Import or Sync a Calendar with iCal

You can import events into your calendar from other platforms, such as Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway or Google Calendar, or any other platforms that support the iCalendar format.

The iCal Import/Export Calendar Edit Page

To access the iCal Import and Export page for a calendar, navigate to WP Simple Booking Calendar -> Calendars, then enter the edit page of the needed calendar.

In the edit page of the Calendar, click the iCal Import/Export button, found in the page’s sidebar, as shown in the screenshot below.

You should be redirected to the iCal Import and Export page for that particular calendar.

Here you will find two boxes. On the left, you have the Import from File box, and on the right you have the Import from iCal URL box.

Importing from File

Importing from a file is a one time action. The contents of your .ics file will be added to your database.

To import a file, you have to:

1. Select the file from your computer.
2. Select which legend item to assign to the iCalendar dates.
3. Select whether or not to overwrite existing dates in your calendar with the ones in the .ics file
4. Select how you want the events description to be imported into the calendar.

Importing from iCal URL

Importing an external .ics file into the calendar will not save any events to the database, instead it creates an additional layer over the calendar, which displays the external iCalendar feed. These dates cannot be edited.

To add a iCalendar feed, you will need to:

1. Give it a name
2. Enter the iCalendar url
3. Select which legend item to assign to imported events.
4. Optionally you can select if you want to use split days. This will show 2 new fields under the form where you can select the starting and the ending changeover legend. The first and last days of events will use these legends.

By default the feeds are cached and the cache is refreshed Hourly. You can change this interval from the Settings page of the plugin or you can manually clear the cache by pressing the Refresh iCal Data button.

You can add as many iCalendar feeds as you want.

Once added they will appear on the top of the Import box, like in the screenshot above. You can see the last time it was updated and you can remove the feed by clicking on the Remove button.

In the calendar editor, the imported dates will appear like in the screenshot below.