Hi,
I am looking for a way to import iCal-Files from the web. Is there any chance to do this?
I am using 1.9beta2 and the file is this one: http://dl.erweiterungen.de/kalenderdateien/Schulferien_2007-2008_BE.ics
Regards
Frank J.
Hi Frank
I've been investigating this question today...
You can link to iCal's on the web by using iCal on the Mac of course.
Unfortunately you can't import an iCal into a Moodle calendar at this time.
However, I have been experimenting on a work-around on copying calendar events from one Moodle course to another. In this situation I simply wanted the Teachers (course) events from an old course copied into a new course.
Use this technique at your peril, I have not tested it for other impacts yet.
There is also a discussion on importing a calendar from Outlook via VisualBasic:
(although it appears quite technical and doesn't always work?)
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=51583
Stuart
I've been investigating this question today...
You can link to iCal's on the web by using iCal on the Mac of course.
Unfortunately you can't import an iCal into a Moodle calendar at this time.
However, I have been experimenting on a work-around on copying calendar events from one Moodle course to another. In this situation I simply wanted the Teachers (course) events from an old course copied into a new course.
- Backup the course which has the calendar events you want - but just select, for example, a single forum (you don't want all the activities)
- In the User Data column, check ALL User Data
- Backup
- Restore the backup into the other Moodle course (add data to existing course)
Use this technique at your peril, I have not tested it for other impacts yet.
There is also a discussion on importing a calendar from Outlook via VisualBasic:
(although it appears quite technical and doesn't always work?)
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=51583
Stuart
Thank-you Stuart, your work-around just saved my butt.
I had a teacher who created her course on our Development instance of Moodle, but when she copied it to our live instance using backup/restore her semester's worth of carefully-crafted calendar entries didn't come along.
I was able to copy them over using Stuart's work around. Here's a little more information:
Donna Hrynkiw
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
I had a teacher who created her course on our Development instance of Moodle, but when she copied it to our live instance using backup/restore her semester's worth of carefully-crafted calendar entries didn't come along.
I was able to copy them over using Stuart's work around. Here's a little more information:
- I chose to create a new activity in the original course (I used a forum) and gave it an obvious name (something like "Special Calendar Restore Forum")
- Made a backup archive of only that forum and its User Data
- In the restore process, I used the "Existing course, adding data" option
- Calendar entries were successfully created.
- Don't forget to delete the special restore activity
- For some reason, the first label of each section in the course is included in the archive. If the label in the destination course has been deleted, the label is restored. It's a small matter to delete the label again. If a label exists in that location, it is not replaced. (Nice, that.)
- It appears that existing Calendar entries are not duplicated; so you can run the restore process multiple times if you need to and not end up with multiple copies of the same entry.
Donna Hrynkiw
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Has there been any news on this front? Can you *import* or *subscribe* to iCals on the web in a Moodle calendar, so as not to have to manually enter calendar dates?
Hi there,
I have spent the past 4 weeks trying to integrate calendars with .ics import funcitonality into moodle.
I have tried sofar:
Google (after claims on google's potential abuse of data I would consider using this sparingly) in connection with Sunbird.
The benefit of this method is the (potentially) pleasent looking appearance and google embedding possibility for a number of calenders in the same calendar view.
http://www.icalx.com/account.php
This option offers the benefit of easy posting to the web-based calendar through the lightning extension in thunderbird or through sunbird.
Sunbird also does automatic back-ups of your calendar files (extension needs to be installed). This method bypasses 'analysis spying' through google.
Open questions for me still remain:
Is there a possibility to have the ical file hosted on icalx run through a widget that allows embedding, sidepanel-view and also multiple calendar support?
Any ideas would be welcome!
Sandra
Thank you for your time and sunshine
I have spent the past 4 weeks trying to integrate calendars with .ics import funcitonality into moodle.
I have tried sofar:
Google (after claims on google's potential abuse of data I would consider using this sparingly) in connection with Sunbird.
