Looking for a WordPress Event Calendar
February 25th, 2008
When a programmer (myself) looks at code, how likely is it that it will stink?
Pretty likely, as far as I have seen so far. But there are a few programmers actually trying.
0. Target
Have a site I’m rebuilding for a non-profit. They have 3 goals for it:
- We want to be able to change it
- We want a Podcast
- We want an event calendar
- We want to know how many people have visited the site
#1 is addressed pretty well by WordPress.
#2 Is handled by PodPress, with only a little bit of complaint†.
#4 Is handled by the now-missing PHk Tracker. I was working on a rewrite a few weeks ago - Last problem is formatting the info display (this site is using it).
I skipped 3. No, I’m addressing 3.
1. Expectations of an Event Calendar
From a Programmer & Maintainer’s standpoint:
- It should be a standard plugin installation: Extract to /wp-content/plugins/, activate in /wp-admin/plugins.php, and it works.
- If the results of the plugin aren’t quite what I expect, /wp-admin/options-general.php should have a tab AND I sould be able to modify it by editing my theme, not the plugin.
- It should us $wpdb wherever possible.
- It should document what versions of WordPress it has been tested with
- hCalendar Support would be nice
From a user standpoint:
- It should integrate into /wp-admin/edit.php
- Start time is required; End time is optional
- Cover fee is Optional
- Optional Items are not displayed when undefined
2. Matching Results to existing Plugins
On the first attempt I made to find a plugin, I was tempted to label this “Epic Fail”.
This time,
Structured Blogging 1.0pre18 - The bent of this plugin seems to be microformats. ‘Event’ is only one of may formats to choose from; In fact, there are to many; I currently have no need to review anything, but can not find an option to restrict this tab - or anything I’d consider optional - from being shown. It seems not to have been updated for WP2.3; I can’t publish after saving a post. Has many files outside plugins directory.
WPListCal 1.0.2 - What I think I’ll be using. One tab for admin, on tab for users. While it does use a macro-ish syntax for formatting, the syntax is stored in the database. Also, it looks like it could be a good candidate for hCalendar compatibility. It also helps that it was published quite recently.
3. Conclusions
It seems the biggest thing I’ve learned is I need to start using the WordPress Plugin Site a little more and Google a little less. A paradox, as I see it - Old info gets lost online. New info gets lost online. It’s still all about knowing how to promote yourself.
And not generally being a self-promoter… heh.
4. Notes
† PodPress 8.8 has an annoying limitation that it will not serve up their playback flash on non-standard http & https ports. They Claim it is a security issue.
First, if I want to set up an http server to take requests from somwhere other than port 80 (like I do for testing environments), Who are you to sat I can’t?
Second, YOUR CHECK IS IN JAVASCRIPT. Anybody who has cracking ability worth BEEP can get around it.
I would bring this up in the post, but apparently my login info got lost in the mail. Twice.
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