OK, I thought I would make a public "test iCal feed" with just two items in it, and then I would post the URL to the Google Cal support people and let them figure it out. Then I discovered something weird.

I made a smartlist with two items (for now). "Visit Mom" on Oct 27, and "Visit Dad" on Oct 28.

I then tried to tell Google Cal to import the iCal (events) feed, and it refused, saying the URL WAS BAD. Here is that URL:

webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/wernst/5243263/events/?tok=eJwNzEkKA0EIAMAXDdhurc-RViEQckgC*X7mUsdqTeDMExbpHSBeq8UxN6mWCaanA2Qlkxrss*UUsBX1Hoa*fv1*fb7X83EjyIRKl0gYK5hNWewZjZZynbuKUcqzggupNXN80*ID7CzYy09I1h*CayqM

Then I made a second smartlist with the exact same two events. It has a different URL, but THIS URL WORKS - GCal imports it just fine:

webcal://www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/wernst/5242973/events/?tok=eJwNyUkKAjAMQNETFdJMbY6TqSCICxW8vt18ePzWAI5I3x7WDmI1WwxjkWptwbAwgKhg0g0rl2QB76Jeh6HHr9*vz3c8HzeCjLZodAAka1*kYTUbTmQ-esrRETBZ6qy2otiJKV52J81JjpvrD4BLKnM

Sunbird WORKS FINE WITH BOTH URLS. GCal won't accept the first one.

Here's my theory:

RTM is using a random string generator to make "private urls" for these feeds that are amazingly long, in order to prevent someone guessing them. Though these may be perfectly fine URLs technically, GCal is having trouble with some combinations of letters, symbols, and lengths.

Would a solution be to start generating shorter URLs for these feeds? Maybe these URLs should be something that users could create/assign themselves.

OK Emily and other RTM support people: what do you think?

-Warr