Reminders and calendar files

Knowing that a release is scheduled is only half of it — the other half is being told before it lands rather than after. There are two controls on a row for that, and they work quite differently. One is worth understanding before you rely on it.

The alert switch

The table’s Alert column is a bell you can tap. Tapping it arms an alert against that release; tapping it again removes it. The same item is in the row’s ⋯ menu as Set alert or Remove alert, and the two always agree because they drive the same thing.

There is no channel picker and no lead-time control, so arming one takes the defaults: in-app, fifteen minutes before the release. Arming an event that is already armed is not an error, and neither is removing one that was not — so a double tap and a retry over a bad connection are both safe.

The switch moves immediately rather than waiting on the network, and moves back if the write is refused, with the reason shown above the table. So a switch that springs back on its own is a refusal you can read — a release that has been cancelled, or one that is already in the past — rather than a control that is broken.

Add to calendar

The last item in the row’s ⋯ menu, under View details and the alert row. It downloads a single calendar file for that release, which opens in Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook the way any other .ics file does.

The event carries the country code and the release name as its title, and its description holds the impact tier plus whichever of Forecast, Previous and Actual exist for it. A reminder is set fifteen minutes before. Every time inside the file is stamped in UTC, which is what makes your calendar render it correctly in whatever zone your phone or laptop happens to be in — including after you travel.

It is a download, not a subscription. The file describes one release at the moment you asked for it, so if the release is later rescheduled your calendar will not know. For a weekly rhythm that is fine; for a release you are planning a whole session around, it is worth checking the calendar page on the morning as well.

The two buttons inside the detail panel

The detail panel carries its own Add to calendar and Copy event icons next to Set alert. Those two are not wired up yet and pressing them does nothing — the working Add to calendar is the one in the row’s ⋯ menu back on the table. Set alert inside the panel is real and is the same switch as the row’s.

What is not here yet

• A list of what you have armed — alerts are visible as the state of the bell on each row, and there is no separate page collecting them.
• Anywhere for an alert to arrive — as above. The reminder in a downloaded calendar file is the route that works today.
• A subscribable feed — there is no way from inside Alltra to point your calendar app at a live Alltra calendar; the download is per release.

None of that is broken and none of it is switched off for you in particular — it is simply not built yet. Everything described above the line is, and works today.