Zuletzt aktualisiert:

2023-05-17 9:47

Subscribe to your personal band calendar

So that you always have your current band appointments at hand even in your favorite calendar app, you can subscribe to your personal BANDZONE band calendar in external programs.

Preface

The possibility for calendar subscriptions must first be activated for your band by a band admin.

Settings (1), enable calendar subscriptions (2) & set time zone (3)

Why isn't the calendar always active?

The function is not activated by default because when activated, the calendars of the individual band members are publicly accessible. Although BANDZONE does not list them publicly anywhere, anyone who knows the personal calendar link of a band member can also add this calendar to their calendar programs.

However, this can also be advantageous, as family members can also add the band calendar to their own without needing a BANDZONE account.

So you should decide together whether you have a problem with the activation, for example because there is super-secret information in your appointments that should definitely never be made public - even though the probability that this will happen is quite low.

If you want to activate the calendar subscription feature, an admin of your band can do that.

Which data is displayed?

In addition to date and time, the calendar currently contains the following dates of events:

Name of event
Date/time of event
Venue and address
“Feedback marker” (if feedback is needed about your availability)
Event type and status
Link to the event in BANDZONE

Which events are shown?

The following events are displayed in personal calendars:

Events is in the future or up to 1 Month in the past
Events with status “Requested” or “Confirmed!”
Your participation status is “Pending”, “I'm in!” , “If need be.” (events without any feedback from you are also shown)
You are set as "required for the event" (can be set directly in event edit)

By the way, you have your own personal calendar for each band! So you can sett a different color for each band's calendar in your calendar app.

Where can I make changes to events and how quickly will they show up on my device?

Changes to events can only be made in BANDZONE.

The subscription option is therefore pure read-only access to the information stored in BANDZONE.

If an event is changed in BANDZONE, it takes up to the synchronization interval set in the program for the change to be visible in your calendar program.

ATTENTION: The ICS download of the calendar is a snapshot of the calendar at the time of download! In contrast to the calendar subscription, this data will not get updated.

‍

But now on for actually...

Subscribing to the calendar

The exact procedure for subscribing to a calendar is slightly different for each program. That's why we'll show you a few ways to do it in most cases.

Option 1

This is the simplest option:

You just have to

Select the navigation item “Subscribe to calendar”
Click on the “Subscribe to calendar” button

A dialog from your calendar program should now appear on your device, which will guide you through the further setup.

In most cases, only the calendar name needs to be confirmed. By default, the name of the calendar is a version of your band's name - special characters removed.

Android

On Android it is usually necessary to install an additional app so that the “subscribe to calendar” link is recognized and can be correctly added to the system. In our experience, the open-source app ICSx5 has proven itself (https://icsx5.bitfire.at/download/). Once the app was installed and you clicked the button “Subscribe to calendar”, a screen appears where you perform the following steps:

click the “Next” arrow (no authentication is required!)
optionally add a name and assign a color and then
click on the “Confirm” check mark

Setting up the calendar subscription on Android using DAVx5

iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Mac

For iOS/Mac it may also be necessary to set up the calendar via the Mac first so that the synchronization with iCloud runs successfully. Of course, this is only relevant if you want to synchronize the calendar with all your Apple devices via iCloud at all... ;-).

Option 2

Using the direct link to the calendar, you can also add the calendar to programs that do not automatically recognize the above URL.

To do this, you must

Copy the calendar link to the clipboard using the button shown above
Open your calendar program
Find a menu entry in your calendar program that reads something like the following: “Subscribe to Internet Calendar”, “Add external calendar”, “Subscribe to calendar via URL”, etc.
The URL of the clipboard can then be inserted there and the configuration can be completed

Google Calendar on Desktop - potential issues

When integrating the calendar into Google Calendar (on the desktop via browser) it is by default set to not synchronize. This can be changed using the following URL: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/syncselect

However, even with synchronization activated, Google's synchronization only occurs every 12-48 hours. Unfortunately, we have no control over this.

For those technically inclined, there is the possibility of using a script, which however must be set up individually: https://github.com/derekantrican/GAS-ICS-Sync

But:

This issue does not affect integration via Android, if it has been done through the way described above.

Download the calendar

The personal calendar can also be downloaded as an ICS file:

This file can be imported into most calendar programs.

But be careful:
Events imported in this way are NOT automatically updated!

You should therefore only use this option if, for example, you want a local copy of the current calendar status.

Further links

Assistance for specific programs you can find in the follow list:

Are you having problems with your specific calendar program? Let us know and feel free to send us an e-mail”