WPListCal

WPListCal

Current Stable Version: 1.2.1
Current Development Version: None
Requires WP Version: 2.7
Tested up to WP Version: 2.7.1

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Installation | Usage | FAQ | Changelog | Comments

WPListCal allows you to list upcoming events on your blog in a list or table format.  It plugs straight into the Wordpress admin pages to let you keep track of events just like posts and pages.  You can then list events on a page or post using a shortcode, show events in your sidebar with a widget, or incorporate events into your theme files using a PHP function call.

Version Guide

WordPress 2.7 or later → Use WPListCal 1.2.1 (current stable release)
WordPress 2.5-2.6.3 → Use WPListCal 1.0.8.2
WordPress 2.0.3-2.3.3 → Use WPListCal 1.0.2

The Future

Through the comments below, I’ve gotten lots of feature requests and bug reports and I appreciate them. I’ll continue development on WPListCal whenever I have time.

On many occasions, I’ve said that version 1.1 will bring support for categories and some other interesting features. I’ve decided to push those features off to 2.0 since the switch to WordPress 2.7 is becoming more than just a sub-point release. Don’t worry though, you don’t have to wait for 1.3-1.9 before I do 2.0…I’ll probably just skip a bunch. This versioning scheme just made more sense than rev’ing the 1.0 tree over and over

Feature Requests

Here is a list of current feature requests that I’ve gotten (and that I remember). Post comments if you have more.

Contributing

Many people have tried to provide code modifications in the comments section below. Sadly, WordPress doesn’t like this much and generally garbles code in comments. If you have a patch that you’d like to submit, please either upload a zip file of it somewhere and link to it, or use pastie and I’ll try to grab it before it expires. Generally, I won’t approve comments with modifications in them since I don’t want to provide support for mod’d versions of WPListCal. That said, if your modification provides significant value and is complete, I’ll seriously consider putting it into the plugin.

Installation

  1. Upload wplistcal.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Upgrade

  1. DO NOT DEACTIVATE THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE PLUGIN! Doing so could remove all your events.
  2. Upload wplistcal.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory or any subdirectory
  3. Deactivate and then activate the plugin in the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Usage

  1. Change the default settings on the WPListCal options page
  2. 1. If you want to list your events on a page or post, use the [wplistcal] shortcode. Use the parameters in the example below. Leave out parameters to default to the options defined in the WPListCal settings page. (1.2 or later only)
    • Example: [wplistcal display_mode="list", event_format="%NAME%", date_format="M j, Y g:ia", max_events="-1", show_past_events="false", advance_days="-1", event_order="asc", hide_same_date="true", date2_time_format="g:ia", no_events_msg="No events!"]
  3. If you want to list your events on a page or post, insert the tag <!--wplistcal--> in the body of the page/post
  4. If you want to list your events somewhere in your theme files, insert <?php echo wplc_show_events(); ?>. You can set special parameters to overwrite the default options if you use the PHP function call. All parameters are optional, but you must preserve the ordering by passing in `null` for options that you want to use defaults for.
    • Display Mode (string): 'list' or 'table'
    • Event Format (string): The format of the list entries if Display Mode is set to 'list'. You can use the following variables: %NAME%, %LINK%, %LINKEDNAME%, %START%, %END%, %DESCRIPTION%.
    • Date Format (string): The format to display the start and end date and time. Uses the same date formatting that Wordpress uses.
    • Max. Events (int): The maximum number of events to display, -1 for unlimited.
    • Show Past Events (boolean): true to show all events, false to show only current and future events
    • Maximum Advanced Notice (int): How many days in advance to display events, -1 for unlimited.
    • Event Order (string): ‘asc’ to show the closest event first or ‘desc’ to show the furthest event first.
    • Hide Same Date (boolean): Format the end date with the format string defined in the next parameter if it is on the same day as the start date.
    • Date 2 Time Format (string): If Hide Same Date is enabled, use this format string for the end date.
    • No Events Message (string): If there are no events, show this string instead, leave blank for none.
    • Example: <?php echo wplc_show_events('list', '%LINKEDNAME%: %START% - %END%<br />%DESCRIPTION%', 'M j, Y g:ia', -1, false, 30, 'asc', true, 'g:ia', 'Sorry, no events'); ?>

Dependent Statements (1.2 or later only)

You can make a statement dependent on the existence of a variable by wrapping it in curly brackets. By default, the statement will only print if the first variable in the statement is not empty. You cannot have nested dependent statements.

