Preserve Meetup event times in calendar feed

Author: HeyItsGilbert

.github/scripts/sync-meetup-events.mjs

@@ -49,10 +49,13 @@ function eventsFromIcal(calendar) {
   return { events, groupName };
 }
 
-function date(value, field, url) {
-  const match = value?.match(/^(\d{4})(\d{2})(\d{2})/);
-  if (!match) throw new Error(`Meetup event ${url} has no valid ${field}.`);
-  return `${match[1]}-${match[2]}-${match[3]}`;
+function eventTime(value, field, url) {
+  if (typeof value !== 'string') throw new Error(`Meetup event ${url} has no valid ${field}.`);
+  if (/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/.test(value)) return value;
+
+  const time = new Date(value);
+  if (Number.isNaN(time.valueOf())) throw new Error(`Meetup event ${url} has no valid ${field}.`);
+  return time.toISOString();
 }
 
 function eventId(event, url) {
@@ -104,12 +107,16 @@ function eventSchema(html, url) {
   throw new Error(`Meetup event page has no Event structured data: ${url}`);
 }
 
-function eventMetadata(event) {
+export function eventMetadata(event, url) {
   const virtual = /(?:Online|Mixed)EventAttendanceMode$/.test(event.eventAttendanceMode ?? '');
   const locations = Array.isArray(event.location) ? event.location : [event.location].filter(Boolean);
   const place = locations.find(({ '@type': type }) => type === 'Place');
+  const times = {
+    startDate: eventTime(event.startDate, 'start date', url),
+    endDate: event.endDate ? eventTime(event.endDate, 'end date', url) : undefined,
+  };
 
-  if (!place) return { virtual, where: virtual ? 'Online' : '' };
+  if (!place) return { ...times, virtual, where: virtual ? 'Online' : '' };
 
   const address = place.address;
   const addressParts = typeof address === 'string'
@@ -119,19 +126,17 @@ function eventMetadata(event) {
     (parts, part) => parts.some((existing) => existing.toLowerCase().includes(part.toLowerCase())) ? parts : [...parts, part],
     [],
   ).join(', ');
-  return { virtual, where };
+  return { ...times, virtual, where };
 }
 
 function eventFile(event, metadata, groupName) {
   const url = event.URL;
   if (!url) throw new Error('Meetup calendar event has no URL.');
 
-  const startDate = date(event.DTSTART, 'start date', url);
-  const endDate = event.DTEND ? date(event.DTEND, 'end date', url) : undefined;
-  const endDateField = endDate && endDate !== startDate ? `endDate: ${yaml(endDate)}\n` : '';
+  const endDateField = metadata.endDate ? `endDate: ${yaml(metadata.endDate)}\n` : '';
   const description = unescapeIcal(event.DESCRIPTION).trim();
 
-  return `---\nmeetupEventId: ${yaml(eventId(event, url))}\nmeetupSource: meetup\nstartDate: ${yaml(startDate)}\n${endDateField}title: ${yaml(unescapeIcal(event.SUMMARY))}\nexternalUrl: ${yaml(url)}\nvirtual: ${metadata.virtual}\nwhere: ${yaml(metadata.where || groupName)}\n---\n${description}\n`;
+  return `---\nmeetupEventId: ${yaml(eventId(event, url))}\nmeetupSource: meetup\nstartDate: ${yaml(metadata.startDate)}\n${endDateField}title: ${yaml(unescapeIcal(event.SUMMARY))}\nexternalUrl: ${yaml(url)}\nvirtual: ${metadata.virtual}\nwhere: ${yaml(metadata.where || groupName)}\n---\n${description}\n`;
 }
 
 async function groups() {
@@ -167,7 +172,7 @@ async function fetchGroupEvents(urlname) {
 
     const page = await fetch(event.URL);
     if (!page.ok) throw new Error(`Meetup event page returned ${page.status}: ${event.URL}`);
-    return { event, metadata: eventMetadata(eventSchema(await page.text(), event.URL)) };
+    return { event, metadata: eventMetadata(eventSchema(await page.text(), event.URL), event.URL) };
   }));
 
   return { events, groupName: calendar.groupName || urlname };

.github/scripts/sync-meetup-events.test.mjs

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 import test from 'node:test';
 
