Forum Subject: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/02/07 05:07pm
By: Tex

I have developed rough proposals for three bounties:

1. Event Subscriptions (RSVP and Reminders)
2. Event Category Groups
3. Recurring Events

I am posting the proposals in separate posts here for your comment. If you see anything that should be added, changed, or deleted, please let me know. Once we get the proposal set, I will set up the bounty.

Proposal to enhance Calendar Plugin - Part 3

Recurring Events

Bounty Amount = ($ please help specify)

On the Add Event screen (user or Admin), users should be able to specify whether an event is recurring. There should be a “Recurring” pulldown with the following options: “Not Recurring”, “Annually”, “Monthly”, “Weekly”, “Daily”, “Business Days”, “Weekends”, “Selected Days”, “Date Span”, “Advanced”.

Not Recurring – Event is displayed as usual, for the date and time specified.

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Annually – If the this option is selected, the recurring section should change to permit the following options:

Repeat every ___ year(s).

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Monthly-- If the this option is selected, the recurring section should change to permit the following options:

Repeat every ___ month(s).

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Weekly -- If the this option is selected, the recurring screen should change to permit the following options:

Repeat every ___ week(s).

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Daily -- If the this option is selected, the recurring screen should change to permit the following options:

Repeat every ___ day(s).

-------------

Business Days – If this option is selected, the recurring screen should show that the event will recur on all business days (Monday thru Friday).

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Weekends – If this option is selected, the recurring screen should show that the event will recur on all Weekend days (Saturday and Sunday).

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Selected Days – If this option is selected the recurring screen should change to permit the following:

Set the days on which your event will occur...
[] Sunday
[] Monday
[] Tuesday
[] Wednesday
[] Thursday
[] Friday
[] Saturday
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date Span – This option simply works as the calendar now works. Events are specified to occur between start and end dates (and/or start and end times).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advanced – This will cause the recurring section to change to something like the following:

Choose when you want your event to occur...
[] 1st
[] 2nd
[] 3rd
[] 4th
[] 5th

[] Sunday
[] Monday
[] Tuesday
[] Wednesday
[] Thursday
[] Friday
[] Saturday

[] January
[] February
[] March
[] April
[] May
[] June
[] July
[] August
[] September
[] October
[] November
[] December

Check/Clear All Months

Do the above every ___ year(s)

-----------------------------------------------

All recurring events should have a start and end date associated with them, unless an event is checked as recurring indefinitely. We need a “Recurring indefinitely” checkbox.

All recurring events should have the ability to specify several exclusion dates.

If an event is checked as an “All Day” event, event times need not be entered. Else, start and end times must be entered, unless the event is flagged to infinitely recur. In that case, end times should not be specified.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/02/07 09:23pm
By: jmucchiello

I would amend advanced to say there can be multiple advanced options. For example I could want an event that is every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. Or the first Sunday and 3rd Wednesday of the month. Or how about M, W, F this week, T and TH next week and so on for the next 3 months.

I also think that recurring indefinitely is a tall order since the easiest way to do recurring event is to create a database record for each "instance" of the event.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 05:37am
By: Dirk

That would be the easy way out. It would also cause a real pain when you want to change such a repeated event (say you made a typo in the event description).

The proper way to implement recurring events is to implement them as a separate type. Of course, then you have to deal with exceptions (it's always on the second Tuesday of a month, unless in July, where it's on the third Wednesday).

Implementing recurring events properly isn't easy. Been there, done that (for a commercial application, years ago). Which is why I don't really want to do it again ...

Sorry, didn't want to discourage anyone. Just my :twocents:

bye, Dirk

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 06:03am
By: Tex

If you want an event every 2nd and 4th Sat of the month, you simply click the “2nd” and the “4th” option and also click “Saturday”. Then you click which months you would like the event generated (If you want all months, just click the “check all months” option). If you want all of this done every two years, put in “2” in the “Do the above every ___ year(s)” field.

I am not sure how on one screen you might setup an event for M,W,F one week, and T, TH the next for 3 months in the best way. Any ideas?

As for infinite repeat, we can nix it. The date range can suffice.

