Upcoming Events Widget

Upcoming Events is a widget and a shortcode. It allows you to use an iCalendar link to display a list of events on your WordPress.com site. This feature can be used for any kind of event list, but it was created especially with musicians in mind so they can rock the web with a list of tour dates. Rock on!

Here is an example of an embedded events list. Note that the styling will vary depending on your theme.

Getting a Calendar Link

First, you will need to get an iCalendar link. Google Calendar is a free calendar application from Google you can use to create a calendar and get an iCalendar URL.

1. Access your Google Calendar and click on the little arrow next to your calendar name and select the settings link.
   
2. Click on the name of the calendar you want to embed (Tasks, in this example).
   
3. Click on the green ICAL button (next to Calendar Address).
   
4. Copy and paste the link that displays (it will begin with “http” and end with “.ics”).
5. Make sure your calendar is public in the “Share this Calendar” section or WordPress.com will not be able to see the calendar to embed it.

Events List Shortcode

You can embed a list of events into a post or page by using an iCalendar URL and a shortcode.

1. Add the following shortcode into your post:[upcomingevents url="ICALENDARURL"]
2. Replace “ICALENDARURL” with your iCalendar URL. Make sure you’ve included quotes around the link in the shortcode.
3. To limit how many events appear, you can add a number parameter to the shortcode such as number=3.

Example:

[upcomingevents number=3 url="http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/ht3jlfaac5lfd6263ulfh4tql8%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics"]

* When you make changes to a Google Calendar that has already been embedded, it will take up to an hour for the changes to show up in your blog.

Events List Widget

You can also add a list of upcoming events as a widget.

1. Go to the Widgets section in your Customizer
2. Add the Upcoming Events widget into a widget area
3. Copy your iCalendar Feed URL into the widget and save

* When you make changes to a Google Calendar that has already been embedded, it will take up to an hour for the changes to show up in your blog.

Embedding a Google Calendar

If you want more than just a list, feel free to embed a Google Calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why aren’t my calendar changes showing up right away? Calendar .ics files aren’t updated immediately by providers such as Google Calendar, so there could be a delay because of that. In addition, WordPress.com caches the calendar data for one hour. So if you don’t see calendar changes right away, wait a bit to give the data enough time to get caught up.

Are recurring events supported? Yes, however, some calendar programs may not save the data in a format our parser can understand. In most cases, problems happen to data imported from an outside sources and so completely deleting and re-creating the recurring event using a major service such as Google Calendar or Apple Calendar on iCloud should resolve the problem.

Why are the event times in the widget wrong? The Upcoming Events widget adjusts your event times to match your site’s timezone. If the times in your calendar are correct, your site may not be set to the correct timezone. You can change the Site Timezone setting in your site’s General Settings. (Choose a city in your timezone to make sure your site automatically adjusts to daylight saving time.)