The Add to Calendar block adds a row of links to your event page. With one click, a visitor copies the event into their own calendar: Google Calendar, Outlook.com, Yahoo Calendar, or any app that opens an .ics file, such as Apple Calendar.
The links are plain links. Nothing is sent to Google, Microsoft or Yahoo when the page loads: the event details leave your site only when a visitor clicks one of them.
Add the block
- On a block theme, open your single event template in Appearance → Editor. To add the links to one event only, edit that event instead.
- Open the block inserter and add Add to Calendar from the HappenBoard category.
- Choose the links in the Targets panel of the block settings sidebar.
- Save.
HappenBoard’s default event page already includes the block, on block themes and classic themes alike. See Building a single event page. On an ordinary page the block has no event to read: the editor shows a note and visitors see nothing.
Choose the links
| Setting | Link shown to visitors | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Google opens a new Google Calendar entry, already filled in. | On |
| Outlook | Outlook opens a new entry in Outlook.com, Microsoft’s web calendar. | On |
| Yahoo Calendar | Yahoo opens a new Yahoo Calendar entry. | Off |
| .ics download (Apple, others) | .ics file downloads a calendar file that Apple Calendar, desktop Outlook and most calendar apps open. | On |
The links open in a new tab, so your event page stays open behind them. Screen readers announce each one by what it does, for example “Add to Google Calendar (opens in a new tab)”. If you switch all four off, the block disappears from the page.
The Outlook link opens Outlook.com, the calendar of personal Microsoft accounts. Visitors who use Outlook through work can download the .ics file instead.
What the visitor’s calendar receives
- Title: the event title.
- Date and time: the start and the end, sent so that the entry lands at the right time in any time zone. An all-day event arrives as an all-day entry.
- Place: the venue picked for the event, with its full address (street, city, region, postcode and country). Without one, the Venue name and Address typed on the event. Complete addresses come from well filled venues.
- Description: the event’s excerpt, or the first 50 words of its text when the excerpt is empty. A link back to your event page follows on its own line. Line breaks in the excerpt are kept.
Write a short excerpt on your events: it is what people read in their calendar. On a password-protected event, the description is left out and only the link to the page is sent.
The .ics file carries the title, the dates, the place, the excerpt, the event’s categories and the link to the page. It is built the same way as the site’s iCal feed.
Recurring events
The Google, Outlook and Yahoo links always carry one date. It is the date the visitor opened from the calendar or the event’s list of dates, otherwise the date under way, then the next one. Once the series is over, it is the last date.
The .ics file holds that same single date when the visitor opened a given date. Otherwise it holds every date of the series that has not ended yet, so one download adds them all.
A copy, not a subscription
Each link makes a one-time copy. If you change the event afterwards, the copy in the visitor’s calendar does not change.
To keep people up to date with your whole programme, share the iCal feed instead. A calendar subscribed to it refreshes by itself.
Style the links
The block has text, background and link color settings, padding, margin, the gap between the links, font size and line height.
Next steps
- Building a single event page: place the block with the other event page blocks.
- The iCal feed: offer a calendar subscription that stays up to date.
- The Countdown block: add a timer above the calendar links.
- Dates, times and all-day events: set the start and end that the links carry.