4th July: BLUF Calendar is available now for Android and iPhone®

BLUF Calendar

Calendar is an app that gives you access to the BLUF calendar, even when you don't have an internet connection. It shows all the public events in the BLUF calendar, including many from other groups and organisations. You can view events in a city, or a country, and click through to the events website, or the listing on BLUF.com

With a couple of clicks, you can share events with other apps, so you can post to Facebook or Twitter, for instance, and you can also add the details of an event to the calendars on your device.

The Calendar app costs £0.99 - that's a one off, not a subscription - or the equivalent in other currencies. There's no advertising in the app, either. If you'd rather not pay, then remember that you can always look up events free at bluf.com/events, and watch out for discount offers in the app stores.

Get it on Google Play

Download on the App Store

A quick look at the BLUF Calendar

BLUF Calendar is very simple, and doesn't require any user accounts, nor does it transmit any personal information from your device to BLUF. The first time it runs, the app will grab all the public event information from the BLUF server. You can update whenever you want, by tapping the icon at the top left and choosing sync, or just pull to refresh, like in many other apps. If you haven't updated the calendar for over two weeks, the app will ask you if you want to update. This is what the main Calendar screen looks like. After the first sync with the BLUF server, new and updated events will have an icon at the right, helping you to see what's changed.

BLUF Calendar main screen

Swipe to the left on an event and you'll see these icons. The first shows where the event is, on a map. The next sends details of the event to your device's calendar. The share icon allows you to share a link to the event, with a brief text description. The trash icon deletes the details of an event from Calendar. If the event is later updated in the master calendar on the BLUF server, it will reappear. Finally, the star marks or unmarks an event, so you can easily find the ones you're interested in.

BLUF Calendar options

Tap on the title of an event to see all the details, like this. The text will appear immediately, and if there's a poster available for the event, it will be fetched from the BLUF server the first time you view the details, so it may take a couple of seconds. The poster will be stored on your device, so it can be displayed again in future, even if there's no internet connection.

Below the event details, you can tap to see all the events in the same city, or related events, for example where there are several during a weekend. Below that are some useful buttons. From left, the Share button lets you share a link to the event on the BLUF website. The globe icon takes you to the listing on BLUF.com, and the ticket icon takes you to the event's own website, if it has one. Next to that, an email icon allows you to contact the organisers, if we have their address, and the Calendar icon allows you to add an event to the calendars on your device. Finally, the location icon will show you the event location on a map.

TIP: If there's a poster, you can tap that to share the poster along with brief details of the event. Hold your finger down, and Calendar will create a square version of the poster, for sharing on sites like Instagram, with the full details of the event copied to the clipboard.

After you have expanded an entry, the New or updated symbol will be removed, just like reading an email.

BLUF Calendar details

When you tap to add an event to your calendar, you'll see a display like this pop up - on some devices, you may be asked to give BLUF Calendar access to your calendars first. We need that so that we can see what calendars are one your device, and display a list so you can choose which ones to add an event to. Select the calendar, and tap Add.

Adding an event to your personal calendar

As well as viewing the events in a city, you can view all the events in a country. From the full list, tap a country flag to see just the events in that country. If you've already tapped to see events in a city from the details of an event, then tapping the flag will take you back to the list of all events in the country. If you're viewing events in just one country, tap the flag again to go back to the full list.

BLUF event list, filtered

You can also jump directly to a particular country. Just tap the globe button at the top right of the screen to open this panel, which shows flags for all the countries where we know about events. Tap on a flag to see events in that country, or on the globe icon for the world view. Tap the star to see the events that you've marked, and update to see items that are new or have been updated.

The icon that looks like a target uses your device location to work out which city you are in, and show you events in that city. You have to give the app permission to access your location, but it's never sent to us or stored anywhere.

The up and down arrows next to the globe button let you move through the list of events month by month.

BLUF event list, filtered

Finally, tap the icon at the top left of the screen to see this list of choices. You can find out more about the app, sync with the BLUF server - which will get updates to events since your last sync - or reset the whole database, if you wish - if you do that, remember that event posters will have to be downloaded again, which may use more of your data allowance.

The last option, Mark updates as seen, clears the update symbol from all events, but will leave New ones that you have not yet viewed marked.

BLUF calendar app menu

FAQ

  • Does the app gather any personal information?
    No. There is no personally identifiable information sent from the app to BLUF servers. The only information sent when the calendar is refreshed is the date on which it was last updated, to enable us to send your device only the items that have changed since then.
  • Do I have to be a BLUF member to use the app?
    No. Anyone can use the app. There is no need to sign in, or create any sort of account.
  • What is the current version of the app?
    The current version is 1.1.1. If you do not have all the features described on this page, check for updates in your app store.
  • Why does the app need access to my calendars?
    If you want to be able to easily add events to your personal calendars, you need to give the app permission. We use the permission to get a list of he calendars (like "Work","Home" etc) you have, and then to add an event from the BLUF calendar to the chosen calendar on your device
  • Why does the app need access to my location?
    If you want to be able to easily see events in the city where you are, we need your location. The app requests your location, down to the city level, and compares that to the list of events stored on your device. Your location is never sent to use, and never stored.
  • Why does the app cost money?
    Creating apps takes time, as does keeping the calendar data up to date. If you don't want to pay for the app, you can access the BLUF calendar on our website, completely free.
  • How do I get an event listed?
    We primarily list leather and fetish events aimed at gay men, and organised principally by community groups. Full details of how to submit an event are in this blog post. You can access the post from the app by scrolling to the bottom of the events list and swiping.

Credits

BLUF Calendar is written by Nigel Whitfield, and Copyright © BLUF Ltd, 2019. It is developed using B4i and B4A from Anywhere Software. The flag icons are designed by Alper Çakici and used under licence. Event data is compiled by the BLUF events team, and includes content submitted by event organisers. We try our best to keep information correct, but please always check before making travel plans.

Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.

Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.