I love the SMF Calendar function but sometimes I feel that it just isn't what it could be.
I have started using the Google Calendar. Some points about it that I would love to see in SMF Calendar are:
- You can set a date and start time for an event, and an end date and time for an event.
- You can view it as a normal 1 month calendar but you also have the option to view the day or week. Another view option they have is the "Agenda View." This is where all the upcoming events are in an easy to print list with the event times on them.
- When you set in an event for lets say 1PM Eastern, it will automatically adjust it for people who have their time zone settings not in eastern. So it will show at 10AM for people on the west coast.
Just a few things I wanted to toss out. I chartered a membership to SMF and I am loving version 2. Thanks for the great work!
Wanted to give this a bump because there was no feedback and I think it would be a great add on still yet.
..maybe I'm alone in that feeling? lol (Of this being a great addition. More so the 3rd bullet.)
I support those ideas. Expessially Reoccurring events should be in the corer. ;)
Sounds like good extensions for the calendar.
i would really like to have an "upcoming events" list from the calendar, that can:
- list all events for the next X number of days/weeks/months or even the whole year
- list events based on a category
I know that there is a <?php ssi_recentEvents(); ?> that you can use to extract the most recently entered calendar event, but the most recently entered event is NOT the same as upcoming events.
The calendar function in the forum is in my opinion the biggest let down of what is otherwise a great community-building application. there are so many cool things that could be added to this calendar app to make it more useful than just a birthday tracker.
id like to see the calendar working more for the forum mods.
by this i mean,when an event is posted and link to a post on the forum, once the date has passed, the event and linked post are auto deleted.
this would save me valuable time tracking back deleting finished events
I don't know about SMF 1.1.x, but I know in SMF 2.0 you can go to Admin > Calendar > Calendar Settings and check "Allow events to span multiple days", that is if thats what you meant ;)
thanks for that aldo
this option allows me to post an event to the calendar. which links to a post on the boards, once that event is "out of date" i have to go back and manually delete it.
say for example:
monday 1st - wednesday 3rd - i have tickets for an event linked to the boards with "ill sell you tickets for event"
id like it to auto delete calendar entry and linked post on thursday 4th.
hope this explains better
Denz
Bumping this as I would still love to see the option of setting a time for the events in the Calendar.
I too would dearly love to have the ability to set start / end times for events in the Calendar. We're using SMF to co-ordinate a handful of people from differing timezones, and some events start late at night in the USA, but (very) early in the morning for European participants.
Setting a date and time would allow this event to adjust according to the user's own timezone settings so that it'd appear at the right moment on their calendars without confusing users 10 hours ahead of or behind them.
Quote from: Troo on January 05, 2010, 10:56:29 AM
I too would dearly love to have the ability to set start / end times for events in the Calendar. We're using SMF to co-ordinate a handful of people from differing timezones, and some events start late at night in the USA, but (very) early in the morning for European participants.
Setting a date and time would allow this event to adjust according to the user's own timezone settings so that it'd appear at the right moment on their calendars without confusing users 10 hours ahead of or behind them.
Exactly, well said. :) I am still looking for this feature! lol.
Sorry for getting so late to this.
We are actually looking into removing the Calendar from SMF core - while keeping it as an officially developed and supported package. It's still under discussion, though.
I agree it could be enhanced, regardless - as a standalone mod or as feature.
Quote from: Norv on November 20, 2010, 03:57:48 AM
Sorry for getting so late to this.
We are actually looking into removing the Calendar from SMF core - while keeping it as an officially developed and supported package. It's still under discussion, though.
I agree it could be enhanced, regardless - as a standalone mod or as feature.
The calendar is the sole reason I chose SMF over PHPBB. I've used PHPBB for years but the desperate need for an integrated calendar was enough to make me switch. I beg you not to remove the calendar feature. I know I'm not on the development team but I don't see the logic behind removing a feature and offering it as a mod. That will immediately reduce the amount of usage it gets from people who are unaware they can get it as a mod and in almost every other application I've seen, mods are on the back burner. They are behind on updates, sometimes they don't get worked on at all, and even get dropped due to lack of use.
