Integrate an Outlook calendar into New Calendars module

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Misty Flowers

This article shows you how to integrate an Outlook calendar so that it will dynamically push events into multiple areas of your platform.  

  New Product

This article is for our New Calendars module. 

All new client implementations are currently receiving the new module. More information coming soon for those wanting to get started. Please see the following for additional updates:

In this Article

Connecting an Outlook calendar into New Calendars module is a fast and efficient way to update events dynamically for your community. This way you can: 

  • flow events into your CMS to be displayed on any Composer page.
  • insert events dynamically into the Messages module.
  • push events to Mobile Apps.

Integrate vs upload

An integration initiates a one-way dynamic sync to flow events in from another calendar source to continually appear and update in New Calendars module and anywhere you have linked that calendar using a Calendar Element. However if you are interested in single bulk upload of events, check out our article, "Add calendar events in bulk." 

Step 1: Login to your Outlook account on the web

Go to Outlook.com and sign in with your account.

Step 2: Configure Outlook settings

  • Click on the Settings gear in the top right corner. 
  • Select View all Outlook settings at the bottom. 

Step 3: Publish your calendar

  • Navigate to Calendar > Shared calendars.
  • In the Publish a calendar section, choose the calendar you want to share. 
  • Select Can view all details in the second dropdown. 
  • Click Publish.

Step 4: Find and copy the .ics link

  • After publishing, you will see two links: an HTML link and a .ics link. 
  • Copy the .ics link. 

Step 5: Paste the .ics link to connect the calendar in New Calendars module

  • Open up New Calendars module.
  • Create a calendar choosing Calendar Type Live or locate your already created Live calendar.
  • Hover on the 3-dot menu of the Live calendar, opening up the Settings.
  • On the General tab, paste the .ics URL into the field labeled Live iCal URL. 

paste url into live ical url spot.png

Now, events from Outlook will soon automatically populate the calendar. As new events are added into Outlook, they'll be pulled into the Finalsite calendar, as well.

Step 6: Allow time for the sync to complete

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:

  • For a calendar 0 - 500 kilobytes: hourly

  • For a calendar 500 kilobytes - 1.5 megabytes: nightly

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