Exporting guild calendars from the Armory
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 27th 2009 at 2:00PM
Reader Bob sent us a neat little tool a while back that will help you get your guild's calendar off of The Armory and on to another calendar program, like Google Calendar or iCal. This little script he built (which unfortunately will probably get beat up as soon as this post goes live, so give it a break if it's down) will give you a link for your guild's calendar, which you can then take over to Google Calendar (in the Other Calendars box, click Add, and then "Add by URL") or any other calendar service that accepts ICS data by URL, and put all of your guild's raids and events right into the calendar app that you actually use every day.However, there are a few hitches. Because the information you need lies on the Armory, you'll have to enter a Battle.net password into your calendar app to access that (which as Bob says, should be fine, but if you don't trust it, don't do it). Also, Blizzard is apparently not that happy with people accessing this data on the Armory either -- they've removed links to scripts like this off of the forums before. It's probably not a bannable offense (they probably just don't want tons of calendar queries into the Armory's servers), but if you try to connect this stuff together, you'll do it at your own risk.
Still, it's a shame Blizzard isn't more open with this guild data -- it would be extremely useful to easily export guild information out to an .ICS file or even an RSS feed (for bank and join/quit info). We're not sure what all of their concerns are, but given that the info is already updated on the Armory, there has to be a way to more easily get it out of there and into more places where we can use it.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Guilds, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Branwyn Apr 27th 2009 2:16PM
"Sorry, [URL the script gave here] is not a valid URL."
Sadz panda.
Bri Apr 27th 2009 2:25PM
>>"We're not sure what all of [Blizzard's] concerns are.."
This data is protected behind a login on their site. A script like this moves that data to an unprotected format. Because login info can be encoded into the script, the possibility is there for the script to be misused. Causing more Customer Support calls to Blizzard. Which costs them money.
Mike Schramm Apr 27th 2009 3:17PM
I have no doubt that they have concerns -- there are lots of reasons why they wouldn't want people connecting to the Armory in this way. I just don't know which of the concerns are the main problem.
morgol Apr 27th 2009 2:25PM
worked great for me. i just pasted the url under "subcribe..." in ical.
Branwyn Apr 27th 2009 2:27PM
Didn't work for me with Google Calendar, despite having added several other calendars this way. *shrug* I'll try again later to see if it was a one-time thing or not.
Vant Apr 27th 2009 2:45PM
"You will be prompted for your Battle.Net username and password when you access the calendar"
No thanks!!
Mike Schramm Apr 27th 2009 3:18PM
As I said in the post, if you don't trust it, don't do it. :) You're right -- you should never give up your username and password to anyone or any service you don't trust.
Vant Apr 27th 2009 3:24PM
Mike. The fact that you reported on it and kind-of defend gives it a good weight of credibility. But it's a tough thing to follow when you're asked for your BNet username/password. It's nothing against you, but it's a rule we've been preached on for years.
Sumitra Apr 27th 2009 2:56PM
Group Calendar 5 (which is built on top of the Blizzard in-game calendar) does this too, but rather than asking for your credentials, it allows you to pop up a dialog during gameplay containing the contents of your calendar in iCal format.
Paste it into an .ics file and put it into your favorite calendar client. No security issue, since you can only do it from inside the WoW client.
Koragg Apr 27th 2009 3:21PM
So you want my username and password, do ya? Lots of Luck there buddy. Sure move all my calendar info over and later on all my gold and gear to humm....
Bob Apr 27th 2009 8:32PM
I've made a couple of changes; added timezone support and changed the auth to work with google calendar (it's now part of the URL, so don't share it).
If you want to share your calendar; when you subscribe in Google, make sure you make it public; then go to Calendar Settings and use the Google-provided Calendar Address.
(And if sharing your battle.net login info with me is something you don't want to do; don't. You don't know I'm not a scammer, spammer, etc. - all you have is my word I won't mess with you.)
Yurick Apr 27th 2009 9:00PM
I believe that my realm won't work because it has a space in the name. This could be the problem that others are having as well.
yurick Apr 27th 2009 9:03PM
Er, scratch that. It's my guild name that has the space in it. Makes for an invalid URL.
Bob Apr 27th 2009 10:50PM
This I think should be fixed; if you are still getting problems and you have spaces, etc. in your guild or realm name; try replace the space with a + or a %20
Thander Apr 27th 2009 11:38PM
Blizzard should just create their own guild management website separate from Armory. Guilds can have their own website for forums and info and use the Blizzard one for scheduling events where the events are added directly to the ingame guild calendar.