Subscribe to a My Rotas iCal feed

ChurchSuite makes it easy for rota members to stay up-to-date with all of their rota commitments by enabling them to subscribe to a calendar feed that keeps their diary application up to date with their rota information. iCal feeds are supported by all modern calendar applications such as Calendar for iOS and Mac, Google Calendar and recent versions of Microsoft Outlook.

Note...

Many calendar applications, like Google Calendar, only refresh their feeds once every 24 hours. ChurchSuite regenerates all iCal feeds at least daily and, additionally, each time a change is detected but, depending on the calendar application you use, there may be a delay between changes being made on a rota and those changes being visible in the calendar application. If the updates do not show after 24 hours, then you may wish to check your calendar application's 'auto-refresh' settings to check it is set to refresh at regular intervals.

The iCal and Google buttons are part of the Next Serving section and are only shown if the member has at least one 'next serving' date. If they are not currently scheduled to serve on a rota for a future date the buttons are not shown.

My Rotas feeds include all future rota dates and rota dates going back up to two months for published rotas. The feed data includes the rota name, serving times and any rota or service notes for each rota date.

Subscribing on iOS devices

On an iOS device, you can either subscribe to an iCal feed in your device's Calendar app or a Google subscription if you use Google as your preferred calendar app.

Using either your device's Safari browser or the iOS ChurchSuite app, log in to My ChurchSuite and navigate to the My Rotas section - this menu is only available if you are a rota member. At the top of the My Rotas page, notice the Actions button...

...clicking Actions will present subscribe options for iCal and Google.

Clicking iCal will display a confirmation message - it's as easy as that!

Once the subscription has been processed a 'success' message is displayed with the option to view the rota events that have been added.

The process for subscribing to a Google Calendar feed works in the same way. Click the Google button in My Rotas and follow the on-screen instructions to confirm the subscription.

Subscribing on Android devices

Unfortunately, it's not possible to subscribe to an iCal feed from an Android device. The Android operating system doesn't support iCal feeds. However, if you open My ChurchSuite in a browser on your desktop device you can click to subscribe to a My Rotas Google subscription for your desktop device's Google Calendar. Then, when you access your Google Calendar on your Android device, the rota feed information will show. Follow the instructions outlined below for subscribing to a My Rotas Google Calendar subscription for Mac or Windows.

Subscribing with Google Calendar - Windows and Mac

Setting up a My Rotas feed subscription in Google Calendar can be done on Windows and Mac devices. Within a browser, log in to My ChurchSuite and navigate to the My Rotas section and select the Google Calendar button.

Follow the on-screen instructions to add the My Rotas feed subscription to your Google Calendar.

You may wish to further customise how the My Rotas calendar shows on your Google Calendar, perhaps setting a custom colour or clicking through into the calendar Settings to change the subscribed calendar's name. The Settings is also where you can configure reminder notifications or unsubscribe from the feed if you wish.

Subscribing with Mac Calendar - Mac devices

On a Mac device, it's really simple to get all your rotas included on Apple's Calendar app. Open My ChurchSuite in a browser on your Mac. Click through to the My Rotas section and click the iCal button. This will automatically launch Apple's Calendar application and give you the option to subscribe - just click the Subscribe button.

You are then given the option to give the calendar subscription a Name and set how often the feed auto-refreshes. Note that ChurchSuite refreshes the iCal feed every 24 hours, so rota updates such as swaps may not show immediately.