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

[FleaBag]

One of the most important hacks on my board... Thanks for the update!

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by Tyegurl

has anyone tried this yet with the eventattendance mod?

It has been tried before and it doesn't work.

It is one of the things I want to intergrate, but just not finding the time at the moment.

[ditangquan]

Originally Posted by Evercraft

I don't think there is a simple way, that I can think of anyway.

if you enable "Display Calendar Events?" under Forums Home Page Options it'll show it at the bottom of the Home Page....i'm working on moving that up, probably a customize template thing.

edit: i was able to move it to another location:

what i did was remove the following code from FORUMHOME and put it in another location...it seems to work fine with the enabled item above ^^^ You can see it on my site at PaintballArizona.com if you'd like, its above the shoutbox.

(i modified the <tbody> to have a <table></table>

<if condition="$show['upcomingevents']">
<table>
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="thead" colspan="2">
			<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('forumhome_events')"><img id="collapseimg_forumhome_events" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_forumhome_events].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
			<if condition="$show['todaysevents']">$vbphrase[todays_events]<else /><phrase 1="$vboptions[showevents]">$vbphrase[upcoming_events_for_the_next_x_days]</phrase></if>
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_events" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_events]">
	<tr>
		<td class="alt2"><a href="calendar.php$session[sessionurl_q]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/calendar.gif" alt="$vbphrase[calendar]" border="0" /></a></td>
		<td class="alt1" width="100%"><div class="smallfont">$upcomingevents</div></td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</if>

[CypherSTL]

I am running 3.6.0 Gold, I have downloaded and installed this hack.

It does work as stated...except for one aspect I am having issues with.

I click on "New Thread", it takes me to create a clendar event, I enter in the info, click "save" and it does what it should with no problems. I go into the new thread that it created and click "Post Reply" I enter in a post and click "submit" when I do that I get the error below

Database error in vBulletin 3.6.0:
Invalid SQL:
  SELECT post.*
  FROM post AS post
  LEFT JOIN deletionlog AS deletionlog ON(deletionlog.primaryid = post.postid AND type = 'post')
  WHERE threadid = 8
   AND dateline > 1155014895
   AND visible = 1 AND deletionlog.primaryid IS NULL
   AND postid <> 10
  ORDER BY dateline DESC
  LIMIT 1;
MySQL Error  : Column: 'dateline' in where clause is ambiguous
Error Number : 1052
Date         : Wednesday, August 9th 2006 @ 12:28:15 AM
Script       : http://www.battle-lands.com/lltestsi...=postreply&t=8
Referrer     : http://www.battle-lands.com/lltestsi...&noquote=1&p=9
IP Address   : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Username     : name
Classname    : vb_database

While I am on this error page I click "refresh" for IE, then it says "This post is a duplicate of a post that you have posted in the last five minutes. You will be redirected to thread." then I get redirected to the thread and my reply post to the thread is there (1st post), I can make other post with no errors whatso ever...as long as I ONLY click "post reply" button...if I use the quick reply box and click "submit" it says "Quick Reply" The following errors occurred when this message was submitted Okay""

when I click the "Okay" all it does is go back to the normal quick reply box.

Any ideas????

[soletrader]

nice hack

[erinys]

Hi there! thanks for the update! everything works fine as far as i can see

1 thing though;
after installation it says 3.0 instead of 3.1

thanks

[rabidkevin]

I have a request
Basically I have 2 forums I want to integrate in to 2 seperate calendars
One is an event calendar, the 2nd is a online radio show calendar
I dont want ANY custom field info put in the topic title on the 2nd calendar, but want it to remain for the 1st one that is integrated.

Any possible way?

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by rabidkevin

I have a request
Basically I have 2 forums I want to integrate in to 2 seperate calendars
One is an event calendar, the 2nd is a online radio show calendar
I dont want ANY custom field info put in the topic title on the 2nd calendar, but want it to remain for the 1st one that is integrated.

Any possible way?

This isn't currently possible.

What needs to be done for this (by the plugin) is allow you to set options per forum. I have looked at this, and it is possible, however I have been testing adding bitfields (you upload an xml file) and encountered many problems when upgrading to 3.6 with the bitfields active, so I need todo a bit more research into it first.

In short its needed, but it isn't going to happen soon sorry.

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by erinys

Hi there! thanks for the update! everything works fine as far as i can see

1 thing though;
after installation it says 3.0 instead of 3.1

thanks

Thanks i'll sort that out on the next bug fix

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by CypherSTL

I am running 3.6.0 Gold, I have downloaded and installed this hack.

It does work as stated...except for one aspect I am having issues with.

I click on "New Thread", it takes me to create a clendar event, I enter in the info, click "save" and it does what it should with no problems. I go into the new thread that it created and click "Post Reply" I enter in a post and click "submit" when I do that I get the error below

Database error in vBulletin 3.6.0:
Invalid SQL:
  SELECT post.*
  FROM post AS post
  LEFT JOIN deletionlog AS deletionlog ON(deletionlog.primaryid = post.postid AND type = 'post')
  WHERE threadid = 8
   AND dateline > 1155014895
   AND visible = 1 AND deletionlog.primaryid IS NULL
   AND postid <> 10
  ORDER BY dateline DESC
  LIMIT 1;
MySQL Error  : Column: 'dateline' in where clause is ambiguous
Error Number : 1052
Date         : Wednesday, August 9th 2006 @ 12:28:15 AM
Script       : http://www.battle-lands.com/lltestsi...=postreply&t=8
Referrer     : http://www.battle-lands.com/lltestsi...&noquote=1&p=9
IP Address   : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Username     : name
Classname    : vb_database

While I am on this error page I click "refresh" for IE, then it says "This post is a duplicate of a post that you have posted in the last five minutes. You will be redirected to thread." then I get redirected to the thread and my reply post to the thread is there (1st post), I can make other post with no errors whatso ever...as long as I ONLY click "post reply" button...if I use the quick reply box and click "submit" it says "Quick Reply" The following errors occurred when this message was submitted Okay""

when I click the "Okay" all it does is go back to the normal quick reply box.

Any ideas????

This is a strange one.

Do you have any other plugins installed?
Does it do every time you make a new event and try to reply?
Does it do it for every reply or just the first?

I will try and have a look at what post reply is doing to see if I can work out what might have gone wrong.