: : Also, could anyone speculate about what would be a good bounty to put on this? I see this is going to be tough. So what sort of bounty would entice someone to do this?

: Might it be better to find another Open Source calendar that does this correctly that we could integrate as a plugin? Anyone know of such a calendar?

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 07:45am
By: jmucchiello

Dirk, you use two tables to do what I'm talking about. Table 1 is all of the event information. Table 2 is just an eid, a timestamp for start of the instance, and a field saying notifications have gone out. When you prepare the calendar you use the join the tables and only use the table 2 timestamp to determine if the event is on the displayed calendar. Table 1 contains all the details.

When you create any event, you do all the inserts into table 2 up front. That's why you need an end date for recurrences. And if you change the master event, you just delete all the table 2 entries (that have not already occurred) and insert new ones with the new date requirements.

In the editor, if you want to change just one instance of an event, you duplicate the event and attach the instance to new event.

The date handling stuff is annoying but there's nothing difficult about implementing. As I said in the original thread, I would do this for the right price.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 07:46am
By: jmucchiello

Actually, I meant it runs on a two week cycle. MWF weeks 1,3,5, etc and T/TH weeks 2,4,6,etc over the course of 3 months.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 10:57am
By: Laugh

Isn't this where an event group would come in? You could create multiple events for the group to cover this instead of having a complex user interface that most normal users may have a problem understanding.

I also think recurring events indefinitely is needed for holidays, bithdays, etc... Why not have an end date for the calender of 5 years or something (has to be a set date). If the admin wants to advance the end date then a script would be run that would insert more recurring events. I can't see many sites needing a calendar that looks beyond a couple of years at the most.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 11:08am
By: Tex

Basically, I am talking about modifying the interface in the geeklog Add Event Screen, to behave similarly to Total Calendar's[*1] interface (login as admin/admin to see it).

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 11:35am
By: Laugh

I like the add event interface. I wonder how Total Calendar deals with Recurring events? After checking the Calendar Admin screen I notice that they have a start and end date for the calendar. I bet they only create recurring events between these two points (like I suggested in my previous post).

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/03/07 11:43am
By: Tex

If you click "Repeat Indefinitely", the end date disappears and you can enter only a start date. I would just use Total Calendar. But it seems support is poor and there are several bugs with the Geeklog implementation.

Anyone wish to take a stab at a good bounty for this?

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/04/07 10:29am
By: Laugh

Not at the moment, no time.

I may need something like this in the future, in which time if it hasn't been done I may tackle it.

Did you talk to Dirk? Maybe he can put some of the general bounty money towards it since these features have been requested for awhile.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/04/07 10:55am
By: Tex

I'm sorry. I'm not asking anyone to put money on it. I am asking for help in determining what would be a good bounty amount to offer for it. I don't want to come in too low, because I'd like some capable person to step right up and do it. I don't want to come in too high because it will make raising the money that much harder. Plus, I really don't know what is reasonable.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/04/07 11:25am
By: Laugh

Since bounties are so new it is hard to say. jmucchiello is a good choice, he has done several plugins and is very active in the geeklog community and he said he would do it at one point if the money was there.

In another message regarding this jmucchiello had wrote:



Of course it all depends on how bad people want this upgrade and how much they are willing to donate.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/04/07 12:30pm
By: Tex

In that thread, jmucchiello listed several features. So I was assuming he meant he would do them all at $500+. I decided to split them into three different requests so that I could make raising the funds easier. I may be able to get a lot more people to jump aboard if each task is $200, as opposed to $500.

Maybe the members here are afraid of talking about money? Hello? This isn't a contract here. I am trying to get the ball rolling and would like a little help. If $200 is a good start, maybe tell me. if not, lets nail a good start and then figure out how to move on from there. Can I get a little loving kindness here?

