Add to calendar

The event page offers visitors a link that creates an entry in their own calendar, pre-filled with the event's title and dates.

Where it is

In the details sidebar of the event page, below the contact details: Add to my calendar.

It opens a Google Calendar entry with the event's title and its start and end datetimes already filled in. The visitor confirms and it is saved to their calendar.

Turning it off

Settings → POM Events → Single event → Hide "Add to calendar" button removes it from every event.

Reasons to hide it:

• events with deliberately vague dates, where a calendar entry would be misleading;
• an audience that does not use Google Calendar;
• a sidebar you want to keep minimal.

For most sites, leaving it on is the better default: it is the single most useful thing a visitor can do on an event page after deciding to come.

What it uses

The link is built from:

• the event title;
• the start datetime;
• the end datetime.

Not from what the page prints. So an event whose Date format hides the time still passes the real time to the calendar, and an event with hidden dates still produces a dated entry.

That is correct behavior — the visitor's calendar needs the real values — but it is worth knowing when the two seem to disagree.

Set the dates properly

Because the link is built from the stored datetimes, they must be right:

• an event with no end datetime produces an entry with no meaningful duration;
• a wrong time produces a wrong entry in the visitor's calendar, which they will not check against your page again.

For an all-day event, enter the start and end as the day boundaries so the entry occupies the day sensibly.

What is not included

The calendar entry carries the title and the dates. It does not carry:

• the place;
• the description;
• the event URL;
• the organizer.

Visitors will look at their calendar entry the day before and want to know where to go, so put the essentials where they will still have them: the WooCommerce order email for paid events, or your own message to attendees.

No file download, no other providers

The link targets Google Calendar. There is no .ics download and no explicit option for other calendar applications.

If your audience needs one, the workable route is an additional link pointing at a file or a service you control.

Time zones

The datetimes are the site's, in the site's timezone. A visitor in another zone sees the entry converted by their own calendar.

For an online event with an international audience, state the timezone explicitly in the introduction — 18:00 CET — because the page itself prints local site time without naming the zone.

Verify

1. Open an event signed out.
2. Select Add to my calendar.
3. Confirm the title and both datetimes are correct in the entry.
4. Confirm an all-day event produces a sensible entry.
5. Toggle the site-wide setting and confirm the link disappears.