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

[austrekkers]

I've just installed this mod, and it seems great. I can't though seem to get the "new event" button to appear on my event forum.

What I've done so far:

Installed mod
Done template mod to FORUMDISPLAY
Checked all permissions
Uploaded gif file to images/buttons
Change the Show the New Event button on the thread list option to YES
Linked the Calendar to the Event Forum (tested this by creating an event in the calendar, and it makes a new thread in the correct forum)

What have I done wrong???

[Lionel]

Originally Posted by 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.

I have the same issue.
All along it was working fine. Which tells me there is a conflict somewhere.
How did you solve yours?

[Lionel]

Anyway, Gerakus I solved my issue. It was caused by the Talker Bot hack.

[adwade]

Originally Posted by austrekkers

I've just installed this mod, and it seems great. I can't though seem to get the "new event" button to appear on my event forum.

What I've done so far:

Installed mod
Done template mod to FORUMDISPLAY
Checked all permissions
Uploaded gif file to images/buttons
Change the Show the New Event button on the thread list option to YES
Linked the Calendar to the Event Forum (tested this by creating an event in the calendar, and it makes a new thread in the correct forum)

What have I done wrong???

I had the same problem. Installed & worked fine, except for getting the New Event button to show. Evercraft & myself looked over everything I had done to get it to work and never could figure out why it would not show up. My only guess is that I'm using Miko's ARIA Skins (from vbstyles) and that might have had something to do with it. So not that this helps you any, just to let you know you are not alone.

[novalogix]

Originally Posted by novalogix

I have heed your advice and it turns out it is actually a bug in the Attendance Mod itself. So now the problems lies in that the Event Attendance Mod has no updates for a while. Any ideas how to fix this?

Seriously, Any ideas?

[mkdevo]

GREAT to see that this is now working with Event Attendance! finally installed. great work!

a couple issues though:

1) i just posted my first event. any idea why it would be showing up as an event AND a post immediately after? see what i mean in the attached screenshot..

2) when viewing the forum, the thread title shows the date, but on search results, the thread title has no date.

and a couple general questions:

3) what would happen if i merge an existing thread (created before i installed this) with a NEW calendar event? there are some discussions about upcoming events which aren't linked to the calendar, and i'm wondering if this will accomplish that..

4) %custom = Event's custom fields (if any) <-- can someone explain this? where can you add custom fields to an event?

thanks!

[mkdevo]

Originally Posted by mkdevo

GREAT to see that this is now working with Event Attendance! finally installed. great work!

a couple issues though:

1) i just posted my first event. any idea why it would be showing up as an event AND a post immediately after? see what i mean in the attached screenshot..

2) when viewing the forum, the thread title shows the date, but on search results, the thread title has no date.

and a couple general questions:

3) what would happen if i merge an existing thread (created before i installed this) with a NEW calendar event? there are some discussions about upcoming events which aren't linked to the calendar, and i'm wondering if this will accomplish that..

4) %custom = Event's custom fields (if any) <-- can someone explain this? where can you add custom fields to an event?

thanks!

UPDATE: got 3 & 4 figured out.. can't merge threads, but you CAN move posts into an event thread (though it's a little screwy)..

regarding #4 - it would be nice if you could separate out your custom fields in the thread title (like Custom1 (Custom2) - DateTime: Title)..

still looking for info on 1 and 2 above.. #2 being *very* important.

(another) UPDATE: just found something else that isn't quite right - when you're in the calendar and you click on an event from the weekly or monthly view, you're taken to the thread. however, if you're in the yearly view (or the small month 'preview' at the bottom) and click on a date, you're only taken to the event, and NOT to the thread.

i'm guessing that this is because there could be multiple events on one day, which makes sense. however, i think a good added functionality would be to first check for multiple events on that day, and if there is only ONE event, take you to the event thread. does that make sense? would it be possible to add that in?

[bkaul]

Anyone else had problems editing events since installing this mod? I get the following if I try:

Fatal error: Only variables can be passed by reference in E:\Inetpub\wwwroot\boards\includes\class_dm_event. php(569) : eval()'d code on line 41

I can work around this by going to Thread Tools/Move Thread (whether there are any posts besides the event or not) - then, I can edit the event, and move the posts back into the event thread. But other than immediately after moving the thread to another location, I haven't been able to edit the event. (Deleting the event, however, works fine)

[rabidkevin]

There is a new and improved Event Attendance mod with active support out ! https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...74#post1097074

How about integrating this instead of the old buggy code?

[tako]

it seems new & better event attendance hack has been released.... I appreciate if you can update event forum hack to work with it...