iCal format not valid due to missing timezone definition

[Anonymous]

I’m using the Events Made Easy on http://www.eltviller-carneval-verein.de to manage our events and also provide an ICAL-link to our members. I had always the problem that users, subscribing to the ICAL-link through Google Calendar (for android devices) have the events at least one hour off. In addition when subscribing through Microsoft Outlook, the events are correct but outlook shows the following error message:

Task ‘Internet Calendar Subscriptions’ reported error (0x00040015) : ‘The VEVENT, xxx, defined near line x, contains a property that references an undeclared time zone with a TZID of “Europe/Berlin”. The property is being treated as a floating time. Double-click to open this item.’

When checking the link with the iCalendar validator (https://icalendar.org/validator.html) you get the following error message for every event:

Invalid TZID value (Europe/Berlin) near line # 5
Reference: 3.2.19. Time Zone Identifier

Changing the setting ‘ICAL-Zeitzone ausgeben’ (I have the German language version) has no effect except for setting single quotes around the timezone definition:

Invalid TZID value (‘Europe/Berlin’) near line # 5
Reference: 3.2.19. Time Zone Identifier

As my personal workaround I’m currently adding the required timezone definition manually in eme_ical.php for the function eme_ical():

   echo "BEGIN:VTIMEZONE\r\n";
   echo "TZID:Europe/Berlin\r\n";
   echo "BEGIN:STANDARD\r\n";
   echo "DTSTART:19700101T030000\r\n";
   echo "TZOFFSETFROM:+0200\r\n";
   echo "TZOFFSETTO:+0100\r\n";
   echo "RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10;WKST=SU\r\n";
   echo "END:STANDARD\r\n";
   echo "BEGIN:DAYLIGHT\r\n";
   echo "DTSTART:19700101T020000\r\n";
   echo "TZOFFSETFROM:+0100\r\n";
   echo "TZOFFSETTO:+0200\r\n";
   echo "RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3;WKST=SU\r\n";
   echo "END:DAYLIGHT\r\n";
   echo "END:VTIMEZONE\r\n";

Of cource I have to change the file after every plugin update.

Is it possible to add the required timezone definitions for conformtiy with the ical standard by default?

[Franky]

Many ical readers do know the default timezones without needing to specify them, but I see the problem.
I’ve changed the code so events are now exported in GMT (that avoids the need to add timezone info).
Could you test by replacing eme_ical.php by the one you can download here:
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/events-made-easy/trunk/eme_ical.php (download link at the bottom)?

[Anonymous]

Tested and found no problems yet. iCal validator confirms the iCal-Link as conform with the standard. Events show up with the correct start and end time, as does Outlook.

Thanks so far.

[Franky]

Thanks for testing, will be in the next version.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the support. Keep up the good work (just donated for the project).

[Author]

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