New Feature: Calendar Feed

[Joshua Smith]

I've added the ability to get a .ics format calendar feed. If you use google calendar, there are instructions for how to use this to incorporate your town's meeting calendar into your own calendar. Just click the "Calendar Feed" on the lower left navigation bar.

After you do that, you can get a CalDAV feed from google into your desktop or phone calendar as well.

-Joshua

[Town Government Support]

Update: You can also get a calendar feed for just one board that you are interested in. Go to the board's page, and click the "Calendar Feed" link near the email alert link.

[Garth Coleman]

Hi,

I have noticed that several of the specific board iCal feeds are not working correctly. The feed is not properly listing the meeting time, instead it appears as an all-day event instead of starting at the specific time. Not all of the boards, interestingly enough.

A specific example: http://www.mytowngovernment.org/board/1497001/calendar.ics (The Town of Berlin Board of Fire Engineers calendar at http://www.mytowngovernment.org/01503)

Something is very strange with this event:

1. The event on the site shows Feb 5 @ 7pm 
2. The agenda notes show the event for Feb 6 @ 7 pm
3. The iCal feed shows the event to be Feb 6 but with no time support
   
4. There is no proper use of GMT, so my calendar imports are also messed up
5. The result is calendar import showing up on Feb 5, with no specific time.

I have tried this on several different iCal feed import tools, and they are all messed up.

Here is the part of the ical feed related to this event, note the start and end times are not listed:

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTSTART:20130206T000000Z

DTEND:20130206T000000Z

DTSTAMP:20130206T000000Z

UID:ahNzfnRvd25nb3Zlcm5tZW50LWhyc...@mytowngovernment.org

CREATED:20121205UTC1000000

DESCRIPTION:Berlin\, MA Board of Fire Engineers\nhttp://www.mytowngovernment.org/meeting/2559120\nBOARD OF FIRE ENGINEERS\nBERLIN\, MASSACHUSETTS 01503\nAGENDA\nFebruary 6\, 2013 @ 7 p.m.\nLocation:  Fire Department Conference Room\n\nI. Open meeting and record attendees and agenda review. \n\nII. Review and acceptance of previous minutes\n\nIII. Financial Overview \na. Budget Status to Date\nb. Follow Up to Selectmen‚Äôs Meeting on FY 14 Budget\nc. Other Financial Matters\n\nIV. Fire Chiefs Report \na. Apparatus Report\nb. Significant Incidents\, if any\nc. Other Comments \n\nV. Old Business \na. Capital Plan Update\nb. Follow Up to Meeting with N.E. Fire Equipment & Apparatus on Ladder 1\n\nVI. New Business\na. Report on FINCOM Meeting 1/30/2013\nb. Fire Dept. Warrant Articles for Annual Town Meeting\n\nVII. Warrants ‚Äì review and sign. \n\nVIII.    Correspondence\n \nIX.     Executive Session (if needed)\n

LAST-MODIFIED:20130205UTC0053000

LOCATION:Berlin Town Offices 23 Linden St. Berlin MA\, 01503 Fire Conference Room

SUMMARY:Board of Fire Engineers

SEQUENCE:1

STATUS:CONFIRMED

TRANSP:OPAQUE

END:VEVENT

I'm happy to help troubleshoot!

Garth

Webmaster, Town of Berlin

[Garth Coleman]

By the way, the ics file doesn't pass proper validation either (not sure this is related, I don't think so):

http://severinghaus.org/projects/icv/

Error:	Error was: Error at line 13: [CREATED] Unparseable date: "20111006UTC1814000"
Cause:	Caused by: [CREATED] Unparseable date: "20111006UTC1814000"

On Sunday, February 24, 2013 9:36:18 PM UTC-5, Garth Coleman wrote:

Hi,

I have noticed that several of the specific board iCal feeds are not working correctly. The feed is not properly listing the meeting time, instead it appears as an all-day event instead of starting at the specific time. Not all of the boards, interestingly enough.

A specific example: http://www.mytowngovernment.org/board/1497001/calendar.ics (The Town of Berlin Board of Fire Engineers calendar at http://www.mytowngovernment.org/01503)

Something is very strange with this event:

1. The event on the site shows Feb 5 @ 7pm 
2. The agenda notes show the event for Feb 6 @ 7 pm
3. The iCal feed shows the event to be Feb 6 but with no time support
   
4. There is no proper use of GMT, so my calendar imports are also messed up
5. The result is calendar import showing up on Feb 5, with no specific time.

I have tried this on several different iCal feed import tools, and they are all messed up.

