Calendar Enhancements - vB Event Forums

Introduction

This is a continuation of my Event Forums plugin/addon from 3.5. You can find the old version here. The original plugin was developed by Endquote, and I have since taken it over to bring it to what it is today. I hope you can find it useful!

What is this addon?

This is a plugin which allows you to create relationships between calendars and events, giving each event a thread of its own for users to discuss. I have tested this alot, and I am running it myself on a live board.

Sure, so whats it do?

Some examples of the features this plugin offers

• When a new event is created in a calendar, an associated thread is created in the linked forum.
• Links to events in the calendar are forwarded to the associated thread, or optionally a seperate New Event button can be added with a minor template edit.
• New thread links in the event forum are redirected to a new event form.
• A summary can be shown at the top of the event forum which shows the up and coming events over the next 'x' days.
• The date and time shown in the thread and post title, is calculated on the current viewing users timezone. In other words, times always show in the users timezone, not forced to GMT.
• Full moderation support.
• Editing a thread or event, will update its associated event/thread.

Screenshots

Some screenshots of this plugin

• Admin Options
• Event Thread
• Event Thread with Reply
• Thread List

How do I install it?

For upgrading, please see the section below.

Summary

• 1 xml import.
• 1 (optional) template change.
• 1 (optional) gif file upload.

Step 1

Install the product
Download the product XML file.

Goto your Admin CP at your forums, then goto Plugin System -> Manage Products. Click [Add/Import Product] at the bottom of the page. Browse to the location where you downloaded the xml file and then click the Import button.

Step 2

Calendar ID:
Goto your Admin CP at your forums, then goto Calendar Manager. Find the calendar you want to link to a forum, then click Edit.
Right at the top of the page you should see:

Calendar: NAME (id: ID)

Make a note of the ID, you will need this soon.

Forum ID:
Goto your Admin CP at your forums, then goto Forum Manager. Find the forum you want to activate as your event forum, then click Edit Forum.
Right at the top of the page you should see:

Forum: NAME (id: ID)

Make a note of the ID, you will need this soon.

Link a Calendar to a Forum:
Goto your Admin CP at your forums, then goto vBulletin Options and find Event Forums.
The first option you should see is Calendar/Forum Map.
Enter in your IDs into the box, as CALENDARID:FORUMID.
Example, my Calendar is 5 and my Forum is 14:

5:14

Click Save.

Step 3

Base permissions check:
You will need to check that users using the Event Forums, have basic permissions to both the Linked Forum AND Calendar.
Basic Permissions include: Can View Forum and Can Post Threads and possibly some others.

Step 4 (Optional template edit)

Add the New Event button:
You only need todo this if you want to show a seperate New Event button next to the New Thread button.

First of all, upload newevent.gif to your images/buttons folder. NOTE you will need to upload this to any custom image folders too for different styles you might have.

Second, open up FORUMDISPLAY template for each of your styles you want to show the button, find and add the highlighted code below:

<td class="smallfont"><if condition="$show['newthreadlink']">
<a href="newthread.php?$session[sessionurl]do=newthread&amp;f=$foruminfo[forumid]" rel="nofollow"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/newthread.gif" alt="$vbphrase[post_new_thread]" border="0" /></a>
<if condition="$show['neweventlink']">&nbsp;<a href="newthread.php?$session[sessionurl]do=newevent&amp;f=$foruminfo[forumid]" rel="nofollow"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/newevent.gif" alt="$vbphrase[lv_vb_eventforums_phrase_post_new_event]" border="0" /></a></if>
<else />&nbsp;</if></td>

Lastly, go into the Event Forums options, and change the option Show the New Event button on the thread list to yes.

Step 5

Install on VB.org:
Browse back to this thread, and click the INSTALL button so you can recieve updates whenever I update this plugin.

How do I upgrade it from an old version?

Step 1

Import xml
Download the product XML file.

Goto your Admin CP at your forums, then goto Plugin System -> Manage Products. Click [Add/Import Product] at the bottom of the page. Browse to the location where you downloaded the xml file. Make sure the overwrite option is set to ON and then click the Import button.

Can I give you money to make this?

This isn't a commercial plugin, and can be used by anyone for free. However, a few people have said to me that they would like to donate some money for my time working on the plugin and for picking it up and continuing the development of new features etc. If you do want to donate some money my way, then you can do so through paypal by clicking this link. Thanks!

Bugs / Support

If you find a bug, then please post in this thread and let me know. There are a few bugs that haven't been fixed since the old version, so i'm hoping that we can fix these soon. I will do my best to support the plugin as much as possible, however I also have a busy job which takes up alot of my time.

Known Bugs

Here is a list of known bugs to date

• Soft delete actually hard deletes the thread.
• Search doesn't search the first post of an event thread.
• Inline ajax edit bugs thread title. Need to remove date and time from it before edit.

Feature request list

Here is a list of the requested features. Please note that because it makes this list, doesn't mean it will be added.

• Intergration with the event attendance plugin.
• Customisation of the order of the custom fields in the thread title.
• An option to "import" all the previous events from a Calendar into threads.
• Extra post options support (Attachments, Post Icons, Sticky etc).
• Custom ordering of the %datetime variable.
• Custom ordering of %custom variable.
• Better handling of recurring events.

