Google calendar : not import in EA, just ask for availability in real time – Multsites feature

Support forumCategory: Feature requestsGoogle calendar : not import in EA, just ask for availability in real time – Multsites feature
luli asked 6 years ago
Hi Nikola Finally I unfortunately gave up to use your plugin. I knew that the extension was a beta version but I had too many bugs:
  • with Google calendar authorization (had to install/unstall/disconnected my account to app/reconnect...) several times before it works.
  • Once the authorization was ok, the events from the Google back sync came sometimes 20mn after their creation (it's too long) even with a cron every minute
  • the events created by a third party in a google calendar linked to the primary calendar weren't imported
  • the #link cancel# in an email received in hotmail/gmail(...) automatically cancel events because antispam "read" the links
  • and, the main issue : the events created in a google agenda are completely imported with all the details (and with personal/private datas). It's really a problem with the GDPR and everything that happens right now with Facebook and Cambridge analytica;.. It's normal to keep private data in EA if the users are warned on the website and are ok to let their personal datas (like IP, name, phone, email) but you don't have the right to catch datas from the agenda of a professional (doctor, lawer...) without informing their clients and it's impossible because their assistants manage their calendar by phone or during an interview...
Anyway, I really suggest you to have a look on bookly (a competitor for you). They have built another approach : events from Google Calendar are not imported. The plugin manage available slots when the user arrives at the step of picking date/time : it just check the unavailable slots with a request to GC. Because of that, the authorization with API Calendar is easier (don't need to provide the JS url, just one url to redirect, whereas with EA, you have to fill 3 url) Furthermore, the plugin manage the break in a day (i.e for the lunch) and EA hasn't this feature. Because of that, it's necessary to create "lunch slots" in Google calendar for each day and hoping they will be correctly imported in EA. EA is a plugin that offer appointment booking feature on a website but nobody wants to use EA like their main calendar (Google calendar, outlook, lotus notes do that very well) so you don't need to have all your events in a the back office of a website. I realize how you could have worked very hard on this project, but it could be better if bookly has a real competitor. I'm sure you could be the right competitor for bookly but you deeply need to think about revamping the features. Even if for the moment I paid for bookly because my clients are waiting for a appointment plugin without bugs, I will continue to follow the EA updates and hope I will use it again if you change/add these features ! ;-) PS : bookly has also an add-on for multisites because they have built it with separate datas in the database and EA is not able to do that. It could be also a very appreciated feature  
1 Answers
Nikola Loncar Staff answered 6 years ago

Hi,

thanks for feedback. :) I am not happy that EA has not meet your expectations :( . You are right it's not yet in best shape and there are to many rough edges. Import of events from Google Calendar is something that can be an issue. EA approach is that Google Calendar and Site with EA have the same owners. There are no data leak from EA to some other third party but it should be something that is owner of site and Google Calendar owner share. Regarding multi site you are also right here, current EA state is that it is sharing same tables between different sites on that multi site.

I will work hard in order to improve EA, thank you once more :)

Best regards,
Nikola