Importing a semester
If your student office provides a .studynow file, you do not have to type in semester dates, lecture period, registration and withdrawal deadlines and lecture-free periods — and with a course list, not your courses either.
How it gets into the app:
- Tap a link — if it starts with
studynow://import, the app opens straight away with a preview. - Settings → Import semester — paste a link or choose a file. If the
address lacks
https://, the app adds it. - A file from Mail or Files — “Open in studyNow”.
Before importing you see what will be created. Only Import writes anything. A faulty file is rejected, and the app names every place that is wrong — nothing is created in that case.
The imported semester carries the study programme and a symbol for its origin. Two programmes — say in a two-subject or teacher-training degree — give two semesters, and the dashboard and calendar combine both.
Reloading
The semester page shows Reload — but only if you imported via a link. A file from Mail or Files does not know its source.
On reload:
| In the source | Changed by you | Result |
|---|---|---|
| unchanged | no | stays |
| unchanged | yes | your change stays, no question |
| changed | no | the new value is applied |
| changed | yes | the app asks which one should apply |
If you answer “Keep mine”, the app does not ask again on the next reload — as long as the source does not change that value once more.
Differs from the original
Whatever you changed or deleted on an imported semester is listed at the top of the semester page under Differs from the original. Each entry can be reset to the original on its own, or the whole semester at once. Anything you added by hand stays — it does not differ, it comes on top.
Importing courses
If the student office also provides a course list, open it the same way — link, file or Settings → Import semester. The app recognises which kind of file it is.
Instead of a preview you see every course in the list. Nothing is preselected: tap what you are taking. The search at the top finds courses by title, short form or course number. Each entry says how many sessions and deadlines it produces in your semester — lecture-free periods already left out.
Where to? If you imported the matching study programme frame, the courses go into its semester automatically. Otherwise you pick one of your semesters; series then run in its teaching period. The target semester is switched on.
What you get. Every course you pick becomes a course like any other: series stay series that produce the individual sessions, single sessions and deadlines appear as they are in the file. The app sets the checklist properties from the content — exercise sessions mean an exercise class. If the file announces an exam without a date, that item stays open until you add it.
Afterwards you correct by hand. Rooms and lecturers are not in the file, and you move single sessions as usual. Open the list again later and the courses you already took are marked Already in the semester; you can add more. Changes the student office makes to courses you already took do not come along.
Share a semester as a template
If your student office has no file, someone builds one: whoever has entered a semester once can pass it on.
Settings → Share semester as template. Pick the semester; below it you see
what goes into the file — courses, sessions, session series, deadlines,
teaching staff and rooms. Share template opens the share sheet: save to
Files, send by mail or messenger, put it on a web server. The file ends in
.studynow like any other.
A template is not a backup. Attendance, ratings, completion status, achievements and your reminders stay with you. Whoever opens your file gets the structure, not your studies.
Opening a template works like any import: link, file, or Settings → Import degree programme. Before anything is created, you see what is inside.
- An import always creates a new semester. Nothing is merged, nothing overwritten.
- If a semester already belongs to the same template — including the one it came from — the app warns you. You can cancel or deliberately create a copy.
- If something is wrong with the file, nothing changes. It is created in full or not at all.
What the template brings along: courses with colour, teaching staff and rooms, session series with their exceptions — a moved or cancelled session stays moved and cancelled —, single sessions, deadlines with their time and deadline series. Plus the semester frame: period, lecture period, breaks and semester deadlines.