discussion on Calendar features/enhancements/mods

Started by demlak, January 14, 2013, 08:23:03 AM

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What calendar enhancement do you want? (see thread for more info)

recurring events (reapeating like daily, weekly, monthly, etc..)(see thread for more info)
14 (87.5%)
enhanced iCal functionality (see thread for more info)
6 (37.5%)
more information fields (like starttime, location, etc.)(see thread for more info)
10 (62.5%)
bridging interface to an external calendar (for example exchange/google/etc.)(see thread for more info)
5 (31.3%)

Total Members Voted: 16

demlak

Hi there,
we have a community that is based on a local subculture.. with many events like concerts, Partys, Readings, Theatres, etc..
announcement of those events is an essential part of the community.. so we like to have an enhanced version of the calendar..
as we were brainstorming about features, we found some ideas..

what do you think about those ideas?
diffucult to realise?
do you also want those features?

Quote
What the Calendar should have:

       
  • Searching for Events
  • Sorting Events by fields
  • Adding Fields like:

    •       
    • Start-/End-time
    • Location
    • Category (e.g. concert, party, reading, cinema, etc..)
    • Summary
    • custom fields
       
  • Automatical pasting those fields as a special Block into linked Threads
  • recurring events

    •       
    • repeat daily
    • repeat weekly
    • repeat monthly
    • define special weekday (e.g. every saturday) per month
    • define special day (number, e.g. every 17th) per month
    • define last/first/third/second/whatever weekday (e.g. only third wednesday) per month
       
  • iCal Functionality enhanced:

    •       
    • using fields-Block as calendar-note
    • Using start-/end-time
    • add reminder functionality
    • CalDAV support?

       
  • Or replacing Calendar and interact with external Calendar like exchange or google or Calendarserver

electricwildflower

As my website & forum is based around a music subculture this would be ideal and give my members much more control on the calender to get there events heard more.

show flyers on the calender - as in small pics for events ?
Notify members of an event - Notify certain members about an event such as your buddies or admins ?

demlak

there is a mod for notifying about events.. for example: link

demlak

#3
*bump*
poll added

demlak

two month have passed... bumping this thread again =)

Irisado

Normally when a thread dies, it means there's not much interest in the idea you're trying to put forward, so it's usually best to let it go.

That said, I'm confused as to what you're asking for.  Are you asking for a mod, or do you want what you're proposing to be a core feature?  If it's the former, you're much better off posting this in mod requests.  If it's the latter, then I really see no reason to make this a core feature, as I can't see it being that widely used.
Soñando con una playa donde brilla el sol, un arco iris ilumina el cielo, y el mar espejea iridescentemente

demlak

it´s a discussion.. a brainstorming.. idea finding.. clarifying needs and whishes..

CandC

#7
Quote from: Irisado on May 28, 2013, 05:15:46 PM
Normally when a thread dies, it means there's not much interest in the idea you're trying to put forward, so it's usually best to let it go.

Well, some of us are still interested in making the Calendar work better.

Count me as one.

My last post on the topic was April:
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=501204.msg3520668#msg3520668

Stopped by here this morning searching to see if anyone has posted new topics about the Calendar since.

The whole idea of dropping the Calendar feature altogether (as noted in that link) would make me very sad.

It looks like for those of us who really do like and want to keep the calendar (but need recurring events) - our only hope is a separate Mod written by a clever individual willing to help those of us who aren't. ;D

electricwildflower

Abit of an old discussion but not sure where to post.

One idea i have is being able to pick multiple dates for events as sometimes i have flyers for events promoting a festival, gig etc that are over a few days or a complete tour. I would be able to set the even to show on all the dates and not as i have as standard the first event date.

Chalky

Quote from: electricwildflower on August 11, 2013, 04:04:06 PM
Abit of an old discussion but not sure where to post.

One idea i have is being able to pick multiple dates for events as sometimes i have flyers for events promoting a festival, gig etc that are over a few days or a complete tour. I would be able to set the even to show on all the dates and not as i have as standard the first event date.

Admin > Calendar > Calendar Settings > Allow events to span multiple days   ;)

electricwildflower

I see you can change it to span multiple days but i don't see any options of picking certain days it pops up IE

there are two gigs one is on 29th august 2013 the other is on oct 13th 2013

all i see is spanning it over multiple days pick how many days and it shows up not picking the dates it shows up on besides being able to pick one date. I could just keep adding a new event and posting up the flyer on the months & days it's on but then my flyers, gigs, festivals section would be flooded with the same flyer over and over ;)

demlak

The more i play around with "owncloud"-software.. the more i miss caldav support in SMF  :(

Arantor

That's the thing... is it really worth the effort and time it will take me to research it, implement, test, etc. for the benefit?

There are vastly more useful things that would benefit more users if I were to do *those* rather than this.

CandC

Quote from: Arantor on November 14, 2013, 09:06:56 PM
That's the thing... is it really worth the effort and time it will take me to research it, implement, test, etc. for the benefit?

There are vastly more useful things that would benefit more users if I were to do *those* rather than this.

Good question. I guess it all depends on whether having recurring events on the calender is more of a "wanter" or "needer" thing for your forum.   I'm encouraged just knowing someone opens and reads the thread from time to time  ;)

I wish I had the skills, but I'll just have to wait and hope that someone likes a challenge enough to tackle it.

If not, then I'll just keep on every January manually inserting all recurring events for the year in the calendar one at time.

Arantor

I don't use a calendar at all on my forums, therefore for me personally it is a non issue ;)

byproduct


it's good for real life communities and organizations who put on actual events

but I think a site wide ad system with date/timed submission would be better, and less of a security/nuisance feature.
especially ifn ya tie it to 1st post and a login page, so that it's required displaying.

Then it has potential to become a revenue generator for local businesses.
AND *PSA*... WHICH QUALIFIES FOR A TAX DEDUCTION ifn ya site actually is income making.


Arantor

I'm happy for you, of course. The problem is that I only have so many hours per day to build things for free for other people and any calendar enhancements are way too low down the totem pole.

byproduct

sorry if that came off as a critique.
didn't mean it that way.

calendar utilization, for calendar's sake, on a straight yakk em up forum is fairly pointless
time stamping accomplishes the same job.
so makes sense it'd rank low in dev.

just other day i was looking at newer forum releases comparison
and noticed one offers it as a addon, rather than built in.

CandC

Quote from: byproduct on November 17, 2013, 11:34:15 PM
calendar utilization, for calendar's sake, on a straight yakk em up forum is fairly pointless
time stamping accomplishes the same job.
so makes sense it'd rank low in dev.

I guess that depends. 
Our "yakk em up forum" doesn't link the calender events to posts (so timestamps don't help much in that regard) but our members like to be aware of recurring events (ie: birthdays of players on our team and important milestones) . We keep a calendar widget on the front portal and that way we can see the important dates that month upon open.

As admin, it's just a hassle not to be able to make an event recurring annually, quarterly etc.  I have to go in in Jan each year and put them all in again. I don't want to make them "holidays" because we have a mod that lets you be notified of "events" if they are on the calendar and if they are holidays we can't use this feature.

I realize our little forum is the exception rather than the majority in wanting the calendar tweaked just for the simple ability to allow for a recurring event. 

But perhaps a lot of people want it but when reading this thread and others have pretty much come to the realization it's never gonna happen and don't even check/ask anymore.

:)

Arantor

Show me there's a *significant* demand and it'll get built. Until then, it won't happen unless I .find another reason to implement it.

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