Example 1:

The statement in the curly brackets won’t print if %LOCATION% is empty

%TITLE%{ at %LOCATION%} on %START%

Example 2:

To print a literal curly bracket, escape it with ‘^’

%NAME%{ at %LOCATION} ^{new^}

Example 3:

To skip a variable when determining the dependent variable, escape its ‘%’ characters with ‘^’. This method also works to print a literal ‘%’ inside a dependent statement. In this example, the statement in the curly brackets will print if %LOCATION% is not empty. Note that %AUTHOR% will be properly substituted even though it is escaped.

%NAME%{ hosted by ^%AUTHOR^% at %LOCATION%}

Example 4: (invalid)

This example is invalid. You cannot have nested dependent statements.

%NAME%{ at %LOCATION%{ on %START%}}

Example 5:

However, you can have multiple dependent statements in a format.

%NAME%{ hosted by %AUTHOR%}{ at %LOCATION} on %START%

Example 6:

You can also make a statement dependent on a variable without printing the variable. To do so, wrap the variable name in square brackets “[]“. You can escape the square brackets with ‘^’. In this example, the “more” link will only print if there is a description:

%NAME%{[%DESCRIPTION%] <a href="#">more</a>}

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does WPListCal store events?
On activation time, the plugin adds a table called <prefix>_wplistcal that stores all your events.
What happens to my events when I deactivate the plugin?
On deactivation, the events table is dropped, so if you want to save your event data, back up the table before deactivating the plugin.
As of version 1.0.6, deactivation does nothing to your settings and events.
Why is WPListCal different from other Wordpress calendar plugins?
WPListCal is specialized to provide clean list or table based output for you to style or reparse any way you’d like. Other calendar plugins force you to use a gregorian calendar view which may be inappropriate for many applications.
Does WPListCal work on WordPress 2.7?
WPListCal 1.1 and later work on WordPress 2.7
When I click settings in the plugins page, I get the error “Cannot load wplc-options.”
WPListCal 1.2 solves this issue
Why do some of my events show N/A for author and create date?
Events created before upgrading to version 1.1 did not have those values set, therefore WPListCal marks them as N/A.
I am unable to make events that start or end past January 19, 2038 at 3:14:08am
This is a known bug in PHP (id# 44209) and was fixed in version 5.2.6. The specific issue was that strtotime() did not support 64-bit timestamps.
Does WPListCal use any 3rd party libraries?
Yes, WPListCal is packaged with iCalcreator which is released under the GNU LGPL
I love WPListCal, but I’d like it to do _______.
Great, I’m glad to hear feature requests. Just post a comment below.
I love WPListCal and I’d like to buy you a beer to thank you.
Awesome, thanks. Just click the big orange Donate button above

Changelog

1.2.1

1.2

1.1.1

1.1

1.0.8.2

1.0.8.1

1.0.8

1.0.7

1.0.6

1.0.5

1.0.4

1.0.3

1.0.2

1.0.1

1.0

  1. Scott says:

    Is there a way to change the wplc_event_list style for the list view? I’d like something other than a double chevron in there. Actually, I’ll probably modify it to have a list-style-type of none.

  2. Any Chance that I can do something like…

    if (%LOCATION%==’Sydney’) {
    echo wplc_show_events(’list’, …
    }

    ThanX

  3. Gary says:

    Dear Jonathan,

    I recently upgraded Wordpress to 2.8 and updated your help WPlistcal plug-in but now when I add a new event or seek to edit an existing event there is no way to save the information added or changed. Am I missing something? Do you know of any issue since the 2.8 upgrade?

    Thanks Jonathan.

    Gary

  4. Ralph says:

    Are you working on a new version? In Wordpress 2.8 there is no more possibility to save a new event :-( Thank you!

    • Jonathan says:

      Please download WPListCal 1.2.2 (released today). It fixes compatibility issues with WordPress 2.8. The update is safe for use with 2.7 as well.

  5. Daniele says:

    Little problem… After upgrade to wp 2.8 control sidebar has gone… No more “save” or “save and new”.
    Code seems to appear into HTML but something is scrambled.

  6. Gary says:

    Dear Jonathan,

    Thanks for fixing compatibility with 2.8.

    Gary

  7. David Decker says:

    the plugin wplistcal is generally working under wp 2.8 – but when i am editing an event it doesn’t show the description in the editor field any longer. also the buttons of the html editor are not showing – when i load an event to edit it just shows all for a moment and then the buttons are gone and the description is showing in blank/ white color – but it’s still there when i mark the content…

    strange!

    i work on some projects with wplistcal and any help is strongly welcomed!

    thanx, dave from germany :)

  8. Mike says:

    WPListCal is excellent, but It’s not working form me in WP2.8. It causes several items from the dashboard to disappear, and it causes the expand/contract arrows on the WP navigation to not function.

    Maybe WP2.8.1 will help.

    Thank you for the great plugin.

  9. Mike says:

    I upgraded from PHP 4.4.9 to PHP 5.2.1 and now everything seems to work fine.

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