Pager options are set to "Display all items".
76
12. Add date filters or arguments that will constrain the view to the items you
77
    want to be included in the iCal feed.
78
13. Using the "Attach to:" setting in the Feed Settings panel, attach the feed
79
    to a another display in the same view (usually a Page display). Be aware,
80
    though, that the Feed will display exactly what its settings tell it to,
81
    regardless of how the Page display is set up. Thus, it's best to ensure
82
    that both displays are configured to include the same content.
83
14. Save the View.
84
15. Navigate to a page which displays the view (usually the Page display's
85
    "path" setting). You should see the iCal icon at the bottom of the view's
86
    output. Clicking on the icon will subscribe your calendar app to the iCal
87
    feed.
88
16. If you don't have a calendar app set up on your computer, or you want your
89
    users to download the ical feed rather than subscribe to it, you'll want to
90
    go back to the View settings page, click the Settings link next to
91
    "Format: iCal Feed", and check "Disable webcal://". Then save your View.
92
    This will make the iCal icon download a .ics file with the events, instead
93
    of loading the events directly into the user's calendar app.
94

    
95
HOW TO EXPORT AN ICAL FEED USING THE iCal Fields PLUGIN
96
1-6.These steps are the same as above.
97
7.  Add views fields for each piece of information that you want to populate
98
    your iCal feed with. A Date field is required, and fields that will act as
99
    the Title and Description of the events are reccomended. You can also
100
    include a Location field.
101
8.  Back in the FORMAT section, change the "Show" setting to 'iCal Fields'.
102
9.  In the settings for iCal Fields, choose which views fields you want to use
103
    for the Date, Title, Description, and Location.
104
10+ These steps are the same as above.
105

    
106

    
107
===============================================================================
108
IMPORTING AN ICAL FEED FROM ANOTHER SITE USING Feeds
109
===============================================================================
110
- Install the Feeds module, which is the framework upon which Date iCal's
111
  import functionality is built.
112
- Login to your Drupal site and navigate to the admin/structure/feeds page.
113
- Click the "Add importer" link, and give it a name and description.
114
- Clicking "Create" will bring you to the general Feeds importer settings page.
115
  This page displays some general information about making Feeds importers,
116
  which you should familiarize yourself with.
117
- In the left sidebar, you'll see "Basic settings", "Fetcher", "Parser", and
118
  "Processor". The Parser and Processor settings are what we're interested in.
119
- In the Parser section, click "change". This will bring up the Parser
120
  selection page, on which you should select the radio button for "iCal Parser"
121
  and then click Save.
122
- Now, under Processor, click the "Settings" link. Most of the time, you'll
123
  want to use the "Update existing nodes (slower than replacing them)" setting.
124
  Then select the Content type of the nodes you'd like to create from iCal
125
  events. You can leave the other settings as their defeaults, or change them
126
  as you need. Click Save.
127
- Now click the "Mapping" link at the bottom of the left sidebar. This page is
128
  where you'll define how iCal event properties get mapped into your nodes'
129
  fields. Expand the "Legend" for a detailed description of each source and
130
  target field. Sources are the attributes available in iCal event objects,
131
  and Targets are the fields in your nodes.
132
- Most of this setup is going to be dependant upon how your content type's
133
  fields are configured, but there are some universal requirements:
134
  1) You MUST map the "UID" source to the "GUID" target. Then, after clicking
135
     "Add", click the gear-shaped button that appears in the new table row,
136
     and check the "Unique" checkbox. Then click "Update", and then before
137
     you add any more mappings, click "Save" at the bottom of the page.
138
  2) It's a good idea to map the "Summary/Title" source to the "Title" target,
139
     and the "Description" source to whatever field is the "body" of the node.
140
  3) AS OF 2014/04/10 THERE IS A MAJOR BUG IN Feeds WHICH LEAVES THE DATE
141
     VALUES ON ALL IMPORTED EVENTS BLACNK. YOU MUST APPLY A PATCH TO Feeds
142
     TO FIX THIS PROBLEM. IT IS AVAILABLE HERE: http://drupal.org/node/2237177.
143
- Once you've completed all the mappings, click the "Save" button on the
144
  bottom left side of the page.
145
- Now you can import the iCal feed into nodes by going to the /import page of
146
  your site (e.g. http://www.exmaple.com/import). Click the link for the
147
  importer you just created, and enter the URL of the feed into the "URL"
148
  field. Click the "Import" button, and observe the progress.
149
- Once it's done, you should see a green message saying "Created X nodes." If
150
  you do, you've successfully set up your iCal importer. If you get some other
151
  message, you'll need to tweak the importer's settings.
152

