Calendar v1.0

Here is the Calendar (finally) v1.03

http://www.hedgehogwheels.com/hacks/calendar1.03.zip

[Features]
- Users can add Private events that only they can see
- Admin can set usergroups to allow those selected to post public events that everyone sees
- Behaves just like a message with smilies, bbcode, etc
- Months are options in Control Panel for easier language changes
- Can specify 0,1, or 2 images to display above each month

[demo]
http://www.hedgehogwheels.com/forums/calendar.php

I do need to update the birthday hack to support birthyear as it is on my forum. I am not sure if the calendar will work as is with the previous birthday hack. If not then just turn that option off in the control panel for now.

[Edited by freddie on 11-18-2000 at 07:48 PM]

Works just fine with PM already installed on 1.1.4.

I hope we'll see this in 2.0

Yes Mike I noticed that there seem to be <p> and </p> around everything in the options section. I developed this on my 1.1.3 and then wrote instructions for it as I applied it to v1.1.4 which seems to have the <p>'s. I just didn't feel like inserting them everywhere so it is like that because I was lazy

I will try to update the instructions for v1.1.3 today.

Craig how about I make a switch so you can view the calendar as it is now OR you can view it as your calendar appears.

That sounds superb! I am thinking of including it on the home page of the site, so it would be really great if this were possible

i would just LOVE TO SAY WOW. this is a great hack.
i am in love with this idea.
if you don't want to hear a request from me, don't read anymore. but a great request would be email notification. a day or so before the event happens.

BUT THIS IS GREAT ANYWAYS....

Everyone wants the calendar to send email notifications.

Great idea but how does one implement such a feature on a system that is not in running state to send out emails based on a timer ala a cron job.

One could place checks in global.php that check the current day and if there are events tomorrow then send out emails. After sending the emails than the check could be reset. I see no way to not have this check being run everytime someone loads a page on the board as global.php is always loaded. We could specify that the checks only be ran between the hours of 3am and 5 am for example (or 3pm to 5 pm) but what if no one logs onto your board in that time window? The checks would not be ran and the emails would not be sent out so the need for a system that is forced to always check the time. It is too kludgey for me so if anyone has suggestions on how to do this than shoot them out. How do we decide to send emails out regarding public events? Is everyone who has "allow forum admins send you email" going to recieve a notice about tomorrows events or do we add a check that asks them to "subscribe to calendar events" or even yet do we asked them to subscribe to individual events as they want.

Originally posted by freddie
Everyone wants the calendar to send email notifications.

Great idea but how does one implement such a feature on a system that is not in running state to send out emails based on a timer ala a cron job.

The only reasonable way (efficient, scalable, and cpu friendly) is via cron job. It would eat up tons of cpu cycles if the email functions were called with every hit to one's forum.

To do the cron job is relatively easy I think, but one would have to use Perl and query the database, say, once every hour?

Do you know Perl Freddie? I can help out in this area, but would need to know more specific details since I've not yet looked at the hack's database structure much.

How do we decide to send emails out regarding public events? Is everyone who has "allow forum admins send you email" going to recieve a notice about tomorrows events or do we add a check that asks them to "subscribe to calendar events" or even yet do we asked them to subscribe to individual events as they want.

I think by default sending emails out regarding public events should be OFF. Why? Because those usually are not important personal events for users, and some might hate it. Besides, imagine if you have 30,000 users. That would be pretty painful for your mail system.

Just have an option where users can choose to "subscribe" to public events. Start with the least and let users "opt in" for more. Same should go with private events. A check mark for "notify via email" should be there for them.

Sorry but I am not going to get into creating something that requires external sources. You are welcome to do that but I won't...Also one can run PHP scripts like PERL from the command line so it is not an issue of knowing PERL.

Okay, Installed it at SitePoint. Birthday's don't show up. I am pretty sure that it is because you added year to is. I don't really want the year so will look at the previous code and see if I can get it to work. Great Job though. Have already entered in a couple of legitimate events with a lot more to come.

Originally posted by freddie
Sorry but I am not going to get into creating something that requires external sources. You are welcome to do that but I won't...Also one can run PHP scripts like PERL from the command line so it is not an issue of knowing PERL.

Why is that? I'm just wondering....