Credits

Thanks to endquote for originally creating the plugin.
Thanks to the Ninja :ninja: for helping me infiltrate the vb code and finding those hidden hooks!
Thanks to anybody that helps test this plugin.

Changelog

Version: 3.3

• Added Farcasters Event Attendance patch to the mod. I've added a self check so it will only run when the Event attendance mod is installed and active.

Version: 3.2

• Fixed a bug which was prevent the thread from being deleted when you try to delete an event.

Version: 3.1

• Fixed a bug which would cause an error with undefined function on the forum display page when summary is turned on.

Version: 3.0

• Version now compatible with 3.6. Please note this plugin will no longer install on a board older than 3.6. I would recommend you upgrade your board as soon as you can!
• Added an optional template edit to show a New Event button next to the New Thread button.
• Plugin no longer in BETA. I feel this has been running enough stablely to take this out of BETA. There are still some bugs which need fixing, but as a whole it works and is used by quite a few people.

Version: 2.7 and below

• See the old thread here

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by WATRD

To install the latest, do I need to uninstall? Or can I simply overwrite? Will it preserve my existing events and relationships with the calendar?

to upgrade, simply import the product with the overwrite box ticked. DO NOT uninstall the previous version, as you will lose all your old settings.

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by JenniferK

Thanks for the update!

I would really like to have a CMPS module to show the Events Summary. I have tried creating a template, but the event area is blank. I realize that is because the plugin that works to put the event summary in the forum will not work in a CMPS module. I have tried looking at it to see if I could figure out myself how to do what I need, but it is beyond my abilites. Is there any chance this is something you plan to do for this hack? If not I will need to figure something else out, but I love this hack and it is perfect for my site (it is a community site), so it would be really great if that could be integrated.

ok well basically what you need, is for the plugin code in Show up and coming events for a specified forum id to be run on that page. Its done using hooks into the original vb files, but as far as im away, CMPS doesnt support hacks so you'd have to edit the CMPS file to display it.

basically that code generates what goes in the summary box

Unfortunatly I haven't really looked much at CMPS, so I don't really know much more to help.

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by :Judge:

Great work Evercraft, thank you very much!!

The new updated code for 3.6.1 is working great for me now, but I do have one small issue.

One of the events I tried to delete before updating to 3.3 will not go away. The event is not in the Calendar it is just in the event forum area BUT inside the event/topic there isn't anything there, just a thread title, date, time and thread starter there is no thread info.

When I try to delete I am told "No topic selected, contact admin".

Any ideas how I can remove this? If not it's no big deal I guess sooner or later it will fall behind.

I think you might be able to remove it by running one of the counters under the maintenace menu at the bottom of the admin CP menu. I think it might be rebuild thread info, or there might be one for fix broken threads or something (cant check right now). Let me know if it helps.

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by rabidkevin

I find the event attendance plugin to have poor support, no updates, not working off the bat for 3.6, and has bugs/fixes that are most needed.

Why not just add your own event attendance code ?? I think it would benefit everyone here greatly and be much easier to maintain/handle.

I will speak to the author of the event attendance, and see about maybe intergrating it into this hack. We are certainly half way there with it working together already, and some extra admin options for it would be nice too

Can't promise anything, but i'll see what I can do.

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by Itworx4me

When clicking on the forum you selected to have your events posted in. It shows the upcoming events box. Is there a way to have it sort by event and Not by the date???

not at the moment.

Originally when I made the summary, when it was sorted by Event, I just couldn't get it to look very good at all, it was a real mess.

It would be nice to put that option back, but i'd need to look at sorting it out a bit.

[JenniferK]

Originally Posted by Evercraft

ok well basically what you need, is for the plugin code in Show up and coming events for a specified forum id to be run on that page. Its done using hooks into the original vb files, but as far as im away, CMPS doesnt support hacks so you'd have to edit the CMPS file to display it.

basically that code generates what goes in the summary box

Unfortunatly I haven't really looked much at CMPS, so I don't really know much more to help.

Thanks for the quick reply Maybe I could get someone at the vBa site to help me convert this for my needs. Thanks for a great hack!

[Gerakus]

When I submit the Save Event button, I am getting this error:

link: http://www.mysite.com/forums/calendar.php?do=update&e=

This page is not designed to be access directly.


It looks is missing the info on the link, any idea what could casue this problem.

[drex]

I'm in the same boat as Jen....

[snyx]

I have a question, im not sure if this is already a feature or if its possible. I remember trying to mod this back in the previous version without luck. Okay in the Forum view, is there a way to force the listing of event thread in order of event date. So regardless of a new post or new event thread they stay in chronological order?

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by snyx

I have a question, im not sure if this is already a feature or if its possible. I remember trying to mod this back in the previous version without luck. Okay in the Forum view, is there a way to force the listing of event thread in order of event date. So regardless of a new post or new event thread they stay in chronological order?

There isnt currently a way with this mod. I'm not really sure if its very well possible, it might be.