Recurring Events for SMF Calendar

Started by keyrocks, January 27, 2017, 04:25:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

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

Community Suite for SMF - Take your forum to the next level built for SMF, Gallery,Store,Classifieds,Downloads,more!

SMFHacks.com -  Paid Modifications for SMF

Mods:
EzPortal - Portal System for SMF
SMF Gallery Pro
SMF Store SMF Classifieds Ad Seller Pro

Steve

Which is waaaaay out of date of course.
DO NOT pm me for support!

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.
"Greeting Death as an old friend, they departed this life as equals"

keyrocks

#4
Quote from: d3vcho on January 28, 2017, 04:41:01 AM
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.

Quote from: d3vcho on January 28, 2017, 04:41:01 AM
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.

Quote from: vbgamer45 on January 27, 2017, 04:29:27 PM
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 too far out of date to apply with SMF 2.0.2.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. :)
DO NOT pm me for support!

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
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

keyrocks

Kindred:
Quote from: Kindreddon'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).

Quote from: Kindredbefore 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 ...
Quote from: Kindred
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...

Quote from: Chris Curran
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
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

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?

"Put as much effort into your question as you'd expect someone to give in an answer"

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with questions on astrophysics or theology.  You will get better and faster responses by asking homeless people in the street. Thank you.

Be the person your dog thinks you are.

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.
"Put as much effort into your question as you'd expect someone to give in an answer"

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with questions on astrophysics or theology.  You will get better and faster responses by asking homeless people in the street. Thank you.

Be the person your dog thinks you are.

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)
Quote of the day: A troll is an obstinate bloke who only hungers for your attention. If you feed him, he will puke all over you!

Kindred

Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

keyrocks

Quote from: SMiFFER on June 23, 2017, 10:51:06 AM
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

Quote of the day: A troll is an obstinate bloke who only hungers for your attention. If you feed him, he will puke all over you!

McGran


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.
I promise you nothing.

Sesqu... Sesqui... what?
Sesquipedalian, the best word in the English language.

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  :)

Advertisement: