Topic: Recurring Events for SMF Calendar

[keyrocks]

It's been some time since this topic was discussed. It came up as a suggestion back in 2011 and again in 2013. Here's one of those 2011 discussions as a reference.

From that, there was talk of removing the Calendar from SMF and offering it as an add-on or plug-in.
Question - has anything been done in that direction? I ask as I haven't been on this Forum for a few years, and am still running a site using SMF 2.0.2 ... and my Users have been bugging me for a few months to get Recurring Events working with the Calendar.

Any insights would be most appreciated.

[vbgamer45]

Nothing recent the last one I seen on a mod is http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=655

[Steve]

Which is waaaaay out of date of course.

[d3vcho();]

I think something like that has been included for SMF 2.1. Not sure though.

And by the way, why are you still using SMF 2.0.2? You're 11 versions below the current one... I recommend you to upgrade ASAP.

[keyrocks]

And by the way, why are you still using SMF 2.0.2? You're 11 versions below the current one... I recommend you to upgrade ASAP.

Good question. I haven't upgraded it for a few reasons:

• It's been running fine without a hitch,
• It's behind a firewall,
• It's running several mods, some of which I added manually a few years back, and I don't want to mess them up.

I think something like that has been included for SMF 2.1. Not sure though.

It appears 2.1 is still not ready for prime time, though perhaps I'll install it on my offline server and check it out.
EDIT: SMF 2.1 Beta2 installed. Its Calendar is still the same as it is in 2.0.2 - no recurring events.

Nothing recent the last one I seen on a mod is http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=655

Yes, thanks for the suggestion. I've already tried doing the manual mods for the later version of that mod (2520 but no luck ... too far out of date to apply with SMF 2.0.2.

[Steve]

I'm running around 70 mods, some of which are custom made and I have not yet had an upgrade patch fail in any way, just as an FYI.

[keyrocks]

UPDATE
Using Chris Curran's Repeating Calendar Events Mod for SMF1.1 (Sept. 12, 2010) as a guide ... I've managed to complete a Recurring Events mod that functions just fine for SMF 2.0.2. It excludes the Moon Phases Chris had in his original mod ... only because my main focus was on having Recurring Events functionality.

When time permits, I'll see if the mods I used for SMF 2.0.2 can be updated and applied to the latest version of SMF 2.1 Beta2 which I recently installed on my localhost (offline) machine.

[Kindred]

don't bother making mods for 2.1 yet. (especially not for beta 2 which is already changed and replaced code in many placed for beta 3)

Also, before you release anything based on Chris' code, you have to check his license to see if he allows modification and redistribution

[keyrocks]

Kindred:

don't bother making mods for 2.1 yet.

Good advice. What would you suggest I work with ... SMF 2.0.13?
You've been active here for 13+ years.
SMF version sequencing seems inconsistent to me. Looking back in the download archives, I located the full install for SMF 2.0.9 (description says 2.0.8 ) ... and the next after that was SMF 1.1.20.
Question - Why did version sequencing jump from 2.0.9 to the 1.1.xx series ... and now we're back to production versions in a 2.0.1x series?

Out of curiosity ... I found reading through Chris's original mod thread quite interesting, historically (viewed 211,300+ times) . I noticed you asked Chris about bundling his mod with a now-ancient pkg you were working on back in January 2006 but real life got in the way (which I fully understand, went through it decades ago). Then, on June 29, 2011, you mentioned "Calendar enhancements ARE on the schedule for future releases" (Recurring Events, Sign Up/Attendance, and time-of-day being the most requested) with *the plan* being to make the Calendar pkg an official plug-in (it's still included with 2.1 beta2).

before you release anything based on Chris' code, you have to check his license to see if he allows modification and redistribution

Also good advice. I would if I could but ... there are no licensing, modding or redistribution notes anywhere in his mod package. Chris hasn't been active here since July 23, 2013.

Original mod thread references ...