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/04/07 04:15pm
By: jmucchiello

I probably would not do it except if I were doing all of the requests so yeah, that was my price for them all. I don't have any idea how I'd break it all done. (I'd also be adding support for "other" event types and moving event types into the database. Can't stand that they are in the config file.) But I don't have the time this month to do it. My wife just spent a week in the hospital my future free time is a bit disrupted.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/04/07 04:53pm
By: Tex

Okay guys. I do not know how bounties work, but I am going to try to raise $600 for the three jobs (I guess I'll contact Dirk later). I am also going to try to get committments to pay an additional bonus of $100 to be paid directly to the person who takes the bounty and successfully executes the job (we will discuss the job here, and then those people who have agreed to pay bonus dollars will get instructions how to send the bonus money to the coder).

I need to gauge interest before I commit more time to getting this off the ground. Folks, we have a plan. We have a ballpark cost for finally getting the calendar where it should be, after all these years. We are talking subscriptions, event categories, and recurring events. We have at least one capable coder who is interested in coding this. Now, we need to see if we can get enough folks willing to drop a few bucks to make this happen.

To gauge interest, I will need you to state here what you will be willing to pay. Guys, I have already spent a lot of time trying to move this thing. It is just sitting there now ready for us to take it. If I can't get you to move with me, I have to drop it.


Post what you will contribute in the way I do it below:

I will contribute $200 (Remaining Bounty $400).

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/05/07 12:18am
By: samstone

I don't know if this function is included. I need to have group calendar like that of TotalCalendar, that you can see all events as well as events filter by groups.

If this feature is part of the project, I will contribute $200.

Sam

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/05/07 12:33am
By: Tex

Yes. I will recombine the proposals into one. Groups are included. So now we need folks to committ money for the event subscription, a calendar where your users can subscribe to events and receive notifications.

I am contributing $200.
Samstone will contribute $200

We are $200 away from what seems to be a proper bounty.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/05/07 10:44am
By: jmucchiello

Are you in love with the totalcal recurrence input screens or does any method of doing the input that yields the same set of options acceptable?

Tex, did your proposal include the groups stuff samstone is referring to?

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/05/07 02:34pm
By: Tex

Not in love with it at all. But I think however it is done, it should be clean, and easy on the user.


I broke it into three parts. Here is the group/category part http://www.geeklog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=76191[*2]

Here is the subscription part http://www.geeklog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=76189[*3]

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/07/07 01:56pm
By: Tex

Okay. Maybe the two $200 pledges have given the general impression that everyone must contribute $200. It is not the case. We need to get another $200 in pledges to get the calendar enhanced. If you are willing to pledge $20, just say it and it will tell me that we can reach the total figure we are shooting for.

Many people have complained for years about the calendar. Now we have a chance to do something about it. We need pledges to total $200. That's just ten people dropping in $20. We spend that much on soft drinks and popcorn at the movies.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/08/07 12:18pm
By: samstone

How about allowing the author or authors to sell the script after our initial contribution to create the plugin?

I think Geeklog site should have a shopping cart for premium plugins.

Whoever pick up this project gets the $400 up front and he, she, or they, can get more by selling the script to those who want it in the future.

Sam

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/08/07 01:08pm
By: Tex

I think that may fall against Open Source rules. But, it should be possible for the author to package the new code as a code extension package to be installed on the open source code, and then sell that. Those of us who contribute will get the code agreeing we will not distribute it to anyone else. Everyone else will have to buy it.

It would be a real shame if we have to do this, when if folks would contribute just a few bucks, everyone could get it for free.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/08/07 02:38pm
By: Laugh

I'll throw in $20 even though I have no need for the features right now.

We need these features added into the current calendar plugin not create something new. It would be a mistake to make it an extension or a whole new plugin since it would then have to be supported with new versions of Geeklog, etc.. Lets keep this public and as the calendar plugin.

Tex, have you talked to Dirk yet about maybe adding some money from the general bounty account? I would also get him to post your bounty on the bounty page now since you have the features pretty much ironed out. You can always add more money to the bounty as it is donated. Having it posted may generate some more interest from other programmers.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/08/07 03:06pm
By: jmucchiello

Nothing wrong with it at all. There are several for pay plugins for Geeklog. I wouldn't want the hassle of forking the calendar plugin. So if I took the bounty, I'd release the plugin to all for just the bounty. (Assuming I have the time to program it. I've started looking at the code seriously and was disturbed to discover that the submission form and the edit form are in two different formats (submit uses DIVs/CSS and edit uses TABLES).)

