Menstrual Cycle data and forecast as ics

[kruemelro]

i would love to have the menstrual forecast in an ics file which i could subscribe with my calendar system.

The Forecast is a great feature, but it only shows the next menstrual phase. It would be helpfull to have the forecasts for the next months or 1-2 years. And it would be even more helpfull if i can integrate this forecast in my calendar system.

Healthlog updates the ics file after the user has logged something and the calendar system greps that ics file on a regular base. Maybe it could be also helpful to also integrate the last X cycles in the ics.
So Healthlog stays the single source of truth, but i could also view it in my normal calendar.

[MBombeck]

Thanks @kruemelro, this one is built too and comes with the next release.

On the cycle page's settings tab you can turn on a calendar subscription. HealthLog gives you a private link (and a webcal:// one) that you add to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook or anything else that subscribes to .ics feeds. The feed is computed fresh every time your calendar asks for it, so whatever you log shows up on the next refresh, and HealthLog stays the source.

A few choices I made on purpose:

• I didn't go to one or two years. The forecast for the next period is decent, but the uncertainty grows with every cycle after that, and twelve months out the dates would mostly be noise dressed up as a plan. The feed shows the next three cycles by default, up to six, and each one is an all-day band that gets wider the further out it is. Once a band would be wider than about ten days, the feed stops there.
• You can also add up to twelve of your logged cycles. It's off by default.
• Google and iCloud fetch the feed from their own servers and keep a copy, which HealthLog can't take back. So the feed only ever contains dates. By default the events are titled "●" in a calendar named "HealthLog". Descriptive titles ("Period (estimate)") are an opt-in. Symptoms, notes and everything else never go in.
• The fertile window is only available if your cycle goal is trying to conceive, only for the next cycle, and off by default.
• The link is a secret only you can create. You can see when it was last fetched, rotate it, or revoke it at any time. Changing your password revokes it as well.

If you try it, I'd like to hear how the bands look in your calendar app. I've only been able to check the file itself so far, not how every client draws it.

[MBombeck]

@kruemelro This is out in v1.47.1. The switch is on the cycle page's settings, and the calendar feed guide covers the options and the reverse proxy note. I'd be curious how the bands look in your calendar app.

[kruemelro]

Wow!
You are really fast! Thank you so much for implementing this!
I’m on holiday this weekend, but really looking forward to test this tomorrow

[kruemelro]

I've tested it out and it works great so far. The Setup was clearly understandable und it works seemless.

I also showed it to my wife and she was very happy about the new function. But she was confused why the cycle lenght increases.

The feed shows the next three cycles by default, up to six, and each one is an all-day band that gets wider the further out it is. Once a band would be wider than about ten days, the feed stops there

I understand what you try to archive with this. My Wife confuses this more than it helps.
We talked about it and came to this idea:

The System allready calculates the regularity of the cycle and gives out the precission in days (+-1 for example).

Let the user choose how the cycle in the calender should be shown.
Possiblity 1 (Raw):
Draw the cycles as they are calculated.

Possiblity 2 (Use calculated precission):
Draw the cycles as they are calculated. Add the calculated precision before and after the cycle, but give them another name to see the difference.

Possibility 3 (your strategy)

Garmin also creates a forecast for the cycles (but you can't export it as ics). Garmin uses the raw strategy for this.

What do you think?

[MBombeck]

Thanks for testing it, and thanks to your wife too. That's exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for. The screenshot makes it obvious: a period you logged is two days, and the estimate next to it looks like eight. Of course that reads as "my cycle is getting longer".

So I built your idea. Under "How forecasts look" you now pick one of three:

• Expected days: just the period as calculated, like Garmin does it.
• Expected days with margin: the period as calculated, plus the days it may start earlier or run on later as separate entries called "Period possible" (an open ○ instead of ● if you keep the discreet titles). That's your option 2.
• One range: the band you have now.

New subscriptions start with the margin version. Yours stays on the range until you switch, so nothing changes in your calendar without you choosing it. The feed still stops after the cycles where a date would mostly be a guess, whichever style you pick.

It's in the next release, 1.47.2. I'll ping you here when it's out.

[MBombeck]

@kruemelro It's out in v1.47.2. Your subscription is still on "One range", so open the cycle page's settings and pick "Expected days" or "Expected days with margin" under "How forecasts look". The calendar app picks it up on its next refresh, no new link needed. I'd like to hear which one your wife ends up preferring.

[kruemelro]

I deployed the new version. The changes are great!
I've showed it to my wife and she also loves it. She ended with "expected days with margin", descriptive Title and 6 cycles in each direction.

[MBombeck]

That's great to hear, @kruemelro, and thanks for passing on which settings your wife picked. Expected days with margin was the one I hoped would read best, so it's nice to see it hold up in real use.