March 11, 2010 (page 23)
If someone else with coding knowledge wants to take over this mod, I consider Chris to have abandoned it and I offer my interest in it to someone who is willing to take it over.

April 08, 2010 (page 23)
Chris took the mod over from me...   and has since abandoned it...   I consider this mod fair game...

October 14, 2010 (page 24)
If you guys want it for 2.x, then dl the code and modify it (then fight with the lords to be about the position of the curly braces). I did the heavy lifting already...

Considering the above ... and that almost 7 years have passed ... I will assume this mod is still "fair game" and that Chris's last post pretty much confirmed that. If I do get around to releasing updated packages I would definitely provide an historical timeline with the package noting Chris's work. Being a developer on other open source projects, I know the drill. 

[Kindred]

The smf versioning makes complete sense...   you are looking at two different release branches
1.1.x and 2.0.x

1.0.x is dead. There has been no development or support since the release of 2.0
1.1.x is at end of life. There is no further development and limited support. Death will be declared when 2.1 is released.
2.0.x is in support only mode. There is no further development except to latch security issues and the occasional critical bug fix. Support, however, will continue for the foreseeable future.

2.1 is the current development branch and is currently in beta release. (Beta 3 is due out shortly)
And no... the calendar updates did not make it into the branch.


As for the code...   yeah, chris' comment does seem to release it

[landyvlad]

keyrocks - I don't understand the question.  In the calendar you can set an event to be same day every year  (that's my definition of recurring).  I'm on SMF 2.0.13

Perhaps you mean something else?

[Arantor]

You're talking about the holidays feature. What this request is, is to be able to set something to occur every week, or every month, or every third Sunday or something.

[landyvlad]

ah right just like in MS outlook etc etc - got it.  Cheers.

[SMiFFER]

So there is no such mod that allows recurring events for the calendar?
Yes or no?

(So much OT to read I might have actually skipped that)

[Kindred]

No

[keyrocks]

So there is no such mod that allows recurring events for the calendar?
Yes or no?
(So much OT to read I might have actually skipped that)

As Arantor noted on March 29/17 ... I was working on a Calendar mod to set events so they would repeat, either monthly, weekly, or over 2nd or 3rd weekday per month. I did manage to get it functioning well in SMF 2.0.2 and 2.0.13 offline (on my localhost office server) but for some reason it would not function when I updated the modded files on the live website (online). I haven't had time to trouble-shoot it further and have no idea why it runs fine offline but not at all when online. So ... at this point there is no working version of Recurring Events for the SMF Calendar.

[SMiFFER]

Looking forward to this!!!!

[McGran]

Any further news on this?

[Sesquipedalian]

SMF 2.1 Beta 3 introduced support for times and timezones in calendar events. These improvements will need to be accounted for in any calendar mods for 2.1.

And before you ask, there are no plans to make recurring events a standard feature in 2.1. Extending the existing SMF 2.0 calendar system to include event times wasn't difficult,¹ but adding recurring events is a different ball game. SMF's calendar system and its interaction with the rest of the forum (e.g. the ability to link events with forum topics) is all built on the assumption that events happen exactly once. Full and proper support for recurring events will require a significant restructuring of SMF's calendar system (not to mention a bunch of new code if it is to support even a reasonable subset of all of the possible recurrence rules defined in the iCalendar spec). I'd like to do that in SMF 3.0, but it isn't an option for 2.1.

That said, I'll be interested to see what keyrocks comes up with for his mod and how he tackles the issues.


¹ Well, it required far more new code than I initially expected, mostly because timezones are a pain to deal with. But the changes to the database were simple.

[brynn]

Here's another vote / request for such a feature.  I really don't have the technical expertise to say whether it should be a native feature, or a mod.  But standing poised to enter 2 monthly meetingns for the next year -- I would love to have recurring events, in any case.

Regarding Sequi's last comment -- not that I know anything about programming.  But having recurring events in the calendar, to me, is much more important than having events linked to messages/topics.  I would welcome the feature, even if it did not link to messages/topics.

Thanks for listening