To bring a Google Calendar into Finalsite
First, login to your Google Calendar, and find the list of calendars on the left. Click the three dots next to the one you want to share, and select Settings & Sharing.
In the next screen, scroll to the "Integrate calendar" section. There is a "Public address in iCal format," which lets you share the calendar with other users. The calendar must be set to public on the "Access Permissions" section of the same settings area. The second option, "Secret address in iCal format," is meant to be for you only. The secret subscription feed includes all calendar items, including those marked "private." The public address, meanwhile, will only include items marked "public." Choose which feed version you want to pull into Finalsite and copy the address.
Next, open Calendar Manager in Finalsite. Create a new calendar. Set the Calendar Type to "Live iCal," and paste the copied URL into the "Live URL" field.
Save the calendar, and events from Google should automatically populate the calendar. As new events are added to the Google Calendar, they'll be pulled into the Finalsite calendar, as well.
The fields that are synced between Google and Finalsite are:
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Start Date / Start Time
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End date / End time
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Title
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Location
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Description
Troubleshooting: iCal sync isn’t updating/refreshing.
iCal refresh rates are based on the file size of the iCal feed coming over (in other words, how many events have been created on that calendar). This is explained in the article Using iCal feeds to synchronize multiple calendar systems.
The sync rates are:
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For a calendar 0 - 500 kilobytes: hourly
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For a calendar 500 kilobytes - 1.5 megabytes: nightly
Comments
This was super helpful. I wasn't changing to the "Calendar Type > Live iCal Feed"
gary
Can our school website calendar be imported into gmail?
Hi Jodi! Yes, in addition to bringing a Google calendar into Calendar Manager, you can also sync a Calendar Manager calendar to Google Calendar. Instructions for this can be found in this "Outgoing feeds" portion of this article: https://www.finalsitesupport.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000801727-Using-iCal-feeds-to-synchronize-multiple-calendar-systems. Note that there's a specific iCal URL to use for Google Calendar, otherwise the time zone will be incorrect. I hope this helps!
Hi Lauren,
I'm also checking to see if I can pull and iCal feed from our Blackbaud ONboard/OnCampus and add that into our Finalsite Calendar (that way when teachers/divisions update on the Blackbaud parent OnCampus ... it pulls into our Finalsite Calendar).
I think this is possible, correct?
gary
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