The important Source URL you’ll need is: https://fparc.uk/fparcevents.ical
Maybe don’t click that just yet, until you know why…
Contents
What is iCal
iCal, often known as iCalendar or “shared calendars,” allows two or more separate calendar services to freely communicate information about events. You can read more about iCal on Wikipedia or in your calendar app’s documentation.
Using iCal Example #1: Marriages
You and your partner might like to share events between your two separate diaries. You get to know where she is; she gets to know when you’re out at an FPARC Field Event!
Your diaries do not have to be on the same system as one another (yours could be on Google Calendar, your partner’s on Apple iCloud). You simply exchange your calendars’ iCal URLs and the calendar services do the rest.
Using iCal Example #2: Bank Holidays
Bank holidays can be incorporated into your online calendar for free (the UK Government makes this data freely available: https://www.gov.uk/help/reuse-govuk-content). When the government updates the bank holiday information, your calendar automatically updates through iCal.
How is iCal useful for FPARC?
iCal lets us know when FPARC Club Events have been scheduled, without us having to search the website or the Groups.IO BBS.
⚠️ Example: An event organiser uploads a new event to our website (or updates an existing one) and, shortly afterwards, all club-member calendars* receive the new event information.
Both club members and non-club members can have the Club Events loaded into our diaries.
* who have subscribed to the FPARC iCal service (see instructions below).
How does this happen?
To make this magic happen, we give our iCal-compatible diary the Source URL of the events (that’s the URL you saw at the top of this page).
Some calendars refer to this as an ICS URL or an iCal Calendar; Google calls it Adding an “Other” Calendar from a URL. Others still call it “Following” a calendar.
Whatever it’s called, once the Source URL is given to your online calendar, your calendar service takes care of all the technical conversations behind the scenes for you. FPARC’s Club Events will be requested from the FPARC web server, and incorporated into your personal calendar but using a separate calendar (e.g. in a different colour). When an event organiser updates or cancels an event, the new information is sent to your calendar automatically (raising a notification for you if you have configured this on your calendar service).
NB: none of your private calendar information is sent to the FPARC iCalendar Service. This is a one-way data exchange: FPARC-to-your-diary, only.
Instructions: Setting up your Calendar
#1 Google Calendar
Here’s how I had my Google Calendar embed FPARC Club Events:
- I opened my Google Calendar via my web browser.
- On the left-hand side, I selected the “+” symbol next to Other Calendars, then selected From URL from the popup menu.
- When the Settings Page opened, I put into the “From URL” field: https://fparc.uk/fparcevents.ical and pressed the [Add Calendar] button.
That’s all there was to it.
Google thought for a few seconds, then advised me that the new calendar events were being loaded in the background. I returned to my main calendar view, where I set the calendar’s colour and notifications so that I’m alerted a week before and a day before each event.
Within 60 seconds, everything was sync’d, and I could see the events on my computer.
#2 Android Smartphones/tablets
I then turned to my Android smartphone and, using the Google Calendar App, switched on Sync for the new FPARC Events calendar that had become available.
Now my phone is showing FPARC club events.
#3 iPhone Smartphones/tablets
Set up a calendar: Tap Calendars at the bottom of the screen, then tap Add Calendar.
Subscribe to an external, read-only calendar: Tap Add Subscription Calendar, enter the URL of the .ics file you want to subscribe to (and any other required server information) – such as https://fparc.uk/fparcevents.ical, then click Subscribe.
Options offered by your iCal Calendar Service
Depending on what your online calendar service offers, you might be able to set options to the imported calendar, such as:
- Changing the colour of the FPARC Events to distinguish them from your other calendar entries,
- Raising notifications when an event is scheduled or due,
- Letting you know when an event is updated with new information, rescheduled or cancelled, etc.
Setting up your Calendar Service?
If the device you’re using right now has already been setup with an iCal-compatible calendar service or app, you might find that clicking on this URL begins the setup process: https://fparc.uk/fparcevents.ical
(If your device hasn’t been setup with an iCal service, then clicking the URL will just download a file. That’s not very helpful to you, but it won’t do any harm).
If you’re unfamiliar with iCal and your calendar service or app, it’s time to dig out your manual, ask Google, or ask ChatGPT to create a guide for you.
Setting up and configuring individual calendar services to use iCal is beyond the scope of this page, but ask a Club Member using the BBS. Some have set this up already.
Data Caching
Calendar services request event data regularly, but sometimes not for several hours.
Google Calendar, for instance, is known to query external calendars no more regularly than once or twice a day.
This means that new FPARC events will appear on your Google calendar after 12 or 24 hours have passed.
Calendar data (both iCal and our online events calendar) is cached on the FPARC server for up to an hour. This prevents excessive stress on our server due to repeated requests. Event updates made by event organisers may not reach your calendar until the cache expires and the new event iCal data is generated.
If your Calendar Doesn’t Accept the .ical URL?
Contact Dean at the Webmaster Team to discuss.