Here is the part of the ical feed related to this event, note the start and end times are not listed:

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTSTART:20130206T000000Z

DTEND:20130206T000000Z

DTSTAMP:20130206T000000Z

UID:ahNzfnRvd25nb3Zlcm5tZW50LWhychULEgxNZWV0aW5nTW9kZWwYkJmcAQw@mytowngovernment.org

CREATED:20121205UTC1000000

DESCRIPTION:Berlin\, MA Board of Fire Engineers\nhttp://www.mytowngovernment.org/meeting/2559120\nBOARD OF FIRE ENGINEERS\nBERLIN\, MASSACHUSETTS 01503\nAGENDA\nFebruary 6\, 2013 @ 7 p.m.\nLocation:  Fire Department Conference Room\n\nI. Open meeting and record attendees and agenda review. \n\nII. Review and acceptance of previous minutes\n\nIII. Financial Overview \na. Budget Status to Date\nb. Follow Up to Selectmen‚Äôs Meeting on FY 14 Budget\nc. Other Financial Matters\n\nIV. Fire Chiefs Report \na. Apparatus Report\nb. Significant Incidents\, if any\nc. Other Comments \n\nV. Old Business \na. Capital Plan Update\nb. Follow Up to Meeting with N.E. Fire Equipment & Apparatus on Ladder 1\n\nVI. New Business\na. Report on FINCOM Meeting 1/30/2013\nb. Fire Dept. Warrant Articles for Annual Town Meeting\n\nVII. Warrants ‚Äì review and sign. \n\nVIII.    Correspondence\n \nIX.     Executive Session (if needed)\n

LAST-MODIFIED:20130205UTC0053000

LOCATION:Berlin Town Offices 23 Linden St. Berlin MA\, 01503 Fire Conference Room

SUMMARY:Board of Fire Engineers

SEQUENCE:1

STATUS:CONFIRMED

TRANSP:OPAQUE

END:VEVENT

[Garth Coleman]

Here is an example of one of the calendar feeds working correctly

This is the calendar for the Berlin School Committee

http://www.mytowngovernment.org/board/1629015/calendar.ics

Feb 6, 6:30 pm. Imports properly, the ical feed has the right time with proper UTC:

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTSTART:20130206T233000Z

DTEND:20130206T233000Z

DTSTAMP:20130206T233000Z

UID:ahNzfnRvd25nb3Zlcm5tZW50LWhyc...@mytowngovernment.org

CREATED:20130204UTC2035000

On Sunday, February 24, 2013 9:36:18 PM UTC-5, Garth Coleman wrote:

Hi,

I have noticed that several of the specific board iCal feeds are not working correctly. The feed is not properly listing the meeting time, instead it appears as an all-day event instead of starting at the specific time. Not all of the boards, interestingly enough.

A specific example: http://www.mytowngovernment.org/board/1497001/calendar.ics (The Town of Berlin Board of Fire Engineers calendar at http://www.mytowngovernment.org/01503)

Something is very strange with this event:

1. The event on the site shows Feb 5 @ 7pm 
2. The agenda notes show the event for Feb 6 @ 7 pm
3. The iCal feed shows the event to be Feb 6 but with no time support
   
4. There is no proper use of GMT, so my calendar imports are also messed up
5. The result is calendar import showing up on Feb 5, with no specific time.

I have tried this on several different iCal feed import tools, and they are all messed up.

Here is the part of the ical feed related to this event, note the start and end times are not listed:

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTSTART:20130206T000000Z

DTEND:20130206T000000Z

DTSTAMP:20130206T000000Z

UID:ahNzfnRvd25nb3Zlcm5tZW50LWhychULEgxNZWV0aW5nTW9kZWwYkJmcAQw@mytowngovernment.org

CREATED:20121205UTC1000000

DESCRIPTION:Berlin\, MA Board of Fire Engineers\nhttp://www.mytowngovernment.org/meeting/2559120\nBOARD OF FIRE ENGINEERS\nBERLIN\, MASSACHUSETTS 01503\nAGENDA\nFebruary 6\, 2013 @ 7 p.m.\nLocation:  Fire Department Conference Room\n\nI. Open meeting and record attendees and agenda review. \n\nII. Review and acceptance of previous minutes\n\nIII. Financial Overview \na. Budget Status to Date\nb. Follow Up to Selectmen‚Äôs Meeting on FY 14 Budget\nc. Other Financial Matters\n\nIV. Fire Chiefs Report \na. Apparatus Report\nb. Significant Incidents\, if any\nc. Other Comments \n\nV. Old Business \na. Capital Plan Update\nb. Follow Up to Meeting with N.E. Fire Equipment & Apparatus on Ladder 1\n\nVI. New Business\na. Report on FINCOM Meeting 1/30/2013\nb. Fire Dept. Warrant Articles for Annual Town Meeting\n\nVII. Warrants ‚Äì review and sign. \n\nVIII.    Correspondence\n \nIX.     Executive Session (if needed)\n

LAST-MODIFIED:20130205UTC0053000

LOCATION:Berlin Town Offices 23 Linden St. Berlin MA\, 01503 Fire Conference Room

SUMMARY:Board of Fire Engineers

SEQUENCE:1

STATUS:CONFIRMED

TRANSP:OPAQUE

END:VEVENT

[Joshua Smith]

I'll look into this and get back to you...

