"Add to Google Calendar" button uses wrong times

[SebKuzminsky]

Expected Behavior

On a shift page, I expect the "Add to Google Calendar" button to create a calendar event at the time of the start of the pickup window.

Actual Behavior

The "Add to Google Calendar" button opens Google Calendar with many fields filled out with useful information, but the times are wrong. In the page linked below, the shift's pickup time is between 4:30PM and 6:00PM, but the calendar even is scheduled for 10:30AM to 12:00PM

I don't know if this problem is specific to that shift, or a general issue.

Steps to Recreate

1. Go to this shift page: https://robot.boulderfoodrescue.org/schedule_chains/776
2. Observe the pickup time.
3. Click on the "Add to Google Calendar" button.
4. Observe the pre-set calendar event times.

Environment

Chrome on Linux, but I don't think that matters.

[phyninja]

Hi @SebKuzminsky,
I'm no expert at software development, but having experienced this issue myself, I'm going to try and fix it.
From just looking closely at the issue, I have realized that the issue originates from the fact that Google Calendar interprets the times on the schedule page as being formatted in UTC. I confirmed this by:

1. Clicking on the 'Time Zone' button next to the time details on the Google Calendar event, and
2. Changing the 'Primary Time Zone' on Google Calendar by navigating to Calendar Settings (gear icon on the top right of the page) > General > Time Zone.

This link explains how Google Calendar events are created to account for Time Zone differences.

[phyninja]

Example href being used to create calendar event (separated into lines based on arguments):

a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE

&text= Food%20Rescue%3A%20Whole%20Foods%20Alpine%20Ideal%20Market%20-%3E%20BHP%20%40%20Broadway%20East

&dates=20200909T090000Z/20200909T103000Z

&details=%2AThis%20shift%20is%20picking%20up%20from%20Ideal%20and%20delivering%20to%20two%20communities.%20Please%20split%20the%20delivery%20between%20Broadway%20East%20and%20Broadway%20West%20while%20you%20are%20sorting.%20For%20Broadway%20East%20you%20can%20give%20half%20of%20the%20produce%20and%20baked%20goods.%20And%20for%20Broadway%20West%20you%20can%20set%20aside%20half%20of%20the%20produce%2C%20half%20the%20baked%20goods%2C%20and%20all%20of%20the%20prepared%20food.%20Please%20deliver%20to%20Broadway%20West%20first.%20%0D%0AIf%20you%20have%20any%20questions%20please%20reach%20out%20to%20the%20volunteer%20line%20before%20the%20shift%3A%20%28970%29%20736-7237%2A%0D%0APlease%20remember%20that%20the%20volunteer%20line%20is%20responsive%20from%208am-6pm%2C%20and%20a%20BFR%20team%20member%20will%20respond%20to%20your%20message%20within%20that%20time%20window%2C%20if%20a%20message%20is%20sent%20before%20or%20after%20the%20window%2C%20it%20will%20be%20responded%20to%20once%20the%20line%20is%20being%20managed%20again.%20

&location=1275%20Alpine%20Avenue%20%20Boulder%2C%20CO%2080304

&trp=true

&sprop=http%3A%2F%2Fboulderfoodrescue.org

&sprop=name:Boulder%20Food%20Rescue

" target="_blank"

Next steps: Figure out where the 'dates' argument is pulling data from.

• Prepare a Dev environment using the guide in the project's README page
• Explore the options available for the 'Admin Volunteer' role in setting times for schedules

[rylanb]

@phyninja let me know if you get stuck on this, happy to work on fixing this one.

[phyninja]

Hi @rylanb,

Currently, I'm following the instructions on the project's README page to set up the dev environment. Running the command bundle exec bin/setup gives me the following error:

/Users//.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.3.7/bin/ruby
==> Installing dependencies
/Users//.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.7@bfr-food-robot/bin/bundle
Could not find sass-3.4.22 in any of the sources
Run bundle install to install missing gems.
Could not find sass-3.4.22 in any of the sources
Run bundle install to install missing gems.

Any thoughts or suggestions you may have on this is welcome.

[rylanb]

Ahh this is likely due to a deprecation in the sass library after they've moved over to the C library (sassc) instead of Ruby version.

I'm struggling to get this app running again locally w/ openssl and Ruby 2.3.7 or 2.3.8.

You could try updating the Gemfile locally to

gem 'bootstrap-sass', '~> 3.4.0'
gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.1'
gem 'font-awesome-sass', '~> 4.6.0'

and then running
bundle update

You may have to do bundle update therubyracer too.

