[Calendar] Import calendar from ICS file

I am aware that we can export our canvas calendar feed to another calendar but it would be nice to import calendar feeds too.

 

For example, I would like to be able to import my institution's academic calendar into canvas. I find myself having to re-enter important dates so that I can see them as I schedule assignments and tests--it seems silly to have to retype them when they are available as an ics file, if only I could import it.

 

Originally suggested on the old forum by Michael Young.

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72 Comments
jens_locher
Community Novice

A slightly different use case may be that our students suggested it would be great to have a dashboard in Canvas (because they access it daily anyway) that can show other relevant information other than courses, e.g. extra-curricular events such as Prof. Development workshops. We have the data in various feeds and it would be great to offer the option to students to view it in Canvas, i.e. plus 1 for this feature...

rpayne4
Community Participant

I've added my vote! I'd be keen to see this in Canvas! It'd be great to be able to have students see their class schedule in the calendar via an ics link like they did in our old LMS we've moved to Canvas from.


I'm going to see if I can do this for my site through an external automated script using the API but that might prove to be impossible or a bit messy at least for managing a whole school's worth of individual calendars and their random constant changes and updates.

talagad
Community Explorer

Is there another LMS that is more responsive to its users? 

It’s crazy that they didn’t implement ics import at the same time as export. The database mapping was done at that time, why not just switch the calls to allow import instead of export.

The UI on canvas is atrocious. When I first brought this and other issues up in ~2013 they actually had the nerve to suggest that I register as a developer and create my own API. That’s right the customer needs to pay for the product and then create the features to make the product usable. 

ChrisMedina
Community Participant
cburcin
Community Member

This is a great idea and a much-needed feature.  We are a Google school and our many school calendars (general, Arts, our brother school's events, etc.) are created in Google.  Importing these into Canvas would so incredibly helpful.   It's great that Canvas can feed into our Google calendar, yes, but considering how much we create via Google a pathway to feed this into the Canvas calendar would be ideal. 

jlai1
Community Explorer

Adding my vote. 

Philk27SA
Community Member

I'm also surprised that this has not been implemented yet (given ics export capability) an dthat this isi a narco thread! .

I'd like to see either /  and;

1/ import ICS files to canvas calendar

2/ export of all canvas calendar info to external calendars (todo, tasks etc)

3/ Full sync between canvas calendar and google & oultlook calendar as a minimum.

Nick_Riches1
Community Explorer

Yes. This would be a fantastic feature to have. NB I can't see any way to vote for this.

 

cwindsor
Community Participant

This request has been in conversation since 2015 and it still hasn't been moved into development?  It seems to make perfect sense - schools, colleges and universities run to a timetable, every one of them.  Please allow us to import a calendar.  I will be speaking to our timetabling service, CelCat, to see if we can work on an API for this, but it would be ideal if Instructure could enable it.

katec123
Community Novice

This would be really useful, especially in conjunction with: https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/dlsweb/learninglab/AssignmentPlanner/