Please keep this feature. I'd like to see the ability to set times and the ability to register to events (with a cap to how many can register) as well. There is a mod for this, but it's several updates behind and when I tried just updating the version number it did very bad things.
Please note, if we remove features from core, we are looking at releasing it as external official feature package. That is, there doesn't have to remain only one option, third-party mods, if it's not in the core package. There will be (more than there are today) three options: core package, official (officially developed and provided) packages and themes, and third party packages and themes.
It is preferably, IMHO, to have a rather small core with only the necessary or close to, and the rest provided as packages who extend/add/change functionality of the core software, that is, a modular software rather than a single monolithic package with everything. It doesn't mean (it doesn't have to mean) that external packages will be third-party only (though some may be). We're thinking at adding the official components/packages on the downloads page, for people to see immediately if they wish to choose main package plus something else or not. We might look at making them known/downloadable from webinstall as well.
Soon enough I hope to make available a few external official packages, to see (not with features eventually removed from core - that will not be immediate, if it will, but for some features rejected for adding into the core, so far, or proposed for next versions). After providing them to the community as such, and receiving feedback, we'll know better what is really used and what is not, thus the actual usefulness of a feature... Not all are wanted for all forums, and there is nothing wrong with that.
On another (related) level, we're also looking at providing ways for such packages (and not only them, any mod) to add functionality without needing to modify the core code - by polishing or providing a reasonable API to use for tweaking/adding functionality, and easy (and more) hooks to use. We already started even in 2.0 RC4 on this route, by adding a little API for adding hooks. Generally, by minimizing code edits needed by a package to provide additional functionality to the core, we're cutting another series of issues currently related to the usage of mods, thus making it easy to go in the direction of a more modular SMF without making it harder for users. Maybe on the contrary.
Opinions appreciated. :)
Please don't doubt that any feedback is welcome and taken into account.
I knew from your earlier post that your plans were to split it into core, official mods, and 3rd party mods. My point is that even official mods will get less attention than the core and for obvious reasons. Core stability and functionality is much more important than mods. I also realize that a calendar is not necessarily crucial to the core and your reasoning for wanting it to be separated is definitely something I understand. My concern is that if there are few users using an official mod, it may not get the attention it deserves and, possibly, is eventually dropped in favor of a 3rd party mod. The problem is that 3rd party mods generally aren't future-proof as a modder loses interest.
From what I've seen your plans appear to be pretty thought out. I recently installed RC4 on a test server (.12 didn't have the features I needed and RC4 did) and it's proof that you guys know what you're doing. I just hope you guys take into account that if the calendar gets a low number of uses that doesn't mean that those few uses heavily depend on it continuing to work. :) I have faith, and I can't wait until the full release.
I actually have to agree that until now, what is called today official mods did not receive the attention they deserve. We are in the process of making changes to what it means today "an official mod", to try a few approaches in the attempt to make sure the problems it had in the past will not continue. While most of this work will likely take place after finalizing the current SMF 2 version, I will post more details in an upcoming blog, I hope. :)
Thank you. Yes, the route of making a more modular SMF should NOT have to mean that users will find themselves unable to depend on features they need. On the contrary... But yes, we will take into account what may mean to the forums that use them heavily.
We need to know about it, though, that's why I appreciate very much this kind of feedback. :)
Quote from: Norv on November 20, 2010, 03:57:48 AM
Sorry for getting so late to this.
We are actually looking into removing the Calendar from SMF core - while keeping it as an officially developed and supported package. It's still under discussion, though.
I agree it could be enhanced, regardless - as a standalone mod or as feature.
This is truly a sad day. By having the calendar in the core insures its completeness and allows 3rd party developers to all the the same slate at which to build mods.
I to was using phpbb and came to SMF because of the calendar.
Why is it a sad day?