Let me know how that goes!

[rylanb]

Ok you can try puling master down now and perhaps it will work? We are on an old version of rails and older gems, so its a bit tricky walking that line. Hopefully that fixes it for you!

[rylanb]

Ok, I think I figured this out, sorry to snatch it from you but I got into the rabbit hole of the time zones.

Let me know how it works and reopen if not fixed for you!

[phyninja]

Hi @rylanb,

No worries, thanks for your time. It appears as though the issue may not yet be resolved, however. Please see the screenshots below:

Schedule chain page:

Google Calendar Event:

URL:
https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&text=Boulder%20Food%20Rescue%3A%20Sprouts%20Market%3A%20%20Arapahoe%20-%3E%20BHP%20%40%20Tantra&dates=20201002T093000Z/20201002T123000Z&details=&location=2525%20Arapahoe%20Avenue%20%20Boulder%2C%20CO%2080302&trp=true&sprop=http%3A%2F%2Fboulderfoodrescue.org&sprop=name:Boulder%20Food%20Rescue

Google Calendar - general settings:

Google Calendar - "my calendar" settings:

[rylanb]

That's odd -> https://robot.boulderfoodrescue.org/schedule_chains/777 works just fine for me.

If I go to https://robot.boulderfoodrescue.org/schedule_chains/186

I get the URL:
https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&text=Boulder%20Food%20Rescue%3A%20Sprouts%20Market%3A%20%20Arapahoe%20-%3E%20BHP%20%40%20Tantra&dates=20201002T210000Z/20201003T000000Z&details=&location=2525%20Arapahoe%20Avenue%20%20Boulder%2C%20CO%2080302&trp=true&sprop=http%3A%2F%2Fboulderfoodrescue.org&sprop=name:Boulder%20Food%20Rescue

It seems to have the correct 3pm - 6pm time.

So this is very confusing. My google calendar settings are the same as yours, too.

Since I can't even reproduce on the robot now, I'm not sure how i'd go about fixing this.

[phyninja]

Ok, I may have stumbled across a hint:
I'm currently located in India. My system's locale is therefore set to IST (Indian Standard Time, UTC +5:30). In other words, this is the time on my Operating System. My google calendar's time zone was set to Mountain Time - Denver (UTC -6:00) for testing.
If I were to say that the 'Add to Google Calendar' button looks at the time on the 'Schedule Chain' page from the perspective of the user's system time when generating the calendar URL, wouldn't I be on the right track?

[rylanb]

You might be. The URL is generated in the backend and should be using UTC time ... but the server is set to use Mountain Time by default (see production.rb). I got a bit confused trying to sort that out.

So, you might be on the right track, but it feels like its something in the add to calendar link -> google calendar and your system time being injected somehow? I wouldn't even know how to troubleshoot that. I just set my system time to IST and clicked the link and it still showed the right time.

[phyninja]

I ran a few tests on the dev and prod environments by only changing the Time Zone on my Google Calendar.
Log:

Env	Case	System Time	Google Cal Time Zone	Time Zone on Robot Home page	Sched_chain	Event time	Expected Google Cal event	Actual Google Cal Event
Dev	1	UTC +5:30	UTC +5:30	"+5:30"	4	April 28th, 12PM - 1PM	April 28th, 12PM - 1PM	April 28th, 12PM - 1PM
Dev	2	UTC +5:30	UTC -6:00	"+5:30"	4	April 28th, 12PM - 1PM	April 28th, 12:30AM - 1:30AM	April 28th, 12:30AM - 1:30AM
Dev	3	UTC +5:30	UTC +5:30	"+5:30"	6	April 24th, 4PM - 6PM	April 24th, 4PM - 6PM	April 24th, 4PM - 6PM
Dev	4	UTC +5:30	UTC -6:00	"+5:30"	6	April 24th, 4PM - 6PM	April 24th, 4:30AM - 6:30AM	April 24th, 4:30AM - 6:30AM
Prod	5	UTC +5:30	UTC +5:30	"+5:30"	1648	April 26th, 9AM - 11AM	April 26th, 8:30PM - 10:30PM	April 26th, 9AM - 11AM
Prod	6	UTC +5:30	UTC -6:00	"+5:30"	1648	April 26th, 9AM - 11AM	April 26th, 9AM - 11AM	April 25th, 9:30PM - 11:30PM