Calendar Subscription (iCal)

Calendar views can be subscribed to as an iCal feed, in Apple Calendar, Outlook, Google Calendar, and any other app that supports the iCal format. The feed is fetched fresh on each open, so changes in Pachurros automatically appear in your external calendar.

Requirement

Calendar subscriptions are only available for calendar views. Open a calendar view in your database first.

Setting up a subscription

1. Click the calendar icon (Calendar subscription) in the header of the calendar view
2. Click Turn on subscription
3. Under Subscription address you now find Open in calendar and Copy address
4. Fields lets you decide what goes into each event (see below)

A dot on the calendar icon shows that a subscription is running for this view.

Configuring fields

In the Set up calendar subscription dialog you map table fields to calendar events. The Preview of an entry shows the result straight away with real values. Changes are saved right away; Done closes the dialog.

Event name

Choose one or more columns to form the title of each event; Another field adds one. Multiple fields are joined with ” · ”. Text, number, select, multi-select, formula, email, phone, link, location, person and relation columns can be used.

Time span

Define Start and End:

Field	Meaning
Start	Required: the date column that defines the start, optionally with its own time column
End	Optional: an end date (otherwise No end date), also optionally with a time

If a date column has the include time option enabled, it says The time comes from the date column, so no separate time field is needed.

Below the time span, one sentence tells you what you will get: all day for one day, all day for several days up to and including the end date, or with a time. Without an end, a timed event lasts one hour.

Notes in the event

Choose one or more columns whose content is inserted into the description of the calendar event. Without a selection the note stays empty. All fields are output line by line with the field name prepended.

Location

An optional text or location column that is used as the event’s location.

Adding to Apple Calendar

Desktop (macOS)

1. Under Subscription address, click Open in calendar: Apple Calendar launches automatically
2. Confirm the dialog by clicking Subscribe
3. Choose an update interval. Apple Calendar allows up to every 5 minutes

Alternatively: copy the URL and go to File → New Calendar Subscription in Apple Calendar.

iPhone / iPad (iOS)

1. Tap Open in calendar: the iOS Calendar app opens
2. Tap Add

Adding to Outlook

1. Click Copy address
2. Open Outlook (desktop or web)
3. Go to Calendar → Add calendar → Subscribe from web
4. Paste the copied URL and click OK

Why changes reach Outlook late

Pachurros builds the feed fresh on every request from the table, so a change is in it immediately. When the calendar checks again is up to the calendar app:

• Outlook for Mac, the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web fetch subscriptions through Microsoft’s servers, usually only every few hours. This cannot be changed there.
• Classic Outlook for Windows follows the feed’s request (every 15 minutes) if the update limit (“publisher’s recommendation”) is active under File → Account Settings → Internet Calendars → Change. It also syncs on its Send/Receive schedule.
• Apple Calendar can be set to every 5 minutes.

Check for yourself: open the subscription link in a browser; it downloads the .ics file with the current state. Every event carries LAST-MODIFIED, the time of its last change.

Adding to Google Calendar

1. Click Copy address
2. Open calendar.google.com
3. Click + next to Other calendars
4. Choose From URL
5. Paste the URL and click Add calendar

Google Calendar does not accept webcal:// links directly; use the copied https:// URL.

Ending a subscription

Click End subscription in the subscription menu: the token is deleted immediately. Existing subscriptions in external apps will return an error and can be removed there manually.

Notes

• The feed is read-only: changes made in the calendar app are not synchronised back to Pachurros
• Only entries with a value in the configured date column appear in the calendar
• Select and multi-select fields are exported as plain-text labels (not internal IDs), people as names, relations as the title of the linked row, checkboxes as “Yes”
• Computed columns (formula, rollup, lookup, count) go into the feed with their computed value, just as in the preview
• If an event has a location, its description also includes the light at the location: sunrise, golden hour and sunset in the location’s local time (for events from the past month to just over a year ahead). The location is the subscription’s location field, otherwise the first location column
• Times use the time zone from the formatting settings of the workspace owner (otherwise Europe/Berlin) and go into the feed unambiguously in UTC, so no calendar shifts them
• The link contains a cryptographically secure token; keep it private
• To regenerate the link (e.g. after a security incident): end the subscription and turn it on again

Subscribing to sessions

Shoot days have a subscription of their own, without a table: Calendar feed on the Sessions page. More under Sessions.