smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

Bloke · 2012-01-05 11:42:38

colak wrote:

Is there a way to use custom fields for start-end dates?

Yep. See the datefields attribute.

colak · 2012-01-05 17:06:26

thanks stef. I was wondering what you meant with that.

els · 2012-01-05 21:40:20

Yiannis, see the attribute’s description in the plugin help or here.
Something like datefields="custom_1,custom_2".

colak · 2012-01-06 07:47:51

Thanks Els, I am on it:) What I answered to stef is that i did not understand from the documentation that the “datefields” are referring to custom fields.

els · 2012-01-06 08:24:22

colak wrote:

I am on it:)

Ah, misunderstood ;)

colak · 2012-01-06 08:25:40

Els wrote:

Ah, misunderstood ;)

No problem:) Thanks so much for jumping in anyway.

floodfish · 2012-01-09 23:55:22

Which version of this plugin would work with Textpattern 4.2.0? And would it be fairly stable?

Thanks!

Bloke · 2012-01-10 00:04:34

floodfish wrote:

Which version of this plugin would work with Textpattern 4.2.0?

Although untested, they should all work.; even the latest beta. There’s nothing in the code to prevent it working on older versions down to about Txp 4.0.8, but I specify 4.4.1 as minimum right now simply because that is the most secure, up-to-date version of Textpattern.

floodfish · 2012-01-10 00:07:25

Although untested, they should all work.; even the latest beta. There’s nothing in the code to prevent it working on older versions down to about Txp 4.0.8, but I specify 4.4.1 as minimum right now simply because that is the most secure, up-to-date version of Textpattern.

Aha! Great. Thanks, Stef!

Pemischl · 2012-01-14 19:39:43

Hallo,

I am using smd_calendar on a website I am working on: http://iqabc.w4yserver.at/textpattern441/programm/
The only problem I have, the links (http://iqabc.w4yserver.at/textpattern441/programm/?m=12&y=2011) generated by the back and forward button and the month selection field won’t work, while the calendar fields (http://iqabc.w4yserver.at/textpattern441/?date=2012-01-27&s=programm) work correctly.
Playing around with the links from the calendarfields, selecting a month would work with this link http://iqabc.w4yserver.at/textpattern441/?date=2012-02&s=programm
Was this issue discussed before, I couldn’t find it through the forum search?

Best Regards,
Peter

Bloke · 2012-02-16 11:17:43

Ack!

I’ve just found a hole in smd_calendar when using datefields. According to the MySQL docs a “Date” is a string of characters in the format “YYYY-MM-DD”. If we’re using the Posted/Expires fields that’s fine because Txp stores them that way internally.

But if we’re using a custom field, we cannot guarantee that’s the format the data will be stored in, because custom fields are freeform text. Even using a date picker might not solve the issue if it output DD/MM/YYYY when a date is chosen.

When I go to retrieve a date from the database for inclusion on the calendar I use MySQL’s UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function to get “the date” from the custom field and check it falls within the calendar’s range. MySQL, stupidly yet dutifully, looks at DD/MM/YYYY and says “That’s not a date in my expected format of YYYY-MM-DD”, and returns NULL. Hence, the date isn’t used in the calculation and the events don’t show up.

There are a few possible approaches or solutions, none of them ideal:

1) Format the custom field into YYYY-MM-DD from the date picker (if it allows it) or implore your user to always put them in that format

2) Convert the custom field contents to YYYY-MM-DD using PHP when you hit ‘Save’ on the Write tab (messy, and impractical for the calendar plugin to implement)

3) Use MySQL’s STR_TO_DATE() function in smd_calendar when retrieving the custom field from the database to convert it to the expected format before passing it to UNIX_TIMESTAMP(). Unfortunately, STR_TO_DATE()’s second mandatory parameter is a format string depicting the exact format the custom field’s date is stored in. Of course, I cannot know in advance if the person/date picker has used dd-mm-yyyy or dd-mmm-yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy or dd.mm.yyyy or any permutation thereof, so I won’t know what format string to supply (and it only allows one string, not a list of them)

4) Anything else…?

If anybody has any thoughts on how this might be achieved in practice so the plugin works better, please let me know. I’m fresh out of ideas. In the meantime, treat this as a heads-up that needs to go in the documentation: always put your custom datefield dates in YYYY-MM-DD format. Thanks.

Last edited by Bloke (2012-02-16 11:19:40)

GugUser · 2012-02-21 20:39:44

The answer to my problem is probably simple but I can’t find them:

I would like to publicize a future event. If I create an article and put the post date in the future, then I can view the event in the calendar with this code:

<txp:smd_calendar size="small" firstday="1" id="cal-events" section="events" time="future" expired="0" />

This has the disadvantage that the RSS feed for the same section is valid only on the day of the event.

How could I publish the event article with the current date but set in the expires date when it takes place, so that the event link in the calendar get to the article?

Thank you for an answer.

Bloke · 2012-02-21 20:47:19

GugUser wrote:

How could I publish the event article with the current date but set in the expires date when it takes place, so that the event link in the calendar get to the article?

If I’ve understood correctly, I think you’ll need the datefields attribute (see the post above yours for some important information about datefields).

Proceed like this:

Set up two custom fields to hold a start date and an end date. These are the dates of your actual event
In your article for the event, set the two date fields to the appropriate (future) start and stop date of the event (in YYYY-MM-DD format)
Set the Posted date of your article to be now, or whenever you want the article to appear in the usual Txp article flow
In your smd_calendar tag, make sure to include datefields="custom_X, custom_Y" to tell the calendar to read the start and end dates from the nominated custom fields

Then your article appears now and you can promote the event in advance of it actually appearing on the calendar.

Does that help?

Last edited by Bloke (2012-02-21 20:49:03)

GugUser · 2012-02-21 21:02:35

Thank you Bloke for your immediate response. If possible I would prefer a solution with the existing date fields. I had tried that before with datefields="" showspanned="0" or with extrafield="write-expires" showspanned="0", but it remains the starting date (the events are one day events).

Is it impossible that the calendar uses only the expiration date?

Bloke · 2012-02-21 21:20:49

GugUser wrote:

I would prefer a solution with the existing date fields.

Hmmm, not immediately easy to do that because Txp will only show articles in a feed when they reach Posted date.

The only other way I can think of (which is unfortunately messy) is to have two articles: one in an ‘events’ section which has Posted/Expiry set to when you want the event to appear on the calendar in the future. Use section="events" in smd_calendar to only include these articles.

Then write a second article in your regular section which is sent to your RSS feed and reference the other article in it via a permlink or use <txp:article_custom> to pull in details from the article in the events Section into your “about the upcoming event” article.

Past that I don’t think it’s possible. The expiration date is the date the event expires and its role in the calendar can’t be altered.

Last edited by Bloke (2012-02-21 21:22:42)

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#781 2012-01-05 11:42:38

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#782 2012-01-05 17:06:26

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#783 2012-01-05 21:40:20

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#784 2012-01-06 07:47:51

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#785 2012-01-06 08:24:22

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#786 2012-01-06 08:25:40

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#787 2012-01-09 23:55:22

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#788 2012-01-10 00:04:34

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#789 2012-01-10 00:07:25

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#790 2012-01-14 19:39:43

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#791 2012-02-16 11:17:43

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#792 2012-02-21 20:39:44

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#793 2012-02-21 20:47:19

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#794 2012-02-21 21:02:35

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

#795 2012-02-21 21:20:49

Re: smd_calendar: complete schedule / event / calendar / diary

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