The benefit of this method is the (potentially) pleasent looking appearance and google embedding possibility for a number of calenders in the same calendar view.
- google calendar import through uwa-widget (uwa-widget has to best be tested in a test-moodle because it caused crashes when the wrong URL was entered or it was configured in the wrong way to the extent that the widget could not be configured anylonger through the editing function and the entire test course had to be removed and reinstalled. Do not try this the uwa-widget on the startpage since the same restrictions seem to apply here!)
- google calendar import embedded on an HTML webpage (as a course material, an extra 'nice' picture link pointing to the web-pagecan be added in the middle section of your course.
http://www.icalx.com/account.php
This option offers the benefit of easy posting to the web-based calendar through the lightning extension in thunderbird or through sunbird.
Sunbird also does automatic back-ups of your calendar files (extension needs to be installed). This method bypasses 'analysis spying' through google.
- The students can be given a preconfigured sunbird portable with their courses already in it. For this purpose I specified a sub-password on icalx that is specific just for the calendars I make available to my students.
- The weblink can be integrated as a link in any HTML field in moodle (if it is private (with student password) supply the password next to the link or give it to your students in another way).
Open questions for me still remain:
Is there a possibility to have the ical file hosted on icalx run through a widget that allows embedding, sidepanel-view and also multiple calendar support?
Any ideas would be welcome!
Sandra
Thank you for your time and sunshine
Hi,
It seems like a good idea to me, at least until we have solved this issue. However, could you be more explicit and detail a bit more how do you get the ical published on icalx to your student? Which script would you be using?
I have managed the publish my calendar from Sunbird to iCalx but a bit lost afterward.
Thank you
Guillaume
It seems like a good idea to me, at least until we have solved this issue. However, could you be more explicit and detail a bit more how do you get the ical published on icalx to your student? Which script would you be using?
I have managed the publish my calendar from Sunbird to iCalx but a bit lost afterward.
Thank you
Guillaume
As an add-on to my previous post a search result of calendar-websites on the web. Here are a couple of web-sites that might potentially offer an alternative sevice to google calendars. The links still have to be checked if they have the same potential privacy issues as google and also the functionality has to be given a closer look.
http://assignaday.4teachers.org/
http://www.mynetcalendar.com/
http://www.thecanadianteacher.com/archives/15
http://assignaday.4teachers.org/
http://www.localendar.com/elsie
An appointment polling tool:
http://www.doodle.ch/participation.html?pollId=fh7x8guxqbdbc4yq
Sandra
____________________
Thank you for your time and sunshine
http://assignaday.4teachers.org/
http://www.mynetcalendar.com/
http://www.thecanadianteacher.com/archives/15
http://assignaday.4teachers.org/
http://www.localendar.com/elsie
An appointment polling tool:
http://www.doodle.ch/participation.html?pollId=fh7x8guxqbdbc4yq
Sandra
____________________
Thank you for your time and sunshine
Yes! The ability to 'subscribe' to iCals on the web in particular (like Mac iCalendar does) would be great.
Hello,
Just an update - there was a feature request added into the Moodle Tracker for this very ability: to import or subscribe to iCals on the web into the Moodle calendar:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-16660
more votes = more priority!
best,
clark
Just an update - there was a feature request added into the Moodle Tracker for this very ability: to import or subscribe to iCals on the web into the Moodle calendar:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-16660
more votes = more priority!
best,
clark
Hi Clark,
I have voted for this today. We need to import a calendar into our Moodle from ical format; but for now are having to look at the possibility of inserting all the entries in through SQL...
Jon
I have voted for this today. We need to import a calendar into our Moodle from ical format; but for now are having to look at the possibility of inserting all the entries in through SQL...
Jon
Hi Clark!
My group also needs the ability to import .ics files into Moodle Calendar. Would you have any news about this, would youv please have an estimated release date?
TIA,
Ely
I've just uploaded a patch to the tracker as a proof of concept. At the moment it just parses the file and creates objects, it doesn't actually insert anything in to the database. There's also no permissions or error checking, so don't run it on a mission-critical server.
