Life is good, work is busy.  I recently finished the Sentinel website, which you can visit here.  My reason for redesigning is because of the deadline for the Online Pacemaker.  My redesign and coding really gave me a boost in experience as I get better and better.  My current project is hooking up Google Calendar to WordPress for an Event System that people can subscribe to and view, which is something that many people have tried to do.  The problem has been ongoing with a few people having it partially working while others are still waiting for a foolproof system.  I tried almost every plugin on my local MAMP server to no avail.. except for one that most people don’t seem to know?

WoogleCal
WoogleCal seemed like it would be a winner in its simplicity and function.  The plugin would require an RSS feed from Google Calendar (which is easy to get), and just post it into any part of a WordPress template.  However, the plugin wasn’t available to download. Fail.

wpng-calendar
This plugin allows for integration of Google Calendar to a WordPress blog through ways I don’t really know…  I do know that it uses Widgets and Ajax features that I particularly do not like to use.  There wasn’t even an option to post it into a template (not that I know of atleast).  The only thing I have against widgets is that I do not know how to implement them into custom templates (like ones I make).  I do not want to use widgets also inpart to the loss of functionality and customizing that can be accomplished through XHTML and CSS.

RSS Aggregator Method
I categorized this into a section because it utilizes various RSS Feed Aggregators to post Google Calendar in some format.
FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost feature plus adding paramaters to Google Calendar’s XML URL makes it a top choice, though not one I particularly like.  The code FeedBurner gives you is javascript, which is partially okay, but I prefer a php style list sorta thing like most decent WordPress plugins give you.
Basically, you add:

?orderby=starttime&sortorder=ascending&futureevents=true&singleevents=true&max-results=10

to the end of your Calendar Address XML URL

http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/soggn9gp245h3vkrsfgq6m3330%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic

The end result is something like this:

http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/soggn9gp245h3vkrsfgq6m3330%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic?orderby=starttime&sortorder=ascending&futureevents=true&singleevents=true&max-results=10

If you do not have a FeedBurner account, (which was recently acquired by Google) go get one. When you add a feed, add the one that you just combined together. Now, you can use the FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost by going to your Feed, click the tab for “Publicized” and click the sidebar link for “BuzzBoost.”  Activate the service, and edit the necessary fields.

If the javascript isn’t to your liking, the next one might float your boat.

Here is one that I think ranks up top as well..
RSSImport by Frank Bueltge
This one fits the need perfectly. I was slightly skeptical when I first saw the plugin but it works correctly. Simply use the php code given, type in the FeedBurner address for the Feed address, edit how many items, and etc. One thing to note is that the URL with the parameters added to the Google XML URL has a limit of 10; you would need to go back and change it to fit the limit, or remove it and use the one from the plugin. I think the only downside of the plugin was that it didn’t display the descriptions, when, and where correctly (in which case most other RSS plugins have failed in).

The end all of solutions for Google Calendar to WordPress
There’s a twist, and its pretty funny how I overlooked it. The best method to have correctly formatted events displayed is using the ICS or ICal URL and import that to WordPress. Again with more plugins! I tested almost every ICal to WordPress plugin relatively well, and while some may seem well featured, most plugins got the cut.

I will share with you the one I used however.
This one is by Daniel Westermann-Clark, you can click on the name to get to the plugin.

The readme inside the download has all the detailed information on how to add it, format it, etc. The plugin is completely underrated for what it can achieve, and through using it, you get correctly formatted dates (even customizable date formats), information, the works..

I’ll go over how to use it later. In the meantime, have fun with it!

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