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 05/29/07 07:58am
By: jcz

Count me in for $40. More may follow from another source.

I think that we can do better than the TotalCalendar interface in terms of look-n-feel. But the functionality would generally be correct for what I need.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 06/14/07 10:04pm
By: pwarnagi

I'll throw in a $50. I just use Geeklog for a family website, but a lot of the people want reoccuring events. Also the calendar grouping idea I really like. I don't mind pitching in I think you all do a great job. Let me know what I need to do to get you the $50.

Thanks,
Paul

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 06/14/07 10:15pm
By: Laugh

So that's $520 in pledges so far.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 07/15/07 10:01pm
By: jmucchiello

There've been additional pledges in the other thread: here

I've accepted these tasks and will be starting work on them in a week or two. I'll put progress updates here as progress occurs. Could someone (Tex?) go through both threads and consolidate all the pledges (and pledgers) in one place? The list should have "name", "amount", and "task pledge is for" fields. This way if any pledge makers wish to bow out they can. And if any new pledges come along they could be added to a central list.

Thanks.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 10/28/07 07:13pm
By: 45

I just installed the plugin, evlist ver 1.1

The core functionality for what you are talking about is already coded.
wouldn't it be much easier to fix the calendar plugin, to use the resources and code that evlist has available?

just my 2 cents

I'm looking at the code for both, maybe I'll hack sumpin together that works.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 10/29/07 06:08pm
By: Anonymous (hehe)

I thought Wookies were strictly Java programmers.

Go figure.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 10/29/07 11:19pm
By: muntada

What is the status of the work on this plugin? I am interested in possibly taking this up and adding the additional functionality.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 10/30/07 05:24am
By: Anonymous (Dazzy)

It is under development

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 12/15/07 03:15pm
By: Anonymous (earnest)

Is this a real project? I don't see it on the bounties page. Where do we pledge? What is the eta?

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 12/15/07 10:27pm
By: jmucchiello

Dirk never updated the bounties page and he is whom you send your pledge to. At the moment, I'm a bit behind schedule but the enhancements will be done January 2008.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 02/05/08 10:44am
By: Anonymous (Ice)

Ok, so there has been close to $600 donated to this project ... uh, last June ... and it's still in the works??

:speechless:

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 02/05/08 11:41am
By: jmucchiello

If you find some of the other threads about the calendar upgrades you will find I have been beset by two different RL incidents that could not be foreseen when I started this project.

At the moment I am about a week or so away from updating my test website with all the required features at least visible. I'm currently restructuring the main index.php so it understands how to display recurring events. (In the past when I've said something was a week away, it ended up taking a month because of unforeseen RL incidents so if someone I know gets hurt I'm blaming you )

RSVPs and Subscriptions are basically feature complete. Categories is complete on the admin side and needs better support in the various day/week/month view screens. Recurring events mangle the code for those same views so much, I needed to pause category work during the restructuring. In addition, originally I was going to include recurring events right in the event editor. But the form is so big that I need to move it to its own form.

Additionally, I'm restructuring the template files so that things that are the same have the same name regardless of view. Additionally there will be more variables available in all views than are currently displayed. So if you want the start time of events to appear in the monthly view, the data is available for you to add to the template.

Oh, and I didn't start work on the project until September. June was just when the donations started.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 09/14/09 06:20am
By: kniki123

Hi,thanks for posting. Any updates with this project? Seems this thread has been inactive..What happened with the pledges for this project? Thanks!



Regards,
kniki123

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 09/14/09 02:57pm
By: jmucchiello

I released a partial update months ago. Many folks understandably asked for their pledges back due the many delays I had. Dirk is still holding on to the remaining pledge money. Only recurring events were never completed out of all the requested enhancements. Some day I will upgrade the released version of this plugin to work with Geeklog 1.6 but I don't know when.

Re: Calendar Enhancement - Input Needed - Recurring Events

Posted on: 06/25/11 06:25am
By: Anonymous (Alen Lee)

Well well.. this is something really easy to grab it in very inexpensive ways.. I would go for $50.

Regards,
Alen Lee