How can I workaround the Google Calendar's link redirect notice?

Question

Hi,

I have a Google calendar embedded on a webpage, with events related to activities the site is organizing. Some calendar events have links that redirect the user to a page, within the same website, which has more information and the option to enroll in the event.

The problem however, is that since the end of last month, Google imposed a redirect notice that doesn't even automatically redirect. The links I create on events are changed by Google and, once a user clicks on a link, a new tab opens leading to a page with a redirect warning that the user must click. Since I am providing the users with a link to within the same website this is very inconvenient and makes no sense at all.

I'd want the users to be able to click a link on the calendar and go through to the webpage with the relevant data.

Do you guys know how I can go around this warning?

My thought process:

1. Initially, I thought of using JS to rewrite the links but since the calendar's iframe is in a different domain, the browser won't allow it due to XSS exploits (AFAIK).

2. I could build my own AJAX calendar and sync it with Google's using the API, but that's a hell of a lot of work because of stupid "feature" that makes no sense. I like Google's calendar and I'd like to use it.

3. The third thing that I though of was that, instead of having an iframe with the calendar I could use AJAX to fetch the entire code on the frame's url. Then I'd just rewrite the links on the that code with JS. Could this work?

I would be REALLY thankful for any help. This is driving me insane!

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Using Jon Cram's input I created a php script that parses the code and makes the adjustments. However I could only get that working for the html version. No AJAX for me. =(

Answer 1

The same origin policy will prevent JavaScript served from your domain from interacting with data served from a different domain.

You are therefore right in saying that option 1 won't work.

The same origin policy also applies to option 3 as you have stated it. JavaScript served from your domain won't be able to make a direct HTTP request to whichever domain serves the calendar code.

You will need to acquire and modify the calendar code, neither of which can be achieved with JavaScript using today's most commonly used browsers. When FireFox 3.1 and IE8 are in common use and Google serves the correct HTTP Access Control headers this could be achieved with JavaScript alone.

To modify code served from another domain, you will need to utilise some form of server-side process.

A server-side script will be able to request the calendar code. The same script can then modify the code as needed and output it in whatever form you require.

Answer 2

If it is a private internal site you could install greasemonkey on all clients (if they use firefox) and make a short script that fixes the urls. That only works if the original url is contained within google's redirecturl though.

If I had this problem I wound change the calendar provider, that's probably the easiest solution. I did a google search and found Kiko, looks like they might have what you need?

Answer 3

Simply remove the "http://" part of the URL. I am not sure why this works but it does!