    
153
Remember, you have to map the UID source to the GUID target, and make it
154
unique, or your imports won't work!
155

    
156

    
157
===============================================================================
158
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE DATE FIELD TIMEZONE SETTING
159
===============================================================================
160
Date fields have a setting called "Time zone handling" which determines how
161
dates are stored in the database, and how they are displayed to users.
162
 - "Site's time zone" converts the date to UTC as it stores it to the DB. Upon
163
  display, it converts the date to the "Default time zone" that's set on your
164
  site's Regional Settings configuration page (/admin/config/regional/settings).
165
 - "Date's time zone" stores the date as it is entered, along with the timezone
166
  name. Upon display, it converts the date from the stored timezone into the
167
  site's default timezone. Well, I'm pretty sure it's *supposed* to do that, but
168
  the code behind this setting is very buggy. DO NOT USE THIS SETTING.
169
 - "User's time zone" converts the date to UTC as it stores it to the DB. Upon
170
  display, it converts the date to the current user's timezone setting.
171
 - "UTC" converts the date to UTC as it stores it to the DB. Upon display, it
172
  performs no conversion, showing the UTC date directly to the user.
173
 - "No time zone conversion" performs no conversion as it stores the date in
174
  the DB. It also performs no conversion upon display.
175

    
176
The appropriate setting to choose here will depend upon how you want times to
177
be displayed on your site. The best setting *would* be "Date's time zone",
178
but since that setting is so buggy, I must recommend against it. Instead,
179
I'd suggest using "Site's time zone" for sites which host events that are
180
mostly in the same timezone (set the site's default timezone appropriately).
181
This works just right for local users of your site, and will be the least
182
confusing for users who live in a different timezone.
183

    
184
For sites which store events that take place in multiple different timezones,
185
the "User's time zone" setting is probably the most appropriate. Most users will
186
presumably be tuning in to your events online or on TV (since many take place
187
far away from them), which means they'll want to know what time the event occurs
188
in their local timezone, so they don't miss the broadcast.
189

    
190
If your Date field is already set to "Date's time zone", you won't be able to
191
change it, because that setting uses a different table schema than the others.
192
Since "Date's time zone" is very buggy, I'd strongly recomend deleting the
193
field and recreating it with a different setting. This will delete all the
194
dates in existing event nodes which use this field.
195

    
196

    
197
===============================================================================
198
HOW TO FIX THE "not a valid timezone" ERROR
199
===============================================================================
200
If you are seeing a warning about invalid timezones when you import an iCal
201
feed, you'll need to implement hook_date_ical_import_timezone_alter() in a
202
custom module to fix it. To do so, either edit an existing custom module, or
203
make a new module and add this function to it:
204

    
205
<?php
206
/**
207
 * Implements hook_date_ical_import_timezone_alter().
208
 */
209
function <module>_date_ical_import_timezone_alter(&$tzid, $context) {
210
  if (!empty($tzid)) {
211
    // Do something to fix your invalid timezone.
212
    // For instance, if all your events take place in one timezone, find your
213
    // region's official TZID, and replace $tzid with it. Like this:
214
    // $tzid = 'America/Los_Angeles';
215
  }
216
}
217
?>
218

    
219
Replace <module> with the name of your module, change the code to do whatever
220
needs to be done to fix your timezones, and clear your Drupal cache.
221

    
222

    
223
===============================================================================
224
ADDITIONAL NOTES
225
===============================================================================
226
Date iCal only supports exporting iCal calendars by using Views.
227
To put an "Add to calendar" button on individual event nodes, try the
228
Add to Cal module (http://drupal.org/project/addtocal), or follow the
229
instructions created by the estimable nmc at:
230
http://nmc-codes.blogspot.ca/2012/11/creating-ical-feed-for-single-node-in.html
231

    
232
The Feeds Tamper module is useful for altering the data in imported iCal feeds.
233

    
234
Developers who wish to implement more powerful manipulation of event data can
235
read the date_ical.api.php file to learn about the various alter hooks that
236
date_ical exposes.
237

    
238
The libraries/windowsZones.json file, which Date iCal uses to map Windows-style
239
timezone names to real timezone IDs, is from Version24 of the Unicode CLDR:
240
http://cldr.unicode.org/.