Big release day: ICS Calendar 11.0 and ICS Calendar Pro 4.11 are now available

Today marks the release of ICS Calendar version 11.0 and ICS Calendar Pro version 4.11.

These versions go together: if you are a Pro user, you’ll need to update both versions, as there are changes in ICS Calendar 11 that are incompatible with earlier versions of Pro. (The incompatibilities are minor and won’t break your site, but they might cause some issues with retrieving and caching calendar data.)

Let’s take a look at the big changes…

Changes in ICS Calendar version 11.0:

• Significantly refactored the code for retrieving ICS feeds. Previously versions used a somewhat convoluted custom-built mix of PHP cURL and fopen functions. The new version streamlines this with the built-in WordPress wp_remote_get() function. Because this is a built-in WordPress function, it should work reliably on most (hopefully all) installations, but if you encounter problems retrieving your feeds after the update, please check the WordPress Support Forums for assistance.
• Added built-in support for retrieving feeds over a local network. This enhances a feature added after the 10.2.2 security update. Prior to version 11.0, retrieving ICS feeds from a server using a reserved IP address (such as on an internal network) required a snippet of custom PHP code using the http_request_host_is_external filter. Now, you just need to enter your internal hostnames on the ICS Calendar Settings page.
• Additional minor bug fixes, tweaks, and improvements for accessibility and internationalization.

Changes in ICS Calendar Pro version 4.11:

In addition to changes for compatibility with ICS Calendar 11.0, the following new features were added to ICS Calendar Pro:

• Event illustrations (beta). Leveraging a capability built into Google Calendar, you can now enhance your calendar’s appearance with automatic keyword-based illustrations. You also have the option of creating your own set of illustrations to use instead of Google’s illustrations, using the r34icspro_illustration_path filter.
• “Up Next” view (beta). This brand new view is based on List view, but uses JavaScript to detect the current time on the user’s device and shows only events that are currently happening, and (optionally) the next upcoming event.
• Additional minor bug fixes, tweaks, and improvements for accessibility and internationalization.

—Scott