ics18tickets

Generate an .ics calendar with films now showing in cinemas that use 18tickets.

Deploying

This document describes how to automatically regenerate the .ics file and serve it from a server.

Prerequisites

• A VPS with root or sudo access.
• A DNS A record (e.g. ics.example.com) pointing to your VPS IP.
• The ics18tickets repo copied to the VPS (suggested path: /opt/ics18tickets). The script ics18tickets.py generates ics18tickets.ics in that directory.

Prepare project and venv

On the VPS:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/ics18tickets
sudo chown $USER:$USER /opt/ics18tickets
cd /opt/ics18tickets
# Place repository files here (ics18tickets.py, requirements.txt)
python3 -m venv /opt/ics18tickets/venv
/opt/ics18tickets/venv/bin/pip install --upgrade pip
/opt/ics18tickets/venv/bin/pip install -r /opt/ics18tickets/requirements.txt

Configuration (config.yml)

The generator expects a config.yml file next to the scripts. If present it is used to build the films API URL.

Example /opt/ics18tickets/config.yml:

site: example.18tickets.it        # replace with the correct host or full URL
scheme: https
api_path: /api/v2/films
address: "123 Example Street, Exampleville, EX 00000"  # use "" to omit event location
filter: ['']                      # e.g., ['v.o.s.'] to include only matching titles
port: 8091                        # optional: change the server listen port (default 8091)

Notes:

• site may be a bare host (as above) or a full URL (including scheme). If site is a full URL, scheme is ignored.
• A valid config.yml is required. If missing or malformed the generator will raise an error and exit — there is no built-in fallback. Ensure /opt/ics18tickets/config.yml (or the one next to the scripts) exists before enabling cron or systemd.

Run once to create the .ics file:

/opt/ics18tickets/venv/bin/python ics18tickets.py

Systemd unit (recommended)

Create a systemd unit file named ics18tickets-http.service that runs a small server script (recommended path: /opt/ics18tickets/server.py) which serves only the calendar file. This avoids exposing the directory listing.

Example unit file:

[Unit]
Description=Serve ics18tickets static files (serve only the .ics file)
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/opt/ics18tickets
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /opt/ics18tickets/server.py
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now ics18tickets-http.service
sudo journalctl -u ics18tickets-http.service -f

Proxying with Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM)

If using NPM, create a Proxy Host:

• Domain Names: ics.example.com
• Scheme: http
• Forward Hostname / IP: the host IP reachable from Docker (not 127.0.0.1)
• Forward Port: 8091 (or the port your service uses)
• Enable SSL: request a Let's Encrypt certificate via NPM

After certificate provisioning, the calendar will be available at:

https://ics.example.com/ics/ics18tickets.ics

Cron: regenerate every Monday at 23:59

Create /etc/cron.d/ics18tickets:

# regenerate every Monday at 23:59
59 23 * * 1 root cd /opt/ics18tickets && /opt/ics18tickets/venv/bin/python ics18tickets.py && cp /opt/ics18tickets/ics18tickets.ics /opt/ics18tickets/ics/ics18tickets.ics && chown root:root /opt/ics18tickets/ics/ics18tickets.ics

This ensures the host cron updates the file and the host HTTP server serves the latest copy immediately.

Cleanup

To remove the cron and the optional systemd unit and served files:

sudo rm -f /etc/cron.d/ics18tickets
sudo rm -rf /opt/ics18tickets/ics
# remove the systemd unit file if you created it (adjust path as needed)
sudo rm -f /etc/systemd/system/ics18tickets-http.service
sudo systemctl stop ics18tickets-http.service || true
sudo systemctl disable ics18tickets-http.service || true
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Only remove files and services you previously created.

Troubleshooting

• 404: path mismatch. Check:
  • The file exists and the proxied path matches:

    ls -l /opt/ics18tickets
    ls -l /opt/ics18tickets/ics || true
    curl -I http://127.0.0.1:8091/ics18tickets.ics
    curl -I http://127.0.0.1:8001/ics/ics18tickets.ics

  • If using port 8091, ensure NPM forwards to the host IP and port 8091 and that the host IP is reachable from Docker.
• 502/timeout: NPM cannot reach upstream. Verify NPM config and check logs.
• Ports 80/443 unavailable: If another process binds those ports, NPM may fail to provision certs. NPM expects to control host ports 80/443.
• Certificates: Ensure DNS for ics.example.com points to the VPS public IP so NPM can provision Let's Encrypt certs.

Tests

From any machine:

# curl -I https://ics.example.com/ics/ics18tickets.ics
# expect HTTP 200 and Content-Type: text/calendar

Last updated: 2025-10-26