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

[ragtek]

Originally Posted by Evercraft

mmm I can't really see why this wouldn't work.

1 thing I could suggest trying, is changing the execution order of that plugin to 4, or 6. 4 will get run before my code, 6 after. 1 of them might work.

unfortunately it doesnt work

[popowich]

Originally Posted by Evercraft

hmm this seems like a bug,

What should be happening with moving between a Event forum -> another event forum, it should move the event to the new calendar as well.

Might have to improve the code abit to stop it creating a thread when you just edit an event.

The way my site is set up we have an Upcoming events forum, and this forum is associated with our one calendar. When an event has passed, I manually move it to a recent events forum. This keeps the event discussion forum from getting cluttered. In fact, maybe this is a good idea for an automated option? When an event time has passed, move the thread to another forum? A cron to do this once a day at midnight would be fine

-Raymond

[Erich2]

My calendar is moderated. Only after release an appointment in the calendar and forum appears. This works.

But a fault arises. The latest topic isn't updated on the forum home. Also the threadcounter.

Do you have an idea?

Erich

[WATRD]

Originally Posted by butty

il stick 50 USD in too. come on people if you want it put yer money where ya mouth is and lets give evercraft an incentive he cant refuse

please dont say youl chip in if you wont come up with the goods, this hack wont get made unless an extra mile is gone.

Adding the event attendance functionality would be a HUGE gain for my forum, so I am willing to at least match that $50 to make it happen.

Evercraft, can we pay you take a day off work and make it happen?

[peterska2]

Thanks for the upgrade, I'd been missing this since we upgraded to 3.6

[adwade]

Originally Posted by Evercraft

That looks right to me. Have you uploaded the image to the right place? It should be in your style button folder (same folder as newthread.gif).

Well I've checked and re-checked everything I know to. Coud you have a peek at my settings perhap to see what else it could be? Will PM you details.

P.S.
I have only modified my first skin, the Aria Chocolate one.

[robertwo]

Applogies if this has been mentioned before.

I've noticed a problem with the Daylight Saving times or even the timezones.

When the plugin is enabled it does not add the hour to the event time when in a daylight saving period. Disabling the plugin returns that feature. I've also had some reports that the timezone conversion is not working for some people but I have not confirmed that.

[butty]

thanks for the reply evercraft. im not sure what the rules are regarding coding of hacks etc and of course its your hack and your say but if you cannot sort the hack to work with event attendance would we be able to chip in and hire another coder to get this sorted for us?

up to now from those who said they would chip in there is $170 which is a fair bit of money and im sure others would chip in to get this off the ground.

[gyankow]

Anyone have or created the Aria New Thread Button

[TCB]

Originally Posted by popowich

I have a small problem with this plugin. It works OK generally speaking and I have no web site errors, but it displays the events on the wrong day on my calendar. For example, I have an event from 7:00pm - 11:30pm tonight, but it displays on the calendar both today and tomorrow Sunday. My forums/users are EST if that matters. Any thoughts on this issue? You can view example events with this issue at WNYPoker.com under the Upcoming Events forum. You're looking for Ray's House.

-Raymond

First of all, thanks for this mod. It looks good so far, but I still have some issues.

I have the same "problem" as popowich.

Also: is it possible to change the way the summary of the next x events are shown? For example: I prefer to have the title as the link and the start/ending time in a different font/colour.