Introduction

You now can sync your Hiring calendar with iCalendar to increase the convenience of scheduling across multiple applications.

What is iCalendar?

Not to be confused with Apple’s iCal, iCalendar is an open standard designed for exchanging scheduling and calendar information between a wide range of different devices.

It is a formatted standard which enables a wide range of vendors to be able to share information with each other.   Typically iCalendar file types use a file extension such as .ical, ,ics, ifb, or .icalendar, and they use a MIME type of “text/calendar.”

Which calendars support the iCalendar format?

A wide range of different calendars and products integrate with the iCalendar format.  These include (but are not limited to):

• Microsoft Office 365
• Apple Calendar
• Google Calendar

How do I integrate my Hiring iCalendar with my Google / Outlook / Apple calendar?

On the Calendar page, you can find your iCalendar feed by selecting Calendar from the left menu and then selecting “Publish My iCalendar Feed” on the left.

You can view the feed by selecting “View Feed.”    

The iCalendar format with one event looks something like this (it will look different for different accounts):

  BEGIN:VCALENDAR
  VERSION:2.0
  CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
  PRODID:-//YourSite.Com//Mailer V1.0//EN
  METHOD:PUBLISH
  BEGIN:VEVENT
  CLASS:PUBLIC
  SUMMARY:Interview
  CREATED:20210419T203000Z
  DTEND:20210419T203000Z
  DTSTAMP:20210419T184111Z
  DTSTART:20210419T193000Z
  SEQUENCE:0,
  STATUS:CONFIRMED
  TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
  DESCRIPTION:
  UID:607dcec206517227654952ce
  ORGANIZER;CN=John Smith:MAILTO:john123@yopmail.com
  END:VEVENT
  BEGIN:VEVENT
  CLASS:PUBLIC
  SUMMARY:Initial Interview
  CREATED:20200615T200000Z
  DTEND:20200615T200000Z
  DTSTAMP:20210419T184111Z
  DTSTART:20200615T160000Z
  SEQUENCE:0,
  STATUS:CONFIRMED
  TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
  DESCRIPTION:
  UID:5ee3a566dbe0636c5909e26a
  ORGANIZER;CN=John Smith:MAILTO:john123@yopmail.com
  END:VEVENT
  END:VCALENDAR

The calendar and any individual events are demarcated with BEGIN and END.

For most instances, to integrate your iCalendar with another calendar, you will only need the URL

Google

To import your iCalendar into Google Calendar, follow these steps:

1. Select the checkbox next to “Publish My iCalendar feed”.
2. Select View feed.
3. Copy the URL from the iCalendar feed page.
4. Open Google Calendar
5. On the top right, select the Gear icon and choose Settings
   
6. Select “Add Calendar” on the left menu
7. Choose “From URL”
   
8. Paste in the URL you copied from your iCalendar feed.  You can choose to make it publicly accessible or not.
9. Select Add Calendar.
10. The Calendar should now show on the left menu under “Other Calendars” and events should show in your calendar.

Note: There are a few known issues regarding Google's calendar syncing with iCalendar.  While the first setup will show correctly, syncing between the two calendars may be delayed by 8-10 hours.

Office 365

To sync your iCalendar with Office 365 (Outlook)

1. Select the checkbox next to “Publish My iCalendar feed”.
2. Select View feed.
3. Copy the URL from the iCalendar feed page.
4. In Microsoft Outlook, choose the calendar icon on the lower left.
5. From the Home menu, choose “Add”
   
6. Choose “From Internet…”
7. In the window that pops up, paste in the URL that you copied from your iCalendar feed:
   
8. Select Ok.
9. Your new calendar should appear on the left menu and under “Other Calendars” and a new calendar window will open up next to your local calendar.

Apple Calendar

To have your Apple calendar subscribe to your iCalendar feed, use these instructions.

Who can see my iCalendar feed?

Events that you have created on your calendar set to “everyone” will be visible to anyone within your organization or with the URL of your iCalendar feed.  

It’s wise to consider these settings when setting up events, particularly if you have enabled your iCalendar feed.