Single source Google Calendar to be split into multiple calendars

[tim9hop]

I have a single source Google calendar that I want to split out into multiple Google calendars based on certain keywords.

The source calendar is based on a subscription URL to a golf management application which has a calendar of events.

Each event contains a prefix in the title for the section of the golf club that they relate to ie. Men's, Ladies, Seniors etc. followed by the type of competition. As an example "Seniors' Texas Scramble".

The source calendar is not provided by section so this needs to be split up into multiple calendars so that members can subscribe just to the calendar they are interested in. This could be done using a filter with key words ie. 'Seniors' to create a separate Google calendar.

Has anyone created anything similar to this..?

[Lonestarjeepin]

If you switch to the settings-v2 branch, you can accomplish this. Just list your source calendar multiple times, apply different filters to each entry, and different target calendar to each entry, and you're good to go.

[jonas0b1011001]

'onlyConfirmed': {
parameter: "summary", // Include events whose summary starts with "Seniors".
type: "include",
comparison: "begins with",
criterias: ["Seniors:"]
},

or

'onlyConfirmed': {
parameter: "summary", // Include events whose summary starts with "Seniors".
type: "include",
comparison: "regex",
criterias: ["^Seniors:"]
},

[tim9hop]

Thanks for the answer.

I don't see the 'Debug' area mentioned in the About file.

Has the screen changed since this was written or am I looking in the wrong place..?

[jonas0b1011001]

[tim9hop]

Thanks, I've have now created a new project in Apps Script.
How do I copy or link the files to the project..?

[jonas0b1011001]

As this is not an official release yet, you'll have to manually create blank files in the code editor and copy&paste the code from github.

[tim9hop]

Thanks again.
I've made some progress but when trying the sync it comes up with errors.

I've included a link to the script below:

(https://script.google.com/d/1EuZgB3kD2GU2Rfq3Rk9W3H_NRJVKRSaLHj6vc50xqZLUf3kJfp5ZcN6r/edit?usp=sharing)

[tim9hop]

Hopefully this works for you…
https://script.google.com/d/1EuZgB3kD2GU2Rfq3Rk9W3H_NRJVKRSaLHj6vc50xqZLUf3kJfp5ZcN6r/edit?usp=sharing

[jonas0b1011001]

It does.

1. You are using the wrong url as source url. Use the 'Secret address in iCal format' instead of the embedded calendar.
2. Remove any filter you don't want to apply.

[tim9hop]

ok, I've applied the secret address and it now executes and executes etc..
I added the 28 day limit to try and stop it early but it seems to carry on.
With the filter of 'Seniors' I would expect only about 30 events to be added to the rest of the year.

A couple of questions:

1. Does the sync start from the beginning of the source calendar which is the year 2022 or from today?
2. If I stop the execution, does the whole sync cancel ie. if its halfway through, will I get at least 50% of the events showing as I currently cannot see any on the target calendar.

[jonas0b1011001]

1. yes
2. you should see progress. Check the logs at https://script.google.com/home/executions to see where it hangs.

[tim9hop]

I've now found the target calendar which its populating which is great...!
However, it's not filtering the events that I requested. It's adding all events....
This is the filter:

'onlyConfirmed': {
parameter: "summary", // Include events whose summary starts with "Seniors'".
type: "include",
comparison: "begins with",
criterias: ["Seniors'"]

I also tried using 'onlyMeetings' instead of 'onlyConfirmed' but it had the same result.
Do you think the other filters are interfering with it so I should try removing them all except this one..?

[jonas0b1011001]

First, make sure the filter identifiers are unique, you currently have two filters named onlyMeetings, after that it's irrelevant if you have more filters than you need, because you have to actually apply the filter to the source calendar.

Add filters: [''] with the identifier of your Seniors filter to the sourceCalendars definition. See the example in settings.gs for how it should look (there currently is a typo though, filers should be filters)

[tim9hop]

Thanks, again have made good progress with 3 calendars produced from the source.
However, the last one (Men) has every event duplicated. Originally, I thought it was because I used ....Test 1 - Men's (with an apostrophe) and thought it might be affecting the duplication if this was a apostrophe was special character so changed it to .....Test 1 - Men.
Could you check if you can see any error causing the duplication please..?

[jonas0b1011001]

Script looks fine and does not produce duplicates for me.

Does this happen on each run?
Can you share one of the execution logs from https://script.google.com/home/executions ?

