Tag Archives: hcalendar

WordPress events plugin with xml output? want it? why?

The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has just published the RFC (Request for Comment) for xcal (iCalendar in XML).

Given that the ics format works fairly well to give us calendar exchange and interoperability (given the natural constraints of human involvement in import/subscribe to their calendar apps) , does one need an xml format too ?

An argument for the existence of an xml standard is that people have already developed their own xml versions – a standard was required for interchange of data.

If you have thoughts on this and would like to see that this wordpress events plugin produce an xml icalendar feed as well as the ics feed, please add  a comment below.

Try to be as specific as possible as to the reasons and benefits to motivate the addition of the xml format – export (and hmmm maybe import).

Some input to get you going:

I think the biggest software revolution of the future is that the calendar will be the organizing filter for most of the information flowing into your life. You think you are bombarded with too much information every day, but in reality it is just the timing of the information that is wrong. Once the calendar becomes the organizing paradigm and filter, it won’t seem as if there is so much.

 

 

hcalendar microformats By the way, did you know this plugin already issues the necessary css classes for the hcalendar microformat?

 

 

Want google rich snippets for your events?

If you are using amr-events or amr-ical-events-list plugins with a url for your events, then the markup is already all there for the rich snippets.  You may already have improved structured search results.

When event information is marked up in the body of a web page, Google can identify it and may make that information available in search results pages. Information such as an event’s title, date, and venue can help users decide which pages to click on in search results.

There is a rich snippet testing tool to check whether your event markup is good enough.  Enter the url of a page with your event calendar or widget.

Rich snippets testing

Here are some testing tool examples from websites using these event plugins

Event url

Note: if there is more than one event on the page, then google requires that the event url be included in the markup.   Google requires that the event url be on the same domain as the web page.   Although many ics editors do not allow you to enter a url, my amr-events plugin will sort that out for your site.

  • If you are using amr-events, then you have no problem, the event post is the url.
  • If you are only using amr-ical-events-list, never fear, by using a “calendar” url in the widget so that the event summary become hyperlinks, the ‘class=”url”‘ markup will be added and google will be happy.

Date Formats

Google also requires that the date fromat be in a ISO 8601 format so that it is understood. This means that some calendars are not ok with google – Google does not understand german weekdays!  I will bear this in mind – there may be a way to meet both requirements.