This Add To Calendar extension for the Volunteer Sign Up Sheets plugin allows you to insert “Add To Calendar” links into the emails from the main plugin, as well as to attach ICS files to those emails. It will generate Add To Calendar links for Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, and Outlook calendars (for either outlook.live.com or outlook.office365.com). ICS files can be attached to emails to download and import into other calendars.
This is a fairly simple extension based around an open source library for creating links and ICS files. It creates email template tags that will show up in the Template Tags helper in a new “Add To Calendar” section that it adds.
Settings
The plugin creates a new “Add To Calendar” submenu under the main Sign-up Sheets admin menu. Below are the settings it creates.
- Attach ICS files? — Check this checkbox to attach ICS files to the selected emails from the main plugin. ICS files are standard calendar data files that can be downloaded and imported into most modern calendars.
- Emails for ICS files — This multi-select option allows you to select which of the 3 types of emails should have ICS files attached. Select the “All” option to quickly select all 3 options. The above option must be checked as well.
- ICS URL Page — Select the page that will be used as the base URL for the ICS file. The Sheet ID for the associated sheet from the signup will be set in the URL arguments so that the link will go directly to that sheet view if you select a page with the main plugin’s block/shortcode. Note that many calendars do not even use the URL from the ICS files, so you may not see this when testing with your own calendar.
- Add link to User Signups List? — Adds a column to the end of the User Signups List with a calendar icon for adding the event to a calendar. Clicking on the icon will open a modal with all the Add To Calendar link options as well as an option to download an ICS file.
- Use HTML links? — It is strongly recommended that you set the main plugin to send HTML emails, and then check this checkbox to enable the creation of HTML links using the text options below. If you don’t check this option and enter text into the fields below, the full raw links will be shown instead, and they can be quite long and hard to copy and paste.
- Link Text options — There is a separate Link Text option for each of the four calendar links that can be created with this plugin. Enter the text that will be used for each link, and make sure to specify which calendar each link is for so the user knows which link to click based on the calendar they use.
- Calendar entry Title — The title that will be used for the calendar entry. You can use template tags, such as {sheet_title} and/or {task_title}, to create an appropriate title. You can use the template tag helper to copy and paste the correct tags.
- Calendar entry Description — The description that will be used in the calendar entry. You can use template tags with the template tag helper. Keep it relatively short as all of this needs to be included in the generated URLs for the Add To Calendar links.
- Calendar entry Location — Enter a default location, or address, for the calendar entries, or leave blank to not use the location in the links and ICS files. This location will be used for ALL sheets/tasks, so it only works if everything is for the same location, unless you use the Custom Fields extension to create a unique location for sheets/tasks (see below).
- Custom field for sheet and/or task location — If you have the Custom Fields extension, this option will be shown and will allow you to select one of your custom fields to use as the location/address for sheets or tasks. For example, you can create a custom field and call it “Location” and check the “Use On Sheets” and/or “Use On Tasks” checkbox when you create the field. Then, for each sheet and/or task, you will be able to enter the location for that sheet/task. Then you can select that field in this option to use that location/address for the Add To Calendar links and ICS files.