[tim9hop]

yes, I get issues on each run..

hopefully you can access this one which I’ve just run…in fact it’s got worse.

https://script.google.com/home/projects/1EuZgB3kD2GU2Rfq3Rk9W3H_NRJVKRSaLHj6vc50xqZLUf3kJfp5ZcN6r/executions

1. Ladies calendar – created twice (plus I notice that it is only picking up 1 event (in August 2024) and ignoring the remainder
2. Men’s calendar – created twice
3. Seniors calendar – created once but each event is duplicated.

Here is the calendar:

[jonas0b1011001]

Remove the // from this line and let it run again.

GAS-ICS-Sync/Main.gs

Line 54 in 839246c

//return;

In general there is no need to uninstall/install, the triggers will always execute the latest version of your script.

[tim9hop]

Thanks, that removes the duplication in both calendars and events.
However, it is still only pulling 1 event for the Ladies despite many events in the future as per this screenshot from the source diary..

[jonas0b1011001]

These events are all missing from the source ics..

Download the ics file, open in a text editor and search for 'Ladies', there's only one match.

[tim9hop]

Thanks, you're right.
I have now used the URL from the IG system to provide a new subscription to my own Google account. Then used the public address iCal from this Google calendar in the script. The only problem with this feed is that the events start with today's date and not from the beginning of the year.

[tim9hop]

I now need to test that people can subscribe to the created calendars (Men, Ladies etc).

I tried to add a new calendar in my other Google account with the 'subscription' option and paste in the public URL from the created calendar and also shareable link but none of these seem to work.

Can you confirm which option I should take to create the subscription to the created accounts please..?

[Lonestarjeepin]

I do something similar for my kids' activities. I have a calendar for each kid, then I give people (grandparents, etc.) permission in the calendar settings in google in the "Share with specific people or groups" section. Just specify the recipient email address and they will get notified to subscribe to the calendar. You could also make it Publicly sharable so you don't have to admin the user list (there's a check box for "Make available to public"). For your comment about entries back to the beginning of the year, I checked the ics for Seniors and it looks like it only contains future events... so the script is behaving correctly. You might see if your source can enable past events if those are needed.

[tim9hop]

Thanks for your help in getting this solution done.
When I get back to the UK in November, I’ll be testing it with the golf club so we can use it for 2025 events.
As a grandparent, I like your idea for sharing calendars with the family.
I’ll see if IG can provide all the events and not just those going forward.

[jonas0b1011001]

Don't forget to revert the sharing settings of your script.

[tim9hop]

Is there a way of having multiple filters where its 'xxxx' or 'yyyy' or 'zzzz' for the same target calendar..?

I tried using a string of filters with a comma separator but it seems to combine the filters ie. uses 'and'...

[jonas0b1011001]

Does the scheme from the examples not work?

'orExample': {
parameter: "summary", 
type: "include",
comparison: "begins with",
criterias: ["xxxx", "yyyy", "zzzz"]
}

[tim9hop]

I tried it again and it works ok now, maybe I had the syntax wrong..also tried it with 'regex' and that works well too..thanks.

[tim9hop]

I have changed the names of the created calendars and now get an error:

GoogleJsonResponseException: API call to calendar.calendars.insert failed with error: Calendar usage limits exceeded.
setupTargetCalendar @ Helpers.gs:217
startSync @ Main.gs:73

It may just be a co-incidence and may have exceeded a limit that I don't know about, any suggestions..?

[jonas0b1011001]

There are usage limits for the google calendar api. During testing it's possible to exceed these limits.
Your only option is to wait for Google to 'unblock' your account, just give it a few hours and it should resolve itself.

[tim9hop]

I am noticing that I get a failed run every other 'time driven' run. Although I've set the time to '15' minutes, it seems to attempt an earlier time then fails. the '15' minute run seems to complete as expected.

I am running this under the '[email protected]' login.

https://script.google.com/d/1JbJzYMrpY-nFh9WUqoqCfYv8THGtsTIyn_WtoW6VzclI94nYQQYqID_2/edit?usp=sharing

[tim9hop]

not knowingly, I don't remember creating any....should I just delete them..?

[jonas0b1011001]

I'd suggest deleting them all and running install again.

[tim9hop]

ok, have deleted them so will let it run for 24hrs and see if they re-occur, thanks.

[tim9hop]

Looks like this is working correctly now.

Going fwd, if I change anything in the Settings.gs file, do I need to delete the triggers each time before I install and run the new version..?

[Lonestarjeepin]

When you make changes, you really just need to Save (no uninstall or install). Your saved changes will get used on the next scheduled run.