Importing Calendar EventsCopy Anchor Link

If your group's schedule already lives in Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, or another calendar application, you do not have to retype it. Export it as a .ics file and import the whole thing in one pass.

Import brings events in to Hubara. To send your Hubara calendar out to other people's calendar apps, see Calendar Subscriptions.

Before You StartCopy Anchor Link

Export a .ics file from wherever your events are today. Every mainstream calendar application can produce one -- look for "Export" in its settings. The file has to end in .ics; Hubara refuses anything else with "Please select a .ics (iCalendar) file".

Decide which group the events belong to. Every event in one import goes to the same group. If your file mixes two groups' events, either split the file before importing or import it twice and delete what does not belong.

ImportingCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the group's calendar at /dashboard/[group]/calendar.
2. Click Import .ics. The Import iCalendar File window opens.
3. Drag your file onto the box that reads "Drop your .ics file here, or click to browse", or click it and pick the file.
4. Hubara reads the file and shows you a preview. Nothing has been saved yet.
5. Check the preview and adjust the settings described below.
6. Click Import -- the button tells you how many events it is about to create, for example Import 24 Events.
7. A progress bar runs, then Import Complete! tells you how many events and how many individual occurrences were created. The window closes on its own.

Reading the PreviewCopy Anchor Link

The preview is the whole point of the import flow -- it is your chance to catch a bad file before it becomes two hundred events you have to delete one at a time.

Import Summary at the top gives you three numbers:

• Events Found -- how many events are in the file.
• Total Instances -- how many calendar entries those events will actually create. These differ when the file contains repeating events: one weekly meeting that runs for a year is one event found but roughly fifty-two instances. Occurrences that were deleted in the source calendar are not counted, because they are not imported.
• Duplicates -- how many of these events look like events you already have. This only appears if there are any.

Import Settings has the two decisions you need to make:

• Target Group -- which group every imported event is filed under. It starts on the group whose calendar you opened. Every new event is filed under it.
• Default Visibility -- whether imported events are public. It starts switched on, meaning imported events go straight to your public website and subscription feed. Events whose original file already specified a visibility of their own keep that setting instead. It applies to events the import creates and to events it updates, using the switch's setting when you click Import.

Events to Import (Preview) lists the events themselves ten at a time, with Show More to see the rest. Each row shows the title, description, location, and date, plus badges telling you whether the event is Recurring, Public or Private, and whether it looks like a Duplicate.

If any events could not be read, they are listed under an errors block, and anything Hubara adjusted while reading the file is listed under Import Notices.

Handling DuplicatesCopy Anchor Link

If any events already exist in your calendar, the preview says so -- "These events appear to already exist in your calendar. Choose how to handle all duplicates:" -- and gives you three buttons that apply to every duplicate at once. When the import will update any of your events, the preview also says "Updating replaces changes you made in Hubara with what's in the file."

You can also decide duplicate by duplicate. Each duplicate row in the list has its own How should this duplicate be handled? menu with the same three options -- Skip (don't import), Update existing event, and Import as new event -- which overrides the bulk choice for that one event. A change to one occurrence of a repeating event that is also in the file follows that event's choice, so its menu is greyed out.

Correcting Imported EventsCopy Anchor Link

The best way to fix imported events is at the source. Correct them in the original calendar, export the file again, and re-import it with Update All. Updating a matched event makes it match the file: changes you made to it in Hubara are replaced. Keep the events' identity stable: edit events in the source calendar rather than deleting and recreating them, so Hubara can recognise them as the same events.

• Repeating events are updated as a whole. Update All on a repeating event updates every occurrence. That overwrites any changes you made to individual occurrences in Hubara -- including tags, which are cleared when the file has no categories. A change you made to one occurrence in the source calendar applies to that occurrence only.
• Changed dates are not applied. If a repeating event's dates or repeat rule changed, its row says Hubara can't update it. Move the series in Hubara with Edit → All events, or delete it and re-import. After you move a series with Edit → All events, later updates of it from the file are refused; to keep correcting it by re-importing, delete it and re-import instead.
• Description and location follow the file. Update All clears an event's description and location when the file has none. This applies to single and repeating events.
• Groups stay. An event's group stays as it is in Hubara, so updating never moves an event between groups.
• Visibility follows the file or the switch. Update All sets each matched event's visibility from the file, or from Default Visibility when the file has none. If you made events private in Hubara, switch Default Visibility off before you re-import. Events the file itself marks public stay public; set those to Skip (don't import).
• Attachments stay. Update All leaves every event's attachments unchanged.
• Removing a one-occurrence change does not undo it. If you delete a change to one occurrence in the source calendar, that occurrence in Hubara keeps the change.
• Deleted occurrences are never re-created, and never deleted. An occurrence you deleted in the source calendar before your first import is left out of it. One you delete after importing stays in Hubara: re-importing does not delete anything. The repeating event's row in the preview lists those dates; cancel or delete them in Hubara.
• Cancelled events come in cancelled. An event, repeating event, or single occurrence that is cancelled in the source calendar is imported as cancelled, and Update All cancels it in Hubara. Re-importing never restores a cancelled event; restore it in Hubara.

After the ImportCopy Anchor Link

Imported events are ordinary Hubara events. Open any of them and click Edit to add tags, change the description, attach files, or turn on registration -- see Managing Calendar Events.

Two things worth doing straight after a large import:

• Check the visibility. If you imported with Default Visibility on, every imported event without its own visibility setting is now on your public website.
• Check the times. Times that carry a time zone keep it. Times with no time zone, or one Hubara doesn't recognize, are read in your organization's timezone, and those events show a note in the preview. Spot-check a few events before anyone relies on them.

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link