There are a bunch of local organizations which produce iCal or RSS feeds, but it can be difficult to figure out how to get them. On this page we reveal their secrets.
Some local organizations not mentioned here offer feeds as well. Check out https://wrdashboard.ca for some of them.
The main University of Waterloo events page is https://uwaterloo.ca/events/events . The main RSS feed is https://uwaterloo.ca/events/events/events.xml and the main iCal feed is https://uwaterloo.ca/events/events/calendar.ics .
However, many faculties and programs have their own events listings, which sometimes contain events not on the main one.
For example, the Department of Computer Science has an events listing at https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/events and an RSS feed at https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/events/events.xml .
The names are not always consistent, however. The Faculty of Arts main
page is https://uwaterloo.ca/arts (not https://arts.uwaterloo.ca)
so its events page is https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/events and its RSS
feed is https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/events/events.xml
Also of note is an ancient but still active system called WebNotice, which is used in the Faculty of Mathematics. This system produces a number of iCal feeds for different departments.
Wilfrid Laurier changed its calendar provider in 2021.
You can get a firehose RSS feed here: https://events.dudesolutions.com/wlu/page/rss/?duration=180days
You can get a firehose iCal feed here: https://events.dudesolutions.com/wlu/page/ical/?duration=180days
There may be some ways to filter these feeds but I have not figured out how to do so.
The WPL used to use the same system as the KPL, but as of 2021 this no longer works. Instead, you can subscribe directly from the events interface:
The WPL also has some Meetup groups that advertise upcoming events. Use the same technique to subscribe to their feeds as other Meetup ones (documented below):
The Cambridge library system now has an event calendar using the same technology as the WPL. The main page of the calendar is https://ideaexchange.libnet.info/events . You can use the same technique as above to subscribe to feeds.
The KPL has a Wordpress site where they sometimes promote events: https://wherecommunityconnects.wordpress.com/ . Subscribe to its feed as you would any other Wordpress site (documented below).
In 2023 the KPL changed its events system. The current calendar is here: https://kpl.events.mylibrary.digital/ . However, this site does not offer any RSS or iCal feeds, or any way to subscribe to upcoming events.
The following newspapers are all owned by the Metroland chain.
They all offer basic rss feeds by appending /rss to the web address.
For example, to get an RSS feed for the New Hamburg Independent, use
https://www.newhamburgindependent.ca/rss
They also allow you to generate feeds that are filtered by type and category. You can subscribe to RSS feeds for an entire category or for subcategories:
For example, to get an RSS feed of Kitchener Rangers news from the Record, use https://www.therecord.com/rss/article?category=sports&subcategory=rangers and to get all sports news, use https://www.therecord.com/rss/article?category=sports .
Of particular interest are event feeds. For the Record, this can be found at https://www.therecord.com/rss/event/ . The other Metroland newspaper sites follow the same pattern.
There are other news sources in Waterloo Region as well, and some of them also offer RSS feeds. See https://wrdashboard.ca/news for a collection of those.