If you can try it and and let me know how well it does/doesn't work (especially with .ics files from different applications) it would help me out.
If you can try it and and let me know how well it does/doesn't work (especially with .ics files from different applications) it would help me out.
If you're interested in this feature, I've just uploaded a new patch (calendar_test.patch) to the tracker issue (MDL-16660) which you can use to test it out and give me any feedback. Please note that this is a pretty hacky patch designed for test purposes only, please don't apply it on a production server.
I've included instructions for how to test it out on the tracker. The more people who test it with iCal files from different systems, the sooner I can produce a "stable" solution Please post your results either here on on the tracker issue.
I've included instructions for how to test it out on the tracker. The more people who test it with iCal files from different systems, the sooner I can produce a "stable" solution
Hi Mark,
Thanks (and BTW, love the cat!). I was hoping to have my students "subscribe" to my class calendars and thereby automatically update their calendars through my Moodle using Apple's iCal which I use at school. This year all my students will have iPod touches. Unfortunately, I cannot install the downloads you provided, I don't have administrative access on my school Mac, and I don't have iCal on my home PC, or I'd "test" these patches for you. Have you received any feedback on the functioning of "importing" and/or "feeding" from iCal based on your patches? Any update on when a "stable" solution may be available? Thanks again.
Lonnise
Thanks (and BTW, love the cat!). I was hoping to have my students "subscribe" to my class calendars and thereby automatically update their calendars through my Moodle using Apple's iCal which I use at school. This year all my students will have iPod touches. Unfortunately, I cannot install the downloads you provided, I don't have administrative access on my school Mac, and I don't have iCal on my home PC, or I'd "test" these patches for you. Have you received any feedback on the functioning of "importing" and/or "feeding" from iCal based on your patches? Any update on when a "stable" solution may be available? Thanks again.
Lonnise
Hi Lonnise,
Thanks for your interest. I've made quite a bit of progress with my solution, and there's been some success in using it to import ical files into Moodle, I'm just trying to pin down any nuances or incompatibilites. You can follow the latest progress on the tracker issue.
The current developments are only working on manual importing, subscribing by one method or another will have to come later. The current target is for Moodle 2.1, but I'll probably release an unofficial backport for 1.9 too if the core team don't want it in the old codebase.
Oh, and to which cat do you refer?
Thanks for your interest. I've made quite a bit of progress with my solution, and there's been some success in using it to import ical files into Moodle, I'm just trying to pin down any nuances or incompatibilites. You can follow the latest progress on the tracker issue.
The current developments are only working on manual importing, subscribing by one method or another will have to come later. The current target is for Moodle 2.1, but I'll probably release an unofficial backport for 1.9 too if the core team don't want it in the old codebase.
Oh, and to which cat do you refer?
I've just done a bit of research in to how subscribing might work. It appears that Google/Yahoo and most other ical-based services use CalDAV to serve ical standard events over HTTP. CalDAV client functionality will need to be built in to Moodle for subscribing to work, then the new parser i've written can parse the data and insert it into the calendar. This will require calendars being synced with a CalDAV server in the first place. You won't be able to sync (for example) a locally stored calendar in iCal on a Mac with Moodle - you'll have to have it synced to a Google calendar or iCal Server if such a thing exists.
For other services like Exchange and Groupwise that don't currently use CalDAV, special code will have to be written for each if they are to be supported. I believe that Outlook web access provides an API of some sort, and Groupwise uses a SOAP API. However, if these systems support CalDAV now or in the future, it'd be better to stick with the open standard than Microsoft or Novell's potentially moving target.
For other services like Exchange and Groupwise that don't currently use CalDAV, special code will have to be written for each if they are to be supported. I believe that Outlook web access provides an API of some sort, and Groupwise uses a SOAP API. However, if these systems support CalDAV now or in the future, it'd be better to stick with the open standard than Microsoft or Novell's potentially moving target.