vB Event Forums

Introduction

Ok first things first, before we start. This plugin was originally developed by endquote. You can find the old thread here. I have now taken over the plugin development from him, and I will do my best to make this a plugin that is useful for everyone. I have made quite a few changes to the old plugin. If you have been using the old plugin, then skip to the section "I used the old plugin".

What is this plugin?

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. This plugin is in BETA, so you are installing this on a live board at your own risk. 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.
• 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?

Please follow the instructions here for upgrading from Version 1.x to Version 2.5.

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

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

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: 2.7

• All templates should now be cached.
• Optimised the code which hides the first post on an Event Thread.
• Fixed a bug which was causing smilies and images, as well as possibly other BB code to not be parsed correctly.
• Added better error handling on SQL queries, and using vb functions in all places over raw mysql functions.

Version: 2.6

• Added a AdminCP option to choose between using a custom variable to display the Event Details on the Thread Page, or to append it to the end of the navbar.
• Title now updates in last post block after editing event title.
• Single day events no longer adjust the timezone, which was causing the day to show incorrectly in the thread titles and event details for some timezones.

Version: 2.5

• Single day events: Time has been removed from thread title, so it now only displays the date.
• Date and Time (if applicable) are added to Posts and Navbits when viewing a thread.
• Custom Fields are added dynamically along with times and dates. This solves a few bugs, and is in preperation for the AdminCP option for a custom order and look etc.
• Currently merging is disabled for any Event Threads because it is a bit of a tricky job to handle merging Event Threads, and it could take some time.
• Admin option to format Event Thread titles. Note this does not yet include ordering custom fields.
• Inline mod tools should now all work.
• Added [Finish] and [Start] as phrases into the Calendar phrases for use in the Events Summary.
• Ranged Events that cover multiple days, are now displayed better in the Summary, Title, Post and Navbits.

Version: 2.0

• Moderation is now supported! Permissions are taken from the Calendar. Events will show up as Events only (threads are hidden and handled seperatly by the plugin) in the moderation queue.
• Better error handling when creating an event. This should now correctly handle flooding, min chars and any other errors creating a thread could give. An event is NOT created if there was an error creating the thread. Instead it displays the correct error message.
• Event View is now displayed above the threads, similar to how VB.org does with the addons.
• Links added to the event day view, to View Replies and Post a Reply.
• Added a UserCP option to choose which event it should default to when pressing the "New Thread" button.
• Summary is now totally seperate from the Home Page up "and coming events". The summary will now function even if the homepage version is disabled.
• Ranged Events now show the end date if the Event doesn't finish on the same day.
• Problems with DST and Timezones have been solved. There is an update due in VB v3.6 which corrects confusion with DST. See here for more info. This is more specific to Calendar rather than this plugin though, but its relevant.
• Moving an event to a Calendar not run by the Plugin will remove the link to the assosiated thread.
• Moving an event to a Calendar run by the Plugin will attempt to also move the thread linked to it, to the correct forum.
• Moving a thread to a different event forum, will attempt to move the event to the correct calendar.
• Moving a thread outside an event forum, removes the link to the assosiated event.
• Delete thread or first post now forwards to the Delete Event. Allowing soft-delete of events is something to consider, but for now it only supports Perma Deleting. This would be made much easier if soft deleting events was something supported in the native VB code.
• Fixed Deleting an Event and it now properly updates the forum counters, so the last thread should be correct.
• Event Summary template addition is no longer necessary. A seperate template is added and handled by the plugin.
• Event Summary in the forum now only shows the events for that forum/calendar link.

Version: 1.0

• Taken over development from Endquote. Fixed alot of bugs, I can't remember what now.

[djsydeburnz]

I have some ideas that would work well with all this calendar / forum stuff, but not sure if it would be a feature request for this particular project:

Have the ability to include images with the event posting (like a fllyer)
Having a clickable link to the event location (mapquest, yahoomaps, etc)
Ability to review each event
Linking event to an album in gallery

[ShawnV]

Originally Posted by Evercraft

Yep the merge of the 2 plugins, or adding an attendance feature is something that is on the requested features list up top.

Thank You Evercraft! :banana:

[trancetopia]

Not sure if this hack does a check on previous events upon installation or not but I have a lot of events already in a calendar and installing this would only be beneficial if you started with a blank calendar.

i.e. if you already had 50 events in a calendar and installed this mod, your calendar would show 50 events but your event forum would show nothing.

Does this new version of this mod will do an intelligent import upon installation. If not, can this be considered as this would be an excellent feature and make this mod backwards compatible with previous calendar events.

[Evercraft]

Originally Posted by trancetopia

Not sure if this hack does a check on previous events upon installation or not but I have a lot of events already in a calendar and installing this would only be beneficial if you started with a blank calendar.

i.e. if you already had 50 events in a calendar and installed this mod, your calendar would show 50 events but your event forum would show nothing.

Does this new version of this mod will do an intelligent import upon installation. If not, can this be considered as this would be an excellent feature and make this mod backwards compatible with previous calendar events.

Thats a good idea, and might be something I can add. I'll add it to the feature requests and see if I get round to looking at it.

[skizzy203]

Great work Evercraft. Glad to see this pluggin finally progressing.

Once the bugs are worked out and the event attendance hack has been integrated with reminders and someone figures out a way to merge old events into the respective event forum, I will be a happy camper and install.

Watching and waiting eagerly. It's such a coincidence that this is coming along just in time for the new calendar year too... Yippy! I have so many events to add!

[EasyTarget]

many thanks evercraft. I'm one of those that's interested in a merge with the event attendance as well.

[Code Monkey]

If you do add an event attendance feature. It would be nice if it had some functionality like these forums. Such as, the event creator can send an email update regarding event changes to people that have clicked the link indicating their attendance. Also seperate veiw boxes for time, date, location, number attending, etc...

Similar to what we have when making a hack thread here.

[lanc3lot]

Originally Posted by JumpD

If you do add an event attendance feature. It would be nice if it had some functionality like these forums. Such as, the event creator can send an email update regarding event changes to people that have clicked the link indicating their attendance. Also seperate veiw boxes for time, date, location, number attending, etc...

Similar to what we have when making a hack thread here.

That will be very usefull indeed

[djsydeburnz]

i have 2 calendars: cal1 is for events, cal2 is for radio broadcasts. in the upcoming events plugin that shows events, is there a way to get it to onlly show events from the corresponding calendar? i dont want to show radio shows on the events calendar forum. also, can anyone give me any pointers on how to change the plugin code to display the forum title a certain way?

event name | event date | custom1 only

[benFF]

Originally Posted by djsydeburnz

i have 2 calendars: cal1 is for events, cal2 is for radio broadcasts. in the upcoming events plugin that shows events, is there a way to get it to onlly show events from the corresponding calendar? i dont want to show radio shows on the events calendar forum. also, can anyone give me any pointers on how to change the plugin code to display the forum title a certain way?

event name | event date | custom1 only

Great work, especially with the timezone thing, thanks!

One bug I've found, if you delete an event, although the thread is deleted, the forum info still shows that thread as the last posted.

It would also be great to have a CP option to choose the default new event type (timed, all day) along with date formatting options for each of the above

Great job, thanks so much!