On Feb 24, 2013, at 9:48 PM, Garth Coleman <garth....@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is an example of one of the calendar feeds working correctly

This is the calendar for the Berlin School Committee

http://www.mytowngovernment.org/board/1629015/calendar.ics

Feb 6, 6:30 pm. Imports properly, the ical feed has the right time with proper UTC:

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTSTART:20130206T233000Z

DTEND:20130206T233000Z

DTSTAMP:20130206T233000Z

UID:ahNzfnRvd25nb3Zlcm5tZW50LWhychULEgxNZWV0aW5nTW9kZWwY7oOoAQw@mytowngovernment.org

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[Joshua Smith]

On Feb 24, 2013, at 9:36 PM, Garth Coleman <garth....@gmail.com> wrote:

I have noticed that several of the specific board iCal feeds are not working correctly. The feed is not properly listing the meeting time, instead it appears as an all-day event instead of starting at the specific time. Not all of the boards, interestingly enough.

Here's what I think is happening.

1. The meeting system has no idea how long meetings last. So I just set the start and end time to the same value.

2. Depending on DST, 5pm meetings really are exactly at midnight UTC (so T000000Z is correct)

3. It sounds like there is a convention that an "all day meeting" is indicated by a meeting starting and ending at midnight. So your calendar system sees these 5pm meetings with no duration and thinks they mean "all day".

I think a simple fix would be for me to program meetings to last a fixed amount of time, such as one hour. What do you think?

-Joshua

[Garth Coleman]

Yes, I think that would be a great fix, to set the default duration to 1 hour, if no end time is entered.

Would this impact existing meetings, or only new ones?

Sent from my iPad

[Joshua Smith]

All meetings. The update is live now.

[Garth Coleman]

Nice!

Thanks for fixing so quickly!

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[Peter DeGregorio]

Hello Joshua,
Having all events come through the ICS feed as lasting exactly one hour ... could that be refined ... have an "Expected Duration" field next to the start time with a dropdown with say 1/2 hour increments 1/2 hour, 1 hour, 1-1/2 hours, 2 hours, 12 hours so that the ICS feed can have an accurate duration? Example would be putting on the calendar when the polls are open. Default duration would remain 1:00 hour unless the user selects something else.
Thank you

[Joshua Smith]

I dunno, Peter. As someone who has run hundreds of board meetings over the years, I can tell you that the chair never has any idea how long a meeting might last. And I’d be really concerned that if they said the expected duration was an hour, and then the meeting only lasted half an hour, people might come at the 45 minute mark and feel like they were cheated out of attending an open meeting.

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[Peter DeGregorio]

Null would be fine as a default. 

The thing is the ICS feed has to have a duration so why not give it one that is sensible or in the case of some things actually accurate? 

As it stands all meetings come through ICS with a duration of 1 hour and the misleading thing you mention is, in fact, happening. 

This enhancement would allow us to use mytowngovernment.org for all of our scheduling. You have built into the system the ability to schedule non-OML events and we have some but they have specific hours usually. It would be fine with me if the option were not allowed for OML meetings though it's still the fact the the ICS feed gets an hour regardless. 

Any hope?

Peter

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Peter DeGregorio

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[Joshua Smith]

That might make sense. If they set the meeting to not OML, then I give the added option to set a duration.

For OML events, I suppose I could set the default duration to 15 minutes instead of an hour for ICS. That would reduce the chances of confusion about it.

[Peter DeGregorio]

That would be wonderful! Seriously. 

One more thing I've been wondering in connection with this. Would you consider another field for non-OML events which is to allow an override of the ICS summary field as follows:

If summary left blank then ICS summary is same as it is now:  Board name (or if cancelled Board name + CANCELLED)

If summary entered then the ICS summary is: Text entered (or if cancelled text entered + CANCELLED)

Example: We have a Library Events entity ... If they have a book sale they create a Non-OML event starting at 9:00 with a duration of 4-1/2 hours and a summary text of "Book Sale" so that the ICS feed has that in it. (You could also consider putting the summary override in the calendar (we use the calendar in an iframe on our site but otherwise use ICS feeds on other pages and the home page).

Peter DeGregorio

[Peter DeGregorio]

Regarding the 15 minute duration I'm not advocating that change and it could affect others adversely. The hour is fine as is for OML and can be easily explained as such. It's the duration and summary on non-OML that makes all the difference for us.

Peter

Peter DeGregorio

[Peter DeGregorio]

Hi Joshua,
Can I tell people that the duration on non-OML and summary override have been accepted as a future change? These changes will allow us (and others, of course) to use MyTownGovernment.org calendar for government-sponsored community events like library book sales, polling place hours and so on. Since MyTownGovernment already has a non-OML option on meetings it seems like a logical extension. Any idea when the enhancement could be made? (By the way, I am a developer and am be willing to sign a NDA and do the work pro bono).
Thank you,
Peter