Include link and description when adding to google calendar and ical

The interface for adding an event to the calendar has a space for a URL–and it shows up very nicely in the display in Discourse, but when a user saves the event to their own calendar (via the three dots on the top right of the event), no URL is included.

Similarly, it seems that there ought to be a way to include a brief description of the event that would be exported to the user’s calendar. I know I can add more description in the post, but the user would have to go back to Discourse to see it.

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This is so needed! It would be a fantastic addition, and markedly improve the utility of this plugin.

I’ve managed to do it manually by modifying the .ics file that you can download. I then email this as an attachment to the punters. If most of your users have emails turned on, this can be as a PM or via a notification.

The key is adding a DESCRIPTION: and a LOCATION:

DESCRIPTION:

Add a line in the .ics file which starts with DESCRIPTION:

  • new lines of displayed text are separated by \n
  • if you need another line of the .ics file for a longer description, indent it with a single space
  • URLs can be included with no special formatting required

LOCATION:

You can put anything in here - an address, a description of how you are going to meet, or the topic URL

Example modified .ics file:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Discourse//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:1704916800000_1704920400000
DTSTAMP:20240109T202706Z
DTSTART:20240110T200000Z
DTEND:20240110T210000Z
SUMMARY:Demonstrate how to use .ics files for Discourse Events
LOCATION:See the meta topic below
DESCRIPTION:Here is the link:\n\n
 https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-link-and-description-when-adding-to-google-calendar-and-ical/278507
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

Here is the .ics file if you want to try it out:

3 Likes

Thanks for this. I’ll give it a try. Without the link, the event function is not very useful.

3 Likes

This has been implemented! At least for Google Calendar.

It still needs to be done for .ics files though, which is very important to my users as a lot of them are using Microsoft for email (and is more universal). They can also be forwarded nicely.

4 Likes

+1 for this e feature

1 Like

I’m delighted to report that it has now also been implemented for .ics!!

5 Likes