-import { calendarSyncPlan } from './sync-meetup-events.mjs';
+import { calendarSyncPlan, eventMetadata } from './sync-meetup-events.mjs';
 
 const managedEvent = {
   file: 'content/calendar/meetup-123.md',
@@ -34,3 +34,42 @@ test('retains manual historical events when Meetup reports cancellation', () =>
 
   assert.deepEqual([...plan.cancelled], []);
 });
+
+test('preserves the start and end instants supplied by Meetup', () => {
+  const event = {
+    UID: 'event_456@meetup.com',
+    DTSTART: '20260916T000000Z',
+    DTEND: '20260916T010000Z',
+    SUMMARY: 'Intune - Not Just Another Graph Resource',
+    DESCRIPTION: 'Hailey presents Intune automation.',
+    URL: 'https://www.meetup.com/example/events/456/',
+  };
+  const metadata = eventMetadata({
+    eventAttendanceMode: 'https://schema.org/OnlineEventAttendanceMode',
+    location: { '@type': 'VirtualLocation' },
+    startDate: '2026-09-16T19:00:00-04:00',
+    endDate: '2026-09-16T20:00:00-04:00',
+  }, event.URL);
+
+  assert.deepEqual(metadata, {
+    virtual: true,
+    where: 'Online',
+    startDate: '2026-09-16T23:00:00.000Z',
+    endDate: '2026-09-17T00:00:00.000Z',
+  });
+
+  const plan = calendarSyncPlan([], [{ events: [{ event, metadata }], groupName: 'Example group' }]);
+
+  assert.equal(plan.desired.get('content/calendar/meetup-456.md'), `---
+meetupEventId: "456"
+meetupSource: meetup
+startDate: "2026-09-16T23:00:00.000Z"
+endDate: "2026-09-17T00:00:00.000Z"
+title: "Intune - Not Just Another Graph Resource"
+externalUrl: "https://www.meetup.com/example/events/456/"
+virtual: true
+where: "Online"
+---
+Hailey presents Intune automation.
+`);
+});

.github/workflows/build.yml

@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ jobs:
             npm install
           fi
 
+      - name: Test Meetup calendar synchronization
+        run: node --test .github/scripts/sync-meetup-events.test.mjs
+
       - name: Create data directory
         run: mkdir -p data
 

content/calendar/meetup-316490583.md

@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 ---
 meetupEventId: "316490583"
 meetupSource: meetup
-startDate: "2026-09-16"
+startDate: "2026-09-16T18:00:00-04:00"
+endDate: "2026-09-16T20:00:00-04:00"
 title: "Intune - Not Just Another Graph Resource"
 externalUrl: "https://www.meetup.com/research-triangle-powershell-users-group/events/316490583/"
 virtual: true

layouts/_partials/event.ics

@@ -2,20 +2,25 @@
 {{- if or (eq hugo.Environment "development") (eq hugo.Environment "debug") }}{{ warnf "Partial used: %s" templates.Current.Name }}{{ end -}}
 {{- $timezone := partial "ical/get_timezone.ics" . -}}
 {{- $lang := .Site.Language.Lang -}}
+{{- $startDate := (time.AsTime .Params.startDate $timezone) | time.In $timezone -}}
+{{- $allDay := not (strings.Contains .Params.startDate "T") -}}
 {{- $endDate := "" -}}
 {{- if .Params.endDate -}}
   {{- $endDate = (time.AsTime .Params.endDate $timezone) | time.In $timezone -}}
 {{- end -}}
+{{- if $allDay -}}
+  {{- $endDate = (cond (ne $endDate "") $endDate $startDate).AddDate 0 0 1 -}}
+{{- end -}}
 {{- with dict `` `
   ` "description"  (dict "text" .Plain "lang" $lang) `` `
   ` "summary"      (dict "text" .Title "lang" $lang) `` `
-  ` "eventStart"   (dict "dateTime" ((time.AsTime .Params.startDate $timezone) | time.In $timezone) "timeZoneID" $timezone) `` `
+  ` "eventStart"   (dict "dateTime" $startDate "timeZoneID" $timezone) `` `
   ` "eventEnd"     (cond (ne $endDate "") (dict "dateTime" $endDate "timeZoneID" $timezone) nil) `` `
   ` "location"     (dict "text" (or .Params.where .Params.location) "lang" $lang) `` `
   ` "url"          (or .Params.externalUrl ((.OutputFormats.Get "HTML").Permalink)) `` `
   ` "contact"      (cond (and .Params.orga .Params.orgaEmail) (dict "text" (printf "%s: %s" .Params.orga .Params.orgaEmail) "lang" $lang) nil) `` `
   ` "color"        "7C3AED" `` `
-  ` "status"       (cond (.Params.cancelled | default false) "CANCELLED" "CONFIRMED") `` `
+  ` "allDay"       $allDay `` `
   ` "uid"          .File.UniqueID `` `
   ` "timestamp"    .Date `` `
   ` "created"      .Date `` `