Workaround to fix calendar sync problems

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
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samliddicott
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Workaround to fix calendar sync problems

#1

Post by samliddicott »

[Editor's Note from aebrown: This topic seems sufficiently valuable to the community that I moved this post and its responses into a new thread from their original location in the Calendar sync issues thread.]

Fixed for me! I speculated that it was to do with HTTPS wildcard certficates and google (the *.lds.org) issue.
So I wrote a wrapper handler which is at https://mail.liddicott.com/ldscalendar.php/ - which anyone can use.

if your calendar id is 123456, then you can sync to the URL https://mail.liddicott.com/ldscalendar.php/123456
If I forget to renew my ssl certificate it may stop working, but you can also use http instead of https

This works and imports "instantly" for me.

Also, you can add any junk you like after your number (precede junk by a slash) e.g.:
https://mail.liddicott.com/ldscalendar. ... 6/test.ics

means your browser will try and save a file called "test.ics" - you can stick any fake-filename you like on the end.

perhaps there is enough of a clue here (that this works) that the developers can fix the problem.

In case anyone wants to run their own wrapper, the php code is here listed on the page - it is very quick and dirty, but it's years since I did php.

Changes: add the church's no-cache tags to avoid search engines and so forth. Also added robots.txt to my site.
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samliddicott
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#2

Post by samliddicott »

However, the real links are working for me now too...

so maybe my wrapper works BECAUSE the real links are now working,
or maybe the real links just happen to be working as well.

I'd be interested to know if the real calendar links are now working for other people, and if not, does the wrapper make any difference.
tortdog
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#3

Post by tortdog »

Sam.

You are amazing. Thank you SO much for this. Before, my link would not work. It had several weeks ago but functionality had been lost for a while. I changed my link to route through yours and now my calendar popped right up in Google.

Please never leave the Church. I need that link until lds.org fixes it.

I also readded the "official" link to my gCal and it still does not function. But for your link, I have no LDS calendar on Google.

Thanks!
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samliddicott
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#4

Post by samliddicott »

tortdog wrote:Sam.

You are amazing. Thank you SO much for this. Before, my link would not work. It had several weeks ago but functionality had been lost for a while. I changed my link to route through yours and now my calendar popped right up in Google.

Please never leave the Church. I need that link until lds.org fixes it.

I also readded the "official" link to my gCal and it still does not function. But for your link, I have no LDS calendar on Google.

Thanks!

please try this:

Delete any official links you have for your calendar.
Add the official link but make sure to use HTTPS and not HTTP
let me know if that works.

I notice that google seems to treat https and http as equivalent in identifying a calendar source. (So you can't add https and http of the same URL at the same time).
If the LDS HTTP url is redirecting to HTTPS then perhaps this is causing confusion with google's equivalence code (who knows what the code looks like).

So please try HTTPS official link and see if it works.

thanks
tortdog
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#5

Post by tortdog »

Strange result. I changed the link from http://lds.org/church-calendar/services ... ribe/xxxxx to https://lds.org/church-calendar/service ... ribe/xxxxx and Google automatically converted the https to http. It also failed to load.

Tried three times, not believing that Google was actually converting, but it did.

Your link was input (and remains) as https. No attempted conversion by Google. So lds.org must be causing the modification.
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samliddicott
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#6

Post by samliddicott »

tortdog wrote:Strange result. I changed the link from http://lds.org/church-calendar/services ... ribe/xxxxx to https://lds.org/church-calendar/service ... ribe/xxxxx and Google automatically converted the https to http. It also failed to load.
When you say changed do you mean you unsubscribed the old calendar and added a new one, or you edited the subscription link? Please delete the subscribed lds calendar and then add a new one.
tortdog
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#7

Post by tortdog »

Went to settings. Unsubscribed from lds link. Back to calendar. Add calendar by URL using https://lds.org/church-calendar/service ... ribe/xxxxx. Click "add calendar". Link immediately changes from https (as input) to http. No sync results.
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samliddicott
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#8

Post by samliddicott »

Thanks for the test. I think that is a blatant clue.

Please try: https://new.lds.org/church-calendar/ser ... ibe/123456

and see what happens. (I'm saying new.lds.org because it also provides the calendar and because it is not the url you have been using, but is new to google for you, and it won't change it back automatically as it is different).

(It will issue a redirect to https://lds.org/church-calendar/service ... ibe/123456 but may work).

I'm looking for people who haven't tried yet, to only enter the https link and see if it works first time for them.
tortdog
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#9

Post by tortdog »

Using the new.lds.org link does work. Not sure how long that link will remain active. I'm currently considering your life expectancy versus how long new.lds.org will be around.
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samliddicott
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#10

Post by samliddicott »

I'm sorry that didn't work.

So we are just waiting for someone who has never tried before to use the https link first time with google. I've added no-caching and robots.txt for no-search engines onto the wrapper page.
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