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Timely's Calendar allows you to import feeds from Timely and other calendars (Google, iCal, Outlook, etc.).
Calendar programs allow you to export what is called an iCalendar (.ics or iCal) feed URL. This feed URL contains event data (like times, dates, location, title, description, and time zone) in a standard format. Also there is a unique identifier or "UID" for each event. when events are imported from an iCalendar, the source calendar uses an UID to determine if the event is new so needs to be created or it has already been imported and only needs to be updated.
In some cases, each time the feed is refreshed hourly and gets the update from the source calendar, it creates a new different unique UID. For this scenario, Timely Journey is unable to detect changes from the imported feed, so the events will be updated again based on the source calendar.
Most calendars that can share their feeds will have a button that says either subscribe, export or share. Look for these keywords. Copy the url into the import feeds section of your calendar for a synced import or download the file to do a one time import.
Example:
Additionally you can consult your software's documentation on how to export an .ics file. Here are some examples:
Go to your Journey calendar, navigate to Import events > My Feeds and click on the green plus icon
You can automatically assign the feed to one of our categories or tags, when you are done make sure to click Import!
The feed will refresh hourly and will pick up new events being added to the original calendar.
With a Timely account, you can import events from CSV files into your Journey calendar from any external source using our CSV import tool. Here’s a guide to creating a CSV file with your events.
CSV import is geared towards users who are technically savvy and understand how CSV files work. If this is not you, we recommend you import events using an ICS feed instead.
In the CSV file the field value separator is a comma (,), and the field value delimiter is a double quotation mark ("). To import from CSV, you must specify the correct field names as the first row:
At the minimum, your first row should have these fields:
“TYPE”,”UID”,”DTSTAMP”,”SUMMARY”,”DTSTART”,”DTEND”
Each field value is assumed to be in strict RFC2445/5545 format. For example, date fields (DTSTART, DTEND, etc.) may be prefixed by TZID or VALUE DATETIME/DATE parameters.
For more information please see this GUIDE and download the following sample CSV file to structure your own CSV file.
Please refer to this link to view and/or download a Journey Sample CSV.
Other fields can be added but they must use strict RFC2445 property names. We perform extra parsing on certain fields to accommodate for common use cases.
Please see this page for a reference to other iCalendar (.ics) properties which can be added to your csv as fields.
To add an image as the Featured Image, add the field X-WP-IMAGES-URL to the CSV file and inform the image URL.
To add images to an event description, add a HTML img tag with the image URL inside the DESCRIPTION field. For example, <img src=imagelink.png />.
Many users report CSV import problems that can be easily avoided. Please take the following points into consideration when generating a CSV:
Use double quotes to enclose all textual data. This will allow you to use a comma inside the textual data. If you don’t use double quotes, the import might fail or result in an incorrect import. . Remember, these are Comma Separated Values (CSV).
Inside those double quotes, there are certain characters that may not work. You must use their HTML special characters counterpart. For example, you must use HTML special characters for colon (:). If this is not inputted correctly, it will result in part of the data not being imported. For a complete list of HTML special characters that you can use, you can have a look at this reference.
Note: if you want to use double quotes as one character of the data, you must end it with a backslash (\). Please see attached CSV for a complete look at how to avoid these common pitfalls.
If you receive warnings, check the correct use of double quotes and the use of HTML special characters. It will solve most –if not all– errors.
Currently, we are unable to import CSV file exports from Outlook. To overcome this, you can convert your Outlook exported CSV into *.ics (iCalendar file format used by Google and Apple) using this online converter tool. It will generate an *.ics file for you to download. Upload this newly converted *.ics using our upload tool, instead of the original Outlook exported CSV file.
To upload the file go to Import Events > Upload tab. There you will see a page with a form where you can choose and upload your file.
After choosing the file, then the import options will be available.
After you successfully upload the file, a popup will appear with the following text: “File uploaded successfully. We are processing your request. This might take a while, but you will receive a notification when it is done. You can close this window now.”.
After the file has been processed you can check the status of the file in the notifications area, located at the top right corner of the dashboard.
When you upload a file that contains errors, you will receive an error notification. View this message by navigating to the notifications panel, in the upper right corner of the Timely dashboard.
Possible errors include:
If you are still experiencing issues with CSV import, send a priority support request to our support team.
For more user guidance, please go to our Help Center. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, do not hesitate to contact us by opening a support ticket from your Timely account’s dashboard.
Once you got all your events importes and settled, start selling tickets the right way.
Timely’s Calendar allows you to upload and import events from ICS files from Timely and other calendars to your Journey calendar.
To upload the file go to the dashboard and in the left menu choose Import Events > Upload. In the Upload tab you will see a page with a form where you can choose and upload your file.
Most calendars that can share their feeds will have a button that says either subscribe, export or share. Look for these keywords.
In the Timely Calendar Public Calendar you can find this option at the end of the events listing. If you click over it you can copy the link to the clipboard. And if you click with the ALT key pressed, you can download the ICS file of that public calendar.
Download the ICS file to your computer and place it in a folder you can remember, such as Downloads.
Navigate to your Timely Calendar dashboard and choose Import Events > Upload. In the tab you can browse for a file and upload it.
You can also choose the import preferences so you can decide if you want to keep the original information or add your own information using the Categories and Tags area.
The options are:
In the dropdown menu select the appropriate time zone for your import.
When you import an ICS file, you can also add your own categories, tags, organizers, venues and any other custom filter you may have created.
To finish importing the ICS file, you must click on the Import button. If you do not wish to import you can click cancel.
If you want more power over imports, you may want to try a CSV import. To learn how to do that, please refer to import events using a CSV feed instead.
For more user guidance, please go to our Help Center. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, do not hesitate to contact us by opening a support ticket from your Timely account’s dashboard.
Once you got all your events imported, start selling tickets right way.