We remove it from the core product... it makes SMF lighter for those who don't want to use the calendar (only about 1/2 the forums want to do so)
We provide it as an official, add-on package that is developed and supported by the dev team. It becomes even more complete and uses the same "slate" since it is done by the same team that handles the core product.
So, how is this different from including the calendar in the core product except that it makes the installation optional?
Making SMF more modular is not a bad thing at all. Eventually, even the forum can become a module. The original development plan starting with 2.0 was to move to a "core" - see the smc* functions - with pluggable features. This allows very customizable feature levels, which is arguably a good thing. You could then even use "Simple Machines Core" (smc) as an authentication and permission mechanism for your own custom solution without touching anything else. Imagine modules like a CMS, forum, bugtracker, and such that can all use the same underlying authentication framework.
Also, please tell me you're not going the vBulletin way with "hooks". It's fairly nasty.
we have all of the integration hook functions.... but we intend to keep the package manager as well
Moving the calendar from the core would worry me that one day its maintenance and development would start to dry up. Or it would not function as well as it does now.
SMF event calendar tightly bound to forum posts is a unique feature on the net, and must be an appealing feature to one of the big growth areas - groups and clubs online that want a social network style cms, event planning and discussion forum.
I can't see how cutting bits off to save on size would be such an advantage these days - its already much much smaller than IPB or VBulletin and uses a lot less memory as it is now. Nobody is going to notice the size difference on a typical shared hosting plan, and I cant see size being an issue in 3,or 4, or 5 years when capacity and bandwidth are expanding so much.
I recently moved our outdoor club over to SMF from Joomla and spent a few weeks testing various boards (main; phpBB, MyBB, IPB, VB) and portal systems like Wordpress, e107, Drupal (v7 a bit too new for calendar). I guess the only competitions for a built in event calendar with posting from the calendar and reply comments would be Drupal but its a lot of work to get used to and set up.
Nothing comes close to SMF.
IPB and VB don't link posts to the calendar so an event style list is not possible. You can't reply to calendar events. You can't post out/announce calendar events from them - only SMF does this. Their support confirmed these points.
They have RSVP mods but not as flexible as SMF and they are paid mods with support boards full of problems.
I spent months (based of 40hr week) of my time every year messing and fiddling around with Joomla over 5 years, and paying hundreds of dollars trying to get it to do what SMF does out of the box.... it was a nightmare. I guess it wont all be a bed of roses over here but so far, so good.
In Joomla there are no standard features for editable terms and agreement, admin approval of accounts (1.6 new), no custom profiles, no members list or PMs ... unless paid for.
The best event calendars (around 100$/yr) don't post out events, don't have built in reply capability (other 3rd party plugins piggybacked and trouble). I had to buy (around 100$/yr) a frontend mailing list for members to copy details over and announce events in a different section of the website. Add in another 100$ or so for a members area - list/PM system and custom profiles.
SMF does the lot out of the box - few updates, a lot less trouble and problems with all the 3rd party plugins. I need about 10 SMF mods.
The core features of the calendar, custom profiles, paid subscription, are a great bundle - I would like to see kept in.
Paid subscriptions would also cost me another 100$ or so a year over at the other 'free' CMS.
So please keep these core packages!
AD
The only thing I'm not happy about with the calendar is the presentation ... seems the weeks display option has gone from the admin panel in SMF2. The mini calendars don't do anything except show month dates which I can see on my PC and wall, and easy to click the next month link on the main calendar - better giving that space to the main calendar as text is squashed.
A new line break between events would make them a lot easier to read. As a feature request I would add some kind of background colour change for the event text ... maybe even a category/colour. Event titles shown once over multiple days...but that would make it perfect...
I didn't use SMF 5 years ago because it wouldn't easily show other languages - the language button mod still doesnt work on most other templates. And the basic portal ... but looking a bit better these days. Templates also look better.
As language files are imported automatically I would hope for them one day to be added to a language drop down on the main menu. This way it would work in other templates perhaps? No doubt I will get it working but these days I think sites should be easier to